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All right, all that to get to this: I didn't expect to like this movie - AT ALL. I went into it with the lowest of low expectations. And I'm here to tell you, I was completely and utterly WRONG. This movie, while it has its flaws, is SO much better than I ever expected. But I'm totally getting ahead of myself. First, the cast.
- Kawaguchi Haruna as Fujioka Haruhi
- Yamamoto Yusuke as Suou Tamaki
- Daito Shunsuke as Ootori Kyoya (second-in-command of the host club)
- Takagi Shinpei as Hitachiin Hikaru
- Takagi Manpei as Hitachiin Kaoru
- Chiba Yudai as Haninozuka "Honey" Mitsukuni
- Nakamura Masaya as Morinozuka "Mori" Takashi
- Ryo Ryusei as Nekozawa Umehito
- Mariko Shinoda as Monaru Michelle
- Nickhun as Monaru Lawrence
Now, first off, this review is a bit different from all the others I've done previously in that I've already discussed most of the cast to a large extent. That being said, I do have a few comments.
My first comment concerns our leading lady. I mentioned in my review of Ouran High School Host Club the live action drama that I thought Kawaguchi Haruna did a bit of a lackluster job in her acting as Haruhi. I still stand by that opinion - for the DRAMA. I don't know why, but I know that as a portrayal of the character of Fujioka Haruhi, Haruna did a much better job here than in the drama. While she still isn't totally up to par with the whole whiny thing (she still needs to up the sarcasm), she isn't the sweet little girl that she was previously, and for that I am grateful.
Now, this next thought... I don't know how to say this, so I'll just give you an idea of what was running through my head during this movie. It was something akin to this: Oh, my goodness, Tamaki is actually being serious. While he had his moments in the drama when the character became more serious, he has far more of those moments in this movie, all of which are wonderfully acted by the amazing Yamamoto Yusuke (seriously, the dude can swing from being totally doofy and off-the-map hyper one minute to being serious and calm the next - and it's BELIEVABLE!). I was very happy to see this character get more development apart from the goofy stuff. Also, side note... Tamaki has brown hair in the drama. Why is he blonde?
My next comment concerns the twins. Oh, Hikaru, Kaoru...how I love both of you. I especially love that someone thought to give them actual serious development right alongside Tamaki. Seriously, these guys are probably my favorite characters in the live action version of OHSHC, and I am so happy that they got a serious part of the subplots that were going on.
And finally, before I move on to discussing the characters unique to this movie, a quick note about another character that I really like. Mori. Mori is awesome. I did have one problem with how he's portrayed in this movie though. He's too talkative. He got a total of maybe, what, seven or eight lines in all eleven episodes of the drama. In this movie he gets about five or six. The drama was five and a half hours total - this movie was an hour and forty-five minutes roughly. You can see my point. Not that it detracts from the character...much. I still like him, but I just think he's a bit too talkative to fit the impression I got of him from the drama.
All right, new faces. First is our lovely "princess", Monaru Michelle (I'm only putting the name Michelle second for consistency...it kinda bugs me though) and she's played by Mariko Shinoda. The only comment I really have to make about this girl is that she's a fairly decent actress. I wasn't too blown away by her performance, but the emotion she portrayed felt pretty believable and real. Her character is kind of bland to begin with, so given that, I'd say she did a pretty good job with what she was given. She does get more interesting in the second half of the movie though, so there you go.
The only other new face worth mentioning (in my opinion) is Michelle's brother, Monaru Lawrence (again, consistency...it still sounds weird to me). Playing this character is K-pop boy band 2PM's Nickhun. The only reason I really think this character is even worth mentioning is because he has a pretty major role in the climax and main plot resolution in this movie. Other than that, he only has probably three or four scenes, most of which are in English, but he's a pretty good actor nonetheless. For how small his part was, he did a good job.
All right, whew. Writing is of course next. Like I said before, this movie totally blew away my expectations. I was expecting this to be rushed, not well thought out, and very choppy. Again, like I said before, I was WRONG. I was so wrong I don't think I've ever been this wrong...ever. This movie takes place after the main story of the drama has concluded (that fact is kinda hard to pick up though - it took me until about halfway through the movie to figure that out). For the most part it is what I would consider a well written continuation of the drama. As far as I know this story is not part of the original manga (I haven't read it, so if this is in there, great - it's a good story), but the movie doesn't suffer for that. Whoever had the reigns as far as writing goes on this project should definitely handle more of these things.
That being said, I do have one rather minor gripe with the storytelling in this movie. In the beginning of the story, Haruhi has to have some way of telling her story of how she came to be in the Host Club in the first place. That must've been difficult to come up with, I'm sure, but my gripe is in the fact that she's pretty much just telling the story. She might as well have started the whole thing with the phrase, "Here's my story". It would've been about as subtle.
As for warnings, I stand by what I said about the drama with one addition. The homosexuality thing I discussed before is a little bit more prominent in this movie than it was in the drama (as a whole). I do think though that if you got through the drama, you'll be fine here.
On the flipside, I still stand by the focus on family ties and the message of family being the most important thing in the history of the universe. I jest, but seriously, the heavy focus of this movie is the same as the drama...turned up to eleven. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. I think it works to the movie's credit.
Once again, by way of wrapping this up, I will say that this movie far exceeded my expectations. It has a good heart behind the story, and while it still keeps the goofy tone and silly antics of the drama, the seriousness of the character arcs and main story are wonderfully maintained as well. The characters are well fleshed out and developed (that was the part that REALLY made me happy) and the relationship issues that some people had with the drama I think are addressed well here. All in all, I will probably watch this movie again sometime soon, and I suggest that if you liked the drama, you should watch this too. I will comment that you probably should watch the drama first if you haven't seen it already, but that's only because the story is explained better and you get a better sense of who the characters are by way of introduction. Aside from that though, watch this movie. I liked it and I think you will too.
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