Ballad: Na mo naki koi no uta (2009)

Ballad: Na mo naki koi no uta: Directed by Takashi Yamazaki. With Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Yui Aragaki, Akashi Takei, Michitaka Tsutsui. A movie examining a young boy’s first encounter with true fear in his endless pursuit of courage.

“This is basically a fantasy style movie that the audience has to just go with it. There is some parts that doesnu0026#39;t make sense at all noticeably. The plot is about a modern time boy who goes back in time somehow to Sengoku-era japan and is in pursuit of courage while dealing with the dangers of his surrounding. In fact the movie switches from modern time to tenshou year 2 or something like that. The premise actually sort of reminded me of u0026quot;The Forbidden Kingdomu0026quot; except way more ridiculous because despite traveling back in time the story doesnu0026#39;t revolve around any mystical stuff. And this movie takes place in japan instead of china. But like I said itu0026#39;s a movie your just going to have to just go with or else your really going to dislike it, like the character Shinichi Kawakamiu0026#39;s mother in the movie who just automatically accepts what is going on. When the movie takes place during Sengoku-era it just didnu0026#39;t seem all that realistic, it felt sort of like a live action Disney movie, even the interaction between characters seemed a bit childish at times. But than again this was probably aimed to be a family movie, and letu0026#39;s just say the acting was pretty terrible for this type of movie and even for a family movie. The problem about this movie is that it goes in a really cliché direction from the dialogue to the directions of the characters and everything else. And the movie just seemed to really drag with the characters just constantly infatuated with different time zones which is understandable but itu0026#39;s just really dragged on in this with nothing much going on. Even if itu0026#39;s a family movie little kids will probably get bored about 30 minutes into the movie, probably even less. There really isnu0026#39;t any good character development and the chemistry between the little boy and his surroundings wasnu0026#39;t developed very well either. The build up isnu0026#39;t good and there is little to almost not attachment. The plot is about a modern boy going back in time and building courage, but there is hardly a moment to build his courage and itu0026#39;s more leaning towards stupidity instead of bravery. Although itu0026#39;s a bummer the blend of the characters from modern time with the Sengoku-era time isnu0026#39;t done really well, I sort of enjoyed the last 50 or so minutes of the movie very slightly. Probably just because of the inspirational music and emotion even if the battle scenes got worse as it progressed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e4.5/10”