[Review] The Liar and His Lover (J-movie)

I was browsing for some good Japanese movie recently and came across a few recommendations. I decided to write a review on this movie since I really love this movie among the recommendations I read. I couldn't find it on Youtube, so you can go to this site to watch it.

The movie was originally based on manga 'Kanojo wa Uso o Aishisugiteru' (literally means 'The Girl Who Loved Lies') by Kotomi Aoki in 2009.

SUMMARY

Ogasawara Aki (Takeru Satoh) is a talented songwriter and was the bassist of Crude Play. Crude Play consisted of his childhood friends; Sakaguchi Shun (Shohei Miura), Ono Kaoru (Kouki Mizuta) and Yazaki Teppei (Koudai Asaka).

The original members of Crude Play; (from left) Teppei, Shun, Aki and Kaoru

Aki decided to leave the group before debut because of some personal reason. He was replaced with Shinohara Shinya (Masataka Kubota), who is a professional bassist.

Crude Play was first discovered by a materialistic producer named Takagi Soichiro (Takashi Sorimachi).

# I am a fan of this actor since Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO). He's still hot for an ahjusshi/ojisan.

"Music.. has no meaning if you can't sell it"

Even though Aki has backed out from the group, he still wrote songs for Crude Play, which made the band famous. His identity was totally concealed from the public, though. Despite all his achievements, he felt empty inside and he don't seems to understand why too.

He seems to lose interest in music and plus, being the ghost-writer for his famous girlfriend, Mari (Saki Aibu), who ended up cheating on him with that producer guy.

Having your ex's face on billboards is the worse

At that time, he was heart-broken and coincidentally met with Koeda Riko (Sakurako Ohara), a normal high-schooler who is also the daughter of a vegetable store's owner.

Riko fell in love with the song that he was humming at that time. Riko is a big fan of Crude Play. Aki didn't want her to know that he's the mysterious songwriter of Crude Play. So he lied about his name and even his job.

"Why are you crying?"

He lied again saying he hates music and girls who sing. Ironically, Riko was someone who does sing but she kept it a secret from him.

Riko, Yuu, Sou

Things became more complicated when the evil producer scouted Riko and her friends on the street, on the way to Aki's place. At this point, the truth has to be revealed..

Mush & Co.

PERSONAL REVIEW:

I love the storyline and I have some weak spot for vulnerable guy like Aki. My heart hurts when I see Aki suddenly cries in front of Riko. And the kiss that follows make my heart flutters. It's too early for a kiss but maybe Aki was just carried away by the whole "I will protect you" phrase. I'll take it as a way of him saying "It's so sweet of you to say that, although you don't know me that much".

"I believe in love at first sight!"

I would say Aki was having some inner conflict with himself since he felt as if he is being used by the evil producer and Mari. Actually, the reason he backed out from the group was the fact that he felt offended because all the instruments were played by some professional musicians and they would need to pretend playing them on stage. For bassist part, Shinya was playing for him. So, might as well let him be in the group right? What's the point of becoming a bassist when you can't play the instrument yourself?

When he met with Riko, he thought he could run away from music. Aki started to fall in love with Riko for her cute and innocent personality. Plus, after he first listen to her singing, he began to enjoy writing songs again. Previously, he wrote songs because he was asked to but now it's because he wanted to.

I'm still confused on why he was so moody actually. I can make a few guesses initially but I became more confused as I listened to his explanations. I understand that he felt offended since he was asked to pretend playing bass. In the beginning of the movie, he said something about the value of music which I couldn't understand what his point was. Then, there was the scene when he told Shun that he was turning his back on music before he met Riko. Yet, he had wrote all these songs for Crude Play right? How is that called 'turning your back on music'?

He has the habit of closing his ears when a song came to his mind

Their love story is so sweet. Riko manage to see through Aki's deepest feeling through his song and Aki started falling in love with Riko because of her pure and innocent self. I envy Riko since she was able to reach out to someone who is struggling. I find it amazing since I am really bad at reading people. Like I said before, I love 'the broken ones'. I wish I could 'protect' someone too.

Overall, the movie left a very good impression on me. I read the manga after the movie and I would say the cast are similar to the manga's characters. The storyline in the movie might be slightly different than the manga but I was satisfied with the movie.

The only thing I would like to complain is the unnatural laughter of the actors. Their laughter was either too fake or not suitable for that situation. I'm referring to the scene when Riko dropped her stuff while running to Aki and when Shun found out that Aki uses Shinya's name to lie to Riko. Maybe the actors felt it's awkward to laugh at that moment too so they can't really laugh sincerely.

Trivia from manga:
• To read Aki's mood:
   Bad mood - he plays remote-controlled heli
   Confused - he eats chocolate
• Shun's family owns a confectionary factory and he was supposed to inherit it.
• Aki comes from a poor family so instead of cake, they had omurice for birthday.
• Dumpling are Aki's specialty. He can't cook anything else besides that.
• Aki also called Riko as 'Mush', before Shinya came into picture.
• Aki was reluctant to hold hands with Riko since he has sweaty hands.
• Shinya and Yuu also like Riko. Yuu had a crush on Riko for the longest time.
• Sou is Riko's childhood friend. In the manga, Sou is supposed to be chubby.
• Riko is known as a crybaby and that just makes Aki, Shinya and Yuu want to protect her.
• Riko is quick to understand the situation. It's almost impossible to lie to her.