April Story

the plot is quite simple:a Hokkaido's girl enters a Tokyo's university cause the man she unrequited love with is also in Tokyo. As an Asian,this movie make me reflect lots of my adolescence. there are 2 scenes are my favorites 1:girl with neighbor (the loneliness of the modern citizen) 2:the umbrella-borrow (Nireno is really pure)

PS the film's name which translate 'story about April' in Chinese make me think another film 'pieces of April'also is a great film

all in all if you want to relax for a easy plot movie it's a nice choice

*****/*******

April Story is all about how simple and sweet a movie can be. You will be at total calm, quite and emotional while watching this movie. As a university student Uzuki Mireno has done a great job. She brilliantly potrays the character in the movie.

This small (67 minutes) romantic story breaks no new ground but it is like a piece of candy. Sweet and thoroughly enjoyable while it lasts. I would have liked to see more develop but I think Shunji told the tale he wanted to tell, the loneliness of a girl starting college and how she finds a bit of happiness. The sort of thing high school girls fall in love with.

This is not a movie for everybody. It is very slow-paced and takes a long time to establish its main characters, their behavior and their feelings to each other. The movie observes the first days of a young Japanese girl after she has moved from Hokkaido, the Japanese equivalent of Kansas, to Tokyo to attend University. At first the girl is very insecure and nervous about her new situation, but gradually she becomes more secure and falls in love with a fellow student. That's all the Plot there is, but this movie is not about a big story, it is about a person. Over the course of the movie we feel and share the girls insecurities, loneliness and finally opening up. Seldom has a movie so masterfully and with so much passion for its characters captured the problems of leaving home, being lonely in a unknown mega city and to be for the first time on one's own feet. I can fully recommend this movie for everybody who likes films about life and people, that move at life's speed.

"Shigatsu monogatari" (aka April Story), is one of those rare films which concentrates deeply on the feelings and personality of a character. Takako Matsu displays brilliant acting as Uzuki Mireno, a university student who experiences life on her own. The film shows the ups and downs of Takako's life at university. Despite the fact that I am an action fan and that the movie has a "strange" ending, this film did not fail to please and entertain me. I highly recommend this film for people into quiet, beautiful and emotional films.