Tenshi (Angel) Movie Review

Tenshi is Japanese for Angel. When it comes to the film, Tenshi seems to be the meaning behind the term Kawai. Tenshi is aone of those warm-hearted films that so often don’t even rate a glance with me. Whatever the reason it appealed to me I have to give it its due. Kyoko Fukada plays an Angel that has been watching over her own little section of the city. One day she descends from the top of her water tower and walks among the people she has been studying for so long. For the most part she stays with Katua, played by Asahi Uchida (The Deep Red), a lonely young man who can’t seem to find love and is too disheartened to try.

When she isn’t handing around Katua, who I believe she wants only for his ability to provide her with a constant flow of gin and lime, she’s visiting the other people who live in the town who can see her. Since only those with lonely or broken hearts can see her it no wonder that she migrates to some of the most unlikely people. A kindergartener, a bully as well as the girl she bullies, an old cat woman, a man who’s forced to raise his daughter on his own after divorcing his wife.

Though she often seems a bit ditzy, following people around and stealing their jewelry, or making two sisters think they’re crazy when she comes up and eats their food and drinks their liquor when they aren’t looking, the Angel actually knows exactly what and how she needs to do to save the man and women whose lives she’s entered. I was pleased with the character portrayal of the angel. Her wings don’t look in any way fake and no matter what she’s doing you can always see that divine something about her.

When she’s floating around Katua and he’s interacting with her, talking, complaining, trying to fly etc., the way that the two play off each other is very sweet. The actress manages to have a bit of that same connection with all of the other characters as well but none to the extent of Katua. It was at the point where I thought the movie was heading in the direction of celestial being x human being = L.O.V.E but that isn’t the case. Katua actually falls for some other girl which is boring but the only disappointment that I had with the film.

Throughout the movie you hear her referred to as behaving like a stray cat, flitting from one person to the next looking for handouts or knickknacks to play with. No matter whether she’s a cat or a savior I freely admit that I wouldn’t mind seeing a second movie created with some, if not all, of the same cast. Based off of Erica Sakurazawa’s manga ‘Angel’, Tenshi was released in Japan in 2006.

Tenshi was written by Erica Sakurazawa and Directed by Mayumi Miyasaka