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| Takei Emi and Tsumabuki Satoshi in Ai To Makoto |
I’ve just a J-movie that is such a mish-mash of genres that it's end result must be one of the most unusual amalgams ever! This movie has it all: Romance, Roughnecking, Truimph and Tragedy, and it’s all set to campily enthusiastic SONG AND DANCE!
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| Good Girl Ai Saotome |
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| Bad Boy Makoto Taiga |
For reals, when I sat down to watch AI TO MAKOTO, I was only in it for the sweet babe-ness of its main star Emi Takei, but as soon as I saw the opening scene where delinquent bad boy Makoto (played by Satoshi Tsumabuki) beats up a rival gang all the while singing and DANCING, I knew I was in for SOME movie! Seriously, this was the Jets fighting the Sharks all over again!
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| Sing A Song Of War |
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| West Side Story's "Jets and Sharks" Style fighting alive and well here... |
The story is this: As youths, Makoto saved Ai from a dangerous skiing accident which has left him with a huge scar across his forehead. Feeling responsible for the thug life he’s led since then, she makes it her life goal to rehabilitate him when she crosses paths with him as teenagers. Through the magic of music, we hear beautiful Emi Takei singing the virtues of her love for him and her resolve to “save” him, and so the tale is set in motion…!
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| The Roughneck and the Girl From the Other Side Of The Tracks |
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| A resolve to take care of her Man! |
But things cannot run as Ai would like: Though she's gotten him registered at her private school and has set him up in an apartment, Makoto resents the help from this rich and naïve girl, and rebuffs her help with violence and even more violence. Soon he’s kicked out of the school and sent to the delinquent school, and an unfazed Ai transfers there herself to watch after him. Nonetheless, Makoto keeps spiraling even further down the ladder, and in her quest to help him, Ai finds herself being dragged down with him, even resorting to working a a cabaret club to give him money. Rival Gangs, Rival Love intersts, all these problems begin piling up-Soon there are enemies all about them and a happy solution seems bleak!
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| Leaving her Private School and entering the world of Delinquencies |
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| Working at a Cabaret To Support Makoto |
I have to say that this a pretty innovative flick, and though the songs seem to break out at the most inopportune times, some of them are in fact pretty catchy, it was a thrill to hear Emi Takei singing her sweet proclamation of love to Makoto, and I have special fondness for the dark, drawling, song “Dreams Bloom at Night” which rival-love-interest Yuki (Ono Ito) hypnotically purrs to Makoto to take him away from innocent Ai’s arms…
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| Singing a Song about her Love! |
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| Another Song of Love, though far more Sinister |
Ai To Makoto is really like a Manga brought to life, and with waltzing Gang Members, Angry Singing Parents and enemy students brawling at the drop of a hat, it’s sometimes hard to take things seriously! But just like Romeo and Juliet (which West Side Story was based on , of course), this story has the shadow of TRAGEDY looming all over it, and you just KNOW that our heroes and heroines will not come out of it unscathed…
Ah, but let us not bring the zany vibes down! The Verdict for Ai To Makoto: Highly Original movie with an insane amount of nuttiness. Camp Factor: High, Emi Takei Cuteness factor: Maximum! Cautiously Recommended Viewing!!!
