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Simply A Masterpiece

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

An Exercise In Nonsense

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

WHY?..You don't make endings like these. It's unfair, It's not healthy for any Viewer. It's just plain weird. First of. everyone is overacting. The tamaki guy Always says the wrong thing. He just plodder along like a braindead. The Girls sickness, the overacting, the Japanese cuteness.. alright I get it! if it's done with some authentic feelings in the mix. Aoi Miyazaki looks like she really could act under the right direction. I did like the moving in part.. I like that sort of lovestory buildup. But it never gets there.I don't know what to Think of this film.. A Little spoiler: What kind friends doesn't send you letters from your long lost love? They can't be ordinary humans, maybe cyborgs. Why do they prevent him from meeting the girl of his Dreams and let him explain to her how much they love each other? Even though she's sick I bet your ass she wants to spend rest of her time with him.. sigh..Nobody does that. nobody Thinks like that. If this really had happened to me, I would have blown my head straight off. No kidding,..that's how cruel this soap opera ending is. Remember the Movie 5 centimeters per second.. This is much much more Surreal.

Two university students meet and form an unlikely friendship, that throws up the possibility of an even more unlikely romance.Heavenly Forest is a perfect example of how the TV aesthetic is strangling Japanese cinema. All the acting is over-acting, with Miyazaki signified as 'cute' by virtue of the fact that she bobs her head ever so slightly after she talks, chews her bottom lip, and does not know what a hairbrush is for. Tamaki raises his eyebrows in shock and surprise, and lowers them when mystified or concerned. All these young people look wonderful, and are suitably backlit and rendered in soft focus. Tamaki gets in with the 'in' crowd who all seem to smile, camp, swim and have fun without any real world concerns or connections. Tamaki's burden is a rash on his side, for which the only medicine he can get carries an anti-social stench. Given that eczema in the form of 'atopi' is practically an epidemic in Japan and that many medical treatments exist, this particular representation is borderline insulting to the sufferers. Tamaki is never put right regarding his self-stigmatization. Miyazaki also suffers a mystery ailment that stunts her growth and eventually proves fatal. Shockingly lazy scripting that just conjures up a medical condition rather than strive to inject some authenticity or societal resonance to the narrative. In short, pure fantasy and escapism. The lack of plausibility in medical terms is symptomatic of the whole narrative, that forces conflict from unlikely coincidence rather than character choice, and resonates to absolute no sense of modern-day Japan. The university they go to is a strangely antiseptic campus, and the friendships seem robotic and perfunctory, like two people on a date in a mouthwash commercial.In the climactic scene, Miyazaki is revealed to have been beautiful all along and capable of mastering the use of a hairbrush, a 'revelation' that has emotional impact only if you have never seen Miyazaki outside this film, or have never, in fact, seen a film. As is often witnessed in J-cinema, a character is dragged half-way round the world on very little information, only to be told someone has died. Email and the internet, like extended family and real-life problems, do not exist in these fairytale narratives. Tamaki's reaction to the photos, to plod lead-footed and open-mouthed across a gallery floor, is unintentionally comical. Glycerin tears abound. The music is plinky-plonky nonsense that batters your ears non-stop.Saccharine, twee, and annoyingly aiming for 'cute' on every single beat, this film could be the flag-bearer for the ugly mutation TV has inflicted on Japanese cinema. The one caveat is that Miyazaki actually looks like she could act given better direction and a script that carries some intelligence. Picture postcard photography of beautiful young people in a mindless, shallow story.

Heavenly Forest is by far the sweetest love movie I have seen in a long time. I'm a movie buff especially in this genre. Every moment has it's nostalgic feeling into it, the transition from one phase to the other blends well and never did lose it's hype. Although, the movie doesn't draw tension as much as compared with other Romance movies but it is meant to be in that way so it portrays meaningful happiness instead of sob tearjerker that drives the audience downhill.Although this movie has strong influence on Japanese cultures (dialects, humbleness etc.) but that's what keeps it at it's sweet and delicate momentum.There is nothing lacking in this movie, as it is sweet in every sensible way it displays. This is the kind of movie that Hollywood could never provide.Modestly Warm and Delicatively Meaningful.

I was a bit surprised by the sometimes frank and honest dialog coming from Aoi Miyazaki's character in what for the most part is a very family friendly bit of Japanese young love/first love cinema. But it is appropriate for her character, a set-to-mature-at-any-moment young woman deficient in some necessary growth hormones needed to push her over the edge (that when triggered by a first kiss could ultimately be her ... undoing) and seems trapped in young adolescence. It's a very cute and cute-funny, and really sad, sad, film. Miyazaki teeters the edge between coy and seductive so well it made me dizzy ... with delight. I could, however, understand her pouty lipped attempts at cuteness turning some folks off. She does slip out of it each time very quickly, though. That's part of her charm, I guess.The film is beautifully photographed. The 'heavenly' forest is fairy-tale gorgeous, as are the three young actors we spend time with. The story is engaging too, clearly a novel-adapted one.