You might be the next.
I am about to be 60 years old, and I notice myself getting forgetful day after day.
Particularly I felt appalled when Saeki (lead character acted by Watanabe Ken) is appalled by his rapid change with the progress of the symptoms, that started from just feeling hard to recall proper names to being unable to recognize his people in the office.
The performances of Watanabe Ken and Higuchi Kanako (as Saeki's wife Emiko) is very convincing. The husband and wife had to confront this big trial when they were going to live alone after raising up their daughter.
This movie asks you this question: If you had Alzheimer's disease and you would no longer be yourself what will you live by?
********* Spoiler from here ********
This is an excellent movie, but the last episode when Saeki visits the nursing home and old clay kiln is questionable.
He visits the new place only guided by a pamphlet. Furthermore, he looks so mature that the nursing home principal is surprised knowing he is the one to be nursed. Then he receives a call from Emiko in front of a station, and from there he walks into mountain with a bottle of sake he buys at a store nearby the station. Surprisingly, the dead end is the abandoned clay kiln where he and Emiko met 25 years ago. So, are the nursing home and the clay kiln near from the same station? Or, could he travel two places by train on a day, who must be in mid-stage of Alzheimer's disease? When he left home, he had the pamphlet and a clay cup. Therefore from the beginning he meant to visit two places. From when he is guided in the nursing home he does not have the cup in his hand.
I was very confused by the scene Saeki draws a picture on the cup left in the abandoned kiln. He looks lively listening to young Emiko in hallucination: When she was born her father saw chestnuts in the garden, and named the baby Emiko (meaning branches and fruits). Saeki no longer wears a hat and outer cloth. Then Emiko disappears and the old clay teacher appears. This is too good a timing that I was confused if the whole scene was hallucination or real.
While I was still confused, Saeki wakes up the next morning there. He remembers that he and the teacher burned the clay cup last night, which he digs out of charcoal. But when Emiko comes to him he can not recognize her. This gap of cognitives ability is out of reality. Emiko is shocked with it, and cries, but soon she regains herself and walks with him. This last scene is beautiful and the best to end the movie. Maybe, director Tsutsumi knowingly ignored the contradiction,because he wanted to show this last scene. Yes, to portray truth, a level of unreality can be accepted in movies. But Tsutsumi should have been more careful to keep audiences from confusion, so that the audiences can focus to receive the message. At least, how Saeki treats the cup, his hat and outer cloths should be shown at close-up.
I am about to be 60 years old, and I notice myself getting forgetful day after day.
Particularly I felt appalled when Saeki (lead character acted by Watanabe Ken) is appalled by his rapid change with the progress of the symptoms, that started from just feeling hard to recall proper names to being unable to recognize his people in the office.
The performances of Watanabe Ken and Higuchi Kanako (as Saeki's wife Emiko) is very convincing. The husband and wife had to confront this big trial when they were going to live alone after raising up their daughter.
This movie asks you this question: If you had Alzheimer's disease and you would no longer be yourself what will you live by?
********* Spoiler from here ********
This is an excellent movie, but the last episode when Saeki visits the nursing home and old clay kiln is questionable.
He visits the new place only guided by a pamphlet. Furthermore, he looks so mature that the nursing home principal is surprised knowing he is the one to be nursed. Then he receives a call from Emiko in front of a station, and from there he walks into mountain with a bottle of sake he buys at a store nearby the station. Surprisingly, the dead end is the abandoned clay kiln where he and Emiko met 25 years ago. So, are the nursing home and the clay kiln near from the same station? Or, could he travel two places by train on a day, who must be in mid-stage of Alzheimer's disease? When he left home, he had the pamphlet and a clay cup. Therefore from the beginning he meant to visit two places. From when he is guided in the nursing home he does not have the cup in his hand.
I was very confused by the scene Saeki draws a picture on the cup left in the abandoned kiln. He looks lively listening to young Emiko in hallucination: When she was born her father saw chestnuts in the garden, and named the baby Emiko (meaning branches and fruits). Saeki no longer wears a hat and outer cloth. Then Emiko disappears and the old clay teacher appears. This is too good a timing that I was confused if the whole scene was hallucination or real.
While I was still confused, Saeki wakes up the next morning there. He remembers that he and the teacher burned the clay cup last night, which he digs out of charcoal. But when Emiko comes to him he can not recognize her. This gap of cognitives ability is out of reality. Emiko is shocked with it, and cries, but soon she regains herself and walks with him. This last scene is beautiful and the best to end the movie. Maybe, director Tsutsumi knowingly ignored the contradiction,because he wanted to show this last scene. Yes, to portray truth, a level of unreality can be accepted in movies. But Tsutsumi should have been more careful to keep audiences from confusion, so that the audiences can focus to receive the message. At least, how Saeki treats the cup, his hat and outer cloths should be shown at close-up.