Lovely right? Watched it last night, a film adapted from Takuji Ichikawa's "Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu". If you plan to watch this, stop reading NOW.
The movie started with an uncle delivering a cake to 18 year old Yuji, saying that his bakery was closing with this last delivery. The audience is then brought back to 12 years ago, a year after Mio's death.
It was a rainy day, the beginning of the rain season in Japan. Little Yuji was looking for a secret box that he hid in the forest with his mother when suddenly he saw his dead mother sitting in front of him, very alive but with no memories at all. The three of them - with father Takumi - lived happily together again for a while. Taku related to her how they met and got married; Mio listened to him and fell in love all over again (as did Taku); Yuji was so loved by his parents. Then one day, Yuji finally found the secret box.
Mio read her diary in the box and realised that she could only be with them for six weeks, until the end of the rain season. She began to prepare for her departure by teaching Yuji how to do household chores, as Taku had some motor dysfunction disorder. She decided to celebrate Yuji's 6th birthday in advance and even reserved cakes for the next 12 years for him.
Can start to cry already..
The rain season was finally over. Yuji rushed back from school. Taku dashed home despite his condition. They were back in the forest where they found her, only this time, she was leaving them.
The bittersweet thing was what happened after she left. Taku read her diary and discovered that while he thought he had been liking her secretly in school, she was liking him secretly as well. Their thoughts and actions mirrored each other's, back in school and during the six weeks of rain season.
He broke up with her when he developed his condition but couldn't help going to see her one more time. He turned back when he saw her classmate offering her an umbrella but she had recognised his back and chased after him without him realising in the downpour. In her haste, she was knocked down by a car. She was wearing the same clothes as when father and son found her in the forest.
「未来へジャンプした。」
20year old Mio had leapt nine years into the future. When she woke, she decided that she would choose Taku and to die at 28 so she could be with him and Yuji than to go another path. So she went to find Taku and then they were together for good.
I was so touched!
Do you believe you can see into the future - your future - by some freak cross of fate? Cynics may think otherwise but I choose to believe in the existence of such a - what? - parallel universe. My future is unfolding itself somewhere I haven't reached. While I can see my immediate future made up of the next lines of words, I have to live my life day by day to reach further than that. Much further.
Do I fancy a glimpse into my future? Not really, I'll like to know only when it's the time for me to know. But truthfully, I'm also afraid of what I may see. If I see a happy mf, I may slack off now and the future, rooted in the present, may change, like how Mio can choose not to die at 28 if she doesn't go back to Taku. If I see a sad mf, I may become depressed cos I may not be able to turn my future around much by changing current circumstances. I'm content with living in the now.
Still, I like to imagine. I like to conjure images of my own room, for example, of my future as a globetrotter with a backpack, or of my old age with four great kids and twenty jumping grandkids, and even of my death, when, like Mary Alice Young, I get to observe my dearest mourning me, discussing me after I'm gone, what will they say, will they cry, or will they be indifferent.
I want to digress further but I don't have the time.. Maybe another time. Meanwhile, will you like to know what your future is like?
Did u watch this film on tv or wat?
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