[Movie Review] Kiiroi Namida

Title : Kiroii Namida/ YellowTears
Kanji : 黄色い涙
Director : Isshin Inudou
Producer : Kazuteru Harafuji,Hiroaki Miki,Taro Nagamatsuya
Manga Writer : Shinji Nagashima
Screenplayer : Shinichi Ichikawa
Music : Sakerock
Theme Song : "Modori Ame" & " Namida no Nagareboshi" by Aiba Masaki & Arashi
Cinematography : Takahiro Tsutai
Editor : Soichi Ueno
Distributor : J Storm
Date Released : April 14, 2007
Running time : 128 min


Cast

• Kazunari Ninomiya as Eisuke Muraoka, manga artist
• Sho Sakurai as Ryuzo Mukai, writer
• Masaki Aiba as Shoichi Inoue, singer
• Satoshi Ono as Kei Shimokawa, painter
• Jun Matsumoto as Yuji Katsumada
• Yu Kashii as Tokie
• Hirotarō Honda as Teikichi
• Hanae Kan as Yasuko Muraoka
• Chieko Matsubara as Kinu Muraoka
• Mariko Miyamitsu as Mikako Yoshino
• Kotaro Shiga as Hayashida
• Kin Sugai as Yone
• Tomoko Tabata as Kaoru Nishigaki
• Mai Takahashi as Yumiko

Plot
In the spring of 1963 manga artist Eisuke Maraoka (Kazunari Ninomiya) and his sister Yasuko (Hanae Kan) need to rush their sick mother to Tokyo to get the medical treatment she needs. Unable to afford a staff of doctors to sign off on the emergency train transport he hires a group of friends to pose as doctors for him. The scheme works and after a brief get-together the four friends go their separate ways. It isn’t long before they all end up coming back though, apparently unsuccessful at living alone while pursuing artistic careers.


There’s Eisuke the manga artist, Ryuzo (Sho Sakurai) the novelist, Shoichi (Masaki Aiba) the singer/songwriter, and Kei (Satoshi Ono) the painter. Arashi member Jun Matsumoto also appears throughout the film as a delivery boy named Yuji who happens to be an enthusiastic fan of Shoichi’s music. They’re all bound and determined to maintain their artistic integrity and assume that if they just spend the summer focusing on their work they’ll all succeed financially and gain the freedom to do whatever they want in life.


It isn’t long before distractions start to crop up though, and they reluctantly sober up to the fact that they can’t afford to eat tempura bowls every day or expect many more free meals from Shoichi’s girlfriend Tokie (Yu Kashii). Much of their summer is spent scrambling to scrounge up enough money to buy food. And when things seem to be at their worst, with each of them gradually pawning off the instruments of their respective trades, they have the bright idea to use the last of their money to pre-pay rent for 8 weeks and live off rice donated by the eternally-eager ancillary character Yuji. Unfortunately romantic involvements, creative blocks, and other issues still seem to find a way to sabotage their ability to make a truly concerted run at success.