Sukoshi Wa, Ongaeshi ga Dekitakana

Sukoshi wa, Ongaeshi ga Dekitakana (少しは、恩返しができたかな) is a 2006 tanpatsu based on a true story. It stars Ninomiya Kazunari, Otake Shinobu, Murata Takehiro, Ikewaki Chizuru, Katsuji Ryo, and Takahashi Issei. The summary is as follows:

Kitahara Kazunori was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma in the fall of his second year in high school, and thereafter spent a year and ten months battling the disease. Although he studied hard for the university examinations and was successfully admitted to his first choice, [the prestigious] Tokyo University, he only managed to visit it for a day before passing away. After that, last January [i.e. 2005], Kazunori's mother compiled the thoughts he had left behind and published it as a book, and it was adapted into this drama. Even as Kazunori had to fight his serious illness, he received support from his friends, school teachers, and family members, and had warm relations with many people. This drama illustrated the 1 year and 10 months young Kazunori persevered together with the people around him.

I actually came across this drama-movie when I was browsing through Asian Fanatics and came across this "article" on Actors That Brings Tears to Audiences and the person who posted it made a comment on how this particular drama did it quite well and how Ninomiya definitely deserved a place on the list. I happen to like watching dreadfully depressing things, and so I had to watch it. I'm actually amazed at how young Nino appeared in the drama when he was in his early 20s when it was filmed, but there you go. It was touching, moving, sweet and sort of reminded me of 1 Litre of Tears except the terminally ill person is male. There is no romance involved though. However, what I liked was how half of it showed what the family members (and friends) were going through - usually, these types of things focus on the patient whereas the other players in his/her life is sort of a side story. Well, it's not like the family dominated, but it showed a little more than usual.

Not to mention it seems like Nino actually sacrificed all his hair for a majority of this movie.

The bad thing is that this is not available streaming online. It once was but the fansubbers threatened to stop giving their services if random people just shared it out like that... so I had to go download the torrent. I hate doing that ever since I downloaded so many dramas that my harddrive... was no longer the same. Anyway, you can download it here.

Watching these dramas makes me wonder if all terminally ill patients are really this generous and kind or is it done this way for the drama's sake. Perhaps, though. After all, staring at death may change some people.

The Homeless Student

The Homeless Student (Hoomuresu Chugakusei/ホームレス中学生) is a 2008 Japanese film based on an autobiographical novel titled "The Homeless Junior High School Student." It stars Teppei Koike, Nishino Akihiro, and Ikewaki Chizuru. The summary is as follows, taken from here with some changes made:

After a term closing ceremony, Hiroshi comes up home and finds the yellow tape saying "keep out" on the house entrance. "Dismissed," Hiroshi's father says unexpectedly and dissappears without a trace. Hiroshi suddenly becomes homeless at fourteen. He starts to spend his nights in public parks and eat cardboard to survive. Homeless life with laughter and tears. However, through the homeless life, Hiroshi learns important things as a person...

I thought this sounded promising and so I watched it, curious on how it would be portrayed. It linked a background story in with the main plot of a boy struggling to live with no home and no money. I liked how it slowly went through the process, starting from the beginning when he would seem to only go to convenience stores where he used up most of his remaining money as well as eating other "human foods" until he passed the desperation point and started to revert to other forms of sustenance such as cardboard. The gradualness of it all made me like it better as well as going through other obstacles like the lack of showers or bathrooms.

In addition to that, there were moments of hilarity that were sprinkled in but all in all, the entire movie seemed somewhat rushed towards the end where everything just suddenly came together and everything was sparkly. OK, not quite. There was a little bit of angst where the question "why did this happen to us?" appeared, but it seemed to come together rather seamlessly. This is a good thing, but it didn't end with a 'bang', if you know what I mean.

You can watch it here.