Close Range Love (2014)

An action-packed slog

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

I have to say that I am disappointed. The girl had short hair and looked like a boy as a result. Thank goodness for her legs. It made the film better especially when she is out shopping and you feel she is a woman and is worth looking at. I was more interested in the new teacher and the girl's fellow student Nami Chain than I was in the short hair student.The subject of student and teacher love is not so taboo anymore, her it happens and is natural among humans, but why would the man choose the student over the much cooler and prettier new teacher? or at least pick nami Chan that would be more natural.Still, if you are interested in taboo love that society has forbidden this is a good film. It also makes a good point. A student may be a book worm and a nerd, but she still has feelings and needs love and sex. DVD is on sale at buy.com where we got it from or look at yesasia which is usually reliable.

Okay, it wasn't THAT bad, but it still was too mainstream for me. Sure, I love a good romance, but even so the story had so many potentials to develop and get a good twist here and there, however that never happened. Maybe the fact that the love story was a bit weak or that the chemistry between the couple was so-so, bored me. I mean, when did the teacher fell for her? Shouldn't they have shown us at least that? He can't just steal her away and propose to her out of the blue! Anyway, like I said, the story had potential. Clearly the girl had some issues, as she kept touching her ear every time she talked to someone or she feasted her hand when she was nervous (or ate donuts when she was sad). If only the film had made the effort to explore the girl's mental world better and not focus only on the relationship, maybe then the movie would have some depth and would have been more interesting. Finally, what I liked about this movie: the performances were okay and the way her cousin handled things were interesting. So, 3 out of 10.

I watched this movie less than 10 hours ago, and it is still with me. It's not cliché at all as others are saying. And actually, in this day and age, its quite realistic. Because there are teachers having affairs with their students and anybody, no matter what age or job you have, can fall in love. Yuni Kururugi is a shy yet beautiful young girl who doesn't know how to express her feelings. With only one friend, and her cousin being her parental guidance as her parents are away working abroad, you can only imagine how lonely she must be. But then Yuni Kururugis handsome English teacher Haruka Sakurai, asks Yuni to attend regular after school tutoring sessions. At first, Yuni cannot help but to despise him. Haruka Sakurai is popular among the students at Yunis school obviously for his handsome looks. Yuni has some trouble with a group of three other girls who attend her class who can't help but to be envious of Yuni having extra lessons with haruka. They accuse Yuni of faking her grades just so that she could have extra sessions with Haruka but this isn't true. Haruka asks the three girls who approached Yuni and locked her into the gym supplies room as to why she failed to show up to class. The girls insist she left but haruka senses there is something wrong and grills the group of girls until they confess. Haruka finds Yuni in the supplies closet where she appears to have a sprained leg but Yuni insist she is okay and goes off. Haruka follows Yuni and in one exciting moment, swipes her off of the ground and into his hands bridal style where he carries her off to the nurse. From that moment on, Yuni falls in love with Haruka. Over a period of time, Harukas childhood friend and high school sweetheart becomes Yuni's new and other English teacher besides Haruka, where on her first day she sees Haruka kissing a student (Yuni) under his desk. She warns him of the consequences but when out in town one day he spots another boy who attends Yuni's school with Yuni holding hands. And from there, he admits his feelings for Yuni and tells her as soon as she graduates, the two should marry. Over a period of time there is sneaking around and allot of confessions. Yunis cousin finds out and the only thing that stops him from telling is that since working with Haruka, Yunis English grades have gone up significantly and can now get her into her dream college. But Yuni decides she doesn't want to go. Yuni's cousin, who also works in her school then tells Haruka to convince her to go to college. haruka tells Yuni he no longer loves her as its the only way he knows she will go off to college. Yuni leaves. Haruka stays and is still teaching English at the school, until one day Yuni comes back. Its much more dramatic and beautiful then how it seems written. It's definitely a tearjerker. Overall, outstanding beautiful movie with a lesson. Recommended

Yuni Kururugi is a smart and pretty high school student, who is doing well in all of her classes except English. In an attempt to improve her grades her English teacher, Haruka Sakurai, asks Yuni to attend regular after school tutoring sessions. Although she initially resents Mr. Sakurai, she rather quickly develops feelings for him, most notably when he rescues her from bullies who attack her because of jealousy over the extra attention Yuni is getting from the handsome teacher.At this point the movie has to make a choice between being a realistic story of an influential teacher pushing a bright student to be her best, or diverging into a fantasy world in which an innocent schoolgirl inspires Mr. Sakurai with the most noble and self-sacrificing love that any teenage girl could wish for. In this case fantasy wins, and we spend the rest of the movie seeing how the love between this couple is just so perfect and right that all of the normal objections to a romance between teacher and student simply don't apply.Given the fact that the movie is sheer fantasy, I find the scene where Mr. Sakurai kisses Yuni while she is hiding in the bottom of his lectern to be quite endearing. Sure, in real life it would be impossible for this to happen in front of the entire class without anybody noticing, but as a fantasy I can sympathize with wanting one's first kiss to be a memorable one, and this scene is nothing if not memorable.Close Range Love is surprisingly aware of how many legitimate objections there are to a teacher falling in love with a student, but of course none of them apply to Yuni and Mr. Sakurai. He never makes any physical demands on her, so their displays of affection are limited to a few stray hugs and kisses. Adolescents are typically need time to find their place in life, and sure enough, Mr. Sakurai selflessly pretends to break up with Yuni so she has no reason not to pursue her dream of studying abroad. Yuni is devastated by the break up, but is smart enough to figure out later that Mr. Sakurai did it for her and really is still in love with her.The acting left a lot to be desired, but this is most likely the result of the source material being a manga. Yuni's emotions are always portrayed by quirky mannerisms - touching her ear lobe, eating doughnuts, clutching her skirt in her fist, stroking her cat pin jewelry - so the lack of visible emotion in her face is probably intentional.All in all, I felt a 5/10 rating was fair. Close Range Love doesn't have a lot of appeal except to people looking for an escapist teenage romance fantasy, but as an escapist teenage romance fantasy it does a decent job.