Crappy dogma theme. Lack of backstory. Main character is unlikable. Getting the basics of disease completely wrong. Check check check check! The only good thing about this movie is that the Japanese is pretty easy to understand
Plot summary
High school student Rina has a bad attitude and thinks that friends are something that you use when you need them. She doesn't have any real relationships and is not even on good terms with her parents. Rina is the clubbing queen and could get any guy she wants with her stunning looks. One day, Rina suddenly collapses and her world falls apart. She finds out that she has cancer. The only one who starts to support her is her classmate Maki. Maki tells that they were friends in primary school even though Rina doesn't remember. Maki wants to get close to Rina and help her like Rina had helped Maki when she had hard times.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
November 28, 2022 at 03:44 PM
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Top cast
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Unbelievable characters
Good Enough
Dear friends is an emotional movie about friendship and human relationships. Even though it lacked some intensity, the message that it got through was beautiful. Rina discovers the people who trully matter in life when she falls sick and her way of life is changed forever. The ending was a bit rushed and they didn't really explained things through. But the performances were good from both leading ladies. So, six out of ten, for the character development.
Two girls world apart, joined by friendship
A charismatic high school girl with a decidedly rainy day approach to friendship finds just how important connections can be when she is diagnosed with a terminal illness and relegated to a lonely hospital bed. Rina (Keiko Kitagawa: Fast n Furious Tokyo Drift) comes from a dysfunctional family and only contacts her friends in times of need. Her father is completely self-absorbed, and her mother is overprotective to a fault. Much to Rina's relief, a concerned classmate named Maki eventually appears claiming she was a childhood friend.
One day, after discovering that she has a terminal illness, the girl who once viewed her friendships as disposable is forced to sit in her sterile surroundings with nary a friendly soul in sight. Her family is too wrapped up in their own affairs to drop in for a visit, and her friends all realize that she and Rina were good friends back in grade school. When Maki tries to re-connect with her old friend and Rina realizes that she doesn't even remember the friendly girl, it soon becomes apparent just how flawed the philosophy of this fiercely independent teen truly is.
While the film is predictable, it doesn't hinder it from being a touching little piece. Keiko Kitagawa's performance was great, as a new up and coming actress in Japan. Audience will really believe how unmerciful her character can be, and the gradual change of her character's view of companionship towards the film's end.If anything, a narrative flaw on the director's part would be having Maki be concerned of Rina to almost a stalking fan. Even hints of homo sexuality, since they weren't that close in the first place with the enormous sacrifice on Maki's behalf. It just seemed to be case, until halfway through the film when we discover the reason for her almost infatuated care towards Rina. This aside, some shots were dead on delivered, especially scenes with Rina dancing away in the nightclub. With other scenes being hardly accompanied with any background score to heighten the drama, which was disappointing. And one glaringly disjointed narrative which occurs two thrids into the film.
Overall, this is one of the better films to come out of Japan in 2007, and is definitely worth a look. It is as much about teen angst as it about friendship, and what defines a true life companion.