Title: Threads of Destiny aka Akai Ito
Genre: Drama
Director: Murakami Shosuke
Format: Movie; 108 minutes.
Date: 20 Dec 2008

Synopsis: Takemiya Mei is an ordinary middle school girl who finds comfort in the camaraderie of her school friends. She meets the reticent yet gentle-natured Atsushi and soon, they become close friends. They both begin to realize that they have a number of things in common, as if they are bound by an invisible thread of coincidences. This includes both being born on the leap day, February 29, 1992; and a previous meeting when they were both 8 years old. As they grow closer, a series of unfortunate events takes place between the two – the close shave of their close friend, domestic violence and drug addiction – and these incidents will test the strength of the relationship between Mei and Atsushi, and prove that there is indeed a “red thread” that will bind the two together amidst all odds.

The Highlights
Plot: Half-baked, hackneyed and erratic pacing en route to the climax.
Characters: Shallow leads and unexplored side characters; blatant use of plot devices.
Story development: Based on moments of questionable actions and convenient incidents.
Plot twists: The only redeeming factor of the movie – seriously.

When I first heard about the movie Threads of Destiny, I had this sinking feeling that it would a sappy movie with a half-baked plot and melodramatic moments. Why did I have such bad impressions of the movie even before watching it? Perhaps it’s because the sour aftertaste I experienced after watching Koizora still remains on my tongue, and it certainly does not help that both Threads of Destiny and Koizora are adapted from a current trend called “mobile phone novels”. The common trait that both stories possess is that they are originally written by anonymous authors whose credentials in writing love stories are basically unproven. My unfavorable impressions actually came true, as Threads of Destiny is marred not only by a half-baked plot and moments of bathos, but also shallow protagonists and conspicuous use of plot devices in the form of side characters.

The movie starts off on a familiar path – an ordinary innocent girl grows close to a quiet boy, where their friendship blossoms into young love. It starts off pretty well and it even gets better when an unexpected character comes into the equation to make things more intriguing. However, when a tragic incident involving a close friend attempting suicide takes place, the story nosedives into confusion. The rationale of the incident is highly questionable, with the only conclusion that can be arrived at is that she is no more than a plot device to help trigger the upcoming series of unfortunate events. Worse still, she then becomes nonexistent to the story, somewhat connoting that she has no more affiliation to the people with the help of conveniently-thought amnesia. The plot devices do not stop here, as it also involves a violent and jealous boyfriend who gets removed permanently from the story out of the blue later on in the movie.

The questionable actions do not even spare the protagonists Mei and Atsushi as many of their subsequent decisions will leave the viewers scratching their heads and begging for reasons behind almost all of them, where they can only speculate their own conclusions. This comes about with the use of hackneyed plot development: boy meets girl – they fall in love – something bad comes in between the two – boy leaves girl in the cold for her own good. Sounds familiar? It should be, especially if the viewers have seen many sappy Japanese dramas and movies including Koizora for one. Worse still, a barrage of revelations come pouring out seemingly in a vain attempt to justify the titular “red thread” that binds Mei and Atsushi against all odds.

Although the movie suffers from a volley of trite plot holes, it actually does have some decent plot twists that keep the story unpredictable. The plot twists come in the form of how a seemingly gentle friend, who comes to the rescue of a girl enveloped in the hatred of those around her, turns out to have an uncontrollable sense of jealousy and insecurity. The idea of having unknown history between Mei and Atsushi is a welcoming twist, but its delivery is one of the major flaws of the movie. These twists may be seen as futile attempts to save the movie from complete catastrophe, but they nevertheless offer flickers of riveting entertainment.

I anticipated Threads of Destiny to be a disastrous love story, and it really is one right from the start. In the end, the movie serves nothing more than moments of bland bathos, convenient solutions to open-ended problems, and an ending that seems to be chopped off merely to make way for its sequel. As promising as the sequel may be, I certainly hope it does not get the short end of the stick, especially when it is following such a forgettable love story.

The Rating: 4

Reviewed by: AC