Takahiro Miki’s “Drawing Closer” adapts Ao Morita’s book in a faithful spirit. Expectations must be high since the book is quite a phenomenon, melting the hearts of many upon its release. Books like these bring a loyal audience in already, who are passionate fans and may not bear too much tinkering or changes in the adaptation. But film is a different medium and omissions as well as additions are unsurprising. Tempering expectations would be a good idea for approaching the adaptation as it remains, at best, an inoffensive affair and, at worst, dull, unimaginative, melodramatic schlock. To which end you may end up tilting depends on your patience for such narratives that recycle the standard weepie in tired, unexciting ways.
Drawing Closer (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Miki’s film sticks to chaste territory. In regular stories on streaming, 17-year-olds are a wild, hormonally raging lot, making a bundle of bad decisions and grappling with the weight of consequence. Here, the romance, with tragedy in the wings, is pure. Even a character is made to spell it out. The film makes for comfortable ambient viewing. There’s not much extravagant plotting beyond a few discoveries in the climax, most of which can be seen from a mile away.
The film opens with Akito mulling suicide. He has just been diagnosed with a tumor in his heart. Akito learns that he has a year left. He is tanking in despair and wandering on the terrace of the hospital when he stumbles across Haruna. Akito knows she is dying as well, so he is especially surprised to find her so upbeat about it. She is sprightly and curious. It staggers him that she is not drowning in melancholy. He wonders how that is possible. It piques him. He wants to know more about her. Inquisitive as to how she fosters such a positive spirit, he starts regularly visiting. He discovers they have a common passion for drawing.
Akito wanted to participate in an exhibition. Since he comes to know of his diagnosis, he abandons that thought. His cynicism impedes him from exploring it any further. However, over the course of his visits to her, his heart opens up. The two build a lovely bond as they look forward to each other’s company. Akito discovers the head nurse is her mother, who tells him about Haruna’s immense guilt. She had tried to hide her pain from her father while he was on the wheel. As he had turned back to probe into her unwillingness, the car had an accident, instantly killing him while she survived.
Akito doesn’t tell Haruna that he is dying as well. He wants her to enjoy and cherish the time she has remaining and doesn’t want to ruin it. He brings her flowers. The two emotionally inch closer to one another. But his promises to her do get broken as well since he gets another jolt of pain in school and has to be hospitalized. It doesn’t incense her. As always, she is understanding, despite him not explaining beyond a cursory sorry.
Akito also reunites Haruna with her childhood best friend, Miura (Mayu Yokota), who is his schoolmate. They had fallen out and had not even been on talking terms. Haruna may have done it so as not to make herself a burden on Miura. Their reconciliation doesn’t take much effort. Once the apologies are exchanged and the emotion each has for the other is expressed, they are back to being friends. Now, Miura, too, starts dropping in at the hospital.
Drawing Closer (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Does Haruna discover Akito is dying?
Nevertheless, the spell of love and friendship breaks as the deaths are inevitable. Akito isn’t able to be with Haruna when she passes away. But he does get the strength and positivity. He gets accepted after applying for a spot at the exhibition. He gives surgery a shot, which extends his life by three years. In the climax, as he unlocks Haruna’s Instagram account and riffles through her sketchbook, he discovers she had found out about his diagnosis all along the way. The film ends with a mutual embrace of the two’s love for one another.
Drawing Closer (2024) Movie Review:
There’s little innovation here on the overused templates and tropes that buttress the narrative. The cardinal demand is a complete emotional surrender. Invest in the grief and repressed romantic ache binding the two characters. They don’t even kiss. The longing just kept swirling in the air as they discussed everything other than their obvious growing attraction for each other. Of course, Haruna doesn’t actively push at it, knowing the small time window she has left.
Akito is in a similar quandary. What use is vocalizing and directly indulging in matters of the heart when they have barely any time to conduct a full-fledged future? It is impossible. The tragedy colors their interactions even though both try not to invoke the morbid inevitability itself. It lingers in the back like an awful secret. All Akito wants is to make Haruna happy and have those few days she can live memorable and uplifting.
What helps the film to considerably rise above the exhausted plot is the duo of Ren Nagase and Natsuki Deguchi. The two capture the innocence and fragility with an endearing ease. They have great chemistry together, which is particularly crucial for a film like this, which hinges so heavily on the charisma of its central pair. The actors have a simplicity and an immense likeability, making for a pleasant viewing experience. The emotions are more muted than declarative, which is also a welcome change from the thick melodrama loaded inherently into the story. But, of course, the film does plunge into a heavy, teary sadness when the inevitable finally arrives. The treatment of this stays routine and conventional. The film should also have been much brisker. At two hours, it overstays the course, especially because it peddles a host of predictable turns and emotional epiphanies.
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