SYNOPSICS
Hyakuman-en to nigamushi onna (2008) is a Japanese movie. Yuki Tanada has directed this movie. Yû Aoi,Mirai Moriyama,Pierre Taki,Terunosuke Takezai are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2008. Hyakuman-en to nigamushi onna (2008) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
Suzuko is 21 years old and lives at home. A coworker offers to share an apartment with her. After they sign the lease, Suzuko discovers that her coworker has planned to share her room with her boyfriend. However, the day she moves in, the couple have broken up, leaving her with the boyfriend as a roommate. She finds a small kitten on her balcony and brings it in. She goes to the store to buy it food. When she returns, she finds out that her depressed roommate has thrown the kitten out. Finding the dead kitten in the road, Suzuko throws all her roommates belongings out. She is arrested and criminally charged. She ends up in prison. Upon her release, she finds herself dealing with the neighborhood gossip and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to a place where no one knows her and to continue repeating the process. She discovers many things about herself, as she corresponds with her younger brother, (who is dealing with bullies) and meets new people on her ...
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Hyakuman-en to nigamushi onna (2008) Reviews
Simply fantastic
I love these 'search for self' type road-movies, and I've seen many of them, but this is among the best. The movie starts with the protagonist Suzuko (Aoi Yuu) getting arrested for throwing out all of her roommate's belongings. The criminal record made it hard for her to stay home, so she saved up 1 million yen ($10000) to move to another town where nobody knows her. She repeats this process throughout the movie to keep her distance from others. Aoi Yuu was incredible in this movie, her control of emotion was flawless, especially in the final scene. I never realized how skinny she was though... I really connected with the protagonist. In fact, I sympathized with her character to the point it felt like I was watching myself from couple years ago. All the other actors gave excellent performance as well. Music in this movie matched all the scenes very well, even background noises served to heighten the tension etc. Great direction all around, and there were many beautiful scenes of various landscapes in Japan, from sea to mountain, countryside to city. This film had many memorable scenes, and the story was very intriguing. I especially liked that line, "I don't want to search for myself, I'm here even if I don't want to be here." We all try to escape from reality sometimes, I'm sure this movie would give you courage to face your problems.
Yu Aoi Shines!
Although Yu Aoi has been in many films before, she has always shared the spotlight with others or has played minor supporting roles. For One Million Yen Girl, this is actually her first starring role where she is the undeniable main character and she gives a knock-out performance that's worth mentioning! Her expressions of shyness, embarrassment, awkwardness, determination and loneliness are played flawlessly! I don't know what it is about Yu, but it's always so easy to sympathize with her characters. She has a certain charm and elegance about her that can easily win over any audience. As for the film, One Million Yen Girl is a crowd-pleasing movie with a positive message. Even though the film is a somewhat conventional "Search for Yourself" road movie, it has a not so conventional ending that I thought felt just right. This was an outstanding performance by Ms. Aoi and I hope she gets more opportunities to showcase her talent and star in future films. Along with Hana & Alice, it should be noted that this is her best work yet and I think only shows how effective she can be if given decent material to work with.
Nice to see Yû Aoi own a film
This film will appeal to fans of Yû Aoi even though there isn't much range to her performance. What we get is exclusively the shy, sad, and awkward Yû Aoi with none of the radiant, confident, and smiling. She's on screen almost the entire two hour running time so the appeal may come from sheer quantity more than anything else, but she performs well and demonstrates she is capable of carrying a film on her own even if the value of that labor remains a question mark. Yû Aoi's character has brought shame upon herself and her family by having a criminal record so she decides to run away, drift from town to town, staying in one place only long enough to earn one million yen and then move on. She wants to be anonymous, always one step ahead of any accusatory gaze that may be following her tortured soul. But what happens if she finds love? Will she reveal her ... true nature, that she's a criminal? No, that's not it. Her ... horrifying secret? No, that's not it either. The whole thing is kind of silly but I will grant the film some kudos for its final resolve even if it has little to do with illuminating its central conceit. I'm no expert on Japanese culture but the basic premise of the film seems weak to me. Yû Aoi and a girlfriend agree to rent an apartment together so they can share costs and save money. They sign a lease and then Yû Aoi discovers that her girlfriend's boyfriend will be moving in as well. On move-in day only the boyfriend shows up and he informs Yû Aoi that his (and her!) girlfriend dumped him and will not be moving in. The guy turns out to be a total jerk, of course. Amongst many other idiotic attitudes, behaviors, and talking points, when Yû Aoi adopts a kitten and the guy doesn't like it, he throws it away, whatever that means, and we're gifted with a shot of a dead kitty on the road. In retaliation, Yû Aoi throws away every single piece of her roommate's property. The guy files charges and wins a criminal case against her, which she could have avoided by saying she had sex with the guy, even once, whether true or not, thereby making it a domestic issue and the police would've washed their hands of it. I'd proudly share that story at cocktail parties, but for Yû Aoi it's a scarlet letter. The film's script has a number of weaknesses. One of them is Yû Aoi's little brother. He gets a subplot of being bullied by his peers. At first, he and Yû Aoi are at odds with one another. Then she leaves and massive love shows up. The little brother is only there to play on the heartstrings of unconditional blood love thriving in the face of a cruel world as it kicks brother and sister about. He's no good and his story is banal. Yû Aoi, and the film, would have been better served if she were cast out on her own, alone. Yû Aoi's first stop in her search for anonymity finds her at a beach resort where everyone's hair is lighter than hers and their skin is darker. Oops. Her next stop is a rural mountain village where there are no young people left—let alone anyone as beautiful as Yû Aoi. Things get a little creepy and it's ironic that in this second stop the director achieves a nice symbiotic relationship between form and content but it only serves to bring the film to an unendurable lull. These rural village people are slow—in every way—and obstinate, and the film's pace follows suit. Yû Aoi's final stop finds her in a semi-urban setting where she takes a job in a lawn and garden shop. This is where the "What if she finds love" card gets played, and we can only presume that deep down this is what Yû Aoi had been looking for all along because, even though she struggles against it at first, it's pretty hard to fathom any sane interest on her part in what she ends up with so she must be settling. The film does finish with a nice little kick, if not swift, and it's interesting that the reveal validates what you're hoping was the case, as unlikely as it may seem, but it promotes a dishonest sympathy through failure rather than disgust by virtue of jerk-ballness. Had it gone any other way, though, the whole thing would have been a disaster. All in all, a reasonably pleasant two hours spent with Yû Aoi as she weaves her way through a mostly inept film. There's nothing about the story which excites and other than Yû Aoi there are no characters worth paying attention to. The production values are good, though not remarkable in any way. If you are a fan of the actress, who does quite well in creating likable characters in the many smaller roles she takes on, One Million Yen and the Nigamushi Woman is worth seeing just to see her perform in a film that belongs entirely to her. But if you are a cinephile you'll probably walk away non-plussed.
As always, a good one from Yu Aoi
I go for the movie because Yu Aoi is in it. She seems to be good in every movie/drama she does. This movie also no exception. Yu-chan deliver brilliantly, as always. (just that I think she should put on some weight) It's a story about a young girl who has a criminal record and have to bear the discrimination from the society. Even her brother mad at her and think her criminal record will ruin his chances to go to a good school. Therefore, she starts her journey to different places (beach, mountain, another city) and work until she save up 1 million yen before move again to a new place. As the story progress, the relationship between the siblings also become more meaningful. Suzuko always write to her brother. And at the end her brother also wrote to her, telling that he admired her and will face his life better. This is the part that make me cry. How a brother that seems so selfish at first, actually the one who really taught Suzuko not to run away again. As for the boyfriend, I really thought he's a total jerk. At the end it was reveal that he borrow money from Suzuko just to prevent Suzuko from saving up 1 million yen. But, I don't get the ending, I really hope that Suzuko and her boyfriend will stay. That's why i vote for 9. If not because of the ending I'll go for 10. Overall, one of a good movie especially for Yu Aoi fan.
Cute film about a girl's journey of finding herself, while she travels her country on an actual journey
I watched this film specifically for Yu Aoi at first. I saw her first in "Welcome to the Quiet Room" and was mesmerized by this thin and pale but beautiful East Asian girl rocking these long thick cornrows, and this solemn persona she had to show the viewers. So I looked her up and found that she was also in this film that I had months prior to watching Quiet Room, but never watched; it was on queue for all the other Japanese films I had discovered in serendipity. I didn't know what to expect watching this film; I just wanted to see Aoi shine in this dark role. I loved how somber her character was, since I am a somber person. I can appreciate the giddy kawaii acting type some Japanese films have but find these more serious dramas, following the mature female actress around with every move, to be better. It's not very impressionistic, which I love, with long hard still shots, or long scenes with no dialogue. But it's not a playful film either. It's not very sweet or uplifting, only brief moments do we see Aoi smile, which is fine for me. Reading the description for the first time, I felt it would be a quirky romantic comedy film. It's not. Her character's a bit insecure, and I love she's trying to redeem herself. In complete solitude as well. *Here comes a spoiler: The scene where she speechlessly finds her pet cat had been kicked out by her new roommate, and left to be hit by traffic as its carcass got drenched in the rain so disrespectfully, really begins to show the attachment to this cat that Aoi's character has. Perhaps she feels just like the cat: stranded, alone, abandoned, down and out, and just wanting someone to understand her. Because she feels she won't receive this since she's been black-balled as a criminal, she deserts her family and hits the road. What I get from this film is that she doesn't realize just how meaningful life is until she impacts the lives of her new neighbors. She starts to realize what she's running from, which is connections with others. She didn't have a great one at home. In her hometown she dealt with stigma, adversity, and apparently she didn't have much status lost to begin with, with girls picking on her and comparing her to the rest of her family even before she goes to jail for taking revenge on her cold roommate killing her cat. Which was hilarious (the revenge was hilarious, not the killing). Having to save up 1 million yen before she takes off again to a new place shows she doesn't leave on impulse, so she's not being reckless or selfish on purpose. She wants to connect with people but feels she cannot or better not. It's really sad. Not just my human understanding of her situation but the film does also work to convey this. It doesn't lazily imply, "hey this is sad." It shows her breaking down eventually, it shows the impact her leaving had on people she's stayed with and worked with while drifting. I give this an 8 because it wasn't particularly fascinating, but the message was delivered very well. I have only seen the film once, and tried to watch again but didn't want to deal with the emotions and disappointment I knew were coming, and there wasn't much else to bring me back to the film anyway, even though I get it completely. She doesn't do anything emotional except in a scene towards the end reading a letter from her brother who gets bullied, she even sardonically laughs off daydreaming about her boyfriend chasing her down before she leaves for the next town right before the film ends. So some people might find this boring but whatever. There's no sex from what I can remember, there's not even passion, just guys fancying her, who she strays from. It's not overtly funny, so don't expect much there. But it's got a great purpose I think and Aoi does really well to carry this cross of loneliness. I relate to the character as well, being rather impassive and a loner who people may want to get to know. As soon as they do, I shut down and take off, really pathetic.