Halfway (2009-Japan)

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Movie: Halfway
Romaji: Harufuwei
Japanese: ハルフウェイ
Director: Eriko Kitagawa
Writer: Eriko Kitagawa
Producer: Shunji Iwai, Takeshi Kobayashi, Bong-Ou Lee
Cinematographer Shinichi Tsunoda
Release Date: February 21, 2009
Runtime: 85 min
Distributor: Cinequanon
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

Plot

A young couple start dating, but their happy days are interrupted by a single fact: she is planning to apply for a local university but he is not. The girl pleads with her boyfriend not to go away and he starts to think over the priorities in his life.

Cast



Kie Kitano	Masaki Okada	Junpei Mizobata
Hiro	Shu	Tasu



Hiroki Narimiya	Miho Shiraishi	Riisa Naka	Takao Osawa
Takanashi	Naoko Matsuura	Megumi Megyro)	Hirabayashi

Trailer (English subtitles)

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Image Gallery

Film Festivals

2009 (13th) Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival - July 16th-26th - Off the Fantastic (International Premiere)

Awards

Netpac Award (Special Mentions) - 2009 (13th) Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival

Comments

momoka Jun 10 2015 8:25 am Quite an honest movie about teens graduating in middle school. I appreciate the fact that the actors performed naturally. Some viewers may like the film, others may don't for varying reasons.

It started out alright but, over time, I honestly didn't enjoy the movie much due to its slow-paced-ness and the never ending teasing of Hiro to Shu. Maybe I'm just disappointed in the characters being childish. It happens pretty much normally though in reality. I'm a fan of Masaki Okada but this one's something I wouldn't repeat watching.

raineal Jun 28 2014 3:59 pm wow! just done watching it, this movie is the most realistic and natural acted movie that I've seen, the couple's relationship and so sweet and cute, Hiro's decision making show the real style of some girls in a relationship. all angles were perfectly shot, I enjoy watching it and also amazed jdramas and movies are really different!

red Mar 06 2013 12:01 am 1 hr and 20 minutes waste of time !!!

arhipel Apr 27 2012 5:28 am Mizobata Junpei -san and Naka Riisa -san are reunited again ^^

จ๊อด บัวเต็ง Apr 26 2012 8:39 am Beautiful movie.

I love everything about this movies.

C Mar 03 2012 4:31 am Sorry for the double post, but I forgot to add this to the previous comment.

CAUTION: SPOILER BELOW

What Hiro actually says at the train station is "Chitose" - a city on one of the southern areas of Hokkaido, and home to the New Chitose Airport (look it up in wikipedia) - from which I assume Shu will make his way to Tokyo. While there are higher education institutions in Chitose, the airport seems like the more plausible destination to me.

C Mar 03 2012 4:16 am L, I think it is a bit more open-ended than that.

CAUTION: SPOILERS BELOW

I think that that was the train that would lead him to Tokyo (i.e. away from Hokkaido). For those of you who are wondering "where's his luggage?", he most likely forwarded it there before he left (this is quite common in Japan and can be done in 7/11 convenience stores etc). If he was just going to a nearby university, I don't think he would have had the reaction he did on the train (placing his hand on the window, and looking somewhat stricken and covering his face as the train left).

Also, the whole cycling together on the roads and reminiscing thing can clearly happen between the end of school and the start of university. Furthermore, I think the reason Hiro was surprised to see him outside her house is that it would be strange for him to cycle to the station (as what would happen to the bike afterwards?) - but I think he wanted to spend just a few more minutes with her before he left for Tokyo.

I really don't think he would have changed his mind AGAIN after he and Hiro both begged the teacher to let him go to Waseda. The whole flashback at the end is just showing Hiro's back-and-forth nature. Also it was probably way too late for him to switch uni choices.

I actually really liked this movie - it's completely different to most drama series, which is a good thing. It has a kind of indie, slice-of-life (naturalistic) style. If you prefer the, well, more dramatic style of j-drama, with clear-cut happy endings, then this movie may not be for you. But I found it really sweet, with several laugh-out-loud moments.

junpei mizocendol Mar 01 2012 7:11 am an extremely simple and modest, down to earth movie. I surprised to see the good performances shown by the 4 young actors. Especially in the first 20 minutes, it's very spontaneous-like and natural, love this! Yet, some ineffective scene at the near-end of the show is seemingly an attempt by the scriptwriter to prolong the story, which is enough for 1 hour long

L Feb 17 2012 2:26 pm GUYS THE ENDING WAS CLEARLY AND PERFECTLY STATED HE DIDN'T GO TO TOKYO. ITS NOT REALLY AN OPEN ENDING IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT.

THE SCENE BEFORE HIRO WAS PLAYING ON THE DRUMS SAYING I DONT WANT YOU TO GO, WHAT IS YOUR ANSWER? (AND THEN IT CUTS AND THE MOVIE ENDS) THE SCENE BEFORE THAT SHOWS SHU WAITING AT HIRO'S HOUSE. AND HIRO GOES "WHY ARE YOU HERE WHY ARE YOU HERE" AND HE REPLIES "I DON'T KNOW". AND AS THEY CYCLE TOGETHER TO THE TRAIN STATION THEY WERE REMENISCING "OH THIS IS THE ROAD WE USE TO TAKE ALOT, BECAUSE SCHOOL WAS JUST DOWN THE ROAD". WHICH SHOWS THAT, THAT PARTICULAR SCENE MEANT THEY FINISHED SCHOOL AND WERE ALREADY IN UNIVERSITY.

AND SHU WAS STILL WITH HIRO. HE CHOSE A NEARBY UNIVERSITY INSTEAD AT CHINUU CITY OR WHATEVER (WHEN THEY WERE BUYING THE TRAIN TICKETS)

ANYWAYS THIS MOVIE WAS BEAUTIFULLY DONE, CINEMATICALLY, THE CAMERA ANGLES, ALLLLL THE CUTE SCENES LIKE WHEN SHU WAS CHASING HIRO DOWN THE SCHOOL HALLWAY AND HE FELL, AND THE I AM YOUR STALKER BIT IN THE CLASSROOM, AND THE FIGHTING ON TOP OF THE TALL TENNIS CHAIR, AND THE LEAF SCENE, EVERYTHING WAS SO CUTE!!!!!!!!

LOVE OKADA AND KIE!

somewhereinbrooklyn Dec 26 2011 1:53 am I actually really enjoyed this movie...up until the end. There was very little character depth and it was slow paced, but it was really simple and had beautiful cinematography with the accompaniment with a soothing soundtrack. I found Kie Kitano and Masaki Okada to be really refreshing, though I still have no idea why Okada liked Kie. It was really random. Some people found Kie annoying, but she just is playing the role of a typical schoolgirl. She's bubbly and cute, but as you can tell from the beginning, she really likes Okada. I honestly found this movie so entertaining, time flew by before I knew it. It was also nice to see Mizobata Junpei and Narimiya Hiroki (HAH he's a teacher after playing all those bad boy delinquent roles!). But yes, the end was soo unsatisfying. I don't mind if some movies leave the ending for the audience to ponder, but this ending was too open-ended. I feel like I wasted my time, but at the same time I enjoyed it during the movie. ahh, mixed feelings. Watch it if you enjoy the actors, but they seriously need a sequel or something.

Rosalie Oct 19 2011 6:18 pm A really simple but cute movie. ^^ I really liked the movie but, I won't class it as one of the best jmovie ^^'

You can watch it on dramacrazy* ^^

Frances Oct 04 2011 1:16 pm I love Okada Masaki since I watched him in his movie "I Give My First Love To You". I really loved him in that movie that's why I expected a lot from this movie. But I was so disappointed. at first it was great. but some scenes took a lot of time. Watching this film left me with no emotions. It was really dry. You don't get to see how they manage to fall in love. The thing I really hated about this movie is the ENDING. It is a real cliff-hanger. For me, this is the least movie of Okada Masaki I recommend. Actually, I don't recommend it at all.

Megumi-chan Aug 18 2011 5:49 am [possibly spoiler-ish comment/mini-review]

This is a really cute movie... especially with Kie Kitano's acting :D I found her actions to be very cute :3 (Though this is the first role I've seen her in, so I can't really compare otherwise) And Masaki Okada was a really "nice guy" as quoted by Keekii ^^ I too found the beginning scene in the nurse's office hilarious, if not slightly awkward for Okada's character XD (In)direct confession much!

One thing I didn't like about this movie (unfortunately) was the lack of character depth, in that we didn't really look into the lives of the characters... The movie just mainly based itself around their school life, and nothing much beyond that. The only family life we really see is where Hiro is making a bentou with the guidance of her mother~

But I really liked the naturalistic feel to the movie, very relaxed and nice chemistry between Hiro and Shu (though I thought that the romance was one-sided at first admittedly :3)

aoiyuki Aug 03 2011 11:05 pm this movie is weird... it doesnt feel like a Shunji Iwai or a Eriko Kitagawa movie at all.. it throw you into the story without making you feel for the characters. it time skip a lot of the movie, making it very dry, and lacking substance. Maybe because they are using mediocre actors. but not a good movie.

bevs May 02 2011 12:08 am PLEASE i need help.. where to watch this movie?

Rini Apr 20 2011 4:08 pm i really love this .. even though the ending was not that enough for me x)) the story was really true if u ask me.. things like this happens in real life and i can relate..

it was funny too !! XD especially the part where Kie was telling her friend about her dream xDD LOVE LOVE UBERLY LOVE THIS !!!!! ><

im listening to the song ryt now too :D

pepe Mar 07 2011 6:09 am the song is halfway by Salyu.

love this movie.

Puff Oct 07 2010 7:08 am how can I watch this movie? o.o

jj Aug 15 2010 6:01 pm I reaaally want to know the name of the music at the end of the movie. pleeease help

Keekii Apr 13 2010 2:21 pm I actually liked the slow pace of this movie, it makes you able to think about every scene and gives the movie some depth. It has a lot of funny scenes, where you can feel the embarrassment of Hiro, which I enjoyed a lot. The scene in the nurse room was brilliant! I laughed so hard. Masaki Okada was really cute in this role, a very "nice guy". I'm getting into his movies lately... <3

I think this movie shows the love between two shy people in a cute innocent way, of course with some obstacles on the way.

Eriko Kitagawa is a really good director. She captures the feelings of the characters in a very "natural" way (if you can say that) Maybe I will check out other movies by her.

Nalyah Jan 13 2010 8:33 am It was a bit strange movie. Action was slow and the performances of the main characters didn't really appeal to me. Something was lacking, that for sure. Although I liked the open ending a lot. Leaves a little space to think....

External Links

Official Website

Halfway (2009-Japan)

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User Rating

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Plot

Cast

Trailer (English subtitles)

Image Gallery

Film Festivals

Awards

Comments

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