The Last 10 Years · reception & legacy
2022 · Michihito Fujii
How The Last 10 Years has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
A blockbuster weepie in Japan in 2022 — one of the year's biggest live-action hits — it then travelled abroad via streaming, where it graduated from 'local tearjerker' to an international guaranteed-cry favourite.
What's debated
The perennial fight over the terminal-illness romance: is this just another formula weepie, or the rare one that earns every tear — with Letterboxd reviews split between 'manipulative' and 'destroyed me'.
Its footprint
It circulates online as a dare more than a film — the 'do not watch without tissues' recommendation — and its four-seasons imagery of Nana Komatsu became shorthand for the modern Japanese romance weepie.
Where it stands
A comfort-cry staple of the Letterboxd Japanese-romance crowd, and a standard gateway pick for anyone getting into Nana Komatsu or Kentaro Sakaguchi.