Nacchan wa Mada Shinjuku なっちゃんはまだ新宿

And…

Japan has gone and done it again! Just when I thought surely there can’t be a movie that can leave me completely confused anymore, a Japanese Director, a female one at that, goes and slaps me in the face to wake me up with yet another crazy entry onto an already long enough list!

Just as I speculated in my Trailer Post, everything came to pass just like I thought they would! Nacchan and Aki’s relationship was exactly like I figured it would be. So then you might ask, what then was so complex about the movie?

Well, you will just have to watch it yourself to find out! Yes, I know what happened. It seemed straight forward enough. But damn, am I confused as all hell!! There is like, three or more different movies in this one movie! Let me break them down for yous…

The first one goes like this – Aki has a crush on a guy. She has been crashing on since Lord knows how long! But the guy has a girlfriend – her name is Nacchan. Aki is so obsessed with Nacchan to the point that when they meet out of nowhere, when one day Naachan shows up in Aki’s closet, she keeps their interactions a secret like some kind of deranged person. Deranged because she has never met Nacchan. She doesn’t know how she looks like. She once asked the guy for a picture but he refused! So she keeps their life together a secret from everyone! She doesn’t even tell her Best Friend Ai!

When she learns that the guy and Naachan broke up, she wastes no time (granted all her friends were rooting for her and pushed her on) in confessing her feelings which were returned! A point after which of course High School is over, Aki moves away to Shinjuku (Nacchan’s favourite destination once upon a time) and the two go their separate ways.

Ten years later Aki is Ai and their male friend’s band manager! She has all but forgotten about Nacchan but her body hasn’t forgotten because she keeps buying those soft creams that Nacchan’s loved so much. So much so that at one point when she opened the fridge they all came flowing out! it was a fridge full of soft creams!

But won’t you know it, an internet Idol by the name Natsuko walks into her life and ten year ago come flashing back.

They hit her so hard she flips out on her boyfriend (still the same guy) for forgetting Nacchan when she told him that she had met her. The two re-unite and it seems like even Nacchan had forgotten, nay, not forgotten, she seemed as if she had never met Aki before. But they start all over, they have met again. Happy End?

The other movie is that Aki is so damaged that going back to the very beginning, she is so obsessed with this girl Naachan that the guy was seeing that she completely conjures her up from the figment of her own imagination! All interactions with Nacchan, the fact that she just showed up in her closet. The fact that the movie even makes it clear from early on that Nacchan is not real because after almost every scene we are shown that Aki is talking to herself!

The scene of them going their separate ways after Aki and the guy begin seeing each other is a real metaphor of Aki’s mind letting go of the ghost of this girl that the Dude she like was seeing but no more so she can stop obsessing over her.

Then ten years later when she meets a woman named Nacchan, looking almost exactly like her made-up Nacchan, she has finally met the real woman. Aki’s life goes back into a spiral! She begins losing it! She comes clean of her High School Days when she was fantasizing about Nacchan and the two decide to finally be friends for real and hopefully get together. Happy End?

But wait, there is another third movie here! The High School Days are the same as the second movie but instead of ten years later Nacchan being the real deal, Nacchan is still just in Aki’s imagination! But in this version Aki’s obsession with Nacchan is of hate. She really loathes Nacchan – the girl that her crush first dated, first kissed, even first had sex with! So when once more she meets Nacchan, it only makes sense that she would flip out…to the point of actually stabbing Nacchan with a box-cutter!

Yep, that actually happened…towards the end of the movie too! Bad End? Not in the way you think, for you see, this time finally Aki comes to her senses and asks for forgiveness. Nacchan being the super girl that she is forgives her and Aki finally says her goodbye to the girl of her imagination because this was it. This was the end. Time to face reality and stick with it until the end! Nacchan disappears, probably forever but something new has just been brewed…Ai’s last song was almost basically like a love letter to Aki and the way the movie ended…with Ai running to tackle a prodigal friend after she returns in an awesome hug. We don’t see it but I am sure it was super gay!

So yeah, confused yet? I am with you! The closest of these three to the actual movie is probably movie two! Aki never met the real Nacchan! And in regards to the gayness, putting aside the fact that Aki conjured up Nacchan, it was actually Nacchan who was in love with Aki! She even says it! I am also willing to bet my all that the reason she and the guy broke up was on her and because of Aki! But we also have to remember that Nacchan was not real, so what was she?

Was she like Fukada Kyoko’s Angel character in the movie Tenshi? Was she just Aki’s guardian Angel? I don’t know and will never know because this movie doesn’t tell you anything at all about Nacchan! What school did she go to? It was definitely different because she had a different uniform. Yes, you can see her here in Aki’s class but she is not real, remember?

What is so confused still is the fact that some things that happen are so real and so unexplainable that my brain just wants to explode! Like ten years later when Nacchan seems to interact with other people during her photoshoot or in the meeting when they meet again! Aki also accesses a website with Nacchan on it!

That was the same Nacchan that disappears towards the end of the movie so like…

What! The! Actual! _ _ _ _!?!

Oh well, I was already prepared way back when during the trailer so I will just settle for the delusional yuri vibes (since Nacchan is not real) with Aki almost kissing Nacchan, the glorious Hand-sex with a sleeping Nacchan, the confession, the cuddling…Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Anyway, jump over for caps and the goodies to make up your own minds about this crazy movie! Yes, I did say I was getting this and I don’t lie (well, not often)…

Ja

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

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GEDDIT
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