Crying Out Love in the Center of the World

Friday, November 18 at 6:30pm

Sekai no Chushin de, Ai wo Sakebu, a Japanese romance novel by Katayama Kyoichi, sold over 3 million copies in Japan alone, is now adapted into one of the biggest hits of the summer box office in Japan! The film, directed by Yukisada Isao from Go, starring Osawa Takao (Gege) and Shibasaki Kou (One Missed Call), who brings great performances into one of the most loved and romantic films!

The story, by Yukisada and scriptwriters Yuji Sakamoto and Chihiro Ito, glides smoothly between the present and 1986, when the main events unfold. Sakutaro (Osawa), a businessman in his early 30s, is living on autopilot, in a slow, downward spiral -- until his fiancee, Ritsuko (Shibasaki) ups and leaves him. The reason: an old cassette tape that prompts disturbing memories -- and a trip to their source, the town in Shikoku where she and Sakutaro (boyhood nickname: "Saku") grew up. Following after her, he begins to reminisce about his youth -- and his love for a girl named Aki.

Switch to the summer of 1986, when Saku (Mirai Moriyama) and Aki (Masami Nagasawa) are second-year high-school students. Tall, athletic and vivacious, Aki is the very picture of a kenko bijin (healthy beauty) -- and hopelessly out of reach for the all-too-average Saku. But Aki takes an interest in him (his clunker of a motor scooter is a draw), and Saku is soon in her thrall, though he would rather die than show it. They begin hanging out together, sending requests to an all-night radio show and listing their likes and dislikes (Aki, predictably, is a fan of "Roman Holiday," Saku of "Enter the Dragon.") Then they start exchanging audio diaries on cassette tape and become something more than pals. The culmination is a romantic (if chaste) night on an uninhabited island -- and the revelation that Aki is desperately ill.

Saku, once just a moonstruck teenage boy hoping to get lucky, realizes that Aki needs him and that he will be there for her, no matter what. But he fails to fulfill her last request -- and 17 years later is still agonizing about what might have been.

Watch the trailer
Lo-Res Version 1 | Hi-Res Version 1
Lo-Res Version 2 | Hi-Res Version 2

Trailers require Windows Media Player

Starring: Takao Osawa, Kou Shibasaki, Masami Nagasawa, Mirai Moriyama
Director: Isao Yukisada
Written by: Kyouichi Katayama (novel), Yuji Sakamoto
Genre: Drama/Romance
Running time: 138 minutes

Rated PG in Japan