I'm on a string of Japanese shows this week for no significant reason other than wanting to see more of Takeru Satoh everywhere. After googling for more info, I realized that some of these shows I've watched really lack more comprehensive reviews than a few lines of summary, so here I am to offer a longer, more-detailed ramblings of plot lines. No guarantee on the quality of ramblings but hey, it's still better than wikidramas.
Tokyo Shojo is a 2008 Japanese movie starring child-actress and model Kaho who plays the willful, slightly-bratty high schooler Miho Fujisaki. I say 'slightly-bratty' only because she's pretty and so the pouty I-want-what-I-want attitude that she pulls off with her cuteness is somewhat bearable. If you're average-looking or ugly, please be a nice kid unless you want your social agenda to crumble like dry bread.
Anyway, the film starts off in the year of 2008 with Miho voicing her objections against her mother's plans to remarry the head of Japanese Literature department of a publishing house, Atsushi Shiomi. She storms off from the restaurant where the three (mom, Miho, Mr. Shiomi) are supposed to have lunch together to add that oomph to her objections. Halfway down walking the stairs, she drops her cellphone which falls into a wormhole that connects to the year of 1912 where it is picked up by a young aspiring novelist, Tokijirou Miyata.
Tokijirou, which is a really old-fashioned Japanese name by the way, wonders what the little box he picked up is and puts it on his writing table without further thought afterwards.
Miho tries calling her phone many times and finally gets through at night and asks for the address to pick up her cellphone but Tokijirou gives her an address that doesn't exist anymore so she gets mad at him and starts calling him a liar and a thief.
But he doesn't sound like a liar and a thief at all. So after a few ask-and-answer, they figure out that they are separated by a 100-year difference and their calls only get through when the moon shines.
Every night, she would call him and even taught him which buttons to press on the cellphone to save battery life since he doesn't have a charger for the cellphone. They grow closer through their night voice-rendezvous - him advising her on her relationship with her mom and Mr. Shiomi; her giving him the inspiration to write a heartfelt novel of their encounter.
They arrange for a 'date' together at Ginza on a day the moon shines at midday and Tokijirou buys a wood-framed hand mirror from a gift shop that still exists in Ginza in year 2008 (he crosschecks this with Miho). He instructs the owner of the gift shop to hold on to that gift for 100 years when a girl named Miho would later collect it. The owner thinks Tokijirou is pulling his leg, but the owner's five year-old daughter Nanami listens intently and promises to safeguard it for Miho.
Miho enters the store and asks for the mirror, whereby a frail old grandma comes out and hugs her tightly. The old lady is Nanami. She gives Miho the mirror and when Miho passes the phone to her to speak a few words to Tokijirou and 5 year-old Nanami, the old Nanami thanks Tokijirou with tears in her eyes.
So that's about it for their little date together. On the mirror that Tokijirou bought for Miho, he wrote, "Although we're separated by a hundred year difference, it feels as if our hearts are within reach and never apart. - Tokijirou Miyata."
As Miho ponders on what to do about their situation, Tokijirou sets home to finish his novel which he titled, "The Girl Who Walks Towards the Future". Miho's name 未歩 means 'walking towards the future', so the manuscript is a story about her.
He plans to show the manuscript to the editor at the publishing house the next day, which lines nicely with Miho's plan to have lunch again with her mom and Mr. Shiomi the next day, this time with her approval to the marriage since she has changed into a better, more understanding daughter after interacting with Tokijirou on the phone.
All that is great but her real motive to have lunch at the publishing house was to pass her cellphone charger to Tokijirou through the wormhole again so they can continue phone-dating. Her efforts fail miserably though, as the charger breaks into pieces on the bottom floor. As she returns to join her mom and Mr. Shiomi, Mr. Shiomi shows Miho the result of a search she asked of him before regarding Tokijirou Miyata and that is when her dreams collapse like a sand castle in the wind and the real twist of the movie begins.
You can probably make a few guesses as to what happens next but I'm not going to spoil it further for you all lovely readers. I suspected it from the middle of the movie and even though the twist came towards the end of the movie, it felt right and not too late. It fits the story nicely.
This movie is all sweets and fluffs and made for girls. Your boyfriend, brothers, husband, father and male friends will not like it because males get too technical most of the time. I'm girly girl and all but I've been told countless times that I think like a man so I can figure out how a male would actually feel watching this.
There are many plotholes that I can call off right from the start of the movie and I just have soooo many opinions on the looks and manner of speech of the characters but they are for me to know, and for you to form on your own. My girly mind helps me to brush off all the errors and doubts that usually demand explanations and logic. Besides, this is Japanese teenage movie, you have to ignore common sense to enjoy it thoroughly.
6.5/10
worth watching for the re-created Ginza scenes and fashion of 1912 and the cute, young Nanami in traditional Japanese outfit.
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