AKA - Rippu Van Winkuru No Hanayome // リップヴァンウィンクルの花嫁
The plight of the painfully shy in the conformist world.
Sharper if the individual is seemingly friendless and adrift.
Part time / temp teacher casually drifts into wedding with blasé boyfriend.
She hires “friends” to fill her side of the chapel, her divorced parents pretend they are together.
False fronts for appearances. Society can be a harsh judge, however.
In the middle section, she begins a relationship with one of the phony friends.
The third act, I viewed as the inevitable flowering of her fake sandcastle.
Three hour “awakening” story, I suppose, can be broken up into one hour episodes and viewed as a J-dorama.
The director makes his points about loneliness and alienation, though I wish he trimmed and pushed the pace.
