is a Japanese

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

released in 2007 in Japan, directed by

Suzuki Matsuo is a Japanese theatre director, actor, novelist, and screenwriter. Career Born in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Suzuki started his own theatre troupe, Otona Keikaku, in 1988 and was joined by such talent as Kankuro Kudo and Sadao Abe. He won the Kishida ...

. It stars

Yuki Uchida (born November 16, 1975) is a Japanese actress and former idol singer. Following her debut in the drama '' Sono Toki, Heart wa Nusumareta'' (1992), she received her first lead role in the 1994 drama adaption of '' The Girl Who Leapt Through Tim ...

in the main role, and features two famous movie and anime directors in secondary roles:

Hideaki Anno is a Anime, Japanese animator, filmmaker, Film producer, producer, and voice actor. His most celebrated creation, the Neon Genesis Evangelion (franchise), ''Evangelion'' franchise, has had a significant influence on the anime television industr ...

and

Shinya Tsukamoto is a Japanese filmmaker and actor. With a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad, Tsukamoto is best known for his body horror/Japanese cyberpunk, cyberpunk film ''Tetsuo: The Iron Man'' (1989), which is considered the defining ...

Plot

Asuka Sakura (

), a twenty-eight year old moderately successful freelance writer with a hectic and stressful life filled with deadlines and demanding editors, suddenly awakens to find herself restrained in a white room in a psychiatric ward with no memory of how she got there. A nurse reveals that Sakura has been in a coma for three days following a

suicide attempt A suicide attempt is an act in which an individual tries to kill themselves but survives. Mental health professionals discourage describing suicide attempts as "failed" or "unsuccessful", as doing so may imply that a suicide resulting in death is ...

after which she was discovered and brought to the hospital by her live-in boyfriend, Tetsuo ( Kudo Kankuro), who found her unconscious. When Sakura asks about leaving the hospital, she is informed that the decision is up to her doctor and caregiver, as it is believed that she was at risk of committing suicide. She argues that she didn't intentionally try and commit suicide, and that she should be released as she has a looming deadline for work, but the doctors are unconvinced. Moreover, Sakura learns that to be released Tetsuo must give his approval first as he has had her committed to the institution believing she had tried to kill herself. Desperate to prove that she is sane, Sakura struggles with her new life in the psychiatric hospital as she becomes introduced to the other patients such as Miki ( Yu Aoi), a young woman with an eating-disorder who shows her the ropes of life in the mental world and guides her through the corridors of the small facility. As time goes on, Sakura begins remembering details of the events prior to her hospitalization and it starts to become less clear whether she intended to commit suicide or not as it is shown her day consisted mostly of interviewing people, fielding calls from editors about deadlines, watching television, drinking, and taking sleeping pills. Through a series of flashbacks narrated over by a deadpan Sakura in the hospital, she confronts her past as it is revealed that she was once a model and that she had been married and divorced prior to her relationship with Tetsuo, who was the one that was giving her leads to her writing gigs that resulted in growing stress as deadlines piled up. As she continues to reflect on her life prior to her incident, Sakura realizes that her life wasn't as happy as she had convinced herself, and the illusion begins to fade as she struggles with guilt over an incident in her prior marriage and comes to grips with her depression and the impact as it has had on her life. Having come to terms with her past and learning how to cope and take control of her life again, she is released from the ward and is seen laughing at something she sees through a car window.

Cast

– Asuka Sakura *

Kankurō Kudō is a Japanese people, Japanese screenwriter, dramatist, Film director, director, actor and member of the theater company ''Otona Keikaku''. He won the 'Best Screenplay' award at the 2002 in film, 2002 Japanese Academy Awards for ''Go (2001 film), ...

– Tetsuo Yakihata *

Yū Aoi is a Japanese actress and model. She made her film debut as Shiori Tsuda in Shunji Iwai's 2001 film '' All About Lily Chou-Chou''. She subsequently portrayed Tetsuko Arisugawa in '' Hana and Alice'' (2004), also directed by Iwai, Kimiko Tanigawa ...

– Miki *

Ryō The was a gold currency unit in the shakkanhō system in pre- Meiji Japan. It was eventually replaced with a system based on the '' yen''. Origins The ''ryō'' was originally a unit of weight from China, the ''tael.'' It came into use in Ja ...

– Eguchi *

Yūko Nakamura is a Japanese actress, born on 7 January 1975 in Fukui, Japan. She won the award for best actress at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2001 for the film ''Firefly (Hotaru)'' and the award for best supporting actress ...

– Kurita *

Satoshi Tsumabuki is a Japanese actor. His breakthrough film was '' Waterboys'' for which he was nominated for the "Best Actor" award at the Japanese Academy Awards, and won the "Newcomer of the Year" prize. He is also the bassist and lead singer of the Japanes ...

– Komono *

Shinobu Otake is a Japanese actress. She has won three Japanese Academy Awards: the 2000 Best Actress award for '' Railroad Man'', and the 1979 awards for both Best Actress for '' The Incident'', and Best Supporting Actress for ''Seishoku no ishibumi''. She ...

– Nishino *

– Doctor Matsubara *

– Asuka's ex-husband

Links and sources

* *
Review
at ''Variety''

at ''Japan Times Online''
Review
at Dreamlogic.net

at "Love HK film.com"

References

Japanese comedy films Films directed by Suzuki Matsuo 2000s Japanese films {{2000s-Japan-film-stub