“The Kodansha Award winning manga and popular anime/drama series gets adapted for the big screen in an endearing story about the life of college students preparing for the next stage in their lives, preparing for their careers and also finding themselves in love. A charming and endearing film.”
Images courtesy of (C)2006Â Honey and Clover Film Partners
TITLE: honey and clover (Hachimitsu to Clover)
DURATION: 116 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: NTSC, Region 1, 16×9 Anamorphic Widescreen, Japanese Language with English Subtitles
COMPANY: VIZ Pictures, Inc.
Directed by Masahiro Takata
Based on a manga series by Chika Umino
Screenplay by Masahiko Kawahara, Masahiro Takata
Produced by Shinji Ogawa, Takako Imamura, Maho Tada
Director of Photography: Keiji Hasegawa
Music by Yoko Kanno
Executive Producers: Yasushi Shiina, Noritaka Yamaji, Juli K. Fujishima, Yuji Shimamoto
Starring:
Sho Sakurai as Takemoto
Yu Aoi as Hagu
Yusuke Iseya as Morita
Ryo Kase as Mayama
Megumi Seki as Ayumi
When I first saw the Japanese trailer for “honey and clover” (Hachimitsu to Clover), I definitely was excited to see this film.
Based on a popular manga and anime series, 10 million copies of the manga sold in Japan and also an award winner, stars such as the popular Yu Aoi and Sho Sakurai (of the popular Johnny’s Jimusho pop group ARASHI) and music by Yoko Kanno, an awesome theme song from both Spitz and Arashi. The trailer definitely gave me images of popular youth-based dramas such as “Hakusen Nagashi” and “Asunaro Hakusho”.
The film revolves around five characters, thee guys who live in an apartment complex and all attend an art college in Tokyo. The group gets together for parties and hang out but the film focuses on five primary characters:
Hagumi (Yu Aoi): A shy, gifted 18-year-old artist. Very shy, hardly talks but her expression in her artwork is incredible.  She lives with Professor Hanamoto and two guys, Yuta Takemoto and Shinobu Morita both fall for her.
Yuta Takemoto (Sho Sakurai): One of the primary characters in the film. Takemoto falls for Hagumi and wants to do what he can to make her happy. Although part of the art school, he is trying to find out what he really wants to do in life and somehow Hagumi has helped him see life differently.
Shinobu Morita (Yusuke Iseya): A carefree, cool artist. He travels the world, hasn’t graduated from college because he’s always absent but also a gifted artist and an amazing sculptor. After seeing Hagumi’s art, he falls for her and unlike Takemoto, more forthright in letting her know about his feelings.
Takumi Mayama (Ryo Kase): Mayama is the quiet type. A senpai for Takemoto and works at a design firm in which he likes the owner Rika (more like stalks her). Mayama is fired from his job because Rika doesn’t like him getting to close to her because it affects business. This leads to Mayama being lost and looking for work. Meanwhile, his friend Ayumi is in love with him but he doesn’t feel the same for her.
Ayumi Yamada (Megumi Seki): Yamada is a sculptor and also teaches children artwork. She is madly in love with Mayama and is always hurt when he doesn’t reciprocate her feelings.
The storyline is pretty much a realistic portrayal of life among young adults and friends among the circle of friends who fall for each other and you have your love triangle or two and the young adult angst of what will one do after they finish school.
Having not watched the anime series before, my impression of the live film and it’s cast was pretty good. I felt that the characters were well-casted and of course, any film starring a Johnny’s Jimusho talent is definitely going to bring many women/girls to the theater especially with Sho Sakurai and one of the most popular actresses today in Japan, Yu Aoi.
Each actor portrays their character quite well. Aoi’s Sagumi is definitely shy, few words are spoken but it’s about facial expressions and smiles. Sakurai’s Takemoto is a character that is happy, reserved and overall a good man.
And the other three are well-cast as well. Yusuke Iseya’s Morita is well done and in the featurette, you learn that Iseya is very much like the character Morita.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
What I enjoyed about the film are the various locations. May the characters be at the school, walking through the street, overlooking the beach, there are just subtle locations but I guess from being here in America (and have gone to Japan several times), there is an enjoyment for me of locations and for me, the locations really enhanced the film’s overall enjoyment together with the beautiful music composed by Yoko Kanno.
But as far as video is concern, the film is featured in anamorphic 16×9. There is quite a bit of noise in low light situations but in well-lit areas, colors really do stand out.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The DVD has a few special features:
- Hanamoto Study Group – This feature actually has the cast passing a digital video camera around and each interviewing Yusuke Iseya. Each person asks Yusuke a question in regards to his character and most of all, the group is more or less just having sitting down and having fun talking with each other about certain scenes. I wished that everyone can be asked a question about their character but for some reason, the focus was more on Iseya and his character of Morita.
- Director and Cast – This feature is a text-based feature with a short bio of the actors and actresses from the film.
- Original Japanese Trailers – Two trailers of the film. One about a minute long, the other is over two minutes long.
- Viz Picture Presents – Trailers for films available now such as “Densha Otoko”, “Ping Pong”, “Linda Linda Linda”, etc.
I really enjoyed “honey and clover” because of it’s characters and it’s charming storyline. It’s one of those sincere and endearing storylines that is innocent and charming.
The characters were enjoyable and the various locations of where the film was shot and the beautiful music really enhanced the film for me.
Also, another plus was the fact that the film revolves around art. As a person who is passionate about artwork, the whole art student storyline was quite enjoyable. But most of all, how art plays a part in the actual film.  In one scene, watching Hagumi and Morita taking their paint brushes and just spatting paint all over the canvas and having fun and in the end, the two creating something quite beautiful. These type of scenes are just memorable and beautiful.
But one of the problems that you get by trying to condense a long manga or even an anime series to a two-hour film, it’s not an easy task. In a manga and an anime series, you have that extra time for character development and thus, you get emotionally attached to those characters.
But for those who have not seen the manga or anime series, we take these group of individuals from what we seen on film and with not too much focused on character development, you are given five characters right off the bat which you will either love them or you don’t.
Fortunately, Masahiko Kawahara and Masahiro Takata wrote a screenplay that simplifies the characters but from the first half hour, you pretty much know what kind of characters that they are. You know that Takemoto is a good guy, you know that Sagumi is very quiet and shy, you know that Morita is very cool and expressive, Mayama is stalkerish and quiet and Yamada is a woman that has a one-sided love towards Mayama. Each involved in their own love triangle but each dealing with life and how to move on with their own personal careers and not knowing where it will take them.
Having not read the manga series and not watched any of the anime or live drama series, I watched this film with an open mind not knowing anything about the series and thus felt content with the overall film.
Realistic, charming and at times, quite humorous, “honey and clover” is at best a film that doesn’t go dark, doesn’t go twisted, pretty much stays within a safe boundary of five students trying to figure out their own lives after college and moving on forward.