Jmovie Review: Nana 2

The highlight of the first movie was definitely Miyazaki Aoi. She truly redefined kawainess. When news that she wouldn't be in part 2 and Ichikawa Yui would be playing Hachi, I think everyone expected the second movie to be crap. Ignore the fact that Miyazaki Aoi personified the exact opposite of Nana. There was going to be issues of chemistry and whether audiences would accept Ichikawa Yui as the same character.


I tried to watch the movie without any prejudices but I couldn't help it. I kept thinking to myself, 'who's this imposter playing Hachi?'. Somewhere down the line, Ichikawa Yui's acting grew on me. There are certain scenes that she looked like or really talked like Nana from the first movie. IMO, she did as good a job as could be expected.

Cheng E-kin wants his hair back.

The one thing that I thought would be bad turned out fine. However, there are two things that really brought the movie down. Firstly, the bond between Nana and Hachi is mostly inferred but you can't really see or feel it. Most of the time Nana talks to Hachi in her head and most of the time they're interacting with other people.


Yes, they can only do so much in two hours and maybe it follows the manga closely but the audience needs to be emotionally invested in their friendship. Whatever the plot might be, the basis of Nana is two very different people who are best of friends. Which brings me to my second problem. The plot is very meh. It feels like the first few episodes of a dorama with an inconclusive ending. Except that Nana and Hachi having a heart to heart. But its not like their non-existent (on screen) friendship went on a journey.


If this were a dorama, I'll be wanting to see the next episode just to see what's going to happen. But its not. Its a movie where things happen but nothing really happens because things never come to their conclusion/climax.