Close Range Love (film)

Close Range Love
近キョリ恋愛 (Kinkyori Renai)
Directed by	Naoto Kumazawa
Written by	Rin Mikimoto (manga), Yukiko Manabe
Screenplay by	Yukiko Manabe
Based on	Kin Kyori Renai by Rin Mikimoto
Starring	Tomohisa Yamashita Nana Komatsu Asami Mizukawa Hirofumi Arai
Music by	Gorou Yasukawa
Cinematography	Hiroo Yanagida
Distributed by	Toho
Release dates	October 11, 2014 (2014-10-11)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Box office	US$9.8 million (Japan)

Close Range Love (近キョリ恋愛, Kin Kyori Ren'ai) is a 2014 Japanese romance film directed by Naoto Kumazawa and an adaptation of the manga series of the same name.

Plot

Kururugi Yuni (Nana Komatsu) was an expressionless high school prodigy. Her grades were all top-notch except English. Her class English teacher, Haruka Sakurai (Tomohisa Yamashita) appointed himself to become her private tutor.

The guardian of Yuni and school's mathematics teacher, Kazuma Akechi (Arai Hirofumi), noticed Yuni had become emotionally unstable, so he decided to cancel the tutoring. With the help of her best friend, Nanami Kikuko (Mizuki Yamamoto), she realised that she was now in love with Sakurai who was admired by every girl in school, But every time she tried to confess in words, it always fail.

So one day, Yuni was determined to pour out her feelings by using a notebook. She managed to hide under the teacher's table, and after Sakurai acknowledged her presence, Yuni opened up the notebook contained the words "I hate you teacher but I also like you. What should I do?". Sakurai purposely dropped a pen to lean towards her, before kissing her. The new homeroom teacher of Yuni's class, Mirei Takizawa (Asami Mizukawa), coincidentally saw the incident between them when the Principal showed her around the school.

When a co-teacher introduced Mirei to Sakurai, Sakurai was surprised to see his childhood friend again. Mirei told Sakurai what she saw and apparently, she still had feelings for Sakurai. Mirei tried to stop the relationship of the by taking a photo of Sakurai and Yuni hugging each other as she passed through them. Then, Mirei showed the photo to Akechi when he asked for Mirei's help to check Yuni out as her homeroom teacher because of her strange behavior. And it led to Akechi confronting Sakurai and asking him to leave her for she was only a high school student. Soon, Akechi asked a favor to Sakurai to encourage her to study abroad which he rejected at first but finally chose to do it for her own good.

Before graduation, Yuni decided to follow her dreams as Sakurai broke up with her. But studying in University of California can't make her forget him so she went back to Japan to see him again. They reconciled at the beach where they had their first date.

Cast

• Tomohisa Yamashita as Haruka Sakurai
• Nana Komatsu as Yuni Kururugi
• Asami Mizukawa as Mirei Takizawa
• Nozomu Kotaki as Ryu Matoba
• Mizuki Yamamoto as Kikuko Nanami
• Hirofumi Arai as Kazuma Akechi
• Kazuma Sano as Saki Sato
• Seika Furuhata as Mei Yoshida

Development

The trailer and poster for the film were released on October 6, 2014. Japanese band Sakanaction performed the film's theme song, "Hasu no Hana".

Reception

Close Range Love grossed US$9,812,922 at the Japanese box office. It also held the number one spot in the Japanese box office for three weeks.

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Close Range Love at IMDb