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Dear Friends (2007)

Release Date: February 3, 2007

Director: Morosawa Kazuyuki

Cast: Yuika Motokariya, Masaya Kikawada, Koichi Mantaro, Mao Sasaki, Naiko Otani, Ren Osugi, Yoshiko Miyasaki, Hatsune Matsushima, Shizuka Matsubara, Airi Tohriyama


    "Dear Friends" (「Dear Friends ディア フレンズ」) is originally a novel, written by critically acclaimed Japanese author Yoshi, under the title Dear Friends: Rina and Maki. The story is about a rebel teenager named Rina who lives her life running around causing trouble with no hope for herself. She's never at home or school and leads a destructive life clubbing, sleeping with her friend's boyfriend, and chilling in Shibuya (Tokyo's night life district). Because she's living a life where she secretly feels depressed, Rina believes people who trust others are bound to be betrayed and friends are to be used, not to be at ease or share secrets with. 

    But of course all of this changes when she discovers she has breast cancer. All of a sudden this fiercely independent girl finds herself facing a bed ridden life and possible death at an early age. When she meets an old childhood acquaintance named Maki (Yuika Motokariya) who is fighting her own demons, Rina begins to see there is much more to life than she thinks and that maybe she really DOES need friends.

    A guaranteed tear jerker, this is the first movie that Keiko has a leading role in that premiered nation wide in Japan. That's MAJOR, all other movies she done  previous to this (excluding Tokyo Drift) have been in select theaters only. Since Cherry Pie was just an indie flick, Dear Friends helped give Keiko the recognition she needed to be taken seriously in the Japanese entertainment industry.

Buy "Dear Friends" on DVD @ YesAsia

Yoshi

    Yoshi is the famed creator of Dear Friends and the award winning manga/ novel series Deep Love. To prepare for Dear Friend's premiere  not only did his official site sport a new layout, embedded on the main page was the teaser trailer with the manga/novel version of Dear Friends set to hit stores in mid December 2007. However the REAL interest comes when Yoshi reveals to his fans his reason for choosing Keiko for the role of Rina and Yuika Motokariya for the role of Maki:  

"For the stars, surely I've chosen two people well suited for the roles. Kitagawa who plays Rina has a good appearance, good way of thinking, and I think there are many parts of them that overlap. When I met her for the first time as well, before I knew it, I had the feeling like I was talking to the real Rina or something. Again, for [Yuika] Motokariya who plays the part of Maki, The part of Maki seemed the same, she gave me an extremely naive impression. These people's pain and kindness, in ten minutes they felt it I think. If its these two, the world conveyed in the novel, could be expressed magnificently I think. From now noting their accomplishments, I'm enjoying it a lot. "

   Vague, but nice. Now you must be wondering, did Yoshi REALLY choose the actors to play their roles? Maybe not ALL of them but I do believe he hand picked Keiko and Yuika. Yoshi appears almost meticulous about his works and their live action adoptions, even to the point of writing lyrics for the theme songs. Like the famed Ayumi Hamasaki, Yoshi exercises TRUE control over the adaptations of his works and I admire him for that and having enough common sense to choose Keiko! ^_~ He's a genius! In 2004 he streamed his best selling novel/manga series, Deep Love (also known as The Story of Ayu---tales about a Japanese teenage prostitute finding true love), via mobile phone so people could read it on the go! This stirred up LOTS of interest and big Japanese publishing companies got involved,  hoping to feed off of Yoshi's mobile phone success. A live action movie was made and since then every work of Yoshi's  has sold well--Dear Friends being no exception.


 

Rina

    Rina is the type of girl mothers pray earnestly their girls don't end up like. She is a rebel that is never home and when she IS in school, she is a trouble make. She is, constantly on the streets, has a bad attitude, and is a little promiscuous. Geez, the ultimate bad girl! Life changes for her when she is suddenly struck by breast cancer and left with no hope, finds herself befriending a shy girl named Maki who says her and Rina are friends even though Rina is sure she's never seen Maki a day in her life.  It's ironic but little by little she changes as Maki gives her the will to carry on as her best friend. The transformation Rina goes through is really interesting to watch and Keiko stays true to her character even in the most heart breaking  times. There is one cry scene towards the end of the movie where Keiko's acting is SO on point it sends chills up my spine. Playing this character definitely put Keiko on the map not only as a beautiful face, but as a talented actress in the Japanese entertainment industry.

SOULHEAD + ♪♫ Dear Friends ♫♪ movie single

    The Dear Friends theme song in performed by the beautiful, Japanese, R&B, sister duo Yoshika and Tsugumi aka  SOULHEAD, who I must say can totally sing their asses off (if you heard a couple of their other songs). SOULDHEAD'S sound is a blend between various genres such as soul, hip-hop, R&B, dancehall, reggae and funk, and many of their lyrics are in English. The 'Dear Friends' is moving, haunting and simply wonderful!

SOULHEAD-DEAR FRIENDS

01.Dear Friends (watch the PV)
02.Feel Like Jumpin'
03.Dear Friends -instrumental-
04.Feel Like Jumpin'-instrument

Buy @ CDJapan