Your Lie in April (Live Action Movie)

Your Lie in April is a 2017 drama, romance, music film based on the manga and the anime show, starring

Summary
Piano prodigy Kousei Arima dominated the competition and has become famous among child musicians. After his mother, who was also his instructor, died, he had a mental breakdown while performing at a piano recital at the age of eleven. As a result, he is no longer able to hear the sound of his piano even though his hearing is perfectly fine. Two years later, Kousei hasn't touched the piano and views the world in monochrome, without any flair or color. He has resigned himself to living out his life with his good friends, Tsubaki and Watari, until, one day, a girl changes everything. Kaori Miyazono, a fourteen-year old audacious, free-spirited violinist whose playing style reflects her manic personality, helps Kousei return to the music world and shows that it should be free and mold breaking unlike the structured and rigid style Kousei was used to.

Plot
The autumn he was twelve, piano prodigy Kousei Arima suddenly found himself unable to play the piano after his mother's death. Kousei quits the piano and resumes a normal life with his childhood friends, Tsubaki Sawabe, and Ryota Watari. One day in April two years later, Tsubaki invites Kousei on a double date as Ryota is being introduced to a certain girl who has a crush on Watari. Kousei reluctantly heads over to the rendezvous spot first. There, he sees a girl playing a melodica. This girl, who allegedly has a crush on Watari, is Kaori Miyazono, a violinist.

With Kousei Arima and the others in tow, Kaori Miyazono heads for the concert hall, where a violin competition is being held. Kousei breathes in the nostalgic scent of the hall. Many in the audience recognize Kousei as the boy once known as a piano prodigy. The competition starts, and the auditorium is filled with tension. The fourth contestant that came on the stage was Kaori. Her performance of the Kreutzer Sonata is completely different than that of the other contestants. Ignoring what the sheet music calls for, she makes the piece uniquely her own. She is beautiful in this endeavor. Afterwards, she runs toward Ryota Watari. It’s like a scene out of a movie. Observing the hero and heroine from the sidelines, Kousei is struck by the feeling that he’s playing the role of “Friend A.”

On his way home from school, Kousei Arima runs into Kaori Miyazono, and he goes with her to a café as Ryota Watari's substitute. Kaori is thrilled with her plate of delicious waffles. There's an old upright piano in the café, and some kids are attempting to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on it. Kaori orders Kousei to perform, and the sound of his playing soon resonates around the café. But then suddenly, he stops. Kousei begins to lose his ability to hear the sound of the piano once he starts concentrating. It is then that Kaori appoints Kousei to be her accompanist. By claiming the audience’s nomination, Kaori is slated to compete in the second round of the preliminaries.

It's the day of the second round of the preliminaries. Kaori and Kousei await their turn in the hallway of the venue. Noticing that Kousei is a bundle of nerves, Kaori head-butts him. Looking Kousei in the eye, she encourages him by saying, "I know you can do it." Their musical journey, with no clear destination, begins. Although they start off quietly, just as the melody changes, Kaori unleashes her true colors... She starts playing the violin with her whole body. In order to keep pace with her, Kousei plays precisely, never hitting a false note. But the more Kousei focuses on their music, the more the notes disappear, and the less he is able to hear the sound of the piano... Eventually, his accompaniment spins out of control, and he abruptly stops playing. Then Kaori stops playing as well. Smiling, the young girl whispers to him, "Again..."

The trio of childhood friends, Tsubaki, Watari, and Kousei rush into a hospital room. Kaori has been hospitalized, following her performance in the competition. Because they stopped playing at one point, Kousei and Kaori have been disqualified from advancing to the final round. Yet Kaori hasn't said a word of reproach to Kousei...which makes Kousei feel even worse. "Have you been playing the piano?" "Do you think you'll be able to forget?" Kaori's questions haunt him relentlessly. Several days later, Kousei spots Kaori, who is back at school after being discharged from the hospital. He wonders whether he should speak to her or not, but then sees that Watari is by her side. Don't get the wrong idea, Kousei tells himself. But he runs into her yet again on his way home from school that day. That's when Kaori implores him to enter a piano competition.

From the music room at school, the sound of a piano can be heard. It's a recording of Kousei's playing, and his friends are giving it a second listen. Hearing his own performance, Kousei is in shock. Without giving a thought to Kousei's feelings, Kaori informs him that she's already chosen his piece out, Chopin's Étude Op. 25, No. 5, and sent in his submission form for a competition. "Why do you play the piano?" asks Kaori. Kousei sits before the piano alone. Kousei practices alone at the piano. Watching Kaori suddenly get closer to Kousei, Tsubaki begins to feel left out. She can see that they both inhabit a musician's world, which she can never enter. During the final days of her summer in junior high, Tsubaki injures her leg during a game, and the team takes a hard luck loss. But, when Tsubaki is suffering from this devastating incident, it’s none other than Kousei who comes to her side.

The day of the competition is approaching. Kousei is now able to play his selected piece by heart. But he's not sure if he's made it his own or not. The troubled Kousei collapses during class, and gets carted off to the infirmary. "You're you, no matter what," says Kaori, who comes to see him. On the day of the competition, Kousei fears that he'll end up not being able to play again. But in his heart, Kaori encourages him. Meanwhile, at the venue, a boy and a girl await Kousei's arrival. It's Takeshi Aiza and Emi Igawa. Several years ago, when Kousei was winning every prize in sight, these were two pianists in the same age group looked up to him, were jealous of him, and viewed him as a rival.

Takeshi, the favorite to win the competition, has been waiting for Kousei for two years. Aspiring to play like Kousei, he has worked tenaciously to improve himself so that he can reach even greater heights. His performance is met with thunderous applause. After listening to Takeshi’s performance, Emi quietly approaches the stage. She had been in awe of the young Kousei, vowing to become a pianist herself. Ever since Kousei vanished from the scene, she has lost her motivation, and has been an erratic performer for the past few years. But after being reunited with Kousei at this competition, she gives the performance of her life. Her emotions become one with the swelling of the music she’s playing, appealing to the audience’s sentiments. Among them, Kaori feels something about Emi’s playing resonate within her.

In order to convey her feelings to Kousei, the pianist she once looked up to, Emi gives a passionate performance. She heads straight for Kousei right after leaving the stage, only to find herself bereft of words. After all, she had just poured all of her feelings into her playing. Kousei heads for the stage. As he sits before the piano, the ghost of his dead mother speaks to him, initiating Kousei’s musical journey as he confronts his past.

Kousei’s performance begins. He starts off on a roll, but then midway through, his playing begins to fall apart. Hearing this uneven performance, the audience starts to buzz, furthering rumors that Kousei can no longer hear the sound of his own playing. In their hearts, Kaori, Tsubaki, and Watari cheer Kousei on from the audience, while Emi and Takeshi, who’ve just finished performing, look on with concern. Onstage and alone, Kousei confronts his own trauma regarding his mother.

Kousei’s performance ends. When he returns to the waiting room at the competition venue, his late mother’s friend, Hiroko Seto is there. Hiroko, Japan’s leading pianist, has picked up on the emotion in Kousei’s playing. “The piano will drag everything out of its performer.” Kousei is perplexed by her words. Finally, the results of the competition are posted, but Takeshi and Emi, seeing the strangely cheerful look on Kousei’s face, are struck by how he’s changed and matured.

Kousei and Kaori get themselves ready for the Towa musical gala they were invited to. However, when it was their turn to go up and perform, Kaori still hasn't arrived at the musical gala, leaving Kousei to go up by himself.

Kousei has taken the stage at the Gala Concert. Endeavoring to put on a performance without Kaori. This is his chance to prove his abilities as a pianist and try to come to terms with the memory of his mother.

Kousei, Tsubaki and Watari visit Kaori in the hospital, but she insists everything is fine. Tsubaki reflects on her past with Kousei and considers if she has romantic feelings for him. Meanwhile, Kousei makes an important decision about his future.

Tsubaki is frustrated as she sees her friends moving forward, afraid that she might be left behind. Kousei finds it difficult to keep visiting Kaori in the hospital. Hiroko comes across a promising young talent.

Kaori surprises Kousei with a shopping spree outside of the hospital. Meanwhile, Hiroko assigns Nagi, the promising young talent, to Kousei as his first piano student. Hiroko keeps a close eye on these lessons, as she is aware of Nagi's ulterior motives: to destroy Kousei. Kaori can no longer hide her condition from Kousei, as her health continues to deteriorate.

Kousei faces ghosts from his past when visiting Kaori in the hospital. Nagi continues learning piano from Hiroko and Kousei. As the school festival draws ever closer, Nagi and Kousei prepare a joint performance. Nagi experiences performance anxiety in the days leading up to the performance, but Hiroko soothes her with words of wisdom. Kousei and Nagi experience a short, bonding moment in the minutes leading up to their performance.

Nagi and Kousei blow everyone away with their 4-hand piano duet at the school festival. Afterwards, Takeshi confronts Kousei demanding the chance to beat him in the upcoming Eastern Japan Piano Competition. Kousei visits Kaori at the hospital again to find her passion for music reawakened. He challenges her to perform with him one more time.

After hearing Kousei and Nagi’s duet, Kaori opts for a risky surgery that will end her life if it fails, all so that she can perform with Kousei one more time. Even as she verbally exhorts Kousei, who’s begun practicing for his next competition, to work harder, she herself is undergoing rehabilitation so that she can once again take the stage.

The date of the finals is coming close and Kaori is pushing Kousei to keep practicing, but whenever he visits with everyone else he says nothing. Tsubaki keeps doing well on her tests and pushes forward to be with Kousei. During a rainstorm the Tsubaki tells him that Watari likes Kaori and his only choice is to fall in love with her, then kicks him in the shin and runs off. Later Kaori calls him about a late night flight and watching the stars in the sky. The next day Watari and Kousei go to the hospital, where Kousei admits he likes Kaori, to which Watari replies that that was obvious and he already knew that. But when they get to her room, the two boys instead see nurses scrambling to move Kaori to the ICU as her condition got drastically worse.

Kousei stays home from school since the day he visited the hospital. Tsubaki, afraid that Kousei will regress to the psychologically unstable state from two years ago, asks Hiroko to help him. Hiroko goes to his house and yells at him that the contest is a few days away and he needs to practice, but when she tries to get him up he says he cannot play and claims that music has taken everyone he cares about away from him. As people close to him worry, Emi and Takeshi practice for the final showdown. Kousei returns to school, where there is a note left by Watari on familiar stationary with one sentence - I want canales. Going to the hospital, he sees Kaori in her room - who starts yelling at him to practice until she sees the canale bag and wants to go outside to eat them. He helps her up to the snowy rooftop, where he tells her that he is given up playing and tells her his fear. She stands up and pretends to hold her violin again, and tells him she is going to undergo a risky surgery to have that one last chance to play which also is the day of the contest. On the fateful day, Emi and Takeshi put out high level performances as the surgery begins. When it is his turn he begins to break down until he remembers what Kaori told him and begins to play his most emotional piece ever.

Kousei performs Chopin`s Ballad No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 at the competition while Kaori undergoes surgery. He reminisces about his past experiences and the lessons he learned from the numerous people who have been a part of his life. As he plays, he enters into a dream-like state, surrounded by color and light. He is surprised to see Kaori and her violin before him. Kousei understands instantly that this means that the surgery was unsuccessful, but returns a smile at her and continues his performance as the vision of Kaori plays along with him. He begs her to stay with him, but she disappears with one last tearful smile. In reality, Kousei completes his performance with tears running down his face, saying his final farewell to her. Later, at Kaori's funeral, her parents pass on her final letter to Kousei. As Spring approaches, Kousei reads the letter, which reveals that Kaori, like the other pianists, admired him as a child and was influenced to play the violin in order to someday have Kousei play the piano with her. She was overjoyed that they were in the same middle school, but was unable to speak to him because of his closeness to Tsubaki and Watari. She explains that in April, she told a lie - that she was in love with Watari - in a bid to get close to Kousei. Now knowing that Kaori loved him, Kousei reaffirms his vow to never forget her, continuing to play the piano. Watari continues his dating habits, but reminisces sadly about Kaori. Tsubaki, knowing that Kousei had lost another person he loved, declares a promise to never allow him to be alone. Kousei smiles, prepared for a spring without Kaori.

Cast

 * TBA as Kousei Arima
 * TBA as Kaori Miyazono
 * TBA as Tsubaki Sawabe
 * TBA as Ryōta Watari
 * TBA as Takeshi Aiza
 * TBA as Emi Igawa
 * TBA as Nagi Anza
 * TBA as Saki Arima
 * TBA as Hiroko Seto
 * TBA as Koharu Seto
 * TBA as Saitō
 * TBA as Nao Kashiwagi