A Gentle Breeze of Young Love {Comments Off}
If you have seen Otomen, the only Japanese TV series that we have up at the TV SERIES section so far (I’m still working on getting You’re Beautiful (both Korean (Minami Shineyo) and Japanese (Ikemen desu ne) and others), please do rewind back two years before, where young actors Masaki Okada (Asuka Masamune) and Kaho (Ryo Miyakozuka) star at another simple teen romance story featuring juvenile young love and other quirks living at a very small and rural village thousands of miles away from metropolitan Tokyo or any other known urban city known in Japan.
Japan is known for its high regards to simplicity and convenience in their culture, rather than focusing heavily on exaggerated beauty and complexity on all themes and other aspects of culture, both ancient and modern. This also includes their ways of modern storytelling, most especially in terms of young love. When A Gentle Breeze in the Village was released in 2007, it was also the same year that the heavily-talked about teen love tragedy Koizora (Sky of Love) (available for viewing at the Movies section) was also released. We live in a time where complexity and exaggeration in thematic storytelling are the in things in general story creations from print to visuals, meaning that among the masses that Koizora became more well-known, it was A Gentle Breeze in the Village that won the prestige and the awards from the movie itself to lead actress Kaho earning two awards including Best Newcomer in the industry.
While chatting with some close-knit friends who know a few people in the industry, due to the secluded down low laws and other strict rules with Japanese celebrities and their fans, there is one little thing I can say about these two in real life. Okada-kun and Kaho-chan may possibly be considered as Japan’s version of Bretzie and YongSeo (at least for me that is). Having two actors being paired as lovers on a previous project and then being paired up again as lovers on a new project is quite rare (in Japan, that is), though having more than two actors from a previous project being cast in a new project is common in Japanese showbiz, as well as any other country’s showbiz in general. These two have such good, strong and solid chemistry on screen that a few may even think that there must be something special going on between the two off-screen. A little trivia here is that Kaho-chan hasn’t had any on-screen kiss scenes with any other actor in her later projects since Okada-kun in this movie (whoops, spoiler!), and it would’ve been another possible on-screen kiss scene in Otomen if it weren’t for the whole legal age gap thing going on in Japan (Okada-kun was 20 and Kaho-chan was 18 when Otomen was being shot and filmed back in 2009— 20 is the legal age in Japan, meaning a Japanese teen is considered a minor until he/she reached age 20. In short, it’s a no-no for an adult male (Okada-kun) to have any kiss scenes or the like with a minor (Kaho-chan) even if it was only on-screen).
Okada-kun and Kaho-chan are two years apart, guy being older than the girl. Bretzie are also two years apart, guy being older than the girl. Even YongSeo are also two years apart, guy also being older than the girl. Do I see a pattern here?
Check out A Gentle Breeze in the Village, now at the MOVIES section at the Bunny Channel!
