Dear Friends

Dear Friends (ディアフレンズ), a 2007 Japanese film, is a story about friendship and cherishing said friendship. It stars Kitagawa Keiko and Motokariya Yuika. The summary is as follows:

Dear Friends follows a high-school student named Rina (played by Keiko Kitagawa) who believes that friends are not necessary and that they can only be used in times of need. Thus, she is unable to maintain a decent relationship with her friends and classmates. Her family's relationship is also lacking; her father does not care much about his family and her mother is over-protective. Rina eventually discovers that she has a terminal illness and becomes hospitalized for an indefinite amount of time. In the hospital, she is not visited by her family, but by one of her classmates named Maki (played by Yuika Motokariya). Although Maki tells Rina that they were friends in primary school, Rina does not remember her, so Maki takes the opportunity to re-connect with her. A young girl (played by Mao Sasaki) who is also hospitalized tries to become friends with Rina, but she holds fast onto her mantra of friends being unnecessary. Throughout her hospitalization, Rina begins to lose hope as her well-being falls apart, and she decides to jump off the hospital rooftop as she feels that no one no longer cares about her. However, she is stopped by Maki, who stabs herself in the chest with a knife and declares that she will share the same pain as Rina and that she does not want to lose her friend. Rina shows some hope again when she realizes that she can find friendship in Maki.

I like sad films and coupled with the fact that this movie got good reviews on dramacrazy, I decided to try it out. The synopsis does a good job of telling you what the story's about, so I'll refrain from reiterating. However, Maki doesn't technically stab herself in the chest; more like she tries to cut off her left breast. >.> Anyway, it's a sweet story of a rude and callous girl that everyone envies (and hates) who has no true friends, as her idea of a friend is someone that you use and she doesn't think friends are necessary, to someone who realises the value in having friends when she goes through some rough spots. The acting was good and in the beginning, you'll hate her but towards the end, you're more sympathetic. It's also a story full of people getting sick everywhere (sort of) - and remember the disease featured in 1 Litre of Tears? You'll be seeing a bit of it here though not to that extent. :) It is sad, but it ends somewhat positively - at least for Rina.

You can watch it here. It's in 14 parts, which annoyed me, but there you have it.