(Jmovie Review) Are You Ready? Hey, You, Girl

Also known as Lock-On Love

Original Title: Kakugo wa Iika Soko no Joshi (覚悟はいいかそこの女子)

Director: Noboru Iguchi

Writer: Nana Shiiba (manga), Lee Jung Hee

Producer: Motoko Kimura

Cinematographer: Naoki Kayano

Release Date: October 12, 2018

Runtime: 95 minutes

Genre: based on manga, romantic comedy

Distributor: Toei

Casts:

Taishi Nakagawa as Towa Furuya

Erika Karata as Misono Miwa

Teppei Koike as Takatsugu Masaki

Kentaro Ito as Ritsu Niimi

Shouma Kai as Ichiya Sawada

Jiei Wakabayashi as Ryusei Kuzei

Yosiyosi Arakawa as Akira Araki

Are you in this level as an ikemen? LOL

Who can guarantee that someone popular is always good at attracting someone he/ she loves? No one can guarantee that. Take an example in Towa Furuya; good looking, friendly, sociable, and helpful. Who doesn't want to be his friends, moreover, his girlfriend? However, he's always surrounded by girls every he goes, not to mention a lot of offers for this and that.

Who wants to be Touwa's kanojo? Meeeeee :D

After being challenged by a friend of his to get a girlfriend, he starts to select female friends in his school. He's got a lot of candidates, actually, what he can do is just put some lottery on the girl's names, and voila, he will get a girlfriend. But it seems that Furuya needs another challenge by trying to attract the most unaware girl about Furuya's existence. The girl is Miwa Misono.

My eyes on YOU. 

What a cheesy and creepy confession :P

Who is this Misono? Furuya is wrong if he wants to attract her with his beauty. He can attract girls with his good looking. His charm has no effect on her. Is she that unaware that she doesn't know about Furuya?

Would Furuya give up on Misono? He might think that this might be his challenge to get her attention, or even her love. Furuya tries his best. If his charm doesn’t attract her, he could do other things. What are they? Furuya’s gang promoted some tricks and tips, from what myths say and what researchers on love say. Do they work? Furuya has his own way to attract the girl in his dream. 

Pick any girls you like, Touwa. Your wish is our command :D

First thing is try to get to know Misono; where she lives, what she does in her free time, what she likes, and others. From his observation, what Furuya gets is heart breaking. He finds out that Misono has a crush on one of teachers in their school. Compared to this teacher, Furuya is nothing. Kowaisou, Furuya-kun 😊😊😊 

Oh, sensei, don't let me compete with you, said Touwa :D

This live action is the continuation of mini Japanese dorama released in June, 2018. It has 5 series with only 25 minutes’ runtime. But, the mini-series didn’t focus on Furuya’s love story; otherwise, it focused on his friends’ love life and his strategies on how to get love for his friends. He forgot that he himself didn’t get any love for his own. Lol.

In the beginning, I know that this drama is no difference from other teen doramas; the lead character fall in love with someone he/ she cannot reach. If there is someone else between their relationship, it must be destined fate that they would be together at the end. That typical cliché story still wins the audience, especially teen :D Even for me, who is far from teen, I still enjoy this kind of storyline. I do enjoy the ways how the lead wins the heart of someone he/ she loves. It is sweet as well as touching. 

The awaited moment to get close to the one you love

Be a stalker to the one you love. Creeps :D

The most enjoyable moments in this movie, of course, when Furuya gets rejected over and over again by Misono. His facial expression is really priceless. Not to mention, some typical scenes like hugging each other then breaks away with awkward gestures, or piggyback. I wonder how Furuya gets his strength to carry Misono on his back while running after someone Misono loves. His body and soul, and heart must be broken into pieces. He should get his price at the end....

At the beginning, I mistook Taishi Nakagawa as Fukushi Sota. I think they have similar face line. However, the more I watched their movies, I could identify which one is Fukushi Sota and Taishi. And then I can say that I love Taishi’s acting better than Fukushi’s acting. Becoming the second lead in Hana Nochi Hare, it shows that Taishi is not always a charming prince who wins the princess. His heart broken expression stabbed my heart that I want to hug him and say, ‘daijobou’ :D But still, I cannot let Fukushi’s movies go to waste without I watch them. I’m waiting to be able to read the book when he acted his movie entitled The Traveling Cat Chronicles. I got the movie, but I guess reading the novel first is worth it.

Erika Karata as the female lead here is quite charming. Honestly, I’ve never seen her in any drama I watched. I did watch Kiss That Kills, but I didn’t recognize her. She’s the perfect match for Furuya, since she’s pretty but she’s not an attention seeker just like other girls. Her family background might get her that way. Something was a bit off when in the last scene, when she’s got terrible fever, she hardly can walk, Furuya even has to carry her on his back. But then, she suddenly walks like she usually does after her meeting her beloved sensei.

Is your love that strong that you can carry her on your back, Furuya?

For those who watched the miniseries of Are You Ready? Hey You, Girl, don’t expect to see the continuation of Ritsu’s love story. Remember the last scene of the miniseries when Kosame, the girl he loves, left him? Well, I, myself, even though I like to see more of Ritsu (Kentaro Ito), I prefer seeing him supporting Furuya to get Misono. You know, seeing more of Kentaro Ito with his stutter way of speaking is unbearable. I’ve had enough of it. That’s why I love him in Café Funiculi Funicula.

The miniseries poster

This live action is the adaptation of manga written by Nana Shiiba. This mangaka is very productive writing manga. Just go check in many manga updates. Some live actions have been released, too, by this mangaka. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the manga version of Lock on Love. I read one of her mangas entitled Kimi Ni Koishite Ie Desu ka? (see my review in Bahasa Indonesia). I think the story is a bit creepy and weird. I tried reading other mangas of her, too, and some of them are one-shots that are too fast to finish. Most of her mangas are in shoujo, romance and school life. Those genres are live action materials, by the way :D What about you? Have you read any of her works?

 

I wonder why Shiiba Nana identifies herself as a nurse...

In short, this live action is quite entertaining even though Nisekoi is more hilarious. But to see more of ikemens is kind of tempting.

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