People are extraordinary. People are facinating and have the ability to do amazing things. People have the strongest will. Sometimes it only takes one event to push your life in a different direction to have an impact on others for years to come.
Here are four Japanese true-life films about being passionate, having perserverance, and keeping promises.
Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!
1. Hana’s Miso Soup
What’s It About: Chie Matsunaga has just learned that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Her boyfriend, Yasutake Shingo asks her to marry him. Chie really wanted to have a family but has given up hope due to her cancer treatments. One day, she finds out that she is pregnant. Her doctors tell her that she is at a high risk giving birth, possibly even risking her own life. Chie decides she wants her family and will do anything to make sure she gives birth to a healthy baby.
Starring: Emina Akamatsu, Ryoko Hirosue, Mahiru Konno
Where To Watch: Available on DVD on Amazon Prime
Watch The Trailer Here:
2. What’s For Dinner, Mom?
What’s It About: Tae and Yo Hitoto are sisters. They are returning to their old house that is slated for demolition. While inside of the house, Tae finds an old recipe box containing recipes and letters of their departed mother. The sisters learn that their mother moved to Taiwan and married a Taiwanese man. Tae and Yo decide to travel to Taiwan to retrace their mother’s steps and learn about her different stages in life.
Starring: Haruka Kinami, Michiko Kawai, Mayu Hotta
Where To Watch: Available On DVD on Ebay
Watch The Trailer Here:
3. Yoko The Cherry Blossom
What’s It About: In the 1940’s, Masaaki Takaoka was a teacher at the Agriculture Institute at a youth training facility. He was been working on growing a specimen that will grow anywhere in the world. Takaoka soon learns that his students have been drafted into the war. He makes everyone promise to meet under the cherry blossom trees when everyone returns safely. When he hears the bad news that his students has perished during the war, Takaoka, wracked with guilt, is determined to create a strain of cherry blossom that can bloom anywhere in the world for the spirits of his deceased students to find.
Starring: Maki Miyamoto, Takashi Sasano, Hikaru Makishima
Where To Watch: Currently Unavailable For Streaming
Watch The Trailer Here:
4. A Banana? At This Time Of Night?
What’s It About: Yasuaki Kano lives at the hospital. He has had muscular dystrophy since he was 12-years-old. He has an eccentric personality and constantly tries to run out of the hospital and demands that he eats a banana at night so he can sleep. Hisashi Tanaka is a new medical student that has started working at the hopital. There he meets Yasuaki and the two hit it off and become instant friends. A new late-night volunteer at the hospital catches Yasuaki’s eye, and he develops a crush on her. The only problem is…she is Hisashi’s girlfriend. Yasuaki asks Hisashi to help him write a love letter to the volunteer, unaware that the two are a couple.
Starring: Haruma Miura, Yo Oizumi, Mitsuki Takahata
Where To Watch: Currently Unavailable For Streaming
Watch The Trailer Here:
