I just finished the movie, and I was a little confused... Was the woman with the family in Toyohashi Masao's mother?
if it was, I'm a little upset that he didn't get to meet her directly, even though she started a new life without him...
Otherwise, the movie was really good, and I'm going to have to buy it sometime.. I just rented it for now.
Yeah, that was Masao's mother.
It is sad that that he didn't get to meet her. Kikujiro didn't tell him because it would be devastating for such a young boy to discover that his mother had left him to start a new family.
I just think that when Kikujiro says that they should look for her again one day that he will take him when he is older.
okay, thanks alot for that info, I wasnt sure what to believe about that.
One thing that bothers me with asian cinema is that they usually dont say much about the future of the characters, and i like closure.. lol. But it was a really good movie, and I doubt a sequel could be pulled off, but I'd like to know what happens in the characters lives..
Its a sad conclusion to the movie. When they finally reach their destination and find out what they've been searching for is a lost cause, the boy is devastated. But i think the importance is not on them finding his mom, its what they did along the journey.
The boy may have lost a mom, but he gained a "father" (figure) and a story to tell his friends when school starts back up next semester...
when kukijiro tells the kid to wait there and he starts walking back to the house i thought he was going to have a fight with his mother and tell her what a bitch she was, then the bikers came in but i thought the film was so anticlimatical for it!
Thunderbirds Aren't Slow
He knew. He walked away.
"You couldn't be much further from the truth" - several
Just finished watching. Also a little confused.
Yes, I see Masao's mother abandoned him. But his grandmother still takes care of him. Does the grandmother approve of what the mother did? I would guess not. At least she shows some decency by caring for Masao.
But why is mother sending pictures to grandmother? They still have a relationship? Grandmother's tacitly approving of what her daughter did!
It seems the grandmother is torn. She has an irresponsible daughter, who she probably still loves. On the other hand she cares deeply for Masao. I would think these 2 emotions would clash. Shouldn't her desire to protect Masao cause a deep resentment towards her daughter? I'm not a parent. Maybe that's why I have trouble appreciating how the grandmother can accept the despicable way her daughter is behaving & simultaneosly love the grandson who the mother has profoundly betrayed.
S--- happens.
OTOH, maybe the grandmother is insisting the mother at the very least communicate with her son. Maybe she does resent her daughter. Looking at it this way, the grandmother seems really noble.
Maybe there's a explanation that absolves the mother of responsibility in this case. I can't possibly imagine what kind of circumstances would warrant abandoning your child. Perhaps Masao is a literal bastard? Maybe they thought he'd have a better life being raised by his grandmother? How are bastard children treated in Japan? Maybe she was trying to give him a decent chance in life. Even that seems horrible.
What a terrible situation. But at the same time, this movie seems so real. There were a couple of genuinely funny moments (Popping the car's tire, slapping the kid in the Hotel) Yet this was not the fun movie people told me it would be. Was very sad. Still, a refreshing departure from the normal crap Anime movies I associate with Japanese cinema.
Grandmother could always be the mother of the father... not the mother of the mother. IIRC, they never really mention what happened to the dad, so maybe he could have died and the Grandma took over Masao. And the pictures look like they were from the past (I think at least), so the pictures could have been when Masao was only a baby, and while the family was still together.
Although I don't know what type of situation could lead to the Mother completely abandoning her child... unless she was unfit to raise him, but that wouldn't seem the case because it looks like she has a pretty solid/successful family when Masao and Kikujiro find her. Thats the only part that confuses me.
Thats just my theory on the whole thing though.
Yeh it didn't make much sense that the mother was enjoying a new family while completely disowning her young son.
shareThe way I saw it was that he must have been an "illegitimate" child and in Japan's culture is highly critical of such behavior. So in order to get intimate with another man or to have a real family, the mother abandons the first child to for a chance at having something that is socially acceptable.
Just my 2 cents.
Actually, he's not illegitimate, although your supposition would make perfect sense if he were. If you remember the scene where he is looking at the photo album, one of the photos is of his Mother and Father in what appear to be costumes. Those costumes are in fact wedding attire if one is getting married at a Buddhist or Shinto temple (remember the wedding Scarlett Johannsen's character witnesses in "Lost in Translation"?). The photo on the page next to the wedding photo is of the Grandmother holding a baby Masao and his Mother standing distantly off to the side. The implication is that the Father died when Masao was a baby, and his Mother was disinterested in him.
share