This movie has been sitting on my hard disk for years and I finally got around to watching it after looking for Ito Ayumi movies because of Tsumi to Batsu. I always had a thing for her since Wedding Planner but I hardly see her in jdoramas/movies. I completely forgot Be Sure to Share was a Sono Sion movie, probably cause Akira from Exile is in it and surprisingly, he actually does a decent job in this movie.
Be Sure to Share is Sono Sion's most mainstream movie ever, even more than Land of Hope. It is also his most personal movie. I think he did it after Love Exposure. If his name didn't appear in the beginning, you would not be able to tell its the same director who is doing Minna! Esper Dayo!
Be Sure to Share is a father-son movie. Akira's father is hospital for cancer and everyday, he goes to visit him. Over the course of the movie, we get to see details of their relationship through very well done flashbacks. We see that Akira's father was the demon coach of the school and how their relationship was as he was going up. Actually its as much a father-son movie as it is a movie about two people at different stages in their lives.
I love how Sono Sion structures the flashbacks to tell the audience what we need to know and how it affects the present day. It prevents to need for exposition dialogue and takes us deeper, step by step into the characters, their relationships and their thoughts.
It is a mark of how great Sono Sion is as a writer/director that he can write something as crazy as Love Exposure and also do something as simple and touching as Be Sure to Share. The only thing remotely Sono Sion-like occurs in the end but its such a beautiful scene.
Ito Ayumi is great in this as well as Akira's girlfriend and she does the emotional heavy lifting in this one. I want to see her in something where she has a career defining role. Looking at her filmography, there are plenty of her movies that I haven't seen so she may have already done it.
While I would still place Love Exposure and Noriko's Dinner Table as Sono Sion's best films, Be Sure to Share is his best mainstream movie. Its what Japanese melodramas should be, simple, poetic and memorable. Absolute must watch.
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