I just watched this film and I have no idea how to react to it. So the moral of the story is that if you're a girl and are being inconsiderate and rude, you'll still get the guy to start liking you?
Why does no one like her in High School, and why does everyone suddenly start liking her after the reunion?
You can't understand this one particular gem through _thinking_, if you don't feel for the characters, it's next to useless to try and explain. I'll just give a feeble hint: sometimes there is more than what you actually see. Inconsiderate, rude, lying person, who's in war with all the world also has her reasons for it. Muto's parents are divorced, she's incarcerated in a provincial town with provincial inferior people (at least that's what she had thought of them before); her pride won't let to share problems with anyone, but when she's forced to do so, it makes her mad. All' going wrong somehow...
It's all between the lines, you just try to notice. I am absolutely amazed by the characters, so alive, so true-to-life.
Remember in what happened to Rikako in Tokyo? When she met her old boyfriend she expected that she will have lots of great laughs with him and things could be back to what they were before her parents divorce, but it turned out that she found him to be immature and rude. Morisaki commented that at that moment she turned from a little girl to a grown up in just 5 minutes. I think it was then that Morisaki began to love her. He saw that her snobbish act at school was just that, an act- an effort to protect herself from the reality of the divorce. She acted inconsiderate and rude because she did not want to belong in Koichi, she wanted to go back to Tokyo. You can see that she really isn't as strong as she looked at the festival when all the girls ganged up on her and she cried. At the reunion, everyone was nostalgic and as the prefect (short haired girl) said, everything seemed like such a big deal when they were in high school but once they graduated and got on with their lives, they realized that they were getting all upset over nothing. It didn't matter anymore.
shareNone of this changes the fact that she was inconsiderate and rude. People with dire troubles can't be excused from being polite and considerate - especially for the years-long time span this movie covers! To think that Taku is as dumbfounded by his libido as to fall in love with such a horrible person (regardless of her troubles!) is an insult to me as a man.
I'm with the original poster: Unless there is some backwards-ass tradition in Japan I'm not aware of where guys tend to fall for mean-spirited and manipulative women, this movie left me frustrated and annoyed almost all the way through. Rikako was never even given a chance for redemption!
I love EVERY single other film by Studio Ghibli. Just like the others it was well animated, scored, and acted (saw JP dub), of course. And I suppose it was refreshing to watch something to dramatically different from the rest of their library but nonetheless it was grueling to put up with this character for the length of the film and never get any sort of payoff. It's surely true-to-life, but the ending sure isn't... unless Taku was a masochist all along or something.
Some of the above posts explaining the love interest's character are excellent. I also think it is important to add on that she believed that she had a superior life (in terms of family, friends, and environment) in Tokyo. She thought her friends there were more dynamic and interesting.
But when she goes back to visit, looking with an outside lens makes her see that that isn't the case (in terms of her relationships). Her ex-boyfriend is childish and self-absorbed. And that was the person she was probably closest to. It makes her realize that her life in Tokyo was less fantastic and "great" than she thought it was.
It was probably that mindset that got her to be very standoffish and "rude" at times, as well as why she might have been sad and depressed, especially when she came to realize what her life back in Tokyo was really like.
Its a story of adolescents, teenagers struggling with their expectations and life goals. Despite coming across as somewhat undesirable, Rikako clearly had difficulties adjusting to her new surroundings which subsequently affected personal relationships thus forming the drama to Ocean Waves.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".
I thought this film was great too, just like a standard Ghibli classic. Like someone pointed out, I thought the characters were so realistic, I felt it was pretty easy to relate to them, despite any cultural differences.
To me, the great thing about the film was that they do come together at the end. In the middle, ie when they were in Tokyo, Muto was 'confused', she had issues with her parents divorce, moving home, etc. I think that Morisaki could see that, despite her snobby and hostile behaviour, she was quite a kind girl deep down and she was just extremely stressed. I dont know if he loved her at the time, but he liked her at least and just wanted to do a good thing by helping her out when she wanted it. Of course Muto couldnt see this at the time.
Later though, when they were at uni, Muto's problems somehow resolved themsleves, things in her life cleared up, and she looked back the past in a new light. She probably realised that she had been a fool, when there was someone there who always liked her.
To me its a great thing not just for the romance, but because it demonstrates how doing a good thing can pay off in the long run. I think if it ended on a low note though, I would have probably been unable to hold back a tear or two. I hope I never see a film of this calibre ending on a low note, I dont want to cry in a film like a girl!
You better not watch "Grave of the Fireflies", then, if you haven't already. That's about as sad as it gets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpXwPdJIOJY
Best thing ever.
The hearts of the characters are shown, not by what they say or how they act, but by why they say what they say and why they act the way they act.
The good intentions are all hidden in the motivations of the characters' inconsiderate actions.
For example, pretty much all of Morisaki's rudeness towards Muto, are done for the consideration for his friend with the glasses (can't remember name at the moment).
Muto even calls him out for it, blaming him for being so considerate to his friend, and in turn being so inconsiderate to her. Even though she doesn't say out loud the latter part.
---
I think therefore I am,
If I think not, am I not?
http://www.geocities.com/muni_shinobu/mg
I think that maybe, in the end, they realized that she was just another person going through a hard time, and that she wasnt stuck up, she just didnt want to talk to anyone. some really smart people are like that, but they might have felt she had an obligation since she was pretty and talented. they realized that she had it hard with the things she was going through.
taku had his own reasons and the other boys did too for liking her. mostly because she was pretty and i dont think taku even knew why he liked her when she was so mean. lots of people dont know why they like people because they are mean to them.
I thought Taku was the most interesting character. In fact I think I fell a little bit in love with him myself! ;)
The girl was in pain from the divorce. People forget how much it hurts children when their parents separate -- the children are the innocent victims. Here she was blaming her mother for the breakup when it looks like it was the father who took off on the family for a new lady love. She went back and he was shacking up with this other woman and had even redecorated her room! It was like she didn't exist to her father anymore, which is why she went back to the hotel room in tears.
I knew a girl in high school who got anorexia when her parents divorced. She became like a skeleton. The human heart can only take so much grief and Taku was mature enough to understand she was hurting -- he just was deceiving himself about how he felt about her, partly in misplaced loyalty to his friend.
I think the whole film was built around the unsaid. The relations between the two guys, between them and the girl, so much was left unspoken for the viewer to fill in the blanks. I think if you can relate to it then you'll probably get a lot more out of it than if these kinds of relations are totally alien to you.
___
http://tinyurl.com/6beuand