"Halfway" ("Harufuwei") has one of those katakana titles that is supposed to sound vaguely exotic and mysterious to its intended audience — Japanese of about the same age as its teenage protagonists — but may strike native speakers as prosaic, even boring.
The most obvious interpretation: The film's two young lovers, both seniors at a high school in Hokkaido, are halfway to adulthood. What else could it mean?
Written and directed by Eriko Kitagawa, a veteran TV-drama scriptwriter with a long string of hits (some with katakana titles such as "Long Vacation," ["Rongu Bakeshon"], [1996], "Beautiful Life," ["Byutifuru Raifu — Futari de ita Hibi,"] [2000] and "Orange Days" [Orenji Deizu] [2004]), the film is halfway in another sense: Coproducer Shunji Iwai not only initiated the film but also was its co-editor together with Kitagawa. Iwai, whose films as a director include such acclaimed seishun eiga (youth films) as "Hana and Alice" ("Hana to Arisu") (2004) and All About Lily Chou Chou, ("Ririi Shushu no Subete") (2001), has had a clear impact on its style, from its hand-held camera work to its jumpy editing. As well, Iwai worked with the film's cinematographer, Shinichi Tsunoda, on his 2006 documentary on director Kon Ichikawa.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.