Rainbow Song may be every Japanese male film student’s fantasy: a young college guy falls slowly in love with a tough-minded aspiring female director who happens to look like the cute young rising star Juri Ueno. In actuality, Rainbow Song is the first film from Playworks, Japanese director Shunji Iwai’s programme to nurture young screenwriters. That would explain why writer Ami Sakurai and director Naoto Kumazawa’s inspiration seems to be Shunji Iwai youth movies such as Hana and Alice and Love Letter. This romantic drama comes with all the usual Iwai traits: saturated cinematography, soft lighting, eccentric characters and, like some Iwai movies, it’s also self-indulgently overlong.

Hayato Ichihara plays Tomoya, a lowly production assistant at a small production company that makes documentaries and music videos. One day he receives a call telling him that Aoi (Juri Ueno), a young woman that also worked at the production company, had died in a plane crash in the USA. While assisting with the funeral arrangements, Tomoya begins to reflect on his past with Aoi, which actually spans all the way back to their college days. They first met when Tomoya wanted Aoi’s help in pursuing another girl, and a friendship slowly emerged after Aoi recruited him to act in her student film. A feeling that may have been love grew between the two over the course of their student and professional lives, but that feeling unfortunately remained unexpressed.

After playing the over-the-top piano genius in Nodame Cantabile and an enthusiastic but clumsy saxophone player in Swing Girls, Juri Ueno continues to prove that she is one of Japan’s most promising young actresses with Rainbow Song. As a fierce young girl with a soft exterior, she enlivens the film every time she is on screen. Even when Rainbow Song slows down as Aoi and Tomoya get into an extended discussion about girls, Ueno’s performance keeps the film afloat and is the prime reason Rainbow Song is worth watching.

However, the protagonist of the film is actually Ichihara’s Tomoya. Ichihara matches the bumbling personality of Tomoya but he lacks the charisma of a leading man. This becomes a problem when the film takes a diversion to a random episode involving Tomoya’s girlfriend, a woman with a secret that only he doesn’t know. While the episode’s intention is apparent, the film strays too far from the central relationship by homing in on a character that is not interesting enough to deserve such a focus.

The original script by Playworks participant Ami Sakurai was polished by Shunji Iwai himself (under the name Amino San) before it went into production. Iwai’s ability to craft eccentric characters and amusing random episodes helps infuse some nice comic moments into Rainbow Song. However, it is the will-they-or-won’t-they element of the central relationship that is the most touching and bittersweet part of the film.

For Shunji Iwai fans, Rainbow Song features both the best and the worst of the filmmaker’s writing traits. Nevertheless, as a sentimental examination of the love that slipped away and all the regret that comes with that, this film will connect with hip 20-something audiences, regardless of their interest in Shunji Iwai.

Kevin Ma