I watched Seven Days last night. It popped up in my YouTube sidebar as a recommendation.
I had never heard of Seven Days before this. When I saw the recommended video, I looked up the movie. It turned out that the movie was based off a Japanese manga of the same name. The video was tagged as a "BL Live Action". I knew what "live action" meant; it is when they use actors to act in a manga/anime adaptation, as opposed to an animated movie/series. But it was my first time hearing of BL. And it turned out it means "boys' love".
You see, the story of Seven Days is about a boy who dates the first girl who confesses to him on a Monday, but always ends up breaking with her on Sunday. He is so popular that girls are lining up to confess to him on Monday. (Reaction: bleargh...what lousy guy is this?) So what happens here is that another boy confesses to him jokingly one Monday, and they go out for a week. And guess what? They end up developing feelings for each other.
I don't know what I was expecting from this movie. Having watched the anime Lovely Complex, which is about a tall girl (with normal boys' height) and a short guy (with normal girls' height) falling for each other (I was practically forced to watch it by my anime-crazy friend in France, after I rejected her recommendations of "long" animes and animes that have not ended), I think I expected something similar. That one was pretty silly and quite funny at times, so I guess I expected comedic moments. But instead I ended up being rather mesmerized by the heavy emotional acting in Seven Days.
Would I recommend this movie? I wouldn't say so. It isn't really that good. I liked the way they built up the story at the beginning (more on that in the spoilers below), but the last few days were rather a drag. Ending-wise, I think it wasn't too bad either. So, my complaint would be on how it felt like they were forced to drag out the movie to make seven days.
Okay, spoilers start here! (If you skipped all the above and jumped straight to the spoilers, don't blame me for not being warned!)
Like I said above, I like how it started. You have Shino Yuzuru (called Yuzuru, his given name, below - you'll know why if you watch the movie, but it's not important) who is a pretty boy with an attitude that does not match his face, as his childhood friend tells him. So girls like him... until they date him and find out what he is really like. Haha. Then there is Seryou Touji (called Seryou, his family name, below), who is the famous "seven days" date. The movie goes through each day from Monday to Sunday. On Monday, Yuzuru hears about the Seryou rumour (well, not actually a rumour, but a fact), and when he bumps into him, he jokingly asks him to date. Seryou is actually pining for a girl who dumped him, and that is the reason why he accepts any girl who confesses to him on Monday; he is trying to find someone to help him get over his previous girlfriend (not counting the ones he dated for seven days). But by Sunday he will find that he has not developed any feelings for the girl, so he gives up after seven days of trying. (Aww... he doesn't sound like such a jerk after all.)
Seryou is not against dating Yuzuru; he thinks, who knows, maybe this time he would get over his ex. So he goes to Yuzuru's class to get his contact number. Yuzuru is rather clueless at first, and thinks that Seryou just wants to hang out. But he is curious about what kind of person Seryou is, so even when he finds out on Tuesday that Seryou is actually expecting them to be dating, he goes along with it.
And then you get the feelings coming... they both have rather pretty-boy, "beautiful" faces, so they will look at each other and think how beautiful the other one is. You have Seryou who realizes his feeling pretty quickly, but Yuzuru is pretty clueless, and he will find himself getting mad at Seryou (read: he gets jealous) but he won't know why he is overreacting.
Up till Thursday I liked how the story unfolded; the hanging out after school, meeting each other in the morning... it was pretty natural. But on Friday we have a confrontation where Yuzuru sees Seryou being rather close with his ex, and he gets terribly upset and runs off. Seryou chases him and catches up, but we don't see what happened after that. The next scene is already Saturday... and somehow they have made up, and are dating again, and Yuzuru seems to know something a bit more about the story of Seryou's ex.... but not completely? (Huh?)
So here is where it gets me frustrated, because there is no reason why Seryou wouldn't tell Yuzuru everything after Friday's events. So Saturday had some pretty weird developments, with them even kissing (yeah, Yuzuru finally realizes what his feelings are), but later Yuzuru runs off (for no apparent reason) and gets mad at Seryou for dating people for only seven days (not sure whether that is for no apparent reason or because he doesn't want to break up). So Yuzuru walks away on Saturday, leaving Seryou heartbroken, and at archery practice on Sunday (that's where they knew each other from sight, before the events in the movie), Seryou is so shaken that he cannot concentrate and misses the archery target completely. Yuzuru, on the other hand, is very stable... bulls-eye for him as usual.
After that they somehow hang out again, with awkward silences... I am not even sure whether that was considered dating (I was rather lost at that point), but Yuzuru asks Seryou when they relationship ends. When Seryou says it's up to him, he looks at the time, which is just before 5pm, and he says to end it at five. So once it is 5pm, they have officially broken up, and Yuzuru suddenly asks Seryou to be his boyfriend. And that, messieurs-dames, is how it ends. (of course, they stay together)
In the end it seems that Yuzuru is more of a jerk than Seryou. It's like their faces are the total opposite of their personalities; Yuzuru has a nice-guy face but he speaks and acts without thinking of others' feelings, and Seryou looks more like the insensitive type, but instead is really sensitive.
So you see... I don't get the use of Saturday. I felt like they could have developed things better, because the transition from Friday to Saturday was hardly smooth, you don't get how they got here from there! I'm half-wondering whether I should read the manga (that's the original), because sometimes things get lost in film adaptations. But that might take up too much time... I'll have to see how long it is first!
I had never heard of Seven Days before this. When I saw the recommended video, I looked up the movie. It turned out that the movie was based off a Japanese manga of the same name. The video was tagged as a "BL Live Action". I knew what "live action" meant; it is when they use actors to act in a manga/anime adaptation, as opposed to an animated movie/series. But it was my first time hearing of BL. And it turned out it means "boys' love".
You see, the story of Seven Days is about a boy who dates the first girl who confesses to him on a Monday, but always ends up breaking with her on Sunday. He is so popular that girls are lining up to confess to him on Monday. (Reaction: bleargh...what lousy guy is this?) So what happens here is that another boy confesses to him jokingly one Monday, and they go out for a week. And guess what? They end up developing feelings for each other.
I don't know what I was expecting from this movie. Having watched the anime Lovely Complex, which is about a tall girl (with normal boys' height) and a short guy (with normal girls' height) falling for each other (I was practically forced to watch it by my anime-crazy friend in France, after I rejected her recommendations of "long" animes and animes that have not ended), I think I expected something similar. That one was pretty silly and quite funny at times, so I guess I expected comedic moments. But instead I ended up being rather mesmerized by the heavy emotional acting in Seven Days.
Would I recommend this movie? I wouldn't say so. It isn't really that good. I liked the way they built up the story at the beginning (more on that in the spoilers below), but the last few days were rather a drag. Ending-wise, I think it wasn't too bad either. So, my complaint would be on how it felt like they were forced to drag out the movie to make seven days.
Okay, spoilers start here! (If you skipped all the above and jumped straight to the spoilers, don't blame me for not being warned!)
Like I said above, I like how it started. You have Shino Yuzuru (called Yuzuru, his given name, below - you'll know why if you watch the movie, but it's not important) who is a pretty boy with an attitude that does not match his face, as his childhood friend tells him. So girls like him... until they date him and find out what he is really like. Haha. Then there is Seryou Touji (called Seryou, his family name, below), who is the famous "seven days" date. The movie goes through each day from Monday to Sunday. On Monday, Yuzuru hears about the Seryou rumour (well, not actually a rumour, but a fact), and when he bumps into him, he jokingly asks him to date. Seryou is actually pining for a girl who dumped him, and that is the reason why he accepts any girl who confesses to him on Monday; he is trying to find someone to help him get over his previous girlfriend (not counting the ones he dated for seven days). But by Sunday he will find that he has not developed any feelings for the girl, so he gives up after seven days of trying. (Aww... he doesn't sound like such a jerk after all.)
Seryou is not against dating Yuzuru; he thinks, who knows, maybe this time he would get over his ex. So he goes to Yuzuru's class to get his contact number. Yuzuru is rather clueless at first, and thinks that Seryou just wants to hang out. But he is curious about what kind of person Seryou is, so even when he finds out on Tuesday that Seryou is actually expecting them to be dating, he goes along with it.
And then you get the feelings coming... they both have rather pretty-boy, "beautiful" faces, so they will look at each other and think how beautiful the other one is. You have Seryou who realizes his feeling pretty quickly, but Yuzuru is pretty clueless, and he will find himself getting mad at Seryou (read: he gets jealous) but he won't know why he is overreacting.
Up till Thursday I liked how the story unfolded; the hanging out after school, meeting each other in the morning... it was pretty natural. But on Friday we have a confrontation where Yuzuru sees Seryou being rather close with his ex, and he gets terribly upset and runs off. Seryou chases him and catches up, but we don't see what happened after that. The next scene is already Saturday... and somehow they have made up, and are dating again, and Yuzuru seems to know something a bit more about the story of Seryou's ex.... but not completely? (Huh?)
So here is where it gets me frustrated, because there is no reason why Seryou wouldn't tell Yuzuru everything after Friday's events. So Saturday had some pretty weird developments, with them even kissing (yeah, Yuzuru finally realizes what his feelings are), but later Yuzuru runs off (for no apparent reason) and gets mad at Seryou for dating people for only seven days (not sure whether that is for no apparent reason or because he doesn't want to break up). So Yuzuru walks away on Saturday, leaving Seryou heartbroken, and at archery practice on Sunday (that's where they knew each other from sight, before the events in the movie), Seryou is so shaken that he cannot concentrate and misses the archery target completely. Yuzuru, on the other hand, is very stable... bulls-eye for him as usual.
After that they somehow hang out again, with awkward silences... I am not even sure whether that was considered dating (I was rather lost at that point), but Yuzuru asks Seryou when they relationship ends. When Seryou says it's up to him, he looks at the time, which is just before 5pm, and he says to end it at five. So once it is 5pm, they have officially broken up, and Yuzuru suddenly asks Seryou to be his boyfriend. And that, messieurs-dames, is how it ends. (of course, they stay together)
In the end it seems that Yuzuru is more of a jerk than Seryou. It's like their faces are the total opposite of their personalities; Yuzuru has a nice-guy face but he speaks and acts without thinking of others' feelings, and Seryou looks more like the insensitive type, but instead is really sensitive.
So you see... I don't get the use of Saturday. I felt like they could have developed things better, because the transition from Friday to Saturday was hardly smooth, you don't get how they got here from there! I'm half-wondering whether I should read the manga (that's the original), because sometimes things get lost in film adaptations. But that might take up too much time... I'll have to see how long it is first!
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