I'm really surprised and happy the DVD for part 2 of this movie came out so quickly after part 1, which was the last movie I rented and commented on.
To recap, the Nodame Cantabile story began as a Japanese manga and through its popularity was expanded into anime and live-action series. These movies are supposed to serve as the finale for the live-action series, but an effort is made for them to be a stand alone story without previous knowledge of the TV series plotline.
It helps that I saw part 1 so recently, and I gave that film a low fresh rating, but maybe it's because of that momentum that I really enjoyed this film. I thought this film stands on the shoulders of part 1, which introduced the style and quirks of the presentation, and surpasses it.
The first film establishes the setting and the characters, and as I mentioned in my comments about that film, was mostly Chiaki's story, and predicted this film would more address Nodame's journey after her experience in the first film. And it does just that, still tracing her ups and downs with both music and her relationship with Chiaki.
The film is lively and fun, but also has drama and depth and sweetness. Actress Juri Ueno in the title role is phenomenal and the director doesn't hold back on close-ups of her, taking advantage of her incredible range of expressions and emotions that she can morph in a matter of seconds. She's so good that she can even express hiding her emotions, where you see her face and have no idea what she's thinking or feeling.
The director draws on what must be shots and clips from the TV series to give a sense of the depth of the relationship between the people, especially Chiaki and Nodame.
And this is a movie about classical musicians and of course you have to have classical music performance sections, but to not alienate non-fans of classical music, historical background, interpretation and insight of the pieces are narrated over the performance sections. I'm no aficionado of classical music, but I listen to it, have a lot of it on my iPod, and found the information very helpful in my appreciation for classical music.
I have to take back what I said about the first film, whereby Japanese actors play European characters. In fact, the actors are caricaturing Europeans, and I dare say making fun of them. It took a while, but it did finally dawn on me. The character of the maestro is particularly interesting because the actor makes his Japanese sound like a foreigner with inflections in all the wrong exaggerated places. Perhaps a response to all of Hollywood's "Ah-sooooo, numba won son". Fuck Hollywood.
It's not a perfect film, it can't be. Obviously something is missing if you haven't followed the TV series, and all the threads can't be tied up, even in a 4-hour finale. There are references that are meaningful to a prior fan, but are just random to a fresh viewer.
And the mystery student upstairs is so thoroughly unnecessary that I'm not giving anything away by mentioning that character. I can imagine an audience that would find this film thoroughly annoying, but I thoroughly enjoyed and give it a fresh 8.5 out of 10 tomatoes.
