Love Me, Love Me Not

Yuna learned about love from novels and believes a great love will find her one day. Akari is more realistic and laughs at her for it. Then things happen to both: Yuna meets a boy on a train, and she begins living in the same house as Rio, Akari's stepbrother. The relations among the four tangle; who loves whom and who dares to say it keeps changing through the film. Takahiro Miki directs. The source is Io Sakisaka's comic. It belongs to the youth films adapted from comics that are common in Japan; many are made every year and the shape is known. What the narrative builds is a four cornered relationship; each character loves another and none of them says it directly. The matter it works at is friendship being preferred to a relationship; the bond between Yuna and Akari is its soundest side. Takahiro Miki has made many films in this genre and his manner is familiar: soft light, the turn of the seasons and school settings. Its limit is formula; the narrative follows the expected stages of the genre and springs no surprise. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese youth films and comics adaptations. Who it is not for: it is predictable, the characters are types, and the emotional register stays high.