While this romantic tragedy involving two young creative professionals has some original ideas and an attractive setting, the genre has been done before in much more authentic and engaging ways.
Love Like the Falling Petals fails to create enough of a relationship between its two lead characters to infuse its dissolution with sufficient significance. This is so much so that their overly-dramatic responses to situations come across as awkward, as do a couple of unnecessary close-ups, off-tone music, and the hoodie-and-sunglasses get-up the girlfriend sports while ill.
The cherry blossom theme and the film's Tokyo setting add some originality to the predictable story. The boyfriend's growth as an artist as he struggles to find his own voice is also an interesting idea, and fans of the Japanese actor-singer Nakajima will appreciate his dramatic turn here.
But it's not enough to carry a two-hour film about love and loss.
Read the full review at Common Sense Media.
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