Ocean Waves
Movie Summary
Ocean Waves is a high school love story between Morisaku Taku and Matsuno
Yutaka, who are best friends, and Muto Rikako, a girl who is a student transfer from
Tokyo. Rikako was eventually labelled as a snob, as she excluded herself from group
activities. Matsuno has a crush on Rikako and has been so vocal and open about it to
Morisaku, so it’s no surprise that he gets a little jealous when Morisaku and Rikako
start spending more time together. Some borrowed money, a spontaneous trip to
Tokyo, and a little twist of fate caused a stir as Rikako tried to cope with her parents’
divorce and a clueless Taku who didn’t know how to comfort and communicate with
Rikako. The trip ended without any major events, but rumors about their trip spread
through the school. The rumors around school get worse, but Morisaku still insists
there is nothing between him and Rikako. Morisaku and Rikako ends up slapping each
other because of the rumors. Matsuno confesses his feelings to Rikako and ended up
harshly rejected, while lowkey getting mad and jealous at Morisaku.
Their autumn school cultural festival arrives. Rikako, becomes distant from the
other girls, and has been avoiding their dance rehearsals. The girls ended up
confronting her behind the school, and Rikako bravely stood alone, as they accused
her of numerous issues. One girl attempted to strike her but was held back. Morisaku,
who has witnessed everything, approaches Rikako and comments that he is
impressed on how she handled the situation alone. She slaps him and runs away.
Matsuno sees Rikako crying while running, and he confronts a stunned Morisaku who
tried to explain. Matsuno ends up punching Morisaku to the ground and walks away.
They did not talk for the rest of the year.
Morisaku comes back home after studying in Tokyo for a while. As he landed,
Matsuno offers a lift home and apologized for punching him, realizing that Morisaku
held back his feelings for Rikako for his sake. At a class reunion, other classmates
mentioned meeting Rikako earlier. As they talked about her, Taku realizes that Rikako
was the woman he’d seen at the station. A classmate tells her that Rikako mentioned
she wanted to meet someone in Tokyo (implying Morisaku). In Tokyo, Morisaku runs
into Rikako at the train station. As they see each other, Morisaku realizes that he had
always been in love with her.
Movie Analysis
The movie, Ocean Waves, focused on the typical high school life, friendship,
and love. The story showed how Morisaku was loyal to his friend, to the point
wherein he held his feelings back, to let his best friend chase the girl he likes. Other
girls from their class, together with Morisaku and Matsuno, even tried to be there for
Rikako to help her adjust to her new life in Kochi. The story also highlighted some
scenes wherein individual characters thought about their plans for college and the
future, showing why they chose that path. Overall, the movie mostly focused on love,
and I think they showed different sides of love; unrequited love, the lack of love
shown in a broken family, and hidden feelings.
Personally, I somehow associate myself with Rikako, in the sense that she
tried to bottle up her feelings and tried to bear her burdens alone. Moreover, I related
on how Rikako put on this mask as if her life was put together, when in fact inside
she was falling apart. But still she stood up and lived up to everyone’s expectations,
and I know how much of a burden that could be on a person. Seeing how Matsuno,
Morisaku and her other friends tried to be there for Rikako, I realized how sometimes
we feel so alone and what we don’t see is there are a lot of people who are willing to
be there for us, as long as we let them in. Moreover, I realized that we should seize
every chance we get to confess or to tell people we love them. So that we’re not
plagued with a million what ifs, regretting not taking that brave step. A lot of doubts
and worries might hinder us, not only in love but with every life choice, but
sometimes it is that one brave step that would bridge us towards that once in a
lifetime chance. There’s no next time, no other chance. There is only that in the
present. Seize it before it turns into regret.
I chose this movie because I was curious the title. It didn’t seem like the
typical beach theme movie, and a lot of people are recommending it saying that it
was a movie worth watching. It piqued my interest enough to choose it for my movie
analysis. If I could change the ending though, I would have wanted to see them get
together and how they would reconcile, as their last interaction was them slapping
each other. How would they confess, and how they would be together in the future?
The movie overall is good, from the graphics and the plot. Although it was slow, it
was easy to understand, and it was an insightful movie.
