*Raindance Preview Review* Hi! Otsuka Drugstore [2009] dir Yu Katsumata

 Hi! Otsuka Drugstore’s beginning is misleading; it doesn’t hint at the emotional heart that underpins the film.

The story revolves around the unlikely friendship between Otsuka, middle-aged woman owner of Otsuka drugstore (seen above) and a high school girl, Nakasaku Emi (also seen above). Otsuka tries to advise the girl with her crazy approach that actually hides some good advice and her similar experience in the past – of which we are informed throughout the film through flashback.

I really enjoyed that fact that the sort of guys both Otsuka and Emi choose to be their first love are incredibly inept and unattractive. That both of them put so much fate in charms and nail polish. That Otsuka’s daughter is as crazy as her mother, but with a mean streak.

All shot in saturated colours with a fun manga sensibility and funny angles, it is a great delivery from first time director Katsumata. I will most definitely be looking forward to his next film.

It is a fun funny delightful little film about the pains of first love and how a lifetime cannot change your first love story.

[OFFICIAL WEBSITE]  http://www.stroborush.com/otsuka/ [OFFICIAL WEBSITE]