赤い糸 (Akai Ito) - 366天的約定 (Threads of Destiny)

We watched the special screeing of 赤い糸 at GSC 1 Utama yesterday courtesy of Jeff dear. It's a beautiful story, albeit tragic in certain parts. At the end of the story, it kind of felt incomplete. I googled and finally found out the reason why.

According to wikipedia, Akai Ito (赤い糸 ) is popular mobile phone novel written by Mei. The story is about a pair of soulmates, Mei and Atsushi, who are junior high school students. They must overcome drugs, rape and attempted suicide in order to be together. The love story was an online hit in 2006 and was later published as a series of five books which sold 1.8 million copies

I found out from a group at crunchyroll that it will have the same cast and staff working on both the big screen and small screen versions, and the two will be closely connected. Fuji TV will air the television version on December 6th 2008, with the first two episodes laying the foundation of the story. Then the movie, which is produced by Shochiku, will pick up the plot when it opens on December 20 in Japan, incorporating the novel's main storyline and adding original elements. After that, the drama will continue to develop and finish off the story.

There, mystery solved. Explains why it was left hanging in the end. Brilliant touch to entice people to follow the story. By the way, the drama itself has 11 episodes. Characters' profiles are also featured in the aforementioned group page if you're interested.

If you're keen enough to read the story, click on the link below for the Mobile Phone Novel of Akai Ito:

http://de-view.net/book/novel.php?aid=1&f=chapter&tid=1& pos=1 (It's in Japanese, you could try google translating it)

Our comments throughout the movie:

• Darn, any girl inside the movie is so good looking or cute. (Jeff)
  
  
  
• My gf also very cute! (Jeff's friend. rofl)
  
  
  
• Akkun junior is so mesmerizing! (obviously, that was me)
  
  
  
• Arrhh... even the mother is pretty..
  
  
  
• Eeek, that's sudden.
  
  
  
• Ack, why is it so violent???
  
  
  
• Ooh, shall we go to Japan together? (*excited)
  
  
  
• omg, Mei-chan's so cute in her kimono (or was that a yukata)?
  
  
  
• Look look... their handphones. so pwetty!!!!
  
  
  
• Are they twins?
  
  
  
• Do you think it's a sibling love story??
  
  
  
• Eii, I know that guy! that Taka-chan! from Hanazakari no Kimi Tachi E!
  

I like anything Japanesey with a school setting. This movie included. The beautiful and heart wrenching snow scene at the end left me clawing for more. Do go watch it if you like soppy love stories. Just don't expect too much out of it. It could be puppy love revisited for some of you too. If you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to hunt for the drama and the soundtracks now. Beautiful songs inside by HY, can be found in the album HeartY. (read: not Hin Yip)

366日 - HY