Review: Hana Yori Dango movie

Summary
Alternative Title: Hana Yori Dango Final, 花より男子～ファイナル～
Genre: Romance
Release Date: Jun. 28, 2008
Starring:

• Mao Inoue as Tsukushi Makino
• Jun Matsumoto as Tsukasa Domyoji
• Shun Oguri as Rui Hanazawa

The popular J-drama series Hana Yori Dango ends with this movie. After Tsukasa announces his engagement with Tsukushi, his mother presents him with the family heirloom, a precious tiara called the Smile of Venus. Shortly after, the tiara is stolen and the feuding couple go on an adventure around the world in search of it.

Review
This is one movie I had a lot of expectations (and hype) for. After finishing the second season of Hana Yori Dango, I’ve been waiting for more than a year for this movie to be released. There were definitely a lot of surprises with this movie and not all of them were good.

Let’s get the bad surprises off my shoulders first. One of things that surprised me about this movie was that it’s nothing like the drama series. The drama was known to have addictive episodes with a lot of drama and unpredictable twists. The movie on the other hand, had none of that. I didn’t feel like there were any sad moments like in the drama. In addition, the story was very predictable, you’ll probably have a good idea of the ending once you get halfway through the movie.

In addition, the movie seemed to have a totally different genre than the drama. The drama was mostly drama/romance, but this movie tries to mix in a bunch of stuff that just doesn’t work for a HYD movie. There’s a bit of a mystery element to the movie and there’s even this very long chase scene! It was almost like they were trying to make this a Bond movie and if you think about it, the movie does have a lot of similarities to recent Bond movies. There’s a chase scene, exotic locations, nice hotel rooms, a mysterious baddy, nice cars etc.

I also thought there was some very unnecessary scenes like the one on the tropical island. Overall, it seemed like the plot wasn’t made for Hana Yori Dango fans. They tried to appeal to a greater audience and it failed miserably. I just wish they had formulated a plot that was similar to the drama series.

There wasn’t really anything that stood out for me. The only good thing I can really say is that the movie concluded what the drama started (but of course, not is a good way).



Pro

• It concluded what the drama started

Cons

• Plot is completely different from what HYD fans would expect
• Poor attempts at other genres like mystery/action
• The extremely long chase scene
• Ending is lame

Recommendation
I’m guessing everyone who has watched the HYD drama has already watched this movie. If you’re a HYD fan, I recommend it since it does sort of puts an end to the story, but in my opinion, you’re probably going to be disappointed.

Rating: 5/10

Video Preview
Here’s the clip of that dreadful chase scene that I mentioned.


Related Reviews
Hana Yori Dango season 1
Hana Yori Dango season 2