Last Quarter (Kagen no tsuki -2004)

Starring:
Chiaki Kuriyama ... Mizuki Mochizuki
Hiroki Narimiya ... Tomoki Anzai
Tomoka Kurokawa ... Hotaru Shiraishi
Motoki Ochiai ... Masaki Miura
Simon Britton ... Evil Eye Bassist
Ayumi Ito ... Sayaka Kamijo
Takanori Jinnai
Reika Kirishima
Maki Meguro
Anna Nakagawa ... Sayaka's mother
Ken Ogata ... Doujima
Nao Omori
Hideto Takarai ... Adam (as Hyde)
Yasuko Tomita
Tsuyoshi Ujiki

Last QuarterOn the night of her 19th birthday, Mizuki (Chiaki Kuriyama) is celebrating in style at a club with her boyfriend Tomoki (Hiroki Narimiya). Their blissful scene is ruined by a friend who reveals that she has been sleeping with the habitually promiscuous Tomoki, which shocks Mizuki profoundly. After the suicide of her mother and her difficulty adjusting to her father's remarriage, he was the only person in the world that she felt she could rely on. Utterly dejected, she flees into the night and stumbles upon a dilapidated estate bathed in the ethereal glow of the moon in its last quarter. Drifting on the still air is a strangely familiar melody being played on a guitar, emanating from somewhere inside the mansion. She follows the music inside to a darkened room and a mysterious young man named Adam (HYDE). He claims to have written the song especially for her even though she has never met him before. Feeling an inexplicably strong bond to this charismatic stranger, Mizuki returns home and collects her belongings in order to begin a new life with him but is involved in an accident. Suddenly she finds herself back at the gates of the mansion, unable to leave its precincts, and with no memory of what has happened or who she is.

Hotaru (Tomoka Kurokawa), an inquisitive young girl recently discharged from hospital, is searching for her runaway cat, followed by her reticent school friend Miura (Tomoki Ochiai). They enter the overgrown grounds of a deserted manor and hear piano music coming from within, enticing Hotaru to venture inside where she discovers a solitary young woman suffering from amnesia who claims to be awaiting the return of someone called Adam. When Miura enters the room, they are astounded to find that this girl can only be seen by Hotaru and is prevented by some strange force from leaving the mansion. Together they try to discover her identity and unravel the mystery surrounding her, and gradually come to the realization that it is all somehow connected to the tragic past of a family who once lived in the mansion, a rare phase of the moon that occurs only once every 19 years, and an enigmatic musician by the name of Adam...



This was the most bizarre love story ever! BUT....totally different in every way. I wasn't sure this story was even going to work. First, we all know how I feel about infidelity. Tomoki cheated on Mitzuki with her best friend, Aya. Second, it was creepy-ish. I'm not big on horrors. Thankfully this wasn't a horror movie, at all. Third, two of the characters were "goth" like. Nothing against Gothic genre, but that's not my "cup'a tea".

Instead, this movie became a eerie mystery. A girl suspended in the "middle" world. Not dead or alive. One girl, who just happened to have an accident the same night as the girl who is suspended-like, can see her.

Feeling guilty, and just realizing he had made the most biggest mistake of his life, Tomoki eventually realizes that Mitsuki's spirit has been taken over by another and helps the goth-like teens figure out how and why this has happened. I loved the story.

This was the first movie that I've witnessed Hyde's acting capabilities. I have to say he fit Adam to a "T". His ethereal freakiness was perfect as the haunting ghost of the mansion. And might I add that I will be youtubing him after I finish this review because I love jrock and haven't quite really heard him sing with the exception of the theme song to this movie and it was quite good.

Hyde


Narimiya Hiroki