I ‘m a HUGE Mei Nagano fan, and have been dying to watch this movie ever since it came out late last year. With the online release of it this past month, I was crossing my fingers that some blessed subtitling team would pick it up, and just today I was overjoyed to find that a translating team picked it up and released subs for it!!!
WELL, I wasted no time sitting down to watch it, and I say without reservation that I loved, loved, LOVED it!!! I had always known the briefest of plot details: That Satomi Ishihara played a mother with a young girl who hopped from husband to husband dragging her child along, but I had no idea that that would be only the mere tip of the iceberg of what a rich, detailed and lovingly crafted story Baton truly was!
I simply adored this movie and was kept quite intrigued throughout the show by its little twists and turns, surprises and reveals, and though perhaps the ending might be somewhat predictable, I found the entire story to be wonderfully wholesome and sweet as any I've seen in years!
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This review may contain spoilers
A heartwarming story beyond my expectation
It was fun until the first half of the movie where it gets a little bit boring because the story is too dramatized for me, it seems like it's a 10 episodes of drama made into a 2hrs movie. But towards the end, with all the revelations and the acting skills shown by the casts, it made me teary-eyed. At one point, I kinda knew that something was going on with Tanaka Riko's health and the movie didn't really show enough content about it. The reason why she really wanted to take care of Yuko is because she couldn't have a child of her own, and it was only explained briefly towards the end of the movie. After all, the spotlight is not on Riko but it's on Yuko. But I really enjoyed watching it. It's a heartwarming story about family that I would recommend to everyone who likes this type of story.Ishihara Satomi's motherly expressions are on point. Supported with the other casts with brilliant acting too. Kudos to the production team!!
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A Wonderful Tale of A Mother's Love
At first glance, I had absolutely no idea what this movie is about. I started watching thinking that it was just a normal story about a young girl trying to achieve her dreams of being a pianist.How mistaken I was. Beneath the surface lies a wonderful tale of the depth of a mother's love for her child.
To be frank it's hard to write this review without giving out spoilers because even going a bit further into the film will pretty much end up spoiling it.
To some, this may be a simple run of the mill sob story but if you actually look at the relationship of the leads, you will understand why the twist towards the end of the film is actually much more touching and memorable than a generic sob story.
I've known of Ishihara satomi's popularity but I've only really watched a single drama of hers. She's really beautiful but her acting here made me understand why she's one of the most popular actresses in Japan.
Nagano Mei is a very talented up-and-coming actress and again, you can see why she's highly regarded thanks to her good acting here.
Kurumi Inagaki who plays little Miitan will be a star actress in the future (I hope). Her acting here is absolutely top-notch for a child actress.
Prepare some tissues. Perhaps at the end of the film you may want to give your Mum a big hug.
PS: my rating of 9 for rewatch value is mainly for those scenes of Miitan and her Mum (both child and adult Miitan).
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