Runway Beat ~ ランウェイ☆ビート

I just got 2 of my wisdom tooth extracted and currently on the pain killer program. But pain killer only can do so much, so I need distraction and what is better than taking stock of my inventory. At a glance, Runway Beat looks very if not too similar to Paradise Kiss, well, in concept, theme and both have Kamen Rider alumni in their casts, but other than that, it's a totally different movie. But let's face it, ParaKiss have much better budget, PR, star power and hype than Runway Beat. So, does it make Runway Beat is not worth to watch? I'd think Runway Beat is much better than ParaKiss in terms of delivering its message to the audience. With that, let's dig more into what makes me think so.

Runway Beat is based on mobile phone novel by Maha Harada (only in Japan we have keitai novel). The story starts from the moment Mizorogi Biito aka Beat transferred to his new school in Tsukishima area. There he met new friends, Mei, the supposedly lead girl but fail to make much presence, Miki, the model, Inuda aka Wanda, the geek who turn out to be quite kakkoi after Beat's make over, and Anna, Mei's best friend who's a part time DJ. So, to make their high school life memorable, they planned a fashion show by using Beat's design and Miki to promote the show. To make their fashion show come through, there were lots of obstacle that they had to go through. But from then, each characters gain valuable lesson and move forward to life after high school, adulthood.

So, yeah, the story is quite similar to ParaKiss right, except that this one is so PG and innocent compare to ParaKiss. I find the staff here did quite a good job to make the plot not so choppy and enough to cover all the bits and pieces. And they don't dwell a lot to explore character's emotion etc because, well, there's not much emotion to dig anyway, except for the conflict between Beat and his dad. Even in that, they don't show more than what's necessary. I find that it's enough for us to know that Beat hates his dad because dad wasn't there the day his mom died. But then Beat, in pursuing his high school festival's fashion show (that doesn't look like high school job at all), starts to understand his dad and forgive him. And dad is also start to opening up to his son. The scene when dad started making a jacket for Beat straight from the cloth and indirectly taught Beat that if you making clothes for someone, the image is already in your head, not only to show off Seto Koji's abs (LOL) and dad is still kakkoii, but also to showcase the point. Quite straight forward, I must say. So in the end, everybody's happy here. In a way, it's kind of advantage to Runway Beat to have a simple plot to start with, hence you don't really see anything that's cut out and no question marks in the end. Even those love sparkles, such as Wanda and Miki (I like the development of these 2 characters) or Beat and Mei (this one is really like those high school crush), it's light thus no complex emotion or expression needed.

Acting wise... I don't think i have a lot to say in here. I think Seto Koji worked harder in his Kamen Rider series than here in terms of emo showcase. And for Kiritani Mirei, at least she doesn't pout like Kitagawa Keiko, that's all. One scene I like is when the dad smiled over the phone upon listening to the audience calling on Beat's name after the runway was done. That smile is a proud daddy smile and a relieve smile at the same time that the show was a success.

Since it's about fashion, let's see what Runway Beat offers. Beat is a high school student, so his designs are targeted to same age group of people as his, hence all those funky non symmetrical, Scottish pleaded skirts and lots of glitters, studs, type of fashion. It's not avant garde like the ones we saw in ParaKiss (remember the blue dress?), and it's quite ready made though not so mass production like Gap, I'd think it's more like Desigual (I like their skirts, btw, fufufu) and I can imagine the price range is about there as well. And yeah, the students in this movie, with the uniform they look like nerds (especially Fujiko), but on runway, they are magically transformed to models (yeah, I think they're models too haha), I feel like seeing Kamen Rider do a henshin in this fashion show.

But what I like the most is the message at the end of the movie 'To change you only need to believe that you can.' Well, actually Beat keep on saying this since the beginning, but the movie itself shows that there are times when even somebody that believes in this phrase can fall apart, which is in this case Beat himself. And that's when good friends are for, to pull you back up from the valley of despair (I'm quoting the pet phrase from my previous training). This movie also shows that people around you are at some point determine which path you'd take, which I think, this is a good movie for those youngsters who are still searching on what they want to do for their future, well apart from gawking at Seto Koji (who only looks like a high school student when his hair is dark... else, he'll look like a junior high kid). And the ending OST, Runway Beat by Funky Monkey Babys, gives out the same message as to move forward grab your future that you believe in and overcome the obstacles to reach your dream.

So, I like this movie better than ParaKiss because I feel for this movie more.