At an unsuccessful attempt to learn more about my culture, I decided to take a Japanese class which unfortunately resulted in me not learning any more Japanese than what I already knew. I always tell my friends that “I’ve learned more Chinese from watching movies than Japanese from taking a class.” But I digress. There were a few perks to taking that class though. I met some new friends and our sensei would have our substitute show the class some movies when she was absent. Some of those movies included The Karate Kid, A Tale of Mari and Three Puppies, and Train Man. I probably wouldn’t have even heard of those last two movies unless I had taken this class, but I was surprisingly most interested in Train Man.
Train Man: Densha Otoko is mostly the typical “nerd gets makeover to win the girl” story. The movie’s about a lonely Japanese otaku known online as Train Man (Takayuki Yamada) who mainly just stays in room talking to some friends on a message board. He writes on the forum about a time where he saved a pretty girl named Hermes (Miki Nakatani) from a drunk man while on the subway. After getting encouraged by the members on the forum, he decides to pursue the girl in hopes of a romantic relationship and become more outgoing in the process. But in order to win the girl, he must make a few changes to himself, both physical and emotional.
Train Man: Densha Otoko is mostly the typical “nerd gets makeover to win the girl” story. The movie’s about a lonely Japanese otaku known online as Train Man (Takayuki Yamada) who mainly just stays in room talking to some friends on a message board. He writes on the forum about a time where he saved a pretty girl named Hermes (Miki Nakatani) from a drunk man while on the subway. After getting encouraged by the members on the forum, he decides to pursue the girl in hopes of a romantic relationship and become more outgoing in the process. But in order to win the girl, he must make a few changes to himself, both physical and emotional.
While watching this movie in class, everyone was totally engrossed. Overall, it’s mostly just cute fluff, but it got everyone in an uproar. We felt happy for the characters. We felt bad for the characters. And we felt uncomfortable when Train Man does something awkward. It was great! Since our classes were relatively short, we had to watch the movie over the course of a few days and we had to wait and see what was going to happen next. And by the end, we couldn’t help but have a huge smile on our faces. But still, I won’t be the first to admit that this movie is can be pretty predictable at times.
Besides the ending, this movie isn’t really anything new and if you’ve seen other romantic comedies before, you know what’s going to happen next. It’s also painfully cheesy and overly romantic. You know that this story could probably never happen in real life, but I ate it all up. Even when this movie became incredibly predictable, I was still emotionally invested in our main character. The female lead is admittedly as three-dimensional as a sheet of paper, but that’s kinda okay because I was so interested in the changes that the main character goes through.
Besides the ending, this movie isn’t really anything new and if you’ve seen other romantic comedies before, you know what’s going to happen next. It’s also painfully cheesy and overly romantic. You know that this story could probably never happen in real life, but I ate it all up. Even when this movie became incredibly predictable, I was still emotionally invested in our main character. The female lead is admittedly as three-dimensional as a sheet of paper, but that’s kinda okay because I was so interested in the changes that the main character goes through.
Though sporting a generic storyline, this movie actually has a few clever ideas. The way that the forum members interact with each other is very interesting and even encouraging at times. Even when Train Man is almost at his breaking point, the forum members were there to comfort him and encourage him to keep going forward. I actually found that pretty heart-warming. This movie mainly thrives off of those very likable characters. Three of the forum members are a trio of geeks who provide some very funny comic relief. There are other funny moments in this movie. The way that Train Man tries to impress Hermes leads to some awkward but funny scenes.
I also really liked the lonely Hirofumi (played by Eita; star of Summer Time Machine Blues) and how he changes as a character. It’s really interesting to watch how their interactions inspire them to better their lives. It’s also fun to watch how they interact in real life not knowing that they’ve talked to each other the message boards. Even the ending does something incredibly clever to leave this movie off with a high note. It’s overly happy and cheesy, but it really added to the movie.
I also really liked the lonely Hirofumi (played by Eita; star of Summer Time Machine Blues) and how he changes as a character. It’s really interesting to watch how their interactions inspire them to better their lives. It’s also fun to watch how they interact in real life not knowing that they’ve talked to each other the message boards. Even the ending does something incredibly clever to leave this movie off with a high note. It’s overly happy and cheesy, but it really added to the movie.
Overall, I thought Train Man: Densha Otoko was a great movie. It’s overly kawaii and unrealistic at times, but that’s partially why I liked it. It’s really just a fun romantic comedy to make you abundantly happy and that's about it. It’s consistently fun to watch and I even thought it was emotionally investing with its clever character development. Train Man is completely inconsequential and it can be looked at as trivial fluff, but it’s exceptionally good fluff.
Images from IMDb and Uisceros
Images from IMDb and Uisceros