Matomo Janai no wa Kimi mo Issho (2021)

Lovely rom-com with a deep message

Leveling with y'all, I have to confess that, these days, I often get the feeling that being "normal" means either transforming into one of those ruthless wolves who roam our society looking for prey (as the old saying goes, "the scum that comes on top") or else becoming one of those decerebrated "pod people" who constitute the aforementioned wolves' elective prey. The alternative is simply not being "normal" and choosing instead to be yourself, using your own brain and moral values to find your own place in life, regardless of what the wolves and the flock think of us.
And that's, in a nutshell, the surprisingly deep message conveyed by this light, lovely rom-com.
The funny leads take the whole movie to realize how much they're done for each other, being the true, free individuals that they both are, instead of chasing, respectively, the cold-blooded, manipulative wolf (the toymaking CEO) and the wolf's prey - who chose to be his victim (the CEO's bethroted).
The discussions between the leads are the real gem of this movie, thanks to the great script and to the equally great performances delivered by Kiyohara Kaya and Narita Ryo - and if those exchanges happen to reminisce you of such great rom-coms as "The African Queen" (Bogart & K. Hepburn) or, to stay in Japan, "Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi" (Nakai & Koizumi), well, that's simply 'cause nothing really new happens in cinema, it's just a matter of how the old ingredients are assembled...and this time, the "kitchen" did a very good job indeed! 10/10 ^___-

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