Movie Review: My Gabai Grandma from Saga
Yesterday, my family and I were watching a Japanese movie (with English subtitles) . The movie starts with a scene in a Shinkansen (a kind of high speed train in Japan) en route to Hiroshima. A man was typing on his laptop, when he gets a phone call as the train approaches a station. As he moved nearer to the exit doors to get better mobile reception, he saw a boy was being sent away by his mother to live with his grandmother. As the boy was crying, the movie switches to a flash back of the man's childhood memories.
The year is 1957, the man was a young boy named Akihiro living in Hiroshima. His mother was working at a bar. After a few days, Akihiro leaves Hiroshima to live with his grandmother in Saga after being thrown onto a train by his mother. He and his grandmother lived in poverty and collected rotten veggies to eat. He lives there for a very long time, through primary school and middle school. As he was too poor to afford attending Kendo or Judo classes, he picked up running as a sport. It was in Saga that he found out that his father had died from atomic bomb radiation.
With his friends, Akihiro later played baseball regularly and went on to become good enough to be the team captain by the time he gets to middle school. At the end of the movie, he participates in the school marathon. He sees his mother cheering for him and he broke a new school record. After that, he returns to his original home at Hiroshima with his mother. He bid his grandmother goodbye in the end who did not want him to go back.
It is a movie about kindness that is based on a true story. Most adults in the movie were kind to Akihiro when they learnt of his difficulties. I think it is a good movie but I cannot make out whether it was a sad ending or a happy ending. Some scenes were funny like when all the teachers suddenly had a stomachache and wanted to exchange their lunch boxes with Akihiro. The fact was that everyone knew Akihiro only has rice, pickle and ginger for lunch and wanted to offer their lunch box to him. They did it out of kindness and did not want to embarrass him.
I would rate the movie 4 out of 5 stars.
Title: Saga no Gabai-Baachan (佐賀のがばいばあちゃん)
Director: Hitoshi Kurauchi
Writers: Yôshichi Shimada, Kiyokazu Yamamoto
My Rating: ★★★★☆
The year is 1957, the man was a young boy named Akihiro living in Hiroshima. His mother was working at a bar. After a few days, Akihiro leaves Hiroshima to live with his grandmother in Saga after being thrown onto a train by his mother. He and his grandmother lived in poverty and collected rotten veggies to eat. He lives there for a very long time, through primary school and middle school. As he was too poor to afford attending Kendo or Judo classes, he picked up running as a sport. It was in Saga that he found out that his father had died from atomic bomb radiation.
With his friends, Akihiro later played baseball regularly and went on to become good enough to be the team captain by the time he gets to middle school. At the end of the movie, he participates in the school marathon. He sees his mother cheering for him and he broke a new school record. After that, he returns to his original home at Hiroshima with his mother. He bid his grandmother goodbye in the end who did not want him to go back.
It is a movie about kindness that is based on a true story. Most adults in the movie were kind to Akihiro when they learnt of his difficulties. I think it is a good movie but I cannot make out whether it was a sad ending or a happy ending. Some scenes were funny like when all the teachers suddenly had a stomachache and wanted to exchange their lunch boxes with Akihiro. The fact was that everyone knew Akihiro only has rice, pickle and ginger for lunch and wanted to offer their lunch box to him. They did it out of kindness and did not want to embarrass him.
I would rate the movie 4 out of 5 stars.
Title: Saga no Gabai-Baachan (佐賀のがばいばあちゃん)
Director: Hitoshi Kurauchi
Writers: Yôshichi Shimada, Kiyokazu Yamamoto
My Rating: ★★★★☆
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