Fridae

The genesis of this Japanese teen movie is utterly fascinating. It is based on a "mobile-phone novel" which was told in chapters to over 11 million mobile phone users in Japan. Each chapter contained only 70 words, sent via sms.

So popular was the novel that it quickly spawned copycats, but so far only Sky of Love has been made into a movie. Not surprisingly, the movie soared to the No. 1 at the box-office in its first opening week � buoyed by eager-beaver fans.

As a movie, Sky of Love starts off as a predictable teen romance and then veers into dark indie territory. Yui Aragaki plays a high school girl who starts receiving calls from an unknown admirer. When she finally meets Haruma Miura, there is instant and undeniable chemistry.

She loses her virginity to him, and then � in a bizarre and unexpected twist � gets raped by three gangsters who were hired by his jealous ex-girlfriend. (I know what you're thinking � what the f***?) The story becomes even more unpredictable when she becomes pregnant and decides to keep the child.
That said though, Sky of Love is still replete with melodramatic moments and romantic cliches. J-pop lovers will like this. Jaded moviegoers will hate it.