Omohide.com

Fans of Touch shouldn’t really expect anything from this film other than the novelty of seeing live-action versions of the characters.  After all, the anime was 101 episodes.  This film is a few hours.  There was absolutely no possibility of cramming in all that gradual development into such a short film.  The characterizations have rough similarities to the characters from the original, but to be honest I felt like I was just watching generic Japanese soap opera characters.  Early on in Touch, Tatsuya has a light-hearted and humorous air to him which masks some briefer moments of resentment and sadness.  That’s not really communicated well in this film.  Minami is also a very memorable female lead, very kind but with her own sprightly nature which shares some similarities with Tatsuya’s.  In the film, she may as well have just been transplanted from any other film.  It’s hard to really find actors who embody characters from manga and I don’t think they really succeeded here, but that’s forgivable.  Plenty of familiar scenes abound, but because the film has to rush through the plot, there isn’t really any weight behind them due to the lack of character or relationship development.  You certainly don’t get a sense of the complexity of their triangle, Tatsuya’s quiet altruism, Kazuya’s collision of kindness and selfishness, etc.

But I’m rambling a bit too long.  Clearly this film is not going to be able to be as effective as the manga or anime.  It does go to show how much of an effect Touch had, when even in 2005 there was still enough interest to make a new film based on it, even if that film has only superficial resemblance to the source.