Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

April Story

Play trailer April Story 1998 1h 6m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
Tomatometer 3 Reviews 81% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Country girl Uzuki Nireno (Takako Matsu) packs her bags and travels to Tokyo to begin her first year at Musashino University. As Nireno struggles to adjust to the concrete jungle, she befriends Saeko Sono (Rumi) -- a fellow transplant from a rural province -- and joins the University's fishing club. Upon ducking into a bookstore to escape a sudden rain, Nireno's life changes when she comes face-to-face with Yamazaki (Seiichi Tanabe), a longtime crush from her small-town high school.

Critics Reviews

View More
Panos Kotzathanasis Asian Movie Pulse 09/12/2021
6.5/10
"April Story" has its faults, and is definitely on a lower level than some of the other films Iwai shot before but there are still enough good aspects here for the viewer to enjoy its 67 minutes, plus a number of really memorable scenes. Go to Full Review Grant Watson Fiction Machine 05/17/2019
5/10
To a large degree it simply does what it is that all Japanese dramas of this type do. Go to Full Review Harris Dang easternKicks.com 10/30/2018
4/5
There aren't many films [as April Story] this quiet that has given me such a still-growing appreciation in my mind and a warm feeling in my heart. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
10/26/2015 Takako Matsu's debut film/short. Beautiful, but rather hollow. See more 04/11/2014 Its length feels so justified after watching the film. The story unfolds in the head and leaves with yearning for spring romance. See more 01/07/2013 Lonely Hokkaido girl moves to Tokyo for university and to track down a high school crush. April Story has got to be one of the most modernly Japanese movies I've seen, whatever that means. It's rather emotionally sophisticated for such a lean story, despite the really sentimental tone, and all the little details add up into something really nice. I could have done without the handheld camerawork and the digital lighting enhancing, and I wish the saccharine score was used more sparingly, but those're relatively small complaints. Definitely wanna check out more Shunji Iwai. See more 07/14/2011 Why so short? This movie was so good. gaaah 3,5/5 See more 05/16/2011 BTW: this is a Japanese film, and RT posted the Korean poster. Just saying. See more 02/02/2011 This is a very beautiful and simple short story about loneliness and love. Lovely ending without too much going on. See more Read all reviews
April Story

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

View All

Shunji Iwai

Director

Takako Matsu

Nireno, Uzuki

Seiichi Tanabe

Yamazaki

Kaori Fujii

Kitao, Teruko

Rumi

Saeko Sono

Kazuhiko Kato

Kato
View All

April Story

April Story (1998) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis Country girl Uzuki Nireno (Takako Matsu) packs her bags and travels to Tokyo to begin her first year at Musashino University. As Nireno struggles to adjust to the concrete jungle, she befriends Saeko Sono (Rumi) -- a fellow transplant from a rural province -- and joins the University's fishing club. Upon ducking into a bookstore to escape a sudden rain, Nireno's life changes when she comes face-to-face with Yamazaki (Seiichi Tanabe), a longtime crush from her small-town high school.
Director
Shunji Iwai
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Japanese
Runtime
1h 6m