is a 2014 Japanese

romance film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

directed by Naoto Kumazawa and an adaptation of the

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series of the same name.

Plot

Kururugi Yuni (Nana Komatsu) is a high school prodigy who has a difficult time expressing herself. And whilst having top grades in all her subjects, she isn't doing so well in English and so her English class teacher, Haruka Sakurai (Tomohisa Yamashita) gives her temporary private one on one English lessons. But when the guardian of Yuni who is also the schools maths teacher, Kazuma Akechi (Arai Hirofumi), notices the differences in Yuni's behaviour, he decideds to put a stop to the tutoring. With the encouragement of her only friend, Nanami Kikuko (Mizuki Yamamoto), Yuni realises that she has fallen in love with her teacher, Sakurai who also happens to be admired by every girl in school. Every time Yuni has the chance to express the way she feels to Sakurai, she isn't able to do so. But finally, Yuni musters up the courage to confess to her teacher and tries to do so by using a notebook that reads "I hate you teacher but I also like you. What should I do?" while hiding under his desk in class. Sakurai sees her and purposely drops a pen. While bending down to pick the pen, he leans towards her before kissing her. Trying to keep it a secret, Sakurai doesn't know that the new homeroom teacher of Yuni's class, Mirei Takizawa (Asami Mizukawa), who is being shown around, coincidentally sees the incident between them. When a co-teacher introduces Mirei to Sakurai, Sakurai is surprised to see his childhood friend again. Mirei tells Sakurai what she saw and that she still has feelings for him. But things develop further between Yuni and Sakurai when Mirei tries to stop their relationship by taking a photo of Sakurai and Yuni hugging each other as she passes them. Mirei shows the photo to Akechi when he asks for Mirei's help to keep an eye on her as he is concerned about her strange behavior which leads to Akechi confronting Sakurai and asking him to leave Yuni as she has given up her dreams of going to her dream college for Sakurai. Akechi asks Sakurai to encourage her to study abroad which he is reluctant to do but does out of care for Yuni. Heartbroken when Sakurai cuts ties between the two of them, Yuni decides to follow her dreams. However she is unable to forget him after leaving to study at the University of California and she soon returns to Japan to confront him again. The two of them finally reconcile at the beach where they had their first date.

Cast

Tomohisa Yamashita , also widely known as , or Tomo, is a Japanese singer, actor, and TV host. Yamashita joined the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates as a trainee in 1996 (age 11) and made his small acting debut for NHK's ''Shonentachi'' (1998) and has be ...

as Haruka Sakurai *

Nana Komatsu is a Japanese actress and model. She is best known for her roles in ''The World of Kanako'', ''Destruction Babies'', '' Drowning Love'', '' The Black Devil and the White Prince'', ''My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday'', '' After the Rain'', ''Farewell ...

as Yuni Kururugi *

Asami Mizukawa is a Japanese actress. She grew up in Ibaraki, Osaka. She made her debut in 1996 at age 13 in an advertisement for Asahi Kasei's "Hebel Haus". In 2000, she won the ''Grand Prix'' at the “3rd Miss Tokyo Walker” competition (the first winner ...

as Mirei Takizawa * Nozomu Kotaki as Ryu Matoba *

Mizuki Yamamoto is a Japanese actress and model. Biography Yamamoto was born in Fukuoka Prefecture. She started her career as an exclusive model for the women's fashion magazine CanCam in 2009. Two years later, she made her acting debut in the Fuji TV drama '' ...

as Kikuko Nanami *

Hirofumi Arai is a third-generation Zainichi Korean former actor. Career Arai made his screen debut in Isao Yukisada's '' Go'' in 2001 when he was 22 years old. His next film role was the emotionally disturbed senior high school student Aoki in Toshiaki Toy ...

as Kazuma Akechi * Kazuma Sano as Saki Sato * Seika Furuhata as Mei Yoshida

Development

The trailer and poster for the film were released on October 6, 2014. Japanese band

Sakanaction , stylised as sakanaction, are a Japanese rock band from Sapporo, Hokkaido. Their music is a fusion of alternative rock, electronic, pop, and new wave styles. The band consists of five members: Ichiro Yamaguchi, Motoharu Iwadera, Ami Kusakari, ...

performed the film's theme song, " Hasu no Hana".

Reception

''Close Range Love'' grossed US$9,812,922 at the Japanese box office. It also held the number one spot in the Japanese box office for three weeks.

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title, 3688018 2010s Japanese films 2010s Japanese-language films 2014 romance films Films about scandalous teacher–student relationships Live-action films based on manga Japanese romance films