somewhat sille, that's me!

So I just finished watch a tear-jerker J-drama, 1 Litre no Namida (リットルの涙, lit. "1 Litre of Tears"; also called A Diary with Tears or A Diary of Tears) about a girl who was diagnosed with an incurable degenerative disease at 15. Normally I would not touch this genre with a 10-ft pole, but Dz highly recommended it and a quick read of some reviews echoed that, so I decided to jump into it.

At 11 episodes, I thought it was pretty manageable for a weekend binge watching. I was also curious about my reaction towards tear-jerkers. After my previous outing with Anohana, I was admittedly a leeettle disturbed by the fact that I didn't shed any tear while the other reviewers were crying buckets. While I rarely, if ever, cry watching dramas and even think it's funny when say that I may have a heart of stone, I did wonder why I am like that especially because it doesn't jive with the emo person that I am.

But going into the show with those thoughts was perhaps where my "experiment" got off on the wrong foot. I knew it was a sappy movie, so my guard was up and I probably subconsciously kept it so throughout. And it being a drama, my patience started to wear thin halfway in, and that was after I discovered the Speed button on Youtube (where I caught the show) and proceeded to watch the show at 2x. That coupled with the lack of audio half the time due to music copyright issue resulting in me watching a lot of the second part of the show in silent, so I might have been a little detached from it all. The only tear I ended up shedding was from yawning. All these notwithstanding, I will try to give a somewhat objective thought on the movie, with the help of hindsight..

First, a quick synopsis (courtesy of Wiki):

Fifteen-year-old Ikeuchi Aya is an ordinary girl, soon to be high school student and daughter of a family who works at a shop that makes tofu. As time passes, unusual things start happening to Aya. She begins falling down often and walking strangely. Her mother Shioka, takes Aya to see the doctor, and he informs Shioka that Aya has spinocerebellar degeneration - a rare disease where the cerebellum of the brain gradually deteriorates to the point where the victim cannot walk, speak, write, or eat. A cruel disease, as it does not affect the mind. The script is based on the diary Aya kept writing until she could no longer hold a pen.

So... after all those things I said earlier, I actually liked the show. While I'm not gushing about it, I think it has its merits and definitely more going for it than I give it credit for. For me, let's see.. I liked that it was based on a real-life account (with photos of the real Aya during each credit run) -- the thought that this really happened to someone made it more real, more sobering. Her optimism and strength was inspiring in the face of the nightmare her conditions were turning into (she would soon be difficult to walk, talk and even eat -- for a 15yo active girl, I couldn't think of a worse place to be).

I thought the acting all around was pretty good, esp the lead actress (Sawajiri Erika).. I could partially feel her pain, her fears, her not wanting to trouble people, and I cringed at her awkward attempts to walk, move, etc. However, I felt I was quick to distance myself from feeling too much. I think it's because the idea of losing control of one's body and speech and yet still having an alert mind deeply terrifies me and I don't really wanna dwell on them.

I also liked how her sister's character evolved, she who'd always lived in her shadow coming out into her own. I like her parents and their range of emotions and reaction. I think everything was believable (given that it's based on a real person, it should la) -- except mayyyybe the guy interest (then again, he's a fictional character, so maybe that's why.. even his family was kinda 2D and the tragedy linked to them cliched). But I liked that they didn't focus too much on the romance bit (esp since it technically didn't happen), but it was sad nevertheless knowing that they couldn't be together. Since the show is largely based on Aya's diary entries, I liked that they used actual quotes, again a reminder that this actually happened. But maybe because I've been watching anime a lot, I kept converting the scenes into animated sequence in my head as I watch the show. I thought that was quite funny. :)

Anyway, I don't think I'll be catching any drama anytime soon. I might make an exception if it was in anime format though.. but really, who knows.