Clover (2014)

Huh. I don't know how I ended up watching this movie but I thank youtube for having this on the "related videos" sidebar!

Story | Suzuki Saya is an office worker in the event planning department for a hotel. She's always having to be corrected by her strict and straight forward boss, Tsuge Susumu. What seems like out of left field, the two begin a relationship and along the way they both learn some valuable lessons about themselves. A very typical Shoujo manga plot. In other words, another cliché, but I am a person who doesn't get tired of such clichés.

Acting | Can we just all take a moment to appreciate how beautiful Takei Emi is. She's always been pretty to me, but it was extremely refreshing to see her play a more mature, non-student, older role. She still had the goofy, cringe worthy type of moments but I quite enjoyed her as Saya. I don't believe I've seen Okura Tadayoshi in anything so at first I didn't even realize it was him. Strangely, I loved his character and how he played it. He was a type to hide his emotions and he acted that out well and when he did need to show emotion he showed a nice amount that would seem believable for his character. Chemistry wise, for a movie, I thought it wasn't that bad and it was presently on screen. Things kind of just happened so I was like "oh, okay well..okay." but they had so many moments where I honestly thought they were adorable together. Supporting cast, I really liked Saya's hotel coworkers, especially her two close friends. They had small roles but somehow played a bigger role than I had anticipated.

Music | Besides Kanjani8's song and the use of a Disney song, I don't think there was anything besides instrumentals. Kanjani8's song was a nice touch for the ending credits.

Rewatch | Not anytime soon, but I know I'll come back to it some day.

Overall | For a live action based on a manga, I thought it was actually pretty decent. My only complaint is I wish they used Hino Haruki's character is a better way. I don't really know how to describe this without spoilers but I thought his character could've been used to help others character developments, well, more than what was given. Other than that, I don't really have any other complaints. This was a simple and cute movie. Not sure why the score is low, but give it a try!

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I was all ready to give this movie a rating of ten. Then we hit all of the angsty bits in the middle, and I had to change my mind.

It’s not that I didn’t find anything to enjoy about this movie. Au contrare! I love the beginning and the end, the funny way our leads relationship starts and the romantic way they walk off into the sunset with each other. It's just the middle I want to rip out and set on fire.

Silly plot devices that do nothing but drag the story down have no place in stories that begin end in such cute ways. Get outta here with that nonsense.

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unremarkable

The narrative is unimaginative. That's fine for a rom com. i wouldnt call this as a rom com, though. there are a handful of moments that i think were supposed to be funny, but even they didnt land.

Little effort is made to establish emotional connections between characters, and like with the attempts at comedy, they don't work. The performances also fail to convey any sense of emotional connection between any of the characters, much less the leads. As such, when plot complications arose i don't feel like there are any stakes and i felt no satisfaction at events that were supposed to be emotional pay off moments.

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I did not read the manga. I intended to but because of lack of time (and my internet sucks), I watched the movie first. The acting was good. I love Ohkura. He is one of my favorite Eitos. I prefer him in lighter roles (such as in "Mikeneko"), but he was good as the cold boss. He and Emi had a nice chemistry. I also liked the soundtrack; it was very New York-ish. It was like watching the old movie set in NYC. Christmas time.

But the plot was very weak. Everything that happened was soooo Latin Soap Opera-like:

- The two main characters don't like each other at first.
- There is a love triangle.
- There is the evil, rich, beautiful rival, who makes the hero believed he slept with her (at least, it wasn't a fake pregnancy, but I think it was only due lack of time).
- The hero changes and realizes he loves the girl.
- He makes sure to tell her in a party, in front of hundreds of people.
- Wedding.

MEH. And sorry Ohkura, but the guy you interpreted was a jerk. He did not know that he actually did not sleep with the "evil woman". But I guess he would never tell Saya about it, and hello, that is cheating. It was not like they took a break and he was a free guy. That bothered me immensely.

Not my kind of "romance".

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Not my idea of a healthy love

7/10 is my rating. This is a 2014 Japanese romance movie that runs 120 minutes.

First I provide a Unique synopsis then review

Synopsis

Saya Suzuki (Emi Taeki) is a hard working hotel employee who works on event planning. Her immediate supervisor, Susumu Tsuge (Tadayoshi Okura), is hyper critical and is always scolding Saya for her many small errors. which is why Saya is beyond surprised when Tsuge asks her out. Having a bit too much to drink, and feeling insecure about the real reason for Tsuge’s sudden interest, Saya shares that her first love was Haruki Hino (Kento Nagayama), a famous singer and actor. Saya tells Tsuge that she and Haruki were in love and tried to elope but since they were still in school, the police brought them back to their parents. A belief the young first loves had was if they found a four leaf clover it would reveal their true love and were searching in a field when the police found them. She tells Tsuge that Haruki was sent to the United States and she has been waiting for him. Upon hearing this, Tsuge offers to be her love rehab until her heart heals. So it is little wonder that when Haruki returns and befriends Saya, Tsuge is jealous. Jealous enough to get himself roped into an engagement with the hotel owner’s daughter, Shiori Tsutsui (Natsuna). Will the two unlikely lovers find the courage to stay together or allow themselves to take the safe route with people who are so clearly in love with them.

Review

It is a simple, straight forward romance. I would not watch it again. I recommend it if someone wants a happy ending romance.

Spoilers

I thought Tsuge was unduly harsh to Saya. A lot of her errors were made from always being criticized so that she was often nervous. He was like the boy that pulls the girl’s hair because he likes her. So I could not understand his sudden interest. I really liked Haruki for her. Haruki was always there when Saya needed someone to talk to because Tsuge made her sad. I was also very disappointed because Tsuge allowed himself to be put in a position to be tricked into an engagement. He did not act like someone in love. But Saya also spent a lot of alone time with Haruki and seemed like she was exploring her feelings for him. Since it felt like we saw them both more with other people than with each other it made their relationship less genuine. I was not rooting for them. He was a little sorry in the end. But I had the sense he would do something like that again.

I also wish he found out Shiori drugged him to fake that they were together. That was a horrible thing she did and it never came out as such. But he seemed to be considering sleeping with her as she requested as long as she would let him go. Tsuge was willing to sleep with Shiori more to save his career than to be with Saya. It cheapened his love for Saya.

#Clover #EmiTakei. # TadayoshiOkura. #KentoNagayama. #Natsuna

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No chemistry, toxic relationships

Let me start with the high points. The music and the use of "Some Day My Prince Will Come" were really cute. For me, that's the end of the high points.

Characters: FL is just beautiful. However, as is the case with a lot of Japanese shows, she's got absolutely no self-esteem. Falls in love for apparently no discernible reason. Willing to be treated poorly, on an ongoing basis. ML had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He couldn't even be called tsundere, because there was no warmth hidden deep within him. He treated her terrible, always berating her in front of others, then says he wants to date her with an eye toward marriage?!?! No woman with any spine would take him up on that ridiculous offer. Responses to his questionable offer were rolling around in my head as the movie went on.

Story/actor: I found the acting of the ML to be severely lacking. However, in his defense, was he just written that way? This man showed absolutely no emotions throughout the entire movie.

Chemistry: None, zilch, zero, nada. Actually, she had more chemistry with her childhood friend, so consequently that relationship made so much more sense.

Thank goodness this was a movie and not a series. If it was a series, I probably would have dropped it.

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O avião que caiu

O título da minha resenha não tem exatamente nada haver com a história do filme, exceto pelo fato que (pelo menos para mim) foi como um avião que estava no céu e de repente caiu! O filme começou bom introduzindo a história e o inesperado pedido do protagonista, que de tão ruim eu nem lembro o nome (mentira eu nunca lembro nomes mesmo), mas depois do encontro deles no parque de diversões tudo ficou tão chato e cansativo.
Eles quase não tinham química nenhuma o que é totalmente necessário em um filme de ROMANCE, vocês sabem né? Mas enfim botaram uma separação no meio, enviaram o Sr. Seco pra Paris e ele não fazia nem questão de responder as mensagens da garota (quem não ficaria preocupada assim????) Tudo bem ok ele não é do tipo de expressar os sentimentos e etc, mas cara o velho tava do outro lado do pais obvio que ela iria ficar do jeito que ficou se ele não respondesse fora que ele não fez o minimo de esforço para eles como casal durante o meio do filme affff perca de tempo.

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The best and the worst roller coaster

Well first of, the story began well and move interesting, I loved the way it got introduced to us at the first half.

The way the two main characters where in the beginning it was interesting and you would like to see more and more of them.

The story at the 2 half started having things that made me taking my eyes of the screen because I felt the meaning of the clover was less and less important I can't understand anymore.

At first you will think that the one who finds the clover will be her soulmat but this not case here as Saya rejected the 4 part clover from the man she waited for for so long.

Anyway with a the drama that happened to her boss lover, and the ceo daughter mad him belive they slept together yet not.

Anyway true love always finds its salf out right. They will get back together again, here we learn pride dose not pay and misunderstanding can break a good relationship.

They got their happy ending this important so I recommend people to see it :)

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a sweet watch

Cute but a bit dry. Sweet storyline but wish the ML broke out of his shell a bit more. He was inside sweet and did somewhat break out of his shell but I wanted the female lead to see a new side of him. Even see him smile a bit more. I wanted to see him melt for her and be cuddly maybe. Wake up and snuggle with her, or be staring at her and look away a bit shy... I also wanted the female lead to be a bit more confident by the end, to stand up and demand the love she deserves.
I'm also a bit partial to her childhood crush who stood by her side, who gave her comfort when she felt uneasy, who fought for her, and worried over her when people were causing issues.

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