Jong-Il's Big thing

We see this movie as Sugihara sees it-it is his story. Jong-Il took the " Big Thing " with him I think is what Sugihara said. Sugihara can only guess/wonder/imagine what it might have been and thus so can we. But that's only what I think.
Martin.

Probably it was something life changing. I think maybe he came to a decision about his own destiny, since they were both nearing the end of high school. Like sugihara decided to attend university after Jong-Il's death. I think everyone has a major choice to make for what to do after high school and we knew Jong-Il wanted to be a north korean school teacher but his real passion was comedy. Looking at the events up to his death, they kind of had an examination of the paths they could take and how other people like Tawake had ended up. I think maybe Jong-Il had decided to try for his dream of being in comedy since it's a decision that wouldn't be made lightly.
I also know the movie was based on a novel so if anyone has read it maybe they can provide more information since the book always tends to flesh things out more...

I have read the book and have studied it for my university graduation work two years ago.
What I think is that although the novel does not say what Jong-Il wanted to tell Sugihara, it is definitely about either what Jong-Il had decided to do after high school (one of the main themes in the book-the path to adulthood), or something he had discovered which could change the relationship between japanese and corean-japanese. In any case, it is somethong the author Takeshi Kaneshiro wanted his readers to discover by themselves.
It is very late here in Japan and I am very tired, but I hope yall understand what I wanted to say...

My theory is that Jong-Il was going to tell him that he was gay. Its a little far-fetched, but watch the restaurant scene again and it might make a little sense.

I think the "big thing" was Sugihara's confession to his girlfriend and Jong Il maybe wanted to help.

This is a very old thread.
12 years and a week after the OP's post here I am posting a comment about this film.

I thought Jong-Il discovered something about their wild sempai.
What he's been doing after he disappeared from their lives or something close to that.

Tragic scene, I think that was one of the many emotional gut punch this brilliant film packs.


Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down and a Wagging Finger of Shame