Shunji Iwai	...	(Director)
Shunji Iwai	...	(Writer)
Aina the End	...	Kyrie
Hokuto Matsumura	...	Natsuhiko Shiomi
Suzu Hirose	...	Ikko
Haru Kuroki	...	Fumi Teraishi
Hana Yayama	...	Young Ruka
Nijiro Murakami	...	Fukin
Yûko Andô	...	Shinjuku Police officer
Chigi Kanbe	...	Cinematographer
Tavito Nanao	...	Rei Mitarai

Comments: Getting through this flick was simultaneously a 2 star and a 5 star experience. I don't think it will reach Lily Chou-Chou cult worship status but I think it gets close ... after some period of time

I watched the three hour version and it's a mess. The who, what, where and when of everyone and everything took too much effort. I'm not sure if I simply gave up caring or finally figured it out, but was grateful when it stopped bothering me. My favorite Iwai films average about 50 minutes. I think he struggles to tell a story any longer than that

But I will watch the ten hour version, or ten episodes, or whatever it is. Or the 4 1/2 hour director's cut. I believe there is something spiritual at the core of this thing

I was most interested in Aina the End going into this. Suzu Hirose is a guarantee. No worries there. She is shimmering bright. Everyone who watches this will be bummed she gets shorted. I usually hate the dude in these kind of movies but Hokuto Matsumura is exquisite. Iwai wrote the character well and Matsumura owns it

Aina is a mixed bag. I know she is supposed to be playing a character but I don't think she is capable of such work. Her cloying inappropriately is weird, but it's cool she can slip past it in the length of a breath. Just odd it's even there in someone her age

I wasn't planning on having much of a relationship with the music. I've never been on the same wavelength as Iwai musically. I love how he gets it, how it possesses him, but we don't have the same taste, or point of resonance. Bombastic classical, lugubrious violin, plucky guitar shit. Not for me. And Aina. Like most East Asian singers she can do the sweet whisper raspy thing fine, but when she tries to sing in ALL CAPS her only resonating chamber is constrained to the roof of her mouth and her nose. It's painful

There is one piece of music in the film that sticks out like a sore thumb. It's played twice. Once when Kyrie meets Ruka on the bridge after the earthquake, and once when Natsuhiko meets the new Ruka and apologizes and cries to her in the park. Sounds Irish to me. Pastoral. Choral. Beautiful. Definitely not Aina

I had no problem staying for three hours. There is something sticky and wonderful about the event of this film, but I need a different presentation. Maybe a simple rewatch would suffice

[UPDATE] I just watched the first episode of the 10 part TV series and wow. It has the whole seven minute version of the song ("I'm Still Here"?) little Ruka sings with the guy on the bridge in the park (or wherever). It made me cry. (personally I think little Ruka sings better than Kyrie) The film version only shows them improvising for a minute or two AFTER they've actually sung the song. And after the cops hassle the guy and Ruka runs off to the church and looks up with teary eyes they play that "Irish" sounding piece and I cried again. TEN times better

Summary: In the Great East Japan Earthquake, a young girl named Luca loses her family and is left with a disability that prevents her from speaking properly. She can, however, make her voice heard when she sings.