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| Tsubasa Honda and Yutaka Takenouchi |
Recently watched the terrific 2014 movie Nishino Yoshiko Koi no Boken, a cool romantic/comedy/supernatural flick featuring a stellar cast that includes (among others) Takenouchi Yutaka, Ono Machiko, Aso Kumiko, Tsubasa Honda, Kimura Fumino, Narumi Riko and newcomer Nakamura Yurika. Funny, it hasn’t even been a few weeks since posting about how much I loved Takenouchi Yutaka and Kimura Fumino’s rapport in Suteki na Sen Taxi, and here they are together again! I knew this was a good sign of things to come...!
Yoshiko tells the tale of a man named Yukihiko Nishino who is lucky with women falling in love with him…but no so much when it comes to any sort of lasting relationship witht them! Whenever things get serious he finds himself abandoned by his women, who, as one ex lover puts it, seem to know his heart belongs to so many others. But there is one love that he placed above all others, Natsumi, and when he is struck down and killed, Yukihiko’s ghost makes the trip to visit her one last time.
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| The good old days with Natsumi (Kumiko Aso) and little Minami |
When Yukihiko had been seeing Natsumi 10 years ago, she was a housewife with a little girl, and upon arrival at her home, his ghost finds that while Natsumi isn’t around, her daughter Minami has turned into a pretty young thing! He introduces himself as the ghost of Yukihiko, and though she does eventually remember him, she doesn’t quite like the idea of this ghost following her around. He tells her that he’s waiting to see her mother, as he promised that he would meet up with her again after his death.
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| Yukihiko's ghost meets Minami (Yurika Nakamura) again |
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| Minami followed by that ghost. |
Irritated and confused by this house-crashing spirit, nonetheless Minami is intrigued enough to accompany Yukihiko on his way to his own funeral a few days later, where she finds that this guy comes from a very well-off family- huge mansion home and a multitude of guests.
Yukihiko disappears on Minami, but she meets a friendly older woman named Sayuri who tells her everything she needs to know about Yukihiko and his philandering past. Seems like everyone at the funeral is a female, and the woman admits that most are probably ex-girlfriends, all with interesting stories to tell!
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| Sawako tells Minami of Yukihiko's romances.... |
The woman begins by telling her story of how she herself, an older housewife, happened to hook up with the much younger Yukihiko, (we find out that though their initial contact was through a cooking class, it was their love of movies that brought them together) and though twas not meant to last, they were close enough that he confided in her some of his past girlfriend experiences, all of which this old woman now shares with Minami!
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| Sayuri (Sawako Agawa) meeting Yukihiko in Cooking Class... |
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| ...and then bonding over coffee and movie talk. |
The first girlfriend she tells her about is a woman named Manami (Machiko Ono). Seems she was Yukihiko’s supervisor at his clerical job and it was their time together “filing away documents” in the company basement that brought them together. Though both clearly in love, Manami is very stoic and well-to-do, and doesn’t want to commit to a relationship with the rascally Yukihiko, repeatedly stating that they are “not going out” whenever anyone asks, even though they clearly are.
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| Manami (Machiko Ono) |
This situation deosn’t bode well when an ex of Yukihiko, a sassy and aggressive girl named Kanoko (Tusbasa Honda as a real scene-stealing character!) re-enters the picture and wants to re-establish ties with him. Young, loud and brash, she is everything Manami is not, and she actively tries to steal Yukihiko back from her, but he declines, saying ‘We can’t go back to the past”. This decision infuriates Kanoko, especially since she sees that Manami won’t even verbally commit to their relationship!
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| Tsubasa Honda as Kanoko |
Then there was the case of Yukihiko and his next-door neighbors, a lesbian couple named Subaru (a very girly and playful Riko Narumi) and Tama ( the aforementioned Ms. Fumino Kimura). The girls own a cat that always seems to find his way into Yukihiko’s apartment, and it’s through the cat that they all become close. Subaru is very touchy-feely and cuddles up to Yukihiko just like her cat, Tama, on the other hand is very stand-offish, and it’s only with gentle coaxing that she comes out of her shell.
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| Couple Subaru (Riko Narumi) and Tama (Fumino Kimura) |
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| "Is this your Cat?" |
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| Bonding with Subaru... |
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| ..and an uneasy alliance with Tama. |
Fast forward to present day, and looking over at the guests throughout the funeral courtyard, you can see that each and every one of the girls mentioned has attended . “They all understood how he was, and they all loved him anyway” Sayuri confides, before saying her goodbyes and leaving to go to the crematorium. Minami seems to understand him better, and leaves the funeral humming to herself.
She makes her way down to a Seaside café where she had once gone with her mother to meet Yukihiko. Yukihiko’s ghost is there…and also Natsumi, Minami’s mother, who had, of course, also been up at the funeral. Minami tell her mother that Yukihiko's spirit is here, and through Minami acting as his voice, Yukihiko is finally able to conveys his feelings towards her after all these years...
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| "Mom...Yukihiko's here." |
Yet another fine movie to wile away a lazy day... and oh yeah, the cat is really cute, too!
