On November 1^st, the movie Clover starring Kanjani8’s Ohkura Tadayoshi and Emi Takei, was released in theaters! Both have starred in many movies and dramas, and have even acted together before!

I have been anticipating this movie for a while and it has been advertised pretty heavily the past few months in theaters and on television in Japan. The reason I have been looking forward to it is because it seemed different from the typical romance movies that have been coming out lately. Recently, it has either been sad love stories or cheezy high school romance stories, but Clover is different.

The storyline takes place in a Hotel, where the main character Suzuki Saya, played by Emi, works in the event planning department Ohkura plays her supervisor, Tsuge Susumu, and the character is very stoic with a poker face and is called “DoS”, which means a sadistic type of personality. Saya really doesn’t like him much because he is quite strict with her at work, but one day Susumu randomly asks Saya out. Everything starts with that and it spirals into a long distance relationship and a love triangle with Saya’s ex-boyfriend, and current crush, from Junior High School, who now happens to be a famous actor. The movie also dives into more adult themes by touching on the topic of work vs. love and how far you would go for work, which is different than the typical high school romance movies that have been around recently.

For the flow of the movie, it felt a bit long for the type of movie that it was (just under 2.5 hours long with previews at the beginning) but it was very detailed in the story and giving background information when needed and lots of character development. You can really see the change in Ohkura’s character as the movie progresses. Ohkura himself is a pretty decent actor, though not my favorite actor in Johnny’s or in general. I thought he was best during the romance scenes when he was being sweet. Emi on the other hand I thought nailed her role perfectly in this movie with all of the emotions that show through in her character.

I thought the music suited the movie amazingly well! It featured re-mixed versions of “Someday my Price Will Come” and “When you Wish Upon a Star” sung by JUJU, as well as the theme song “CloveR” by Kanjani8. This song was crafted very well to fit with the theme of the movie and a great coupling song, one of the best I think along with 「ここしかない景色」Koko shikanai Keshiki for Nishikido Ryo’s Movie 「県庁おもてなし課」”The Hospitality Department”.

If you would like a nice romance movie that has a decent story line and also adult romantic aspects to it, I would highly recommend Clover!