18.8.06
Train Man 電車男
Train Man (densha otoko) – 2005
This is a sweet Japanese film. It's an unrealistic romance about a otaku guy who hides away from face to face contact with people preferring the world of internet chat rooms, comics, video games and collectable figurines. He meets a mature career-focused rich girl on the train after weakly trying to stop a drunken salary man hassling her. He seeks advice from other Japanese friends in an internet chat room community about this girl he wants to get to know. She is very happy that he acted rather than just trying to ignore the situation like everyone else on the busy train and so sends him a present; some expensive tea cups. He then attempts to change himself in order to be her boyfriend. An epic process, but no matter how good he can look he cannot beat his simple fear of talking to her properly and with confidence.
The actor playing Train Man, Takayuki Yamada, is actually quite good looking but plays an awkward otaku with no fashion sense very well, though perhaps sometimes Train Man gets a bit too weird and ya just want him to get a freaking grip on everything.
What I love about this film is we get brief looks into the lives of the other chat room members, which proves quite interesting. The ending is admirable. 7/10
