Pride (2004)

Halu (Kimura Takuya) is the captain and star player of an ice hockey team, who is greatly respected by his teammates. For him, hockey is serious business that fully occupies his mind, while he treats romance as if it were a game. Aki (Takeuchi Yuko) is a typical OL (office lady), and is waiting for her boyfriend to return from studying architecture abroad. At this point in time however, he shows no sign of coming back. One day, Aki's friends who are determined to find her a new boyfriend, invite her to watch an ice hockey game. There she sees Halu for the first time. After the game, Aki and her friends join the players for a party celebrating their victory. Aki, however, is not so excited to be there. When she leaves the party, she bumps into Halu, who was slightly injured from a fight. They exchange e-mail addresses and part. The sparks of mutual attraction are ignited in a second encounter between Aki and Halu, arranged with the help of her friends shortly after a party. Hyodo (Sato Koichi) has come as a replacement for the team's coach who has been hospitalized. Halu has a lot of respect for the hospitalized coach. Unfortunately, he can't stand Hyodo's way of doing things. Bringing with him a lot of coaching experience from overseas, Hyodo criticizes the former coach's strategies. Whenever Halu and Hyodo see each other, they get into a quarrel; consequently influencing Halu's behavior during games. Seeing that his game ended in a brawl, Aki visits Halu to comfort him. But he tells her that she is being too friendly with him. Aki is hurt, Halu is irritated, and his teammate Hotta (Sakaguchi Kenji) can't stand seeing Halu like this...