Ai uta: My promise to Nakuhito

warning: spoiler alert

Do we have to be dying to start cherishing things in life? Do we have to know our death is near to start missing this world were we have been living for years but hated.

This is the question that surrounds the whole movie adding the factor of love.

Toru Nomiya (Yokohama Ryusei) is told he is facing a very advance staged cancer and he doesn't have much more time to live.

While he is in the hospital terrace crying, an old friend Tatsuya Sakamoto (Hiroki Iijima) finds him there without knowing why he is there, then Toru tells him he is dying because of an advanced terminal cancer, to which Tatsuya surprisingly reacts positively, and tells Toru he is going to make his last days worth it.

While going to quimio, Toru sees a girl several times.

One night while he is walking down a street returning home he finds a poem book that shocks him with its poetry saying: "this question does not need to know the answer. Being taught by others? Is this natural learning? Even forget that you are breathing I enjoy every day." "Inhale and exhale, of course, no need to teach others to repeat everyday".

He sits down reading the book and starts crying and then a woman, the owner of the book returns to get the book she forgot. While they are walking he returns the book, but the woman tells him the book helped her in her bad moments and that he gives it to him because he seems to need it more than her.

They then go to have a dinner and we get the feeling that they like each other.

He then meets Nagi Ito (Kiyohara Kaya) which seems like a girl that its just visiting someone in the hospital, but the first time they talk, Toru discovers he is a terminal cancer patient too.

They start to know each other during hospital visits, and Toru keeps hanging out with the woman he meet the night she lost her book, that was a famous actress.

As he keeps hanging out with Nagi, he discovers that Nagi was the author of the poem book that he read that night.

While they get to know each other Nagi tells Toru she has never been to school, so the next day Toru appears with some school uniforms, and they get into the school so that she can experience how is it to be a student.

We can see how Toru enjoys seeing Nagi talking with the girls, and in their return they ride back to the hospital by bike through a "tunnel" of cherry blossoms.

Then one day Nagi tells Toru she hasn't seen the dawn, so Toru wants to take her there to accomplish her last wishes before she dies. While they go to the beach to see the dawn, Toru faints and has to stay in bed almost everyday and can't get up caus her condition has worsen up.

At the time all of this is happening and Toru's counter gets smaller, he starts realizing that he has feelings for Nagi. Because of this he wants to make the last moments of Nagi's life worth it, so one night even though Nagi's parents forbid him from hanging out with Nagi, (because the last time she fainted) he visits her on her hospital bedroom and explains to Nagi he is in love with her. Later, Nagi's mother finds Toru in the bedroom and tries to makae him to leave, but Nagi realizing that this will be the last moments of her life, ask his parents to allow her to go with Toru because they love each other, and there is no more time left.

Toru carries Nagi through a field, where they both sit and make Nagi's wish real, washing the dusk together. While the sun is rising both hold each other and cry.

To finish the movie Nagi asked Tatsuya to make a song with a poem she made for Toru, and once Nagi is dead, and Toru is almost dying, Tatsuya carries him to the hospital terrace and sings to him Nagi's song.

In my my opinion both of them are lucky to have found each other even though they had almost no time left. They found the love and they could experience it, that is even more than a lot of people who live longer can achieve. I'm glad they could both die happy knowing they love each other, and having accomplished all the little desired they wanted to accaomplish before dying. They also experienced something they both thought they couldn't experience, and something that was sudden for both of them.

Their love is true love, caring for each other and cherishing every instant they live and every instant they spend together.

"This question does not need to know the answer. Being taught by others? Is this natural learning? Even forget that you are breathing I enjoy every day." "Inhale and exhale, of course, no need to teach others to repeat everyday".

Do we need to learn by being taught or should we learn from our own experience? Should we teach each others or lend them learn. Personally i like to learn from my own experiences rather than being taught, because i don't trust in believing things that depend on others experiences.

And yeah, maybe its better if we forget we are breathing, and living, and learning and experiencing things, maybe we should just flow with the current and float away, and enjoy everyday without thinking and processing each moment, just trust our memory will remember some instants later.

But, do we have to be dying to cherish things?

thank you for reading,

movie freak, taiyoraise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFo0_GBp4Yc