Blue

I watched the movie and my initial reaction is that I liked it. Though produced in a probably small budget the movie manages to capture beautiful portrait-like scenes, almost like the still life paintings central to the plot. The ambiance sound blends perfectly well with the film scenes, you become immersed in the film's world.

The spirit of the manga remains in the movie, some elements from the source material were changed but the movie's message is how destructive your decisions can be. We see Endo and Kirishima making decisions that will break the hearts of people they care about. They don't make those decisions with malice, they are just two young students.

The manga's minimalist art is translated into film successfully, not using a constant soundtrack, or quick edits. Instead the music is used subtly, only used in important milestones in the relationship of the main characters.

The acting and dialogue is minimal, the camera is detached and many times we're far from the actors' faces, so the actors make full use of body language, making scenes look like theater. The result is in my opinion delightful and adds tension toward the film's climax and other crucial revealing scenes.

Very good story, acting, photography, and soundtrack (both ambient and music). however some scenes could've been snipped that were not crucial to the plot.

When I watched this move, I felt that Japan is a beautiful country. Filmed in provincial cities of Niigata, and Takaoka (Toyama prefecture) Blue captures the lives of two high school girls from Spring to Autumn.

The movie is beautiful in many ways, but especially in the way each scenes are shot. Director Hiroshi Ando is a veteran of directing youth oriented movies, but also has an eye for sharp clean images.

Mikako Ichikawa who played Kayako Kirishima won the best actress award at the 24th International Movie Festival in Moscow with this movie.

The movie that's written, and acted by Gen-X writer and actors has all the subdued feelings of that generation.

Both Mikako Ichikawa and Manami Konishi are models, and are unusually tall for Japanese women, Ichikawa hitting 5'7", and Konishi at 5'6" tall.

Both Ichikawa, and Konishi has successful career as actors, and are familiar faces in Japanese TV now.

I liked this movie for the beautiful imagery. The small stories that's inserted as the scene changes were almost like moving poems. I wanted to see more of relation between Endo, and Kirishima but the movie just kept going without drastic change in the flow.

The movie is well crafted and is definitely worth seeing.

If you're interested in visiting the areas that this movie was shot, here are the locations:

Niigata City:

Mandaibashi bridge by route 7

Furumachi Mall

Niigata station (West side connector pass)

Keiwagakuen High School (The art room scene)

Takaoka City (Toyama prefecture):

Fushiki High school (Near JR Etchu-Kokubu station)

'Blue' is a beautiful movie, speaking of it's cinematography. The visual aspect is what I enjoyed the most, and despite common opinions that the scenes were too long and the movie could be much shorter I belive it's what makes the movie so unique and compelling.

'Blue' made me feel melancholic and nostalgic. I think it depicts teenage love in a very realistic way, as a slow, sometimes hard to understand or explain emotion, that may be disappointing and unforgiving at times, which is comforting to see on screen and makes up for a great movie.

It's definitely a movie for sad sapphic girls, who experienced unrequited love or for those who wished for a diffrent ending to their love story and I highly recomend it.

To the person with the dvd with no subs!

Subtitles for this movie are available on the net! However, combining with your dvd could be tricky.

Your easiest option would be just to download the film, along with subtitles. Morally, you have purchased the film anyway.

Or you could rip your dvd using a program like handbrake, and then download subtitles and attempt to sync the two.

I've had this movie on my radar for a while, only knowing the vague Wikipedia description (it gives a lot fewer details than on here as I write this) and seeing it on sapphic movie lists. I didn't know much about the plot, but thought it might make for a nice movie date with my girlfriend. To me surprise, this movie was a lot more solemn than I anticipated.

I think it does capture a certain yearning, especially when you're school aged, and for myself hit home. The movie as I stated, was a lot more somber, but I still think it hit a realism within it. The move itself was shot beautifully, the area was a perfect backdrop and from stills alone you can get the feel of the artistic lens powering it.

My only complaint is I do think certain scenes dragged on too long. I do realize they had a point though, and I'm sure my feeling that way is because of attention issues; but in that same note, the dragging had a realism and made you contemplate the scene more thoughtfully-- the composition, the nature, ect.

The slowness may deter people, and there isn't a ton of dialogue, but if you're willing to sit through a 2hr movie for more of a slow emotional piece with gorgeous scenery, then I'd recommend it. Maybe not for date night, however.