Synopsis
Masahiro and Namiko are both handicapped. Masahiro is a great fan of rock music and has a personality that makes him popular to all. He and Namiko rear their friendship through correspondence. Namiko goes to a design school and studies real hard despite language problems. She registers good records at the school. When the two decide to marry, their parents and relatives oppose on the ground that both of them have hearing difficulties. Anyway, they are married and help and depend on each other. Masahiro learns to marathon and cycle and take part in iron man competitions. The pregnant Namiko helps Masahiro. When Masahiro successfully completes the competition, Namiko gives birth to a baby. This film is based on the real life story. The running time is 2 hours and 40 minutes. It was shown during the Special Screening at Tokyo Internatiional Film Festival in 1997. The movie unfolds as Masahiro, participating in the competitions, looks back upon his past. The troubles and difficulties Masahiro and Namiko had to undergo because of their handicaps are not depicted as very dark. Rather, the focus is on how they overcome such problems wisely. The family members of the couple are portrayed in a comical way. The actions of Ryo Amamiya as Masahiro and Yuri Nakae as Namiko are great. This film shares much in common with "Forest Gump" and "Rain Man" in that they all appeal to universal humanism. However, this film has more comical accents than accusation of practical problems faced by the handicapped in their daily lives. (Ui-chan Kim)