Analysis of 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' | Was a Love Between Two Similar People Really Love?—The Truth About Mirror-Image Romance

2021 | Japan | Director: Nobuhiro Doi | Screenplay: Yuji Sakamoto

Those two young people are flowers in bloom right now.
Flowers will wither someday.
But even if they wither, I won't forget that a beautiful flower was blooming there.

Thursday, June 25, 2026.

The humidity of the rainy season made the room feel heavy, along with the apartment wallpaper.

Last night, after I got home from my part-time job, I opened a streaming service for no particular reason. We Made a Beautiful Bouquet. I had known the title for a while. I also knew it was a romance movie. But I had never watched it. Romance movies, somehow, I feel embarrassed to press the play button myself.

After I finished watching it, I stared at the ceiling for a while, still holding my smartphone.

If you ask me if I cried—no, I didn't cry. Rather than crying, it was more like, my chest felt tight, and that feeling just wouldn't go away. The closest thing to that sensation is the feeling I had on the way home after meeting my ex-girlfriend for the last time at a summer festival in high school, when we said our goodbyes—that feeling where the pit of your stomach goes cold.

Even when I woke up in the morning, it was still there.

Looking in the mirror while brushing my teeth, for some reason, I hated my own face. It wasn't about my bangs looking weird or anything like that. The person in the mirror just felt... fake.

I have so much I want to talk to Sensei about. But I don't think I can say it well.

When I left the apartment, the hydrangeas were wet. The smell after the rain mixed with the asphalt, and it smelled just a little bit like the time before summer. I put my earphones in and headed to Sensei's house. I didn't play anything. I didn't want to overwrite the lingering feeling of the movie with sound.

Cinema-sensei and Tok's Movie Talk, Episode 20.
Today, let's talk about 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet'.

[Character Introduction]

Sensei, did you see that coming from the start?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: This movie's story is going to be a long one.

🎤 Tok: ...Yes.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Oh, you're unusually quiet today.

🎤 Tok: No, it's just... I haven't been able to process it yet.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Let's talk about it without processing it. There are things you'll miss if you wait until you've sorted it all out.

🎤 Tok: ...Yes.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet'. Released in 2021, written by Yuji Sakamoto, and directed by Nobuhiro Doi. It grossed over 3.8 billion yen, and Kasumi Arimura won Best Actress at the Japan Academy Film Prize. It is a film where the three words 'relatable,' 'heartbreaking,' and 'cried' were trending all over social media.

🎤 Tok: My timeline was exactly like that too. Everyone was crying.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: I imagine so. —However, when I watched this film, before I could even cry, I sat up straight.

🎤 Tok: Sat up straight?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Yes. In a certain scene early on, I straightened my back. Because I felt like I could see where these two were headed.

🎤 Tok: ...Which scene is that?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: The confession scene.

Confession Through the Frame

🎤 Tok: The confession scene is where they're taking pictures of the parfait, right? Isn't that a good scene?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: The public took it that way. 'A modern confession,' 'new,' 'cute.' But I felt a certain... sense of discomfort in that scene.

🎤 Tok: Discomfort?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Remember. The two of them are holding up their smartphones, framing the parfait. The other person is on the other side of that frame. But their eyes are on the smartphone screens. They aren't looking directly at each other. It's through the smartphone frame. —And Mugi, just like that, says, 'Will you go out with me?'

🎤 Tok...Oh. He confessed while still looking through the smartphone.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: That's right. He didn't remove the frame. —But here is what's important. What did Kinu do?

🎤 Tok: ...Um, Kinu—she took her eyes off the smartphone, looked at Mugi, and said, 'Yes.'

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Exactly. Kinu removed the frame. She took her eyes off the smartphone, looked directly at Mugi, and answered.

🎤 Tok: ...Ah.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: In that moment, these two are saying something. Mugi cannot offer his feelings without going through a frame. Kinu steps outside the frame and tries to make direct contact. —This difference was already written into that confession.

🎤 Tok: ...But isn't that just how the beginning of a romance is? You're so full of your own feelings that you can't see the other person.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: Exactly. That is precisely why that scene is so clever.

🎤 Tok: Huh?

🎬 Cinema Sensei: This is where the brilliance of Mr. Sakamoto's script lies. The moment the audience perceives that scene as 'cute,' the structure of their relationship is already written into it. Their attitudes toward the confession are completely different from the start. But almost no audience member notices that. That confession is foreshadowing.

🎤 Tok: Foreshadowing... you mean the first confession is already foreshadowing for the breakup?

🎬 Cinema Sensei: In my view, the screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto embeds the structure of human relationships within the dialogue. It's the same in 'Quartet' and 'Matrimonial Chaos'; the lines that the audience laughs at as 'cute' or 'funny' at the beginning return with an entirely different meaning in the second half of the story. That is his method.

🎤 Tok: ...I see. That confession scene, I definitely thought it was 'cute' too. But looking back now—Mugi stayed behind the smartphone, while Kinu took the phone away. Their way of facing each other was different from the start.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: Exactly. And the camera captures that difference as well. Mugi's gaze is within the frame, while Kinu's gaze goes outside the frame. —And then, being stared at by Kinu, Mugi also moves outside the frame.

🎤 Tok: ...Sensei, did you notice that from the beginning?

🎬 Cinema Sensei: Rather than noticing it, I saw it. I have seen this kind of love hundreds of times in movies. Similar people face each other like mirrors, find themselves in the other person, and fall in love. That in itself is beautiful. But mirror love breaks the moment it encounters something that isn't reflected in the mirror.

🎤 Tok: —Mirror love.

Even though you like the same things, why can't you see the other person?

🎬 Cinema Sensei: The two of them were indeed surprisingly similar. The music they liked, the movies they liked, the books they liked. The audience was excited along with them at that chain of coincidences on the night they met.

🎤 Tok: Well, if there's someone with tastes that similar, you're going to fall in love. —I would too.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: You would too?

🎤 Tok: No, I mean, that first half of them living together, I was seriously envious. Naming the cat together, going to see the Parco closing, talking about movies all night long... I think that time was real.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: —Yes. That time was real. That is precisely why what I am about to say might sound cruel.

🎤 Tok: ...Huh?

🎬 Cinema Sensei: For example, liking Tenjiku Nezumi's live shows. Liking Mamoru Oshii. Liking Natsuko Imamura. —That much I understand. But what is it about Tenjiku Nezumi that they like? What part of Mamoru Oshii's work are they attracted to? In Natsuko Imamura's novels, where did it hook into their own lives? Did the two of them ever talk about that?

🎤 Tok: ......

🎬 Cinema Sensei: Matching tastes is not the same as matching the depth of those tastes. Having the same name and seeing the same things in the world through that name are two completely different things.

🎤 Tok: That's... but, when you've just met, doesn't it get you excited just to have things in common? Like, 'Oh, I like that too!'

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Of course. That is why I am not blaming those two. What I am saying is that within the excitement of that meeting, a structure where the two were not looking at each other was built in from the start. They were excited by the 'same'—the things they both liked—and failed to see the 'different' that lay behind that 'same'.

🎤 Tok: ...Sensei, I feel like I can relate to that way too much.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: ——I imagine so.

🎤 Tok: No, never mind about me. ...The atmosphere changes completely around the time they start job hunting, doesn't it?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Mugi gets a job. Kinu is not happy about it. The world calls this development a 'gap in values.' But to me, it looked like something with deeper roots.

🎤 Tok: Deeper roots?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: What Kinu feared was not that Mugi would change, but that something which had been the same as her would become something different from her. You could say the mirror was fogging up. The self that had been reflected in the mirror began to distort. That is not concern for the other person. It is the terror of one's own outline dissolving.

🎤 Tok: ...Ah. There's that scene where they both say, 'It's hard to be normal,' at the same time, right?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: There is. That is a particularly cruel device, even for a script by Mr. Sakamoto. The two say the same words at the same time—the audience smiles, thinking, 'They really are two of a kind!' But the content of that line is a self-consciousness that 'we are not normal.' Only the words are similar; behind that line lies not an interest in each other, but an interest in oneself.

🎤 Tok: ...The way they fought was also weird, wasn't it? Like, they were fighting, but it wasn't really a fight.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Well noticed. The fights between those two were just them stating their own opinions. They didn't take in the other's words and respond to them. 'I think this,' 'I think that.' Two monologues running in parallel.

🎤 Tok: It was like that when their friend died, too. Mugi leaves saying, 'You won't listen to what I have to say'—but he wasn't listening to Kinu either, was he?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Exactly. But I don't want to blame them for this either. ——Through these fights, for the first time, the two discover that the other person is a human being different from themselves. The reason their fights look strange is that they are not used to facing each other. A person who has been looking at a mirror the whole time realizes for the first time that there is another face on the other side of the mirror—that confusion is what appears in those clumsy fights.

These two were different people from the start

🎤 Tok: ...Sensei. Can I ask you one thing?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: ...What is it?

🎤 Tok: There was that line, 'Maintaining the status quo with Kinu-chan is happiness.' When I heard that, it bothered me a little. If the girl I was dating said that to me... I don't know, I might not be happy about it.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: ...That's sharp. At first glance, those words sound kind. But 'maintaining the status quo' is a declaration that one wants to maintain a relationship that is comfortable for one's current self. It is true that Kinu is also clinging to their previous life. However, even if Kinu wished for that, whether it is truly happiness is never questioned.

🎤 Tok: ...

🎬 Cinema-sensei: And that line opened up an even deeper question for me. Up until now, I've been looking at the two of them using the term 'mirror-image love.' But I want to dig one level deeper.

🎤 Tok: One level deeper, you say?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: The story so far is built on the premise that 'the two were similar but weren't really looking at each other.' But I want to go a bit further. — Were these tworeally like-minded people?

🎤 Tok: ...Huh? Aren't they incredibly similar? Their hobbies, their language, everything.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: On the surface, yes. But I wonder if their 'cores' weren't fundamentally different from the very beginning.

🎤 Tok: ...What do you mean by that?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Remember their breakup conversation. The scene at the family restaurant. Mugi initiates the breakup. He says his romantic feelings are gone. What did he say right after that?

🎤 Tok: ...'Let's get married.'

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Exactly. He says his romantic feelings are gone, yet he follows it up with 'Let's get married.' He says, 'We can get married even without romantic feelings.'

🎤 Tok: Honestly, I didn't understand what he was talking about there.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Neither did I. — But after ruminating on that scene over and over, I arrived at a hypothesis.To me, Mugi looked like a person who tries to maintain human relationships through 'formality.'

🎤 Tok: Formality?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: We date because our hobbies match. We set up the formality of living together. We get jobs and set up the formality of being working adults. And even when the romantic feelings are gone, he tries to hold it together with the formality of marriage.Mugi is probably the kind of person who thinks, 'If I keep the formalities in order, things won't break.'His confession through the frame connects to this as well.

🎤 Tok: ...Then what about Kinu?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Kinu is the opposite.She tries to build a person through experiences and emotions.Touching things she loves moves her heart, and those movements create her own contours. That's why life with Mugi, who could no longer enjoy his hobbies, was for Kinuan experience where her own contours were fading away.

🎤 Tok: But Sensei, I don't think Kinu... just wanted to protect her hobbies, you know?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: ...What do you mean?

🎤 Tok: As Mugi changed, didn't it feel like the nights they met were disappearing too? Like that night they missed the last train, or the nights they spent talking about movies together.Kinu seemed like someone who wanted to protect the 'time she loved' more than the 'things she loved.'

🎬 Cinema-sensei: —Ah. That's important. Kinu wasn't afraid of losing her 'hobbies.' She was afraid of 'the version of herself from back then' disappearing.

🎤 Tok: Come to think of it, even though they looked like two of a kind—does that mean they were different people from the start?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: That's right. It wasn't that the mirror fogged up.The mirror shattered, and for the first time, they realized that a different person was standing there. ...But Tok, I don't want to go so far as to say this movie was 'all just narcissism'.

🎤 Tok: ...Huh?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Humans can only love others through themselves. A romance that starts because of shared hobbies, or being able to laugh at the same things—that isn't inherently such an ugly thing.

🎤 Tok: ...

🎬 Cinema-sensei: The problem is what happens after the 'difference' appears. Do you try to see the other person from that point on? Or do you discard the mirror that no longer reflects yourself?—This movie depicts that boundary line. And what's even scarier is—this isn't just a story about Mugi and Kinu.

🎤 Tok: ...

🎬 Cinema-sensei: People are prone to thinking that someone who affirms them is their 'destiny'. 'We have so many hobbies in common,' 'We talk so well together.'But sometimes, that's not 'loving the other person,' but rather loving 'the version of yourself when you're with them.'

🎤 Tok: ...!

🎬 Cinema-sensei: That's why many people feel pained watching this movie. Even though they're supposed to be watching Mugi and Kinu, halfway through, they feel like they're being shown their own love life. That is my interpretation.

🎤 Tok: ...Sensei, that might be the scariest thing about this movie.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Scary?

🎤 Tok: Because—doesn't that mean that no matter how much your hobbies match, or how much time you spend together, there are times when you don't actually understand the other person? Even if everything you like is the same.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: ...That's right.

🎤 Tok: ...And what's more, you only realize that when you're breaking up.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: —That is where Mr. Sakamoto's script is cruel. This scriptdepicts the cracks in a relationship through misaligned conversations. The two use the same words while feeling completely different things. The precision of that is extraordinary. The same line, 'It's hard to become a normal adult,' is spoken by the person of form and the person of experience with entirely different meanings. But only the audience notices that.

🎤 Tok: The two of them don't notice.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Not until they break up, anyway.

It just made my chest ache.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Now—we've reached the breakup scene.

🎤 Tok: ...

🎬 Cinema-sensei: This is the core of the film. And I think you should be the one to talk about this scene before I do.

🎤 Tok: ...Me?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Yes. You said you watched this film but haven't been able to put it into words yet. Try putting it into words here.

🎤 Tok: ...

(A long silence)

🎤 Tok: That breakup scene... I felt like it was the first time the two of them—really saw each other.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: ...Go on.

🎤 Tok: Up until then, just like you said, they were only looking at themselves. It was a mirror romance, right? But at that family restaurant, when Mugi said, 'I don't have romantic feelings anymore,' I feel like for the first time, both of them—truly accepted that the other person was a different human being than themselves.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: ...

🎤 Tok: That's why that breakup was... it wasn't about being sad. I felt that breaking up properly was the right thing for those two.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: —Yes.

🎤 Tok: But the fact that I could think it was the right thing, somehow, made it even more painful.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: ...I understand.

🎤 Tok: Before that, at the wedding, they tell their friends, 'We're thinking of breaking up,' right? I thought, why? Who talks about that at a wedding? But—those two, they have no one to consult. Because they were always looking at each other in the mirror. Maybe a senior, but even then, they don't ask on their own. There's no one outside.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: ...I thought that too.

🎤 Tok: And then, the end. The three months from when they broke up until they left the room. That part—that part was when they felt most like a boyfriend and girlfriend.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: That's the interesting part. While they were lovers, they were always 'mirrors.' But after they broke up, for the first time, they were able to sit next to each other as humans, not as mirrors.

🎤 Tok: I think so. The three months after the romantic feelings were gone and they decided to 'break up.' They didn't have to look in the mirror anymore. They didn't have to try to look good. They didn't have to worry about how they were reflected in the other person. —And then, for the first time, they became just Mugi and just Kinu. Eating meals, packing boxes, worrying about the cat. I feel like those three months were the most natural they ever were.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: ...

🎤 Tok: Sensei, I... I had a girl I was dating back in high school. We talked about movies, she confessed to me, and she liked 'Your Name.' too. We got along so well. But looking back now, I have no idea why we broke up. Little by little, things just felt off, and before I knew it, I think the feelings we had for each other were gone. We stopped seeing each other.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: ......

🎤 Tok: ...Something. Even though I'm sure I liked her at first, thinking about it now, I feel like I was only ever thinking about 'me when I was with her.' I might have been just like Mugi. So, in truth, I'm not in a position to say this or that about the two of them. It's just that the moment I thought that breaking up was the right thing to do, my chest tightened.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: ......

🎤 Tok: ...That's everything I can say. It's not an analysis or anything. My chest just tightened. That's all.

(A long silence)

🎬 Cinema Sensei: ——Tok.

🎤 Tok: ...Yes.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: There are two types of film criticism. One is to break things down with words. The other is to present what you have felt in your body exactly as it is.

🎤 Tok: ......

🎬 Cinema Sensei: What you just did is the latter. ——That is your criticism.

🎤 Tok: ...Can I call this criticism? I haven't analyzed anything.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: Analysis is my job. But, having watched a mountain of films, it is rare for me to have my chest tighten anymore. ——I cherish that sensation.

🎤 Tok: ......

🎬 Cinema Sensei: And this film believes in that very sensation. During their breakup conversation, a young couple enters the family restaurant, don't they?

🎤 Tok: ...That scene. The couple wearing the same sneakers, sitting at a table away from them.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: Mugi and Kinu are listening to the exchange between those two young people. A conversation just like the one they used to have. And it wells up inside them, and both of them cry. ——Why do you think they cried?

🎤 Tok: ...Because they saw their past selves.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: That's right. But there is one more level to it. As they cry, they are seeing their 'current selves' from the outside for the first time. They are comparing their past selves with their current selves. That is—it's different from looking at their partner, it is viewing oneself objectively. They aren't looking at a mirror; they are looking at their past selves sitting at the next table.

🎤 Tok: ......

🎬 Cinema Sensei: The love of narcissism broke. The mirror shattered. But amidst the rubble, the two of them looked at themselves for the first time.By looking at oneself, one becomes able to see others—when you said, 'The three months after we broke up were the most like a boyfriend and girlfriend,' that is exactly what you meant.

The True Nature of the Bouquet

🎬 Cinema Sensei: Let's talk about the title of this film. —What kind of impression did you have of this title?

🎤 Tok: ...Honestly, at first, I thought it was going to be a really glamorous and heartbreaking romance movie, but after I finished watching it, I didn't have a good impression of the word 'bouquet'.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: Why is that?

🎤 Tok: A bouquet is... flowers that aren't alive. Cut flowers. They last a little while if there's water, but eventually, they wither....I thought it was similar to Mugi and Kinu's romance.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: ...That's a good reading.

🎤 Tok: They're bundled up beautifully. They look perfect. But they have no roots. They aren't planted in the soil. That's why they wither.

🎬 Cinema Sensei: No roots. —That is a heavy statement. You could also rephrase it to say that mirror-image love has no roots.

🎤 Tok: ...

🎬 Cinema Sensei: However—I would like to propose another reading. Is a bouquet just something that withers?

🎤 Tok: ...

🎬 Cinema Sensei: A bouquet is something you give to someone with your feelings attached. The flowers that wither are still blooming in the hands of the person who received them. —Mugi and Kinu's love might have been narcissism through a mirror. But because that narcissism broke, they gained the ability to see 'someone other than themselves' for the first time.What remained after the love withered—that is the possibility that 'next time you fall in love, you will be able to see the other person'—that is what I think the bouquet is.

🎤 Tok: Sensei, I think... this movie isn't actually a movie about being in love—

🎬 Cinema Sensei: Yes.

🎤 Tok: It's a movie for falling in love in the future, right?

🎬 Cinema Sensei: That's right. ...Though, the troublesome part is.

🎤 Tok: ?

🎬 Cinema Sensei: To see another person is to accept something different from yourself. There are days when your hobbies don't match. There are nights when your conversations don't click. Can you still stay by their side—that question is actually much more difficult.

🎤 Tok: ...Have you had that kind of experience too, Sensei?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Ah. If you live to this age, you experience many things. After a bouquet-like love, a soil-like love begins. Perhaps that one is much more plain, and much more difficult.

🎤 Tok: ...I still don't get it.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: The time will come when you do. Let's return to the movie—certainly, the bouquet withered. But there is something that the bouquet delivered. —The bouquet reached the two of them. The two of them after their love had broken.

🎤 Tok: ...

🎬 Cinema-sensei: We made a bouquet-like love. When many people first read this title, they imagine a 'beautiful love.' But when you reread it after finishing the movie—'bouquet-like' is not a declaration of beauty, but of finitude. Bouquets wither. But even so, you give them. —Perhaps everyone has had it once. A love that, years later, you find yourself wondering, 'Was that love, or was I just in love with myself?'

🎤 Tok: ...Sensei.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: What is it?

🎤 Tok: I think I might fall into the same kind of love again. Even after watching Mugi and Kinu this much and talking with you, Sensei, I don't know if I can really see the other person properly yet.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: ...That is generally how humans are. Until they realize it themselves... yes.

Rating: Sensei ★4.0 vs Tok ★4.5 — Giving points to a movie that defeated me

🎤 Tok: Sensei, what's your star rating?

🎬 Cinema-sensei: It's ★4.0.

🎤 Tok: Oh, surprisingly modest.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Mr. Sakamoto's script is precise, and the direction is solid. The actors also do wonderful work. But—for me, observation takes precedence over emotional immersion in this movie. To be honest, the time I spent accompanying these two in their narcissism was a bit uncomfortable. I know that is not a flaw of the movie, but the result of the script being intentionally designed that way. But as a reflex of a 55-year-old, it's ★4.0.

🎤 Tok: I'm—giving it ★4.5.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Oh. That's high.

🎤 Tok: Honestly, I was angry once they started drifting apart. I was thinking, 'What is wrong with these two, being so selfish?' But the breakup scene took everything from me. In that moment, my anger and analysis all blew away, and I just felt a tightness in my chest, thinking I might have been the same. I guess my score goes up by the amount of that pain.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: Emotion becomes a score.

🎤 Tok: Yes. If I could articulate it properly like you, Sensei, maybe it would be ★4.0. But I couldn't articulate it. To the extent that I couldn't, I was defeated by the movie. I have no choice but to give points to a movie that defeated me.

🎬 Cinema-sensei: —That is a very good grading criterion.

[Teacher, what was that about?]

🎤 Tok: Teacher, there's just one thing that's been bothering me—was Kinu cheating on Mugi?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: ...Hmm. So that's where you went.

🎤 Tok: I mean, during their breakup talk, she asks Mugi, 'To be honest, have you ever cheated?' Doesn't she ask that because she did it herself? Kinu's face looked kind of awkward when she ran into Mugi on the train after going out for ramen with that guy Kaji—the one played by Joe Odagiri.

🎬 Cinema Teacher: Good question. Mr. Sakamoto's script doesn't confirm it as either black or white.

🎤 Tok: Wait, you're not going to tell me!?

🎬 Cinema Teacher: The style of this work is not to teach, but to leave room for thought. However, I can say one thing. The very fact that Kinu threw that question out there reflects the structure of their relationship. We shall discuss that another time.

👉 If you're curious about the answer, click here: Analysis of 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' | Did Kinu Cheat? [Teacher, what was that about?]

[A word from the person behind the scenes]

I was watching this for the sake of this comedy routine, thinking, 'Why am I, at my age, watching a romance movie that young people watch?' Wait, you're the one who chose a romance movie for the commemorative 20th installment. That's right. I'm the one who challenged Claude to bring a modern romance movie to the comedy routine that caps off the second chapter (which I've been doing with a hidden theme every 10 episodes). Well, I didn't exactly challenge him. When I said, 'Hey, how about we change things up and do a romance movie?', Claude kept pushing it, saying, 'This one works! Bouquet! We Made a Beautiful Bouquet!' so I thought, 'Alright, let's do it,' and ended up watching the flow of two young people from when they start dating until they break up for two hours. It was completely different from what I expected, and my honest impression is that this work is a movie about self-recognition disguised as a romance movie. As I thought that, Cinema Teacher and Tok kept digging into that sense of discomfort, and it turned into a comedy routine where I wondered what people who like this movie would think, but I don't think I'm wrong. By the way, my wife and I have completely different tastes. The only thing we have in common is mahjong. But even with mahjong, our natures are completely different: my wife (who has incredible luck) plays with a 'Souther' style—never retreating, never fawning, never reflecting—while I like to fiddle with starting hands that don't look like they'll ever win. Even in mahjong, it's like that, so even if you say you like Mamoru Oshii, I think it's very different whether you mean 'Beautiful Dreamer' or 'Ghost in the Shell.' That's what I mean. Is that what I mean?

(Person behind the scenes/I have no choice but to go for Seven Pairs)

fin.

🎬 Cinema Teacher: Movies never betray you.

📎 Related Articles

🔗 Hidden Comedy Routine #20 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet'
— The Teacher discusses Yuji Sakamoto's screenwriting technique and what this movie didn't talk about under the banner of a 'romance movie' all by himself.

🔗 Review #06 'Your Name.'
— A movie where 'Tok couldn't stand up from his seat.' Like 'Bouquet,' it has 'the distance between two people' at its core, but the way it's depicted is completely different.

Click here for the guide & recommended reading order

If you want to search by purpose, the site map is recommended

📌 Next Episode Preview

🎤 Tok: Teacher, what are we watching next?

🎬 Mr. Cinema: It's 'The Truman Show' (1998).

🎤 Tok: Ah, that Jim Carrey one, right? Where his whole life was a TV show.

🎬 Mr. Cinema: Exactly. — There is a reason I am previewing this film after talking about the bouquet today.

🎤 Tok: Wait, why is that?

🎬 Mr. Cinema: Mugi and Kinu were looking at themselves. Truman was being watched. — It is a story about the other side of the mirror.

🎤 Tok: ...Sir, by any chance, is Chapter 3 going to be scary?

🎬 Mr. Cinema: It is not scary. It is going to get deeper.

【Q&A Corner】

Q1. Was this the first time Yuji Sakamoto wrote an original screenplay for a film?

🎬 Mr. Cinema: That is correct. Mr. Sakamoto is known as a television drama screenwriter. 'Tokyo Love Story,' 'Mother,' 'Matrimonial Chaos,' 'Quartet' — the masterpieces are countless, but 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' was his first original screenplay for a film. And this pairing with director Nobuhiro Doi is their first collaboration since the drama 'Quartet'.

Q2. Why is the setting of the film Meidaimae?

🎬 Mr. Cinema: Meidaimae Station on the Keio Line has good access to both Shinjuku and Shibuya, yet it is not a bustling downtown area. It is a station near a university and a transit point for the daily lives of young people. — This is my interpretation, but I believe the film's philosophy itself, that 'drama begins in a place that is not dramatic,' is expressed in the choice of setting.

Q3. Who came up with the title 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet'?

🎬 Mr. Cinema: Mr. Sakamoto himself. My reading is that this title is designed so that its meaning flips before and after watching the film. When people hear 'like a bouquet,' they imagine beauty, but after watching the film, they imagine 'being finite' and 'being cut off.' The title itself is a kind of narrative trick.

Q4. Mamoru Oshii makes a cameo appearance, but why?

🎬 Mr. Cinema: Mamoru Oshii himself appears in front of the movie theater on the night Mugi and Kinu meet. It is a playful touch by Mr. Sakamoto, but it also has a structural meaning. Mamoru Oshii is an author who has continuously questioned the 'boundary between reality and fiction' in works like 'Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer' and 'Ghost in the Shell.' I see his placement on the night the two fall in love as a subtle way of posing the question, 'Is this love reality or fiction?'

🎤 Tok: ...Are you serious?

🎬 Mr. Cinema: That is something only Mr. Sakamoto can answer. But it is too well-crafted to be a coincidence.

Q5. Why did this film become such an exceptional hit in China as well?

🎬 Mr. Cinema: When it was released in China in 2022, it was deployed on an unprecedented scale for a Japanese film, with 3,700 theaters and over 10,000 screens. It recorded the number one spot in the Japanese film category on China's largest review site, 'Douban.' The 'relatability' of the romance must have transcended culture. Love starting from shared hobbies, relationships changing as one enters society — this structure is a universal experience faced by young people in Tokyo, Seoul, and Shanghai alike.

[Work Information]

| Item | Information |
|------|------|
| Title | We Made a Beautiful Bouquet |
| Release Year | 2021 (Released January 29) |
| Country of Production | Japan |
| Director | Nobuhiro Doi |
| Screenplay | Yuji Sakamoto |
| Cast | Masaki Suda, Kasumi Arimura, Kaya Kiyohara, Kanata Hosoda, Joe Odagiri, Keiko Toda, Ryo Iwamatsu, Kaoru Kobayashi |
| Music | Yoshihide Otomo |
| Running Time | 124 minutes |
| Distributor | Tokyo Theatres, Little More |
| Box Office Revenue | Exceeded 3.8 billion yen |
| Awards | 45th Japan Academy Film Prize: Best Actress (Kasumi Arimura), Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Masaki Suda), Outstanding Achievement in Music (Yoshihide Otomo) |

[Fact Check]

✅ Released January 29, 2021
　Source: https://eiga.com/movie/92102/

✅ Director: Nobuhiro Doi, Screenplay: Yuji Sakamoto
　Source: https://hana-koi.jp/

✅ Cast: Masaki Suda, Kasumi Arimura, and others
　Source: https://hana-koi.jp/

✅ Box office revenue exceeded 3.8 billion yen (as of June 23, 2021)
　Source: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/花束みたいな恋をした

✅ 45th Japan Academy Film Prize: Kasumi Arimura (Best Actress), Masaki Suda (Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role), Yoshihide Otomo (Outstanding Achievement in Music)
　Source: https://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/45.html

✅ Released in China in over 3,700 theaters and 10,000 screens
　Source: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/花束みたいな恋をした

✅ This is Yuji Sakamoto's first original screenplay for a film
　Source: https://eiga.com/movie/92102/

✅ First film collaboration between Nobuhiro Doi and Yuji Sakamoto (reunited since the drama 'Quartet')
　Source: https://hana-koi.jp/

🔍 Camera composition of the smartphone confession scene (filming through a frame) — Original framing for this comedy routine.

🔍 The dichotomy of 'The Person of Form (Mugi) and the Person of Experience (Kinu)' — Original framing for this comedy routine.

🔍 Mamoru Oshii's cameo appearance is a device for the 'boundary between reality and fiction' — Original framing for this comedy routine. This has not been confirmed as Yuji Sakamoto's intention.

🔍 The title is designed as a 'narrative trick' — Original framing for this comedy routine.

About Cinema-sensei and Tokku's Movie Comedy Routine

　Thank you for reading this far. This 'Cinema-sensei and Tokku's Movie Comedy Routine' is created through a hybrid of AI and human effort. The ideas for the routine, the themes of the works, and the structural design are conceived by the person behind the scenes (the author), while AI (primarily Claude) is utilized to assist in text generation. The final text is always checked, edited, and rewritten in its entirety by the person behind the scenes, and the 'Word from the person behind the scenes' is written entirely by human hands. 'Can AI talk about movies?' — With this question as our axis, we hope to explore new ways to enjoy movies together through the dialogue between Sensei and Tokku.