miyuchi

I can't help it, while writing this review I opt to have Ootsuka Ai's Renai Shashin on loop. It just perfectly envelops the whole emotions of the movie into the lyrics and the way she sang it.

What I thought to be a simple, harmless light movie just had to make my chest feel so heavy after viewing. 

Watching I Give My First Love To Youwhich has a similar incident of one of the central characters dying, I was surprised that "Just Loving You" has the same element. The former approached the concept of death as a positive push for us to live life and to face it head-on. 

What I favor more of the latter film is it's take on death was underlying. In turn, the shock of the turn of events created more knots in our hearts. We anticipated the death of Takami in "I Give To You My First Love" and celebrated life while he could. In "Just Loving You", we witnessed the budding love of a man and a woman, the escalation of their feelings and eventual separation at the height of everything. Along with Makato's heart being shattered after a blissful kiss and the realization of this feeling, we--the audience--is easily carried with it.

The ending was beautiful despite the sadness. We ask the what-ifs, we miss people, we wonder what could have been the shape of that love if it was ever honed together by those two people who carried and shared it to each other. I salute the instrumental music that played in the background as Makoto walks the gallery of Shizuru's memories. It brought out all the suppressed emotions that built up during her sudden disappearance from Makoto's house and allows us to cry with him in the gallery, remembering, missing Shizuru.

I can't help but think about Shizuru's words: Some people die because of this when they fall in love. Though she was obviously pertaining to a biological decease, is love in it's purest state formed while it is not realized as love? Is love more honest when it doesn't grow? The film reminds us of the transience of life; life is short so live it to the fullest. Like Shizuru whom lived freely, found her passion in photography and independently established a career, while willingly loving a man despite the danger to her health. Cliche as it sounds, Shizuru died for love.