Nana 2 (2006, directed by Kentaro Otani) more or less picks up where the first left off (there’s a bit of a framing sequence). Nana O. (Mika Nakashima) is balancing her rekindled romance with Ren (Nobuo Kyo, replacing Ryuhei Matsuda) and the rising success of her band, Black Stones. Nana K. (Yui Ichikawa, replacing Aoi Miyazaki) is facing her attraction to playboy bassist Takumi (Tetsuji Tamayama) and the loveable goofball, Nobu (Hiroki Narimiya).
While relatively true to where the manga series was at this point, the Nanas are mostly separated for most of the movie and the focus is mostly on Nana K.’s love life. Ichikawa does well enough here, but she doesn’t have the same chemistry with her castmates or charm that Miyazaki did in the first one. While Nakashima gives a very soulful performance, she’s not given too much to do, other than react
Spoilers, I guess, for a manga series that went on hiatus 13 years and a movie that’s 16 years old, but Nana K.’s pregnancy is one of the few instances where an unplanned pregnancy as a plot point actually worked for me. She isn’t sure whose child it is — it could be Takumi’s or it could be Nobu’s — but the signs point to Takumi being the father. To head off the scandal this would cause for his band, the two get engaged, although they don’t really seems to be particularly in love (Nana K. was infatuated with him but she was mostly just a one-night stand for him).
Yes, it’s all very messy.
Narimiya is sweet as Nobu, but I never felt a true attraction between him and Ichikawa. Their brief relationship felt more like a complication in the plot rather than something that felt genuine. It does come across differently in Ai Yazawa’s manga, though, because it’s given a longer chance to develop. Tamayama’s Takumi is mostly a sleaze, although an attractive one. The movie seems to reduce its side characters to one dimension — Shin (Kanata Hongo, replacing Kenichi Matsuyama) mostly gets to sit around and look cute with ridiculous facial piercings.
Nana O.’s sidelining is disappointing. Her story here doesn’t have the same amount of drama as Nana K.’s, but in a lot of ways it’s far more interesting. She and Ren have to be careful about their relationship, although the tabloids still find out, and she has to decide if she wants to use the notoriety to promote her band. I wanted more of that.
While the movie did fairly well in Japan, it didn’t rise to the success of the first one. Several of the actors not returning — especially Miyazaki — kept it from having the appeal of the first one. The first Nana movie is not a masterpiece but it had a playful spark where everyone seemed like they were having fun. Here, everyone just feels like they’re going through the motions. I’m not surprised the film series was not continued.
That’s OK. There’s still a lot more Nana to read.
