Chihayafuru: Kami No Ku + Shimo No Ku (Japanese Movie w. English Sub)

I liked the camaraderie of the group and caring for each other, and inspiration extended.

The two movies themselves are very enjoyable, as someone who has watched all three seasons of the Chihayafuru anime. I can't comment on how well it stacks up as an adaptation since I haven't read the original manga, but as a standalone story, or as a corollary to the anime, very enjoyable. I am by no means a film critic of any sort, so I am only speaking as an individual when I say that the films this DVD contains were, in my opinion, definitely worth watching. Certain aspects of the story are modified or omitted, probably for pacing (I don't think Chihaya or Taichi's family ever show up, for example), but certain details might just be aspects of the original manga that weren't adapted into the anime, so I can't say for certain how much is truly divergent from the source material.There are a number of issues with how the DVD itself stacks up, independently of how good the movies are. In order to actually navigate to the second of the two movies, you have to enter scene-select and go to "Next", which is counter-intuitive. In addition, the subtitles are of dubious quality: not only are there a number of typographical mistakes and grammatical issues, but sometimes the English subtitling of a particular line of dialogue doesn't quite convey the original meaning of the Japanese dialogue. As someone who studied Japanese for three years in college to the point where I am moderately comfortable ignoring the subtitles and relying only on the dialogue, I was able to point out translation mistakes to the other people I was watching this with, who don't have any experience studying Japanese (not to say that I am an expert, mind you, just that I can tell when some nuance or meaning is lost by the subtitle). There is also a strange bug I encountered (not sure whether it is a problem with the DVD or the player) where the subtitle position got shifted to the middle of the screen after I skipped back a scene (each movie is divided into 4 long scenes, so you shouldn't skip backwards unless you intend to rewatch a quarter of the movie). In the end I had to eject the DVD and start over from the same position, as going back to the menu didn't seem to fix the problem.Overall, I rate this 4 stars, because the subtitles and DVD user interface could definitely be better. However, as I don't know of any other viable alternative English-subtitled DVD available in the States for these movies, I still think this is a worthwhile purchase for fans of the anime, with the stated caveats. I would especially recommend watching this with someone who, like myself, can provide corrections to mistranslated dialogue, or read the un-subtitled on-screen text that shows up from time to time, to provide non-Japanese speakers with the same context that a viewer semi-fluent in Japanese would get from the un-subtitled version of this movie.

Value package. It includes both "Kaminoku" and "Shimonoku".While English translation is not perfect, it is good enough to watch the movies in Japanese.

This movie is awesome!!! The subtitles are sometimes spelled incorrectly and the grammar is not too great; however, I was quite satisfied overall.

I give it 100.

i loved these movies. it's a great cast and the locations are beautiful

Based on a popular manga series by the same name, Chihayafuru tells the story of a group of friends who formed a club to play competitive Karuta, a card game that tests one's knowledge of canonical Japanese poetry. The story revolves around Chihaya Ayase (Suzu Hirose), Taichi Mashima (Shuhei Nomura), and Arata Wataya (Mackenyu), three childhood friends who bonded over Karuta.Now in their teens, they rediscovered Karuta and budding romance at the same time. As Taichi struggled with his unexpressed feelings for Chihaya, Arata wrestled with the family tragedy that drove him away from Karuta. Funny, quirky Chihaya must overcome her own lack of confidence to take on the legendary Karuta Queen, Shinobu Wakamiya (Mayu Matsuoka). Their mentor is Harada Sensei (played by Jun Kunimura, who you might recognize as a junior Yakuza boss from Kill Bill). Under his gentle guidance, the kids took on other Karuta clubs and champions far superior to them.The young Japanese cast delivered impressive performances, portraying a complex mix of teenage angst, ambition, and camaraderie. Perhaps the best part of this film is the camera work, which follows the cards flying through the air in slow motion to dramatize those climatic moments in the Karuta face-offs. Extreme closeups of the contestants might remind you of the prelude to gunfights in classic westerns. Since team member Kanade Ooe (Mone Kamishiraishi) was the daughter of a kimono shop, the teen heroes and heroines wore elegant, formal kimonos to the games, which is quite a treat if you appreciate the beauty of traditional Japanese outfits.This specific edition (as depicted on the cover here) is the Malaysian release. That means some English subtitles are less-than perfect. Aside from this minor distraction, the movie is great entertainment and a wonderful introduction to the Karuta culture and Japanese poetry.

Great transaction, great movie