Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, or 誰かが私にキスをした/Dareka ga Watashi ni Kisu wo Shita in Japanese, is a 2010 film that was a joint-American-Japanese production with American and Japanese staff and actors/actresses and based on a book of the same name. It stars Horikita Maki, Matsuyama Kenichi, Tegoshi Yuya, and Anton Yelchin. The summary is as follows:

If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn't have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn't have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn't have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her "Chief." She'd know about her mom's new family. She'd know about her dad's fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn't have wanted to kiss him back.

But Naomi picked heads... And now she can't remember the first 4 years of her life.

I honestly decided that I absolutely had to watch this when it came out due to several fairly simple reasons: (1) it stars some of my favorite Japanese actors/actresses [well, Tesshi's just special because I used to be very much obsessed with NEWS], (2) I loved Anton Yelchin in Star Trek [2009] and I wanted to hear him speak in un-accented English, (3) I wanted to hear all of the Japanese actors/actresses speak in English, and (4) I wanted to see how the co-production came out. In the end, their acting was pretty good and I was impressed since I know how hard it could be to act and show emotion at the right moments in a language you're not familiar with, but they did it. Tesshi's English is still pretty interesting and the strongest out of all of them, which reminded of Tegomass's song, Miso Soup. Even so - thumbs up for it! :) It's also interesting how they portray "normal" high school students. Well, mainly, my interest pertains to Kenichi, since he tends to go for the interesting roles and I keep on seeing him as L, because he's an amazing L.

The way it was filmed was pretty interesting - I keep on seeing pictures popping up everywhere now - and the plot was very much that of a female high school student attending an international school and her life, though it focuses more on school because, well, school is life. It goes through some romance and friendship and it really makes me wonder what the book's about, but it was entertaining and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I suppose it spoke about change? O_o It's too late for me to think up of a good, rational theory as to the hidden meaning of the plot, but perhaps I'm just thinking too much. Anyway, just know that the acting's great, the English that is present is good (the English-subbed version also subs the English spoken by the non-native speakers, which is largely unnecessary), and the plot doesn't make you think much, but it's interesting enough that it keeps you going till the end. Perhaps it's not something I'd go for if I were to pick a book up for leisure reading, but I like it all the same.

You can watch it here.