Like this:

Heck yes, I finally watched it.

Harufuwei begins when a young high school senior named Hiro (Kitano Kii) falls for one of her classmates, Shuu (Masaki Okada).

She watches him excitedly during one of his basketball games, but becomes TOO excited and becomes faint. Her friend Meme, played by Naka Riisa, takes her to the nurse’s office to calm down.

While they’re there, they both fall asleep on the beds and time passes. The basketball game continues on, and Shuu accidentally gets hit in the nose and has to go to the nurse’s office as well. Meme and Hiro are both awake by now but Hiro has a wet cloth over her eyes, and does not realize that the boy she’s been head over heels for is in the room right now.

And so, she reveals to Meme (in front of Shuu), she really, really, really likes Shuu, and intends to confess to him. Shuu is shocked, and as Hiro throws the wet cloth over her eyes from her face, he runs off before she could see him.

Shuu asks her out the following afternoon, to Hiro’s delight, and they begin dating.

Things aren’t always happy though, as Hiro finds out. She eventually finds out that he’s applying to Waseda University, which is a university in Tokyo, and she’s planning to stay in Hokkaido. She begs him not to go though, and so he changes his mind, even though his teachers tell him that it would be much better if he were to go to Waseda.

Hiro is happy, but soon, she starts to think. From the words of her teacher, “In the long run, which would make you guys happier?”

Staying with her in Hokkaido would make them happy in the short-term, but wouldn’t going to the prestigious Waseda work out better in the long run? Hiro wants him to stay… but…

Thoughts:

I thought this movie was going to be really sad and stuff, or the trailer gave me that impression, but I was really suprised at how light and cute this whole film was. I’m actually a senior in high school, and I guess I can really relate to this story, because I’m thinking of what college I’m applying to, and the fact that I’m probably going to leave all my friends and family behind for a few years.

Anyways, I won’t spoil the ending for you, but I thought it was so cute. And the little bit before the credits was really good on Kitano Kii’s part. I thought she was a great Hiro. She played her headstrong character well. Masaki Okada, on the other hand, did a great job playing Shuu. Shuu was always so patient with the rambunctious Hiro, and he was so sweet and goofy.

Pros:

- I really like Masaki Okada and Kitano Kii together.They really are good actors, and they stand out. It was really cute when their characters bickered and then made up. It made me smile. (For example, they randomly bickered over the pronounciation of the word ‘halfway’– Hiro gets it wrong calling it ‘harufuwei’ instead of ‘haafuwei’, thus the title. It’s supposed to be mistaken.)

- I liked the plot a lot, and I liked how everything flowed together and seemed so normal.

- The song, Halfway, by Salyu really matched with the atmosphere of the movie.

Cons:

- It was too short, in my opinion. Only 1 hour and 25 minutes?

- It’s not an exciting movie. It’s really slow. But, that’s the point, and I love it.

Grade: A+

Overall, just a sweet movie that I think I’ll watch again.

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