Sullen and withdrawn 'ugly' elder sister Masako toils endlessly with mending chores in her widowed mother's dry cleaning shop, seething with hatred for her flashy younger sister Yukari, who visits only for free laundry service. When mother dies and Yukari persists in her abuse, overweight and pushing forty Masako cracks and strangles her. She flees and takes a number of identities and odd jobs, meeting people as she goes. To her surprise Masako finds people in general to be kind and helpful (although she's sexually abused more than once) and she blossoms as a personality, even to the extent of becoming a popularly liked bar hostess like her murdered sister. Edit Translation
- English
- magyar / magyar nyelv
- dansk
- Norsk
Cast & Credits
- Fujiyama NaomiYoshimura MasakoMain Role
- Toyokawa EtsushiNakagami HiroyukiSupport Role
- Kunimura JunKariyama KentaSupport Role
- Makise RihoYoshimura YukariSupport Role
- Uchida Shungiku[Woman at the coffee shop]Support Role
- Sato KoichiIkeda AkiraSupport Role
Reviews
This review may contain spoilers
The right to exist !
The movie was very good but I think some scenes were incredibly insensitive in several ways...It is the story of a woman treated throughout her life as less than nothing, like an outcast. The heroine, although suffering from a dysfunction of her mental abilities, nevertheless manages to be very lucid about life, much more lucid than many people who have retained all their mental faculties...
She understands that the world sees her as nothing, that she is not seen as someone who is entitled to the same consideration and respect as others simply because of who she is, as a human being . She is not surprised by the mistreatment she receives, nor the mockery, lies, etc. She accepts her reality.
And yet, (and this is where the heroine is truly inspiring and this film reveals an incredible depth in the writing) Yoshimura Masako despite everything, how cruel life can be, the injustices, the good and the bad, the wounds, heartbreak and traumas, firmly embraces her will to live, to embrace her life with all the strength she has left, and how strong she is ?! She is a force of nature! After all, it really is his life! HERS !!! It's her life and she wants it! She wants to live and own her life as best she can !!!
"Don't need forgiving."
She has been treated cruely, with so little love and appreciation that it is so natural for her to not even be inclined to believe that the world would ask her for her forgiveness, that people would care, that they would show remorse. And she also know she doesn't have to forgive people to be able to move on. Nobody asked, and she never intended to give it anyway ...
She doesn't try to ask for forgiveness either. She doesn't need it to continue. All she has is herself and her ability to be resilient and yet also her ability to love the good people she would meet.
She murders her worst bully, her own sister because this same sister wanted her dead, she despises her so much that she was ready to deny her own sister the right not only to exist but also to be loved simply because she wasn't "normal", so of course Masako decided to kill her before she does.
This murder isn't really the focus of the movie, but rather Masako's will to live. Of course we see her really regretting and being afraid of what she did, and of being caught by the police, being afraid of that the world would see her as a monster, but the center of the film, in my opinion, is to navigate between the character's journey living through different emotions, but also her own will to continue to cling to life, even when that same life was cruel to her. She doesn't want to deny her right to exist, so many people already did, she refuses to be become her own bully ...
She continues to move forward, without necessarily believing in anything (god, universe, etc) or keeping some sort of high hope in life, god, or the universe, but simply by her pure will and desire to get through life as best she can. She never considered herself a loser just because people might have seen her that way, no, she was Masako no matter what the world would say about her ! She walk with pride, she walks with her head held high, she does not spend her time in a victim mentality, without constantly having to ask herself existential questions which will in any case have no impact on her reality, without denying herself the right to love and to trust tstrangers, because she knows that in any case, she cannot avoid the dangers of life, she cannot avoid being betrayed by people. All she can do is move forward!
She faces life as best she can and keeps moving through her own sad, tragic but yet still, still precious and valuable existence with all her might!
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