Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari: Kino Koen (2006)

Also known as: The Yesterday park
Country: Japan
Genre: surreal, life, friendship, time travel
Format: part of Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari series
Cast: Domoto Koichi, Yamazaki Shigenori, Harada Natsuki
Synopsis:Yosuke (Domoto Koichi) loses his best friend in an accident. Some hours before they played ball in a park and talked. Next day Yosuke is again at the park, recalling last day, suddenly a baseball rolls to his feet. Picking up that ball sends him back to last day, giving him the chance to change the death of a friend.
Rating: 5/5

 Absolutely marvelous work! It is so interesting and surreal that it nails you to the screen. It kind a reminds me USA's movie "Butterfly effect" (2004) - actually there are more movies about this kind of time travel, but I believe "Butterfly effect" is the most known  - , but "Kino Koen" has way better solution to it. It makes you think that these things cannot be happening or you start to overthink all the things in your life. In addition, it might make you wonder about the possibilities of your own actions when you are placed in this kind of situation.
Yosuke did what I think anyone of us would do as a friend. Domoto Koichi's acting is great. You can see how he plays his character changes off. Yosuke is guy, who cares much of his friends, but does not show that much emotions. He is trying to give his best in his life, but seems to fail in university and relationships. At the same time Takao is working at family liqueur shop and knows what is the most important in life and is a man of actions, which all makes Yosuke feel that Takao is much better man than he will ever be. Their friend Noriko is a shy girl, who is in love-triangle with the guys. In a way she is more like a messenger in the movie -updating with all bad news.
The end definitely added the final star to rating so be sure to watch it all. It really makes you want to live your life fullest, because you never know when you will die and you must always care for others, because you might loose them even today. It also shows that sometimes you have to accept the fate as it is.
This story is (at the moment) my favorite from all of the "Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari's". Every single thing is perfect in it. You can see the things that are always repeating - the balloon, children, car, water - and it might drive you totally insane. I am really prone to deja-vu's and sometimes while having a deja-vu, I get scared that what if deja-vu's are just these "returning points" from were we have a chance to do something differently. With my imagination I also end up thinking about all the possibilities how I might have died for me the have the returning point. Of course, I am actually aware that scientifically the "deja-vu" is explained by nerve-system mistake by making connection with long-memory rather than short-memory and making us think that we have had this situation before even though it is the first time happening. Still it is scary to have one repeating deja-vu going over and over again as most of the time I end up having a deja-vu of having the same deja-vu once or twice before.
What is also good about this movie, is that it is only 25 minutes long, so you can watch it any time like when you have free half hour between your lessons and you have your laptop with you.