A movie based on the true story that affected me the most!

Hello everyone! I have been asked to make an entry about a movie based on true story and how it gives impact on my live. At first, I do not have any ideas but suddenly this one movie popped in my mind and I thought that I will just go with this one. Last year, my friends bet me to watch this movie without tears running down my cheeks and if I succeed, they promised to give me RM100. Of course I accepted the challenge and watched the movie entitle ‘One litres Of tears’. This story was adapted from a true story and based on the diary of ‘Kitou Aya’, a girl who died on 1988 after suffering a rare disease. I determined to win the bet and started to watch but from episode 1, I already lost. The story was so pathetic. I realized my tears flowing out so easily and I can’t helped myself from crying a lot! I started to feel so sad for Aya.

(The Ikeuchi Family)

The story is about a girl named ‘Ikeuchi Aya’ that had been diagnosed with ‘Spinocerabellar Degeneration Disease’ or what we called ‘Ataxia’. Let me help you to understand more about this disease. It’s a rare disease and incurable. Someone who had been infected with this disease, their health would never be perfect again. Ataxia is a disease when the cells in the cerebellum have degenerated and it is very connected with movement. It started with falling down often and suddenly, someone’s body can’t move when they wanted to move, then they will not be able to hold things perfectly and also unable to speak clearly. From that, they will walk unstably and slowly they can’t walk and talk anymore, and the worst part is, it will become very hard for them to make a simple movement even just holding a pen.

The main character in this movie is (Ikeuchi Aya), and she’s 15 when the movie start. She’s the eldest and smartest kid in her family. Cute, energetic, friendly and nice were always been her personality. She loves to play basketball so much. She passed the SHS test and enrolled ‘Higashikou’, the best school where she lived. Her father, (Ikeuchi Mizou) own’s a tofu shop and always being an energetic father. Her mother, (Ikeuchi Shioka), was a very beautiful and lovely mother who worked as a health consultant. The second children was (Ikeuchi Ako) who have a totally opposite personality from Aya-nee(her sister). She’s trendy and always joined the latest mode but she’s not as smart as Aya. Sometimes, she could be very annoying because her parent always admired Aya. The third children was (Ikeuchi Hiroki) who loves to play football and (Ikeuchi Rika), the youngest children in the family.

This story gave a huge impact in my life. I realized how cruel our society was toward disabled people. They just did not feel what this people feel because they’re not in their shoes. People just love to talk and mock them aimlessly without having any shame. I also realized how fortunate to be a healthy person and the ugliness of public perception at those disabled. They do not know that this people are struggling to continue their lives.

The story starts in Higashikou, Aya had been elected as a class president and met (Haruto Asou), who gave her a ride on the first day in Higashikou after she tripped and bleed her knees. They became closed as the time flew. Asou had been a good friend to Aya. He was the one who stands behind Aya after the world betrayed her and always encouraged her with his words. When the new semester begins, Aya decided to join the basketball team. On the boys team, (Kawamoto senpai), *senpai=senior*, was someone she’s had eyes for, which add the things she look forward to.

Amidst her happy days at school, Aya begins to experience physical difficulties. She often drops food from her chopsticks while eating, can’t pour drinks without spilling it and occasionally wobbles while she walks. Aya’s mother, Shioka was the only person who notices these changes. 

One day, Aya was about to leave home as usual when she started to run but suddenly tripped over her own feet and fall. She failed to use her hand to resist the fall, causing her to land straight on her face and making her bleeding heavily. This injury soon reveals the existence of Aya’s fateful disease from Dr Mizuno, a neurologist.

‘This disease, why did it choose me? Fate. It can’t put into words.’

Aya was really shocked and felt that her world had totally changed. From an optimistic girl, she turned out to a different girl, even though she tried to look normal in front of the family and her friends.

‘The view I see is same as yesterday. The street I walk on is still the same. But my whole world has changed. I definitely cannot smile like that again. Who I was up yesterday, will never show up again.’

I can see how her first crush shun her despite that he knows that she suffered from the disease. It’s when Kawamoto senpai invited her to join him watching the firework display. Aya was really in the cloud nine at that time. She even wore yukata, Japanese traditional clothes during the date. When they wanted to cross a street, Aya’s body failed to move again and she fall forward, striking her head on the road. She was bleed and had been taken to the hospital immediately. After that incident, her senpai avoided her. He even did not have a glanced towards Aya anymore. Kawamoto senpai’s friend told him that he chose the wrong girl to like. From that, Aya’s walk became unstable and slower. Aya stayed at the hospital for the whole summer and had to do rehabilitation twice a week. The quick progress of Aya’s sickness shocks Dr Mizuno and his colleagues. Dr Mizuno suggested Aya to write a diary every day.

Before I watched this movie, I truly believed that our family would be the one support us through thick and thin. Even the world betray us, we can always come back to them. But, in this movie, Aya’s brother, Hiroki felt ashamed of Aya. It’s when he had been bullied by his football friend over Aya’s condition. They make fun of how she walked which is like a penguin. Hiroki returned home upset and told her to not come during his football tournament. After she overheard Ako scolded Hiroki for not defending her, she broke into million pieces. She already prepared a present for Hiroki for the tournament but it’s all that she got.

A couple of months later, Aya’s condition worsen. She even need a wheelchair to move. She acknowledges that every day, a large piece of her dies in terms of the use of her body. Dr Mizuno pursues his research goals in order to find the cure for Aya’s disease but the results have been insufficient. He struggles between a general sense of hopelessness against and indomitable illness, and the courage example set by Aya which inspires him to fight for a cure in his scientific work.

I also realized that friends are not forever to help us. One day they will feel ‘tired’ and give up on us. It’s when the other student and parent could not accept Aya’s condition anymore. The student’s grades were falling because the lesson was slower than before because Aya was really slow at writing, the lesson always started late because she was late from the break. Even her best friends, Saki and Mari also express their tiredness to have to look for Aya everyday. Nobody supported her but Haruto. Then, Aya makes a decision to go to the disabled school so that she won’t troubled her friends anymore.

(Aya & Asou)

The time passed by, she has lost all ability to walk. She even could not hold the pen anymore which is too small. She now use marker to write a diary. This is the moment that she has long dreaded, as she knows this will be a depressing marker in regards to the severity of her illness and its eventual outcome. Aya’s friend and relatives respond in different ways to the harsh reality.

Aya’s own panic and intensify. She croaks out to her mum, ‘Kowai!’ which mean ‘I’m scared.’. but remembering her mother’s encouragement to share her feelings, she says earnestly that writing will be her reason for living. As long as she can write, she will survive and hope through writing, she will find a reason to live.

‘Writing is the only evidence that I’m still alive’.

But the relentless cruelty of Aya’s disease does not slowing down. She is clearly nearing the point where any voluntary movement will become impossible.  Aya continues to become more and more anticipated, until she have to use a ‘hiragana-card’ to spell out what she can no longer pronounce. Aya slowly falls into a deep sleep exhausted after not be able to open her eyes and move her body. The timeline has accelerated five years and Aya’s condition is now very critical. Dr Mizuno attempts to revive her but the true cruelty of the disease, the slowly encroaching moment of death has finally come……

I find that this story teaches me a lot. Aya was a great person. Friends will always come and pass but the best will stay. Although the storms hit us hard, they will always be a rainbow after that. It also makes me want to be a better, helpful and more concern toward disabled people. I always bear in my mind that it was not with their willing to have a disease. Don’t simply give up, even you have incurable disease. Keep motivating and fighting till the end of your life.

As I think of you, I remember all your struggles and I cry as you did facing them. Every time I fall, I return to your words :

‘ What’s wrong with falling down?

You can always stand up again.

If you look at the sky after falling down,

The blue sky is also stretching limitlessly

And smiles at me….. I’m alive

I’m alive. ‘

I will face each day and take things ‘step-by-step’ and ‘live on’…………just like you.

Thank you, Aya.