This review's more for those who have read the source material, so if you need a summary of the story use Google.
Based on genius Inio Asano's work by the same name; Solanin. There's several attempts to make a live action adaptation to a Anime or Manga, and many of them don't do the source material justice at all.. The studios focus too much on their own interpretation of the source material (death note, DBZ) or simply the obvios issue there's too much content to pack into a film. Solanin is not one of those. It's a very good adaptation for what it was working with. The actors were very good and fit the roles given very well even in appearance (which is surprisingly something some adaptations done even try to get right) Aoi Miyazaki honestly looks like a copy of Meiko too. Soundtrack was very good as well, more so having Asian Kung fu generation perform the ending theme and gave us the actual song "Solanin" performed by them, makes a bigger impact given how the Manga itself onviously can't give its readers a live performance. With its accuracy to the story itself the film couldn't go word for word for reasons being how Inio Asano's works are. For sure they never dissapoint, with the content itself, it's very dialogue heavy with the more heavy themes being discussed by monologues usually something the film does a bit. The art as we know asano loves taking some odd liberties with making some humans look very exaggerated, symbolism displayed in interesting ways and the beautiful still panels which the film can't do without some CGI work, does have a couple of still shots with just focusing on the characters which was nice to see. Overall though an adaptation that does the source material justice, still conveying the overall question that Solanin focuses on "Are you happy? Is this all you want?", life will continue on and you either un along with it or let it drag you along. I sincerely hope to see more of Asano's shorter works getting the same amount of love.
