Beautiful slice of life movie, not a comedy.

Rating: 10/10 (30 March 2004)

From reading hundreds of comments on this movie and having watched it near a dozen times, I sincerely hope they remove the comedy tag from this movie. It's a very simple slice of life movie about 2 strangers in a strange land who fell in love with each other. It has some comedic elements but to those who think it must be another Groundhog's Day, well, it's not. It's a beautiful drama piece with a lighthearted story and wonderful shots of Tokyo. It's about information and culture shock, where the 2 main characters tried but failed to interact with, simply because they knew they were not there for long, and instead, they interacted with each other. Living in the same hotel, they had only each other. It might be a lolita relationship, it might be that they're aloof, but they are definitely not as cold as some heartless souls made them seem from some comments.
It's also not a political statement about how short Japanese are, no matter what some on the board try to say. Those scenes are only about how different he is with his surroundings, as are many other scenes in the movie. If only people can take it more lightly, it wouldn't be as "overrated" and "racist" as it's proclaimed.