Alternative title:
Aya Ueto as Ichinose Kai
Ryunosuke Kamiki as Shuuhei Amamiya
Chizuru Ikewaki as Reiko Ichinose
Hiroyuki Miyasako as Sousuke Ajino
Mayuko Fukuda as Takako Maruyama
Based on a manga by Makoto Isshiki
Running Time : 1 hour and 41 minutes
WARNING : The following contain spoilers.
A rich boy from Tokyo, Amamiya Shuuhei moved to the countryside to live with his sick grandmother at the beginning of the summer. His mother was excited that he must become a professional pianist just like his father. While staring outside the car, he was amazed by the forest in the countryside and was also shocked because he heard piano sound coming out from the forest.
On his first day at school, Shuuhei introduced himself to his classmates but he was being made fun of as he talked about his dream of becoming a pianist. In result of the reaction he received from his classmates especially a bully, Kinpira,he realized that a transfer student shouldn’t stand out. While he was cleaning the music room after school, he was interrupted by and he started to tell him a rumour about a haunted piano in the forest. He declared a challenge to Shuuhei that he is going to play the broken piano at night. It is to prove whether he’s a real man or not. Of course, Shuuhei was scared.
A sudden sound came from a boy, Kai, who slammed the piano made everyone startled. Kai was confident that the broken piano is not broken but Kinpira was against him. An insult from Kai triggered Kinpira to punch him and soon ended up as a fight. The fight was interrupted by a teacher who had the name “Funeral” Ajiro and everyone left except Shuuhei. He asked Ajino about the legend of the haunted piano and as expected, he responded that the story was a lie.
Kai called Shuuhei on their way home and offered him to go and see the piano in the forest. They stopped in a middle of the forest so Shuuhei could wear his gloves because he can’t afford to injure his hands. They finally reached their destination. Shuuhei tried to play the piano but it won’t make a sound. Kai denied it and when he played it, the piano made a soothing melody that really touched Shuuhei’s heart. It was unbelievable because the piano was confirmed to be broken. He even said that he’s never taken any piano lessons because his family is poor.
Shuuhei invited Kai to play his grand piano at his house but he made an awful sound in contrast to how he plays in the forest. Shuuhei said in order to become a pianist, he has to handle the pain of practicing but Kai only plays it for fun. Shuuhei’s mother brought some tea and she was a bit shocked when she heard the name “Ajino”. It turned out he used to be a no.1 professional pianist but he had an unfortunate accident which damaged his left hand and was forced to retire.
The next day, Shuuhei’s mother requested Ajino to teach him knowing that he was once a professional but she was rejected. Shuuhei told him that he saw the piano and it did make sounds but only from Kai. Because of curiosity, Ajino searched the forest at night. He had a flashback that the piano was made for him and there’s only one in the world. A car accident made his left hand damaged severely and they would not be able to return it to normal. He got rid of his piano and was thrown somewhere in the forest. He found Kai and offered him to play the piano with him but Kai refused.
At night, Kai tried all of the songs that Ajino showed him but he wasn’t able to play the Minute Waltz by Chopin. He changed his mind and asked Ajino to teach him. Shuuhei lectured Kai how he has to take care of his hands and not to involve in any fight. Kai snapped and ended up hurting his friend’s feelings.
After school, Kai followed Ajino to his house for his piano lesson. After a few days, he managed to play the song. Kai wanted to pay something back and so the teacher wanted him to enter a piano competition. Ajino showed him a tape of the song that he’s supposed to perform and he was able to imitate Ajino’s style. But Ajino was against copying others and wanted him to play his own piano. He said that Mozart is going to come back from the grave and haunt him if Kai doesn’t start playing his own style of music. Kai started to have illusions of Mozart wanting his score back since that day.
On the day of the competition, Kai met a girl called Takako who wouldn’t stop complaining about Amamiya Shuuhei. Kai started to talk and his words made her cry. He tried to calm her down by saying to imagine places that calms her down the most. Of course, Shuuhei’s performance was flawless. For Kai, it ended up not so well. He did great at the beginning but at the same time illusions of Mozart were haunting him. He started taking of his tie and shoes and sit in the position that he felt comfortable with. Kai finally made up his own piano style which amazed many audiences including Shuuhei and Ajino.
In the end, he didn’t get to enter the final because he didn’t perform the pieces that he was supposed to. Kai congratulated Shuuhei on his last day in the countryside and made a promised that he’ll win.
Shi says I would appreciate if viewers leave some comments after reading. Thank you~
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