Like most of Shunji Iwai’s films, April Story focuses more on characters and visuals than a hardest plot. The series of events that occur in this film are like small pieces of a puzzle—ultimately unimportant and nearly forgotten when the puzzle is completed. That is because the film is not about events, its about characters striving to succeed and live their dreams. April Story focuses on Uzuki Nireno (Takako Matsu) as she makes the transition from her home in Hokkaido to college in Tokyo. From giving presents to her neighbor to joining a fishing club under pressure from the only girl at school that talks to her (Kahori Fujii), Uzuki’s struggle in adaptation to her new environment is a universal and lighthearted one. By the end, we come to see that her motivation for the long move is love and we experience a “miracle of love” with her.

Though this film was released two years after Swallowtail Butterfly, Iwai’s direction here feels slightly lesser than in its predecessor. Despite this, April Story is every bit as beautiful, if not more so. From scenes in falling cherry blossoms to sweeping dolly shots across green fields, the colors and light in every shot of April Story serve as eye candy of the highest sort. And the always lighthearted realism in the performances shows that he has become a far better director of his actors. Iwai also wrote this film, and the screenplay is a great base from which his direction allows to fully flourish.

Takako Matsu gives a beautiful performance in the film’s leading role. She is thoroughly convincing and really makes the audience care for her. Kahori Fujii is also convincing, if not appealing, as Teruko Kitao. The character is strange and left me slightly suspicious through most of the film, but by the end there was no doubt that she was a good and true friend to Uzuki. Seiichi Tanabe is also good in his small role, and he shows vulnerability hidden under a layer of stability. There is not a bad performance in the entire film, and that allows for the audience to become fully immersed in the story.

Very few films of this caliber will ever be made. It’s sweet, charming, involving, and entertaining. There is no trace of any “questionable” content so just about anyone can feel comfortable and enjoy watching it. Though it’s not revolutionary or controversial, April Story is a short and sweet that leaves you smiling from ear to ear.

REVIEW:
I have never been a fan of drama movies; in fact the first thing that brought me to the Asian genre was action and kungfu movies. But since the last few months I decided to give a chance to Asian drama movies, maybe they also have something different from those US cliché movies that I love to hate so much. To my surprise I have been really impressed by Korean drama, I still hardly believe that some titles really touched me in a way that no movies have ever done. In my opinion those who really master the drama genre are the Koreans, with great movies such as Il Mare, Christmas in August and Failan just to name a few. I didn't have the chance to see a lot of Japanese drama, but I decided to give a chance to Aprils Story just to see if they can compete against the Koreans.

I remember a Japanese movie that I have seen a few years ago called "Swallowtail Butterfly", I was not really impressed by the movie but a lot of people that I know really loved it. I was really surprised when I saw that April Story was also directed by the same director: Shunji Iwai. But April Story and Swallow Tail are very different, even if both share a very beautiful cinematography, Swallowtail is a lot darker that Aprils Story which is a drama with some subtitle humor, about a young girl who tries to fit into her new situation. The story is very simple, believable and especially fun to follow. The only down side of the story is in my opinion the ending...I wanted more! It would have been great to know what will happen to the characters. The movie is also really short, about 1H5 min, but it stills a great story and even with the short ending I found it very enjoyable and heart cheerful.

The movie really focuses on only one character, which is Nireno, played marvelously by Takako Matsu. There's a great deal of development for that character and even if the movie doesn't give a lot of screen time to other secondary characters, we are never bored to watch that small girl trying so hard to fit into her new life. It's true that the character was not really original, stereotyped as the beautiful girl who is very shy and doesn't have a lot of friends. But I think that was a strong point of the character, in the sense that the story would not have worked the same way with a girl who would have had a strong attitude toward the life.

Expecting a typical drama, I was really surprised with the humor in the movie, it also ended up being my favorite aspect of the whole movie. But wait, don't expect April Story to be a comedy or you will miss the whole point; the humor is there to only create a balance between the dramatic and comedy aspect of the story. The humor is very light and subtle, in fact very simple and typical Japanese humor. The drama part was also very simple, but it was not the type of love story that tries every trick in the book to make you cry. Instead it developed on the theme that life can be sometime hard but great things can happen when you least expect it.

As much as it can surprise you with the great scenery or by his cheerful story, April Story is a really beautiful movie that has a lot to offer. Maybe those who cant live without bloody action will probably have a good sleep but if you are attracted by this kind of movie, be sure to not miss it.

THE DVD:
[Region Free] The Japanese release of April Story doesn't have English sub, but fortunately for us, a Korean distributor had the excellent idea to release this title with English subtitles. The image quality is an excellent anamorphic widescreen transfer and for the sound you also have a very good original DTS audio track. The English subtitles were of near perfect quality, as for the extra they consisted of a chapter selection, cast & crew section, synopsis, shoot pictures, video clips, music video, trailers and a TV commercial. This is another excellent Korean DVD release; I hope that in the future, Korean companies will release more Japanese movies on DVD, because at least their release has English subtitles.