1. Miki - the girl and the mother at 14. A bright and happy girl acting as a part time DJ in school, playing her happy songs every morning in school, but then her pregnancy changed her whole life. Against all the "no" voices from parents, school, her lover and best friends, she decided to give birth to the baby in her, simply because she came to this World for the reason of seeing that baby to be born in this World. That's simply called "life". We are fighting for it everyday.
2. Miki's mother - an ordinary housewife got blamed for not teaching her daughter well. The neighbour gave pressure to ask her to move away in order not to affect their "decent" kids. Miki's mother strongly opposed to Miki's keeping the baby, but then got softened with Miki's word to her "You came to this World because of me. Now I came to this World because of my baby. No one can take it away from me.".
3. The baby's father Kilin, a very weak-minded kid having been being under the dominance of his strict mother. From running away to facing the truth, the baby has given the strength to him to be a responsible father regardless of the strong opposition from his rich mother. He gave up his school to make money for the baby, because he couldn't let Miki fight alone for the baby.
4. Kilin's mother, a tough lady who got abandoned and brought up Kilin by herself. She ran her business empire like a queen. However, the scandal of her boy totally destroyed her business. Yes, word can be very powerful when someone knows how to use it. The reality is so cruel that no one would differentiate issues. At last she started from zero again but she could take it. In the meantime she asked Miki to live to show her "she can do it." so as to convince her to accept Miki as a daughter-in-law.
5. Miki's father - was about to get promotion in the Company. However, his daughter's scandal made him hopeless for such a promotion. In reality, people would just mix up personal matters to business. So true and so cruel that I did come to see so many examples like this. The father finally got to overcome the hardship and accept Miki's baby as a fact and to lead on the whole family.
6. the Reporter - tried every way to find out the scandal and widely reported it. When asked on the morality in risking the 2 families for the explosive news, he just replied "if I don't report the truth, no one would care about the moral behaviour. I just do what my job is. I am a reporter.". If it wasn't him who was stalking Miki all the time, Miki would have been in a real trouble when she got her tummy pain for the sign of giving birth. Later on, he helped Miki to lead on her life and keeps on reporting how this Mother at 14 bravely faced the truth and coped with the hardship in life. In fact, there is no hardship in life if we truly face it.
7. the doctor - who is also the doctor for taking Miki out of Miki's mother's body. She wisely advised Miki about the high risk of giving birth at the age of 14. When Miki decided to take the risk, this doctor also decided to fight along with Miki. The danger finally came when Miki's baby was not in a proper position. This doctor told Miki who was in coma "I brought you to this World and I won't let you go!" and finally she did it! She was fighting for 2 lives.
8. Miki's teacher - in seeing Miki's upright and fighting spirit, she finally managed to convince the School to keep Miki's student seat in the school. Of course, the school got blamed from the public for this kind of scandal and not only her but also all the other teachers suffer. Meanwhile, she needs to meditate the other students in understanding the meaning of Miki's giving birth to the baby.
9. Miki's best friend - at first she strongly despised Miki in keeping the baby, but Miki's bright character finally convinced her to see the meaning of life. From friendship to hatred and back to friendship, she went back to stand by Miki. She, the girl on the photo 10 and the teacher insisted to stay outside the Ward to accompany Miki to go through the most dangerous time.
10. A silent student in the classroom - seldom talked to the others and seemed like she had had some unspeakable experience but couldn't tell the others. She ironically criticised how the other so-called "good friends" of Miki to suddenly become hostile to Miki. What is the meaning of friends?
5 comments:
Yes the reality is cruel. People are with their skin covering. Keep up with your faith. Thanks for sharing.
What a good movie. This movie tells many points:
1) The conservative culture in Japan.
2) The difference between true and fake friends.
3) If you are determined you can overcome many hurdles if not all.
4) The love in family and the support from family can solve a lot of things(just like how the father can accept Miki and her baby even when he needs to sacrifice his promotion because of that).
5) You need to stick to and act on what you believe to be right(to keep the baby regardless).
6) You can change people's heart over time if you are persistent and convincing enough(Miki finally melted her mother-in-law to accept her and her baby).
7) Young pregnancy is not suggested as you have to overcome a lot of hurdles which are not necessary to begin with. You need to exhaust lots of energy dealing with that issue, which is something you could have avoided.
Though Miki's teacher, friends and her mother-in-law finally helped her, they still told her "we still don't think you did the right thing". That's a very important point. We need to separate the issues. Miki was wrong in the first place but the people around her got motivated to help her and accept her.
Yes that is the main theme and spirit of this movie. Although Miki's friends, family, teacher and mother-in-law don't think she was right in the beginning, they still have empathy on her and supported her at the end.
If someone we love did something wrong or something we don't agree, we still shall understand her, support her and help her. This is true love and true friendship. And this is the love that all the religions crusade about.
Good analysis. I think it's not just Japan's culture is quite conservative. Just see how men and women social status are in many Asian countries.
The story really reflected people's weakness and also what is the meaning of life. Thanks for sharing.
Man
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