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Though precisely that problem confronts our protagonists, nor is this a screwball comedy romance though our nerdy everyman of a hero gets conned by the most popular girl in school (whom he has a secret crush on) into pretending to be her fiance at a family gathering (Yeah, THAT'S gonna work!). Instead this is a movie about families, about what holds them together, about what tears them apart, and in particular families with a tradition of service. In an English subtitled interview in the Extras section the director seems genuinely puzzled that this movie would strike such a chord with audiences around the world, but while a family that still takes pride in once having been vassals to a shogun era feudal clan might SEEM utterly alien to non-Japanese, it really isn't if you just stop to think about it because we all know (or know of) similar sorts of families in our own countries: cop families, fire fighter families, military families, etc., and members of such families would have no trouble grasping the idea that if one of your own messes up, you have a family obligation to make it right.
Being too nice (or too lovesick) to bail on Natsuki when she reveals her plot, Kenji stays, experiencing the tortures of the damned in fear of his eventual, inevitable exposure and enduring treatment from Natsuki's huge extended family that varies from overwhelming to nerve wracking to downright cruel, but along the way something happens. As the sole child of an absent, working overseas father and a long hours working mother, he begins to appreciate the benefits of a large family and finds himself wistfully envying what Natsuki has and what he can never have once the family gathering is over and Natsuki wraps up the lie by telling everyone that they've broken up.
Then the long telegraphed disaster strikes, Kenji is exposed and, worse, falsely accused of causing it. At first it seems to be just a series of nasty computer pranks,... until somebody very close to them dies as a result. Then while the women of the Jinnouchi clan mobilize to manage the family through the crisis, it falls to the men of the Jinnouchi clan along with Natsuki and Kenji to mobilize and wage and win a cyber war. As per their history, the odds are hopeless but that never stopped the Jinnouchis before, and it doesn't stop them now. Does everyone manage to put aside the past and rise to the challenge to save the world? You might as well ask the outcome of the simultaneously occurring baseball match in which a Jinnouchi family member puts his team on his back and tries to pitch them into the nationals with ups and downs that eerily parallel those of the ongoing cyber war. It is corny and predictable and absolutely wonderful!
So, any defects? Only a minor one and that could possibly be a translation error. It is revealed at the end that the disaster was caused by the US Army that contracted to purchase the Love Machine virus DELIBERATELY releasing it as some sort of test.... Nope. Sorry. Never going to happen. The US Army would never do this; hell, the Japanese army would never do this; nobody in their right mind would ever do this! An accidental release, as contrarily reported earlier in the film? Yes, I can see that. For comparison over the years the US and the Russians have managed to lose at least six nuclear weapons that were never recovered, but all were due to accidents, and while nuclear tests have occasionally gone wrong and resulted in fallout in unexpected places, no one has ever deliberately tested one in range of a populated area in order to see what might happen, and no sane person ever would.
That minor criticism aside this film is highly recommended!
Note: A two volume manga series has been published that closely parallels the movie it was based on in plot and artwork so if you love one, you will no doubt love the other:
Summer Wars, Part 1
and
Summer Wars, Part 2
.
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Summer Wars
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Reviews with images
Pleasantly surprised and satisfied with my order!
I was very pleased to come home to see that my package was delivered today. I received it much sooner than expected which is pretty awesome by itself but to top that off I open my package to find both movies enclosed in slipcovers. It’s much more aesthetically appealing for my movies to have slipcovers and ordering online doesn’t always guarantee that. I truly appreciate the small details you’ve applied to my order. Thank you!
Top reviews from other countries
Nazario Martino
Originalità che profuma d'Oriente
Reviewed in Italy on September 16, 2016