I was very much caught off guard by NANA on my first viewing. I’m still not sure what my expectations were going into my first viewing but needless to say NANA went in an unexpected direction than I had anticipated. Understand that before watching NANA I had no prior connection with the popular Manga or the anime series. I had the first few fan subs on my hard drive but I didn’t give them much attention and they were quickly erased to make room. What I did see looked… well… fluffy. So I went into my review a NANA innocent. But I have read nothing but positive feedback from fans of the manga about the accuracy of the movie to the source material. Anyone else who is more familiar with the manga and the accuracy between the two is free to comment for or against.

Thankfully as the story unfolds we are saved of any Lemmon/Matheau comedic impulses to use the relationship between the two girls to rip a laugh out of the viewer’s throat. Instead we’re shown a friendship that grows despite the two characters being so much the opposite of each other. Nana is irresistibly drenched in sugar and spice and every nice. NANA is very much the smoky and sultry one. We’re offered, I believe, two extremes of character between the two. Nana is very much what unfamiliar westerners would assume is your atypical young Japanese woman – she’s bubbly, likes matching strawberry glasses and pastels are her friend; NANA is the type of woman we want them to be – she drinks, smokes, sings in a band and her and leather are tight [though I was fighting the urge to yell out for Mika to eat something – gosh her arms are skinny]. You cannot get more opposite than this. Yet despite all this a friendship forms almost instantly, whereas in any other genre (or country?) this likely would have been played out for laughs or to make a moral point. This coming together of two opposing character types is clearly played out visually in the middle of the film while the story shifts focus from Nana to NANA. Nana is wearing NANA’s leather jacket and NANA is wearing Nana’s shawl [don’t ask me how I know it was called that]. I found this look on relationships incredibly refreshing. So often films get bogged down trying to work out differences between two opposing characters when it’s not even necessary.

And as much as we are offered a characterized representation of both extremes we see two love stories played out completely opposite as well. Sure, they follow convention and how they unravel is nothing new but I don’t think that the relationships are what are key to the message of this film. But, while you could not draw a clear cut conclusion about the way love works from the two examples in the film you do see two ways in which it can be played out and what helps bring you through. What that boils down to is your relationships. It’s about who you have to fall back on, to push you or to support you as you go about your daily life. “You’ve got to think about your partner. It takes two to make a relationship work” And I’ll take that slightly out of its context and attribute it to the relationship between our two girls.

What I didn’t expect was the sincerity in which the movie took its themes. Director Kentaro Otani smartly injects flashbacks at the appropriate times throughout the film. They’re all about NANA and her relationship with Ren and the course that it runs before they catch up with the current storyline. So while the first half of the film focuses on the relationship between Nana and her boyfriend Shoji we’re still very much interested in the relationship between NANA and Ren. It plays out more like a fairy tale during the first half as a backdrop to Nana’s relational woes. And those flashbacks are intensely emotional and intimate too. Another thing I was not prepared for. Hey, I’m a dinosaur. This lovey dovey thing frightens me. Though I must say I now need a bigger bathtub and a constant supply of rose petals nearby.

The performances from Mika and Aoi are fine. Though known more for her singing career Mika does the better job I say given her background. I must say that Matsuda, the prettiest man in Japan, wasn’t given much to work with though the moody rock star thing isn’t that hard to do. The rest of the cast fits all the stereotypes just fine and from what I have read the character design also matches the manga very well.

Women will dig it. Guys will dig it because women will dig it and they may just enjoy it themselves along the way.

You may find your copy of NANA here.

Version Reviewed: NANA (Hong Kong Version)
Region Code: 3
Artist Name(s): Nakashima Mika | Miyazaki Aoi | Matsuda Ryuhei
Release Date: April 13, 2006
Language: Japanese Subtitle: English and Traditional Chinese
Duration: 114 Minutes
Publisher: Panorama (HK)
Extras: None