All By Myself
It all started with my friend Gianne, when we watched Kamikaze Girls (and admired it for mixing the genres) at Shang. Then I couldn’t get enough of the free screenings of Japanese contemporary films at the UP Film Institute. So I had Blue Spring (with Meline), Hotel Hibiscus (with RCY pipz), No One’s Ark, and The Stars Converge which is now my favorite Eiga Sai entry.
Synopsis:
In 1977 in the port city of Shimonoseki, Ikuko is a participant in a track and field meet being held as a goodwill event with South Korean sister city Pusan. There she meets and falls in love with South Korean boy An Tei Hou, a fellow high jump competitor. Despite their parents’ disapproval due to the ensuing hatred between the Japanese and Koreans at the time, and being separated while they are still both studying, the young lovers are reunited a year later on the day of the Tanabata festival. They vow to meet again in four years time, after An’s service in the military. Sadly, they didn’t meet again. Ikuko found a new love, married, and is now divorced. Some twenty-six years later, Ikuko has become a high school P.E. teacher and fondly remembers her youthful love affair. The track and field event she competed in has not been held since the onset of Japan’s economic recession, but is to be revived this year. Ikuko participates as a coach, and she comes to know that a Korean man is the sponsor to make this event happen again. For the sake of “memories.”
Lines that got me teary-eyed:
Four years? That’s a long time... but let’s do that.
I never really thought that our promise was broken.
It hit me, I must say. And yes, I watched it all by myself while it’s figuratively raining within and literally raining outside the building.
Synopsis:
In 1977 in the port city of Shimonoseki, Ikuko is a participant in a track and field meet being held as a goodwill event with South Korean sister city Pusan. There she meets and falls in love with South Korean boy An Tei Hou, a fellow high jump competitor. Despite their parents’ disapproval due to the ensuing hatred between the Japanese and Koreans at the time, and being separated while they are still both studying, the young lovers are reunited a year later on the day of the Tanabata festival. They vow to meet again in four years time, after An’s service in the military. Sadly, they didn’t meet again. Ikuko found a new love, married, and is now divorced. Some twenty-six years later, Ikuko has become a high school P.E. teacher and fondly remembers her youthful love affair. The track and field event she competed in has not been held since the onset of Japan’s economic recession, but is to be revived this year. Ikuko participates as a coach, and she comes to know that a Korean man is the sponsor to make this event happen again. For the sake of “memories.”
Lines that got me teary-eyed:
Four years? That’s a long time... but let’s do that.
I never really thought that our promise was broken.
It hit me, I must say. And yes, I watched it all by myself while it’s figuratively raining within and literally raining outside the building.
