Worst movie EVER! So offensive there aren't enough expletives to express my disappointment. You get what you pay for and we got to see this for free so I suppose we (my Japanese wife and I) got what we deserved. From 5 minutes into the movie until the end I was basically chanting the phrase "This bu...t NEVER happens! No one is that stupid. Never happens!" If I were to invite my friends, or better my enemies, to play a drinking game as we watched this movie, with everybody drinking when they have had ANY of the experiences presented in the movie, our beers would pretty much be unopened. There is only ONE scene that I found vaguely true and that's when Tony, the boyfriend, asks for directions, in fluent Japanese, and the Japanese guy tells him he can't help because he doesn't speak English.
So, here we go! Stuff that NEVER happens that they try to make you think does happen in the movie (stretching the fingers because this is gonna take a while)
-Tony takes Saori (the girlfriend) to a party of ONLY foreigners, NO Japanese people.
-After arriving, Tony leaves Saori alone, even though she has shown some reluctance to be there because she can't speak English, for what seems like the entire party. This is their THIRD date!
-Saori stands against the wall alone in a party with about 50 foreigners. The only people who talk to her are one girl, who can translate some pretty complicated explanations about the art of manga but can't understand when Saori asks if she thinks Tony likes her or not, and a "Charisma" man who takes the time to insult her dream and chastise her for not speaking English, IN JAPAN, rather than try to pick her up! And he can't speak ANY Japanese!
-At the end of the party, and Tony's neglect, he brings her a plate of spinach? and she thinks this is kind and sweet?
-After the party, he walks her all the way to her house, doesn't ask to come in, doesn't try to kiss her, ON THE THIRD DATE! He just stares at her really uncomfortably for about a good 20 seconds. I found myself thinking "What?! Why are you staring at her?! WTF!" and then he turns around and wanders away making sure to stop and touch a tree, AT NIGHT, and pretend to be frightened when a dog barks.
-Tony goes to sushi with his friends and every time he takes a plate, his friends snatch it out of his hands. Oh yah, THAT happens. NOT.
-Tony goes to Saori's sister's wedding and her mother mistakes him for the priest who is 2 meters to her left, wearing a priests outfit, while Tony is wearing a tuxedo. First off, why is Tony wearing a tuxedo to his girlfriend's sister's wedding when he is NOT part of the wedding party? Who does that in real life? NOBODY!
-At the wedding still, Saori's brother, jokingly, remarks that he can't think of one good thing about his (just-married) sister that would make the guy want to marry her. Tony overhears and is shocked and quickly approaches the family to chastise them for insulting such a good person as Saori's sister, who has always been so kind to him. In other words, somehow Tony was able to become fluent in Japanese without knowing anything about the culture and at the same time not understanding it despite the fact that it is a very common thing in American culture. NEVER HAPPENS!
-Tony, an American man, CAN'T do dishes properly?! He doesn't know how to do laundry!? I'm an American guy, and I (and every guy I know) can cook, wash dishes, vacuum, do laundry, and iron. And Saori was so pleased when she saw that Tony did ALL THOSE DISHES (about 7 or 8 items)!
-Saori bought an expensive formal dress for when she meets Tony's mother. She never wears it and just hangs it up. Tony washes this. Oh, I do that too! Whenever I see something ON A HANGER that I have NEVER seen the wife wear, I take it down and wash it! I'm a heck of a guy!
I'm just gonna skip to the end because there's just way too much bull to write about. At the end, Saori goes to find Tony in America. Despite having the address to Tony's house, the taxi driver drops her off IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD! Yes, that's right, NOT in front of his house or anything. So, Saori wanders around the neighborhood wondering where Tony's house could possibly be (with address IN HAND!), not stopping to ask any of the foreigners walking by (earlier we see her studying English, yet she can't ask for directions?). In all the time I've lived in Japan, I've NEVER met a Japanese person who just showed up somewhere without a map (or two or three), phone number, address, GPS coordinates, or the ability to ask where something was.
As you can see, unless you want to have a guffawathon or want to naively believe Japan has so many clueless people, DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE!
So, here we go! Stuff that NEVER happens that they try to make you think does happen in the movie (stretching the fingers because this is gonna take a while)
-Tony takes Saori (the girlfriend) to a party of ONLY foreigners, NO Japanese people.
-After arriving, Tony leaves Saori alone, even though she has shown some reluctance to be there because she can't speak English, for what seems like the entire party. This is their THIRD date!
-Saori stands against the wall alone in a party with about 50 foreigners. The only people who talk to her are one girl, who can translate some pretty complicated explanations about the art of manga but can't understand when Saori asks if she thinks Tony likes her or not, and a "Charisma" man who takes the time to insult her dream and chastise her for not speaking English, IN JAPAN, rather than try to pick her up! And he can't speak ANY Japanese!
-At the end of the party, and Tony's neglect, he brings her a plate of spinach? and she thinks this is kind and sweet?
-After the party, he walks her all the way to her house, doesn't ask to come in, doesn't try to kiss her, ON THE THIRD DATE! He just stares at her really uncomfortably for about a good 20 seconds. I found myself thinking "What?! Why are you staring at her?! WTF!" and then he turns around and wanders away making sure to stop and touch a tree, AT NIGHT, and pretend to be frightened when a dog barks.
-Tony goes to sushi with his friends and every time he takes a plate, his friends snatch it out of his hands. Oh yah, THAT happens. NOT.
-Tony goes to Saori's sister's wedding and her mother mistakes him for the priest who is 2 meters to her left, wearing a priests outfit, while Tony is wearing a tuxedo. First off, why is Tony wearing a tuxedo to his girlfriend's sister's wedding when he is NOT part of the wedding party? Who does that in real life? NOBODY!
-At the wedding still, Saori's brother, jokingly, remarks that he can't think of one good thing about his (just-married) sister that would make the guy want to marry her. Tony overhears and is shocked and quickly approaches the family to chastise them for insulting such a good person as Saori's sister, who has always been so kind to him. In other words, somehow Tony was able to become fluent in Japanese without knowing anything about the culture and at the same time not understanding it despite the fact that it is a very common thing in American culture. NEVER HAPPENS!
-Tony, an American man, CAN'T do dishes properly?! He doesn't know how to do laundry!? I'm an American guy, and I (and every guy I know) can cook, wash dishes, vacuum, do laundry, and iron. And Saori was so pleased when she saw that Tony did ALL THOSE DISHES (about 7 or 8 items)!
-Saori bought an expensive formal dress for when she meets Tony's mother. She never wears it and just hangs it up. Tony washes this. Oh, I do that too! Whenever I see something ON A HANGER that I have NEVER seen the wife wear, I take it down and wash it! I'm a heck of a guy!
I'm just gonna skip to the end because there's just way too much bull to write about. At the end, Saori goes to find Tony in America. Despite having the address to Tony's house, the taxi driver drops her off IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD! Yes, that's right, NOT in front of his house or anything. So, Saori wanders around the neighborhood wondering where Tony's house could possibly be (with address IN HAND!), not stopping to ask any of the foreigners walking by (earlier we see her studying English, yet she can't ask for directions?). In all the time I've lived in Japan, I've NEVER met a Japanese person who just showed up somewhere without a map (or two or three), phone number, address, GPS coordinates, or the ability to ask where something was.
As you can see, unless you want to have a guffawathon or want to naively believe Japan has so many clueless people, DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE!