Little DJ: Chiisana koi no monogatari

This film very much resembles "Sekai no Chuushin...". In fact, they basically copied "SekaChuu" with boy and girl flipped, 5 years younger, and added DJing.

However, this film was far superior in my opinion. Fukuda Mayuko is my favorite child actress, and Nishida Naomi is an actress I really respect. I was already satisfied with just these two, but Kamiki Ryuunosuke who played the Little DJ was surprisingly suitable for the role and had performed exceptionally well, especially for a child actor. Casting in this film was exceptionally well done, from father, doctor, to modern-day Tamaki with Hirosue Ryouko, were all perfect. I have never seen Nishida Naomi in a mother role before, but her acting was incredibly convincing, and have become even more beautiful in these years. A scene with her and Fukuda Mayuko (Tamaki) was the highlight of this movie. Extremely enjoyable film just observing the acting skill of every actor who appeared on screen.

The story is very inspirational and touching, and unlike "SekaChuu", it had a really nice flow and used the 2-hour screen time very efficiently without getting draggy. Music was also very calming and moving at times, and overall extremely well produced and well directed as a movie. I especially loved the color saturation of this film, the '70s feel without seeming fakey or even showing a slight hint of corniness.

Although they completely copied the story from "SekaChuu", this movie turned out to be a far superior love story. The only flaw, after the second viewing, was that there were some plot devices and characters severely underused (and thus didn't have to exist at all). It's a tear-jerker like many other movies of its kind, but its message of hope in the ending and its use of songs were by far the best. A Junai-lover must-see.

I was looking for movies starring Ryoko Hirosue and stumbled onto this one.

During early 2000's, there was a wave of Asian movies from different countries that told similar stories of adults looking back on their younger days (elementary/middle school years). This movie follows the structure of those movies to the T which really hurt the movie, I think. The combination of predictable plot and unrealistic characters (especially the character of young Tamaki who was extremely un-natural) made it a struggle to feel sympathy for these characters and finish the movie.

If you are a fan of Ryoko Hirosue, then I think there probably are other movies that showcase her better than this one.