THREADS OF DESTINY

Japanese teen romancer "Threads of Destiny" (aka "Red Thread") weaves a tangled, soap-opera-ish web. Based on a popular 2006 phone novel downloaded for reading on Japanese mobiles, the pic began filming last year as a TV series, then leapt to the bigscreen with a teasing "to be continued" intertitle before promptly resuming on the smallscreen. Pic did solid local biz during the Christmas/New Year frame, and a rolling pan-Asia release is set to begin in March, but in the West, this is specialty fest fare.

The story revolves around the “red thread of fate” connecting the young pair Mei and Atsushi and the trials they face during their high school period. Their romance is about to blossom when she meets a gentle-natured boy named Atsushi during a school trip to Nagasaki with close camaraderie of her school friends, Taka, Mia, Yuri, Natsu, Mitsu and Sara.The two begin to realize that they share many things in common that seem to transcend mere coincidence: the same birthday (February 29th, 1992) and a previous encounter when they were both 8. Feeling a bond of fate, they grow closer. But destiny can have a dark side to it, too, and a shocking revelation from both of their pasts compels Atsushi to pull away from Mei. The devastating separation then unleashes a wave of misfortune upon Mei: the death of a loved one, friend end up with drug addiction and domestic violence. As circumstances seek to take control of her life, Mei struggles to maintain her faith in the tenuous thread of destiny that will reunite her with her true love. (Source: Astro Entertainment Sdn Bhd)

Release Date 23 April 2009
Language Japanese
Classification PG13
Running Time 1 hour 46 minutes
Director Shousuke Murakami
Cast Nao Minamisawa, Junpei Mizobata.