We Couldn’t Become Adults is a romantic drama movie directed by Yoshihiro Mori and starring Mirai Moriyama, Sairi Ito, and Masahiro Higashide, alongside other cast members. The movie is 124 minutes long and is based on the best-selling Japanese novel of the same name by Moegara published by Shincho Bunko.
Netflix describes the movie as:
Prodded by a friend request, a feckless forty-something recalls his past relationships from the 90s onward, looking for his vanished hopes and dreams.
– We Couldn’t Become Adults review does not contain spoilers –
We Couldn’t Become Adults is by no means a fluffy, romantic movie that’s going to give you butterflies in your stomach. If anything, it’s an existential movie that will make you question your or someone else’s life.
As the Netflix description suggests, it’s about someone’s broken dreams and relationships. And as I said earlier, it’s not a happy movie but it might have some hope in it. That, however, is up to the individual viewer. As such, it’s a slow movie and I do actually enjoy movies such as these. If for nothing, then because they are relatable for the most part and deeply sentimental for others.
It’s difficult to watch relationships crumble in front of you. It’s not an easy feat to show either because it needs to be realistic but dramatic – the mixture of the two needs to be in the right amounts for it to be perfect. We Couldn’t Become Adults is a deeply uncomfortable watch because the protagonist makes the worst decisions possible and those decisions result in some heartbreaking moments.
You watch as his decisions make the people around him crumble and break their hearts a little. The pain on their faces is evident, all the while he’s as nonchalant as ever. I mean, we’re all allowed to have a few bad moments, but he’s got so many of them that it becomes a pattern. As we go back and forth in time, you feel equally bad for Sato and annoyed with him. There are some moments that are truly fun and bring out Sato’s positives. But they are few and far in between and highlight the bad times more than anything.
Also Read: Netflix’s Catching Killers (2021) Review: Harrowing
That being said, I would advise people who aren’t into slow-paced, existential movies to skip this one. There is a lot of things you might or might not be able to relate to here, but it goes without saying that We Couldn’t Become Adults is a very slow movie. There are moments that feel like they are slow just for the heck of it and it takes a lot of time to go through everything. However, the format is tempting and adds some intrigue and mystery to the story.
All the actors in We Couldn’t Become Adults are pretty great. Mirai Moriyama, our protagonist Sato, is amazingly warm and confused and dependably so throughout the runtime. He delivers genuine moments of happiness in this otherwise sad tale of heartbreak.
Also Read: Amina (2021) Review: A Fearless Warrior’s Tale
Summing up: We Couldn’t Become Adults
We Couldn’t Become Adults delivers some sweet moments of hope where your heart will flutter and make you go back to your past – maybe you’ve also gone through these exact feelings once? Either way, some people like movies like these, while some despise it. Personally, I found some moments to be worth watching, while others are skippable. It’s definitely slow, but has something really charming that drew me to it.
We Couldn’t Become Adults is streaming on Netflix.
Also Read: Zero to Hero (2021) Review: Inspiring and Emotional