Is Haruka Ayase the Japanese version of Anne Hathaway? In everything from their perky public personas and sterling work ethic to their toothy smiles and flawless complexions, the two stars symbolize a type of good-girl perfection. And yet they also rub some imperfect types the wrong way, though Hathaway is the undoubted winner in the most-disliked-celebrity contest.
I swing back and forth about Ayase. For every film like Hirokazu Koreeda¡¯s ¡°Our Little Sister¡± (2015), to which she brought a Setsuko Hara-like grace and poise, she makes others like ¡°Galaxy Turnpike¡± (2015), ¡°The Kodai Family¡± (2016) and now time-travel fantasy ¡°Honnouji Hotel,¡± playing heroines who are pure, cute and dim.
Based on an original script by Tomoko Aizawa and directed by Masayuki Suzuki, ¡°Honnouji Hotel¡± is another local film that presents historical drama in the guise of ¡°what if¡± fantasy. ¡°Princess Toyotomi¡± (2011) ¡ª on which Aizawa and Suzuki also worked with Ayase ¡ª is another. That movie premised a ¡°secret government¡± for the city of Osaka going back 400 years.
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