Based on a cell-phone novel that moved 11 million people to tears, "Sky of Love" is a story about a regular girl's three stormy years in high school. While her friends are absorbed about their boyfriends, Mika is clueless about falling in love. She begins receiving phone calls from a boy she doesn't know and is gradually drawn to him. She finally meets him but their happy days soon pass as trouble is brewing on the horizon.

"Sky Of Love" begins as a story that was published on a website several years ago. It was a tale of a young girl's tempestuous years in high school, unfolding chapters told of love, jealousy, rape, pregnancy, miscarriages, losing your loved ones and having faith. The heart-breaking tale caught on like wildfire in Japan and has touched the hearts of many women. Even more surprising, it was in fact a true story. Its popularity transformed it into a best-selling book, selling 1.3 million copies in just three weeks, and now it has been made into a film, which catapulted to No.1 at the Japanese box-office. It was a phenomenon.

Japanese teenagers have an affinity for teen love stories inspired by pop culture. Their obsession with manga, cellphones and bishonen (pretty boys) are the easy canvas for making this film an instant hit. A foolproof marketing ploy it may be for the Japanese, but the rest of the world isn't as easily suckered.

The story revolves around Mika (Yui Aragaki), a high school student who falls for the unlikeliest of people - the school gangster named Hiro (Haruma Miura). The way the scriptwriters weave the story early on is pretty clever - for a while you're inclined to think it was an unusual love story with a slight twist. Going to back to pop culture, the couple corresponds through their cellphones, not meeting only until after their summer school holidays. It was sweet, so new age and perhaps exciting for the average teen but throw in some cartoon-looking characters and we can't help but feel discouraged.

Admittedly, Japanese culture is hard to comprehend (or perhaps just plain misunderstood) but it's hard to be impressed when the leading man sports a bad hair dye job of platinum blond and the leading lady looks like she stepped right out of a Japanese manga. The characters appeal to the Japanese and the Japanese only; and it is understandably the reason why the rest of the world has never heard of this 'phenomenon'.

Cinematography within "Sky Of Love" is both modern yet timeless. The locations are lavishly simple backdrops filled with old-fangled buildings and riverbanks with plenty of blue skies and sunshine, providing an effortless setting for many tissue-wiping moments. However, the plot quickly becomes over-sentimental and dramatic, dealing with an unstoppable amount of issues that prove more than it can handle. After a while, it becomes a little unbelievable that so much drama can happen to just one person, but it can indeed move you to tears.

By the last quarter of the film, it is apparent that "Sky Of Love" is really nothing more than a typical, over-embellished love story. There are many moments of corny dialogue and the performances couldn't leave a lasting impression. But indeed, if it really is a true story, and presented in a different way, this could very well be a beautiful tale about love and the human spirit.