Seeing two lovers separated by a tragedy such as sickness or death is heart-rending but predictable. Less conventional is the plight of the lovers in Midnight Sun, a Japanese tearjerker, who are torn apart by the sun.
This may sound like a fairytale, but the story makes scientific sense by giving the main character Kaoru Amane - a pretty 16-year-old girl played by J-pop idol YUI - a rare illness that makes her allergic to the sun, like a vampire.
Kaoru enjoys singing and playing the guitar every night on the streets when everyone else is in bed.
Her love interest, Koji Fujishiro (played by Takashi Tsukamoto), is a cheerful young man who enjoys surfing early in the morning. The two meet in the hour before dawn when Koji, looking cool with a surfboard, waits for his friends at the bus stop opposite Kaoru's house. This is also the time when Kaoru, after a night of singing to no one, goes to bed.
The film is based on the sort of tale that has been told too many times before. But it is also the kind of ageless story that can touch your heart despite all its cliches. There is something in human nature that makes us respond to romantic tragedies, just as there is a yearning in all of us for a love that can enrich our life.
Kaoru's love brings a sense of purpose to Koji's mundane life. He pawns his favourite surfboard and gets a summer job so that Kaoru has enough money to release an album.