Last year, both Tom and I had a chance to screen Shuichi Okita’s warm Japanese dramedy The Woodsman & the Rain, a film we both really enjoyed and appreciated, so when I saw that he had a new film coming out I knew I was going to have to find a way to see it.
Based on Shuichi Yoshida’s novel, The Story of Yonosuke follows a young, naïve, and incredibly awkward college boy named Yonosuke (Kengo Kora) who moves to Tokyo in the late 80s, during Japan’s economic boom, to attend university. Though clearly an oddball, Yonosuke is also incredibly cheerful and a good guy which is what allows him to make some friends at school. While there he joins the Samba club, falls for an older woman and then, while on a double date, he eventually meets another his age that’s as adorably naïve as he is named Shoko (Yuriko Yoshitaka), who he eventually begins to fancy. The film fast forwards 16 years and Yonosuke’s friends reminisce about the past and how this quirky and incredibly positive character impacted their lives.
Firstly, let me get this out of the way now and say that I absolutely loved the film. I probably caught myself stupidly grinning ear to ear at least ten times throughout the film, partly because I saw way more of myself in it than I care to admit, but more so because it’s such a charming and sweet film that also manages to be gut wrenching, and even jaw-dropping, at the same time. It’s a rare combination but one that’s undeniably refreshing in a crowded indie world full of relatively somber dramas.
Director Okita understands how to make a poignant drama with offbeat comedy, but his strength lies in understanding how to balance the two as mentioned briefly above. It’s one thing to insert comedy into a drama to break up the depression, sadness or any conflicts that put a ton of weight on audiences’ shoulders, it’s another to use it as a tool to move the story along. To top that, the film never feels cliché and there are emotional ups and downs that you don’t see coming, a credit to the novelist and screenwriter for surprising me in a film where I didn’t expect any real surprises. With the way the story is told and edited, Okita proves through his balancing act why he is a rising independent director that should be taken seriously.
The Story of Yonosuke is all about the characters. The story is great fun but it’s the characters that make the story and all the actors give first-rate performances even if some of them seem cheesy. From Yonosuke’s matter-of-fact personality that accepts everything that’s dealt his way and how he forces his way into peoples’ lives to his hilarious parents who want to know his future plans with his new potential girlfriend, Shoko. Speaking of Shoko, I hate to use the word adorable because I only use it when I’m mocking something but my God she the most adorable romantic interest I’ve ever seen in a film. She’s jovial, naïve, shy and essentially the perfect female counterpart to the positively awkward Yonosuke, which makes all of their interactions sweet and comical, most notable when Yonosuke asks if they are actually a couple. In fact, I’m pretty sure the film made me blush from its nearly unbearable sweetness; it’s just so hard not to like it.
I wish I hadn’t looked up how long the movie was before I watched it because I absolutely despised the fact that it was 160 minutes long. It is the main reason why it took me nearly two months to get the courage to sit down and watch the film because I couldn’t imagine how a quirky drama like this could be so long. Well, now I’m constantly kicking myself for waiting this long to watch it because The Story of Yonosuke is a surprisingly fantastic, touching, unabashedly awkward and crowd-pleasing independent drama that Japanese cinephiles will eat up. It’s a film that will likely end up on my top 10 list come the end of the year, at the very least as an honorable mention, because it knows how to hit all the warm fuzzy spots on your emotional spectrum while still managing to captivate you with an interesting and endearing story that’ll break your heart as much as it’ll make you laugh.
Rating: A surprisingly fantastic, touching, unabashedly awkward and crowd-pleasing Japanese drama (8.7/10)
The Story of Yonouske hits Blu-ray and DVD shelves in the UK on April 14th thanks to the good folks at Third Window Films.
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