don't get the ending....*SPOILER ALERT*
i don't really get it...so does masashi like hana or alice??? oh, and how did hana and alice make up?
call me thick, but shinji iwai's subtleties were REALLY subtle for me >.<
actually it does not really matter who masashi really likes, because his brain is always slow and muddy. but the gut feeling is that he likes alice more, as he had mentioned before that he didn't really feel the same way for Hana and in the final scene of both Masashi and Alice together, he did not react in an offended manner.
Hana was in the photo exhibition and realised the strong bonds of friendship between the two of them, reiterated by her constant mumbling throughout the movie 'we have never quarreled before' and this goes to show that she realised no one's really at fault, and there is no point to bear grudges. this school love episode simply won't destruct the strong foundation of their friendship.
yeah I didn't get it very well either...
I understood the "Hana/Alice friendship" thing, but what I didn't understand is still with Masashi...
So, in the end, after he knew everything was a lie, he didn't choose Alice nor Hana? Or both H&A forgot about Masashi to live with their friendship again?
Also, if Alice liked Masashi and he also liked her, why didn't they stay together? I mean, when Alice tells the truth about his fake amnesia, why she didn't stay with him? (Before this scene, she even asks Hana if she was dumped, where Hana was crying which implies that she was really dumped)
I dunno if this is right, but what I thought was that all the lies became reality in the end, like Alice really become his ex-gf, and Hana is still his gf.
Anyways, this was a good movie. But what I didn't like is that they don't get to explain more about Alice's family. I dunno, her mother seems so problematic but in the end it just stays like that, nothing got resolved, nothing changed.
yeah that's another thing...none of Alice's problems seems to be resolved. i guess the film isn't about that though, it's about the fleetingness of youth, but for the more cynical (such as i), it leaves one with a sense that Alice probably won't succeed with her hopes...
but that's just me.
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Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again.
I just saw the movie (HK version) and I thought it was such a beautiful movie. Yui Aoi and Anne Suzuki are angels.
After only seeing it once, here are my thoughts about the ending:
"Mark" liked Alice and wasn't into Hana (he said she's not the type of girl he'd be into which hurts just to think about it)
Why didn't Alice and Mark get together? Because Alice is Hana's friend first - if you've ever had a close friend, you wouldn't go near your friend's object of affection - you just don't. Alice was already toeing the line but she stopped herself from destroying her friendship. It doesn't matter that Mark liked her. It was understandably difficult for the both of them and they did the right thing or the honorable thing.
I don't think there was anything that needed to be resolved in Alice's family life - it was pretty realistic - as someone posted earlier - this isn't that type of movie were every problem is going to be solved at the end of the movie.
Can I just ask, at Hana's school presentation thing - when everyone of the audience had left the auditorium, was the only person left Alice? The girl's face was obscured but I saw on the dvd extra's that it was Alice. Maybe they didn't show her face so the payoff at the last scene (with the magazine cover) would be better.
I kind of wished that Hana's family life was shown - I think her character wasn't showcased the way Alice's were. I wanted to see Hana's inner life.
I'm sure the only person in the auditorium was Alice. I don't think she was purposefully obscured, the action was focussed on Hana which is why we don't see Alice's face, but we know it is her because only Alice would turn up after everyone has left because she is friends with Hana.
"For relaxing times, make it Suntory time." ;)
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Actually, I think the person she asks if she was dumped was her mom. I think that because of the fact that she was at home and didn't pay much attention to her, which she would not have done if Hana was at her home as a guest.
With regards to Alice's family, I think it was mostly used to simply help shape her character. She shows a lot of distance between her and her father, and her mother is neglecting, going so far as to describe Alice to her boyfriend as her neighbor instead of her daughter.
Throughout the whole movie, it seems the only times that Alice was happy were when she was with Hana, with Masashi, or doing ballet. But over the course of the film, her friendship with Hana became strained, and she had to sever ties with Masashi since her relationship with him was the cause of their falling out. I think that's what makes the ballet scene such a strong scene, other than the beautiful music.
Near the end, "Mark" liked both Hana and Alice. He just liked Alice more and he was also very confused about the whole thing. I'll copy-paste here some quotes from the english DVD subtitles to support my claims.
Alice asks at some point: You don't like her?
Mark says: It's not that... It's like... she's not the type of girl I would approach.
Maybe he wouldn't normally approach her because he wouldn't think she would be interested in him - not necessarily because "he wasn't into her", as somebody said. Or maybe she wasn't really his type. My point is that even if in the beginning he felt pressed by Hana, he was confused, he felt nothing for any of the girls, over the passing of time he started to like both - he liked Hana but he loved Alice, or something close to that.
I agree that Alice and Mark didn't get together because Alice is Hana's friend first.
Near the end, Hana and Mark talk in the backstage:
Hana: Sempai, you don't have amnesia. The fact is that you and I haven't fallen in love...
Mark: You’re wrong. Don't jump to conclusions. I already know everything. About how my amnesia was a lie... and all the bad things you did. Make that up to me. First, knock'em dead.
In other words, she admits that it was all a lie, that they can basically break up now, but he says that he knows about everything and he's ok with that, she'll just have to make up to him somehow. He loved Alice but she rejected him, and he still liked Hana too much to let her go. Maybe he didn't say that he knew because he waited for her to come clean, and he appreciated when she did, he saw that she wasn't a bad person.
I agree that after the photo exhibition Hana realises the strong bonds of friendship between her and Alice and in the end the two are best friends again. Based on what happened in the backstage, Mark should be Hana's boyfriend now. It's possible though that they had an off-screen talk where they decided it's better to just stay friends, that it would be too complicated for them to be together, considering Alice.
yep he stayed with hana.
shareAlice acted like she rejected Mark because she did not want this to spoil her friendship with Hana. She did say I love you to Mark in chinese.
Mark thinks alice loves him too as she lied that she found the queen of hearts and told hana to break up with Mark though Mark had found the queen of hearts.But Alice for the sake of her friendship with Hana does not push it further and does not confess her love for Mark
But at the end when Hana comes clean backstage,the scene showed that Mark had feelings for Hana somewhere deep down in his heart.