Sukitte Ii Nayo (Say “I Love You”) Movie Recap

Posted by zsa86

What can I say? This movie is a little bit cliche but nevertheless it’s cute. You all know I have a weakness for cuteness, neh? 🙂

I’ve read the manga and I was hooked. And since I already know how it will go, I was more excited to see the kissing scenes but then, it was more of a lip brushing than real kissing. Tehehe! Maybe they were aiming for a much younger market. Not that I’m complaining. Lip brushing is still good. 😉

Today is Tomei High’s Cultural Festival and here you will meet one of the most popular guy in school, Second Year Yamato (Sota Fukushi), walking timidly cute down the ramp as he is one of the contestants in the Annual Idol Search. In case it isn’t clear enough, Yamato is the campus heartthrob, the all-around good guy, the complete package!

Amidst the hype and excitement, a girl obviously detached and uninterested, walks passively down the school corridor. She is Mei (Haruna Kawaguchi), the gloomy girl who never talks, never had a friend and definitely never had a boyfriend.

And how did the Mr. Popular meet Ms. Gloomy? Easy… one unfortunate roundhouse kick. When Yamato’s friend Kenji (Tasuku Nagase) teasingly pulls the hem of Mei’s skirt, she gets totally pissed and mistakenly kick Yamato instead. Yamato is shocked and laughs at how the event turned out.

The little fiasco turned Mei into an instant star. Her roundhouse kick and zebra printed panties became the ultimate buzz. And Yamato seems to be enjoying every moment of it. Mei gets Yamato’s full attention alright! It was love at first kick actually. ^.^

And it was just a matter of hours before Mei gets hate mails. Tehehe! Yep, as ridiculous as it may sound. That’s the price you have to pay when you catch the popular guy’s interest eh?

Yamato tries to get Mei’s number but for some bizarre, unexplainable, totally absurd reasons she won’t give it. Which of course, increases Yamato’s interest some more. Girls give him their numbers not the other way around. And since he can’t persuade her, he writes his number, forces her to keep it and tells her to call him anytime. In exchange, Mei gives Yamato bandages for the scarred hand she caused him. Yamato can’t help but smile.

Turns out, Yamato was waiting for her call. He confronts her and asks why she didn’t bother to call. The answer is easy, she doesn’t like phoning people. She only has three numbers in her phone: Home, Mom, and her Part-time job. She doesn’t need friends. They will only betray her in the end. Yamato defends that not all people are like that. Still, she insists that everybody is the same.

On the way home, Mei notices a strange man following her. She tries to call her Mom but Mom’s phone is unattended. So, with no other person to call for help, she phones Yamato.

When Yamato gets to where Mei hides, she tells him she’s being followed. And to get rid of the stalker, he kisses her. She’s quite stunned of what he just did. You see it was her first kiss. He says sorry for kissing her. She immediately reassures him that it’s okay. After all, he came to help her even though she didn’t expect him to.

Yamato walks her home. She tells him the reason why she doesn’t trust people anymore. In elementary school, they had a pet rabbit. One day, her friends took the rabbit and feed it with grass. The next day, the rabbit died and one of her friends said it was her fault. She tried to ask her friends for help but nobody bothered to lend a hand.

Yamato’s friends, Kenji, Asami (Rima Nishizaki), Aiko (Rika Adachi) and Masashi (Ryosuke Yamamoto) notice that something is going on between Yamato and Mei. They get curious and invites Mei to join them for Karaoke. There, Asami, who obviously likes Yamato, asks Mei if he already kissed her. Mei says he did. Asami isn’t a bit surprised and tells her not to be too fussed about it becoz Yamato already kissed majority of the girls in school. She even wonders if kissing is just Yamato’s way of greeting people. This revelation upsets Mei and she rushes out of the Karaoke room.

Yamato runs after her and asks what happened. She tells him that she knows that he kissed majority of the girls in school. And kissing her was just a joke to him. Yamato laughs and tells her it’s just a ridiculous rumor. He only kisses who he wants to kiss. She won’t believe him and turns away.

He proves his point by kissing her again. She asks why he kissed her this time? He smiles and says it becoz he just wants to. Now, that really made her angry. He’s too conceited. He just kisses anybody without reasons. Yamato yet again kisses her…and kisses her…and kisses her a couple times more. Demonstrating that his kisses have difference meanings but the last one means he likes the person in front of him. He asks Mei if she likes him. She doesn’t know the answer and tells him her heart hurts. He smiles. That’s good enough for him. That means, she likes him too.

Mei and Asami become close friends. Asami seems to be having bully problems of her own. Becoz of her large breasts, other girls make fun of her and men disrespect her. Mei admires Asami’s strength of carrying on a smiling face despite the bullying. Asami admits that she still needs to become stronger to protect herself. She dreams of having a prince who will protect her that’s why she wants to be with Yamato. But since Mei has already captured Yamato’s heart, she doesn’t really have the choice but find another prince, neh?

Asami and Kenji had a misunderstanding. Kenji, being the perverted guy that he is, jokes about Asami’s large breasts. And we all know that’s a sensitive topic, right? Mei talks Kenji about it and tells him to be honest with his feelings rather than just joking around and causing more problems with Asami.

Taking Mei’s advice, Kenji confesses his feelings towards Asami. He knows she likes Yamato and he understands why. Compared to Yamato, he’s unreliable and uncool. But even if that’s the case, he likes Asami. Even though he’s not serious in everything, he is sure serious about his feelings for her. Though he jokes about her breasts, he cares more about her smile and happiness. Asami is moved. That clears the misunderstanding and before the day ends, they start to date. Tehehe!

Mei is more than happy to learn that the problem between Asami and Kenji is resolved. She runs into Yamato and he tells her that Kenji wants to thank her for helping him. She then calls Yamato by his surname. He expresses his thought of wanting her to call him by his first name. She concedes. He’s apparently happy. One day, he wishes to hear her say “I like you”. Someday….One day.

Mei and Yamato are now dating. They bump into Aiko and Masashi. Aiko seems to be bothered that the two are dating. A peculiar bunch she might say. While the guys are busy bowling, Aiko asks if Mei likes Yamato. And Mei responds with a resounding “Probably”. This angers Aiko. How can a half-hearted girl even have the luck to be with Yamato. Clearly, he deserves to be with someone who is willing to give more. She can’t even fathom the fact the he chose Mei than her who have slept with him. B*tch alert!

After the talk with Aiko, Mei seems to be in a foul mood. What Aiko said stirs her confidence. And while they were walking, a talent agent asks Yamato to be a model. He declines. That just adds weight to Mei’s self-esteem. She asks Yamato why he chose her. There are prettier girls who are willing to be his girlfriend. Yamato doesn’t answer, instead, takes her to his former school.

She asks him why he likes her. It was becoz of that roundhouse kick. When he was studying in that school, he had a friend. His friend was being bullied and he knew about it. He was afraid to help his friend back then. In the end, his friend transferred to another school. When he saw how brave Mei was that day. He started to admire her courage.

Mei asks if he slept with Aiko. And he says he did. It was before he met Mei. He asks if she’s mad. And she says no. If it happened before they met then she has no reasons to be upset. Besides people change. She’s even thankful that becoz of him she has changed herself into someone better. This, calls for a kiss…hmm..I meant lip brushing activity. Tehehe!

Yamato talks with Aiko. He tells here straight on that he could never return her feelings. He loves Mei and that’s just that.

It’s the start of the new semester. And there’s a new kid in town. He is Kai (Tomohiro Ichikawa), a transfer student and, who would have guessed, the bullied friend Yamato was talking about. He was delayed for a year becoz he concentrated on making his body stronger. Yamato is quite relieved when he knew that Kai is not angry with him. All Kai said is that he is there for unfinished business. Hmmm.

Kai then learns that Mei is Yamato’s girlfriend and that she was also bullied before. Becoz both Mei and Kai had the same experiences, they grew closer to each other. Unlike Mei, Kai is set on taking his revenge to the bullies. He can’t let it pass. Soon, he discovers that Mei is right. Revenge makes no sense now. When he went to the school where one of his bullies attend to, the bully just walk past him. He was embarrassed. The other guy didn’t even recognize him. He was just the only one who lives in the past.

One day, the group went to the Karaoke Bar. But since Mei and Kai doesn’t really like Karaoke, they just sit outside and talk about Mei’s love life. They laugh and Kai even jokes about it. Yamato sees their closeness and gets uber jealous.

Yamato is not comfortable with the friendship brewing between Kai and Mei, so he asks what they were talking about at the bar. Mei couln’t possibly tell him becoz it’s embarrassing. He can’t seem to dismiss the thought that her girlfriend is sharing things to other men and not with him. All he could do is hug her and ask her not to leave him becoz he can’t bear it. Awwww! And she assures him, indeed, she won’t.

Kai takes a visit to where Mei works. He confesses his feelings for her and invites her to attend a concert with him. But Mei is kind enough to be honest with him. She likes Kai but she definitely loves Yamato. Going with him to a concert is just wrong in so many levels.

Becoz of Yamato’s good looks, a model named Megumi (Arisa Yagi) invites him to be part of the photoshoot she’s doing. At first he declines, but later he agrees since it’s only a one-time gig. Yamato proves to be natural model. The producers were impressed so they invited him to do another project. He is reluctant but since Mei agreed to it, he takes the offer.

Mei and Yamato spend less and lesser time with each other. Yamato becomes too busy with his part-time job. There were also rumors that Yamato and Megumi are dating. Mei starts to feel unhappy with the situation. There seems to be a gap between them. She tells Asami and Aiko about how she feels. And they comfort her that its normal to feel insecure in times. It just proves that she care for him. However, she must tell him about how she really feels.

Mei overhears other students talking about Megumi’s post, broadcasting to the whole wide world that she likes the person whom she spends lot of time with. Of course, she was referring to Yamato. Mei is hurt and cuts school.

Aiko sees Mei running hurriedly home, she asks to have a word with Yamato. She shows him Megumi’s posts and asks if he about it. And he tells her nothing is going on between them. Aiko is pissed that he didn’t clear things up with Mei. He must explain to her girlfriend and not to her.

On the way home, Mei realized that they can’t go on like this and she needs to tell Yamato how she feels. She runs back to school and when she sees him, she pulls him by the tie and kissed him. This, by the way, is her first initiated kiss.

She recalls the day when he asked him if she likes him, she doesn’t have any clear answer at that time. But right now, she knows what to say, “I like you. Don’t leave me.” In return, Yamato says sorry for making her worried. And clarifies the issue about Megumi. Yamato: “I really do like you.”

Yamato quits his part-time job and everything is back to normal. Mei asks him if he’s sure about his decision. he doesn’t need to quit. And he says, her smile is more important so it’s not really a big deal if he quits. Mei asks if she can do something for him since from the beginning all she does is accept and not give. Yamato tells her that all she must do is say she likes him and he’ll be brave again.