My Airhostess Roommate is a 2009 Japanese rom-com flick.
I'm not a huge fan of rom-coms to begin with, because it's just not a genre I usually enjoy all that much. Add to that the fact that so many of these "date" films typically consist of really tired & lame stories chock full of asinine & annoying characters and implausible situations, that I often find them to be little more than a groan inducing experience (i.e. these movies frequently SUCK!) When done right however, they can be quite good and highly entertaining. This movie gets it right most of the time, to the point that it will at least be tolerable, and possibly enjoyable for most viewers.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Here's the basic premise: Male bachelor lives & works alone, doesn't like to go out, and is not looking for love. One night, he finds a neighboring female tenant passed out outside the front door of his apartment. After letting her sleep off her drunken stupor for the night at his place, she goes on her way the next morning. She keeps returning day after day though, because she's just been evicted from her place and has nowhere else to go. Slowly but surely, she moves into his place and they become roommates; she doesn't really ask to move in, she just more or less does so at will. But, he's a single male, and she's a beautiful flight attendant with lots of gorgeous stewardess friends, so what else is a young man to do in this situation but just roll with it?
From there, the rest of the movie is pretty much a "by the book" romantic comedy. She's perky, confident, and demanding. He's shy, reclusive, and kinda dorky. But, they each share just enough mutual traits that they soon become friends, and then that friendship eventually blossoms into love for one another, and, blah, blah, blah!
This movie is about as formulaic as a film can be. There are no really huge surprises, everything falls into place as you would expect, and you can pretty much forecast everything that happens along the way. This is often the case with romcoms, and it's one of the reasons I tend to dislike like them. The primary reason I don't usually like these movies though, is that often one or more characters are completely unlikable, and/or there is some ridiculous melodramatic subplot that ruins the whole experience. Thankfully, this movie avoids these flaws for the most part; she's not too much of a demanding flake that you wonder why he wouldn't just kick her ass to the curb, he's not too much of a nerdy needy loser that you wonder why she would like him, no one has cancer, neither of the lead characters is simultaneously still in love with someone else, none of the friends are too much of an utter annoyance, nobody is a completely unbelievable super hunk/chick, nobody is a total down on their luck bum or an ultra jet setting gazillionaire, etc. The film does toe the line a few times in a couple of instances regarding the above listed typical romcom annoyances, but not so much that you just give up altogether and end up hating the fact you wasted your time watching another cookie cutter genre piece of completely obnoxious BS.
There is one plot point that pops up later in the film that revolves around how she came to be at his place instead of somewhere else. I did find this to be annoying and total unnecessary, but I'm willing to let it slide for the greater good. All in all, this movie is as easily enjoyable & accessible as it is forgettable. It's cute, light, breezy, and would be inoffensive to almost anyone...it barely even warrants a "PG" rating (up from "G", not down from "R"). Plus, it's a streamlined & well paced 90 minutes long (Yay!). If your significant other demands you watch a romcom together, you could do far far worse than choosing to watch this flick.
So, somewhere between a 6 or 7 out of 10 stars for me. I'll give it a 7 cause I'm feeling generous today. It's nothing great, but it likely won't make you vomit.
P.S. I would like to note that I particularly enjoyed how this movie concluded (via an animated sequence that foretold what the future would/might bring for the romantic couple). Unfortunately, I had to explain the ending to everybody I watched it with for some reason. Sigh!...I'm mentioning this specifically in advance for anyone who watches this film so that you PAY ATTENTION during the last 10 minutes and final animated sequence. I feel this movie is much better served if you don't have to ask "what happened?" at the end (like the idiots I watched it with apparently had to). Honestly, it should really not be that difficult to understand people!
There you have it!
