Dear Family (2024)

What's next?

Ok so before I write this, I have to say I watched this movie without subtitles and used my decent knowledge of Japanese to understand the film. There were tons of medical terminology thrown in that went over my head however.

That being said, this was a beautiful movie. It was absolutely heartfelt and made me feel so good after. The premise of the movie is really unique. Nobumasa's daughter Yoshimi has a heart problem that modern medicine cannot fix, so he takes years to learn how to create an artificial heart. In the process, the wish to save his daughter becomes so much more.

Nobumasa's character is so endearing. He fights so hard to get his research and designs throughout the movie recognized. I felt such strong conviction from him. I love how his entire family supported him and Yoshimi thought-out the movie. I would of loved to see more interaction between the family, but they sort of did that at the end. It was good way to make you feel even more strongly about their ties. The movie didn't show too much family interaction next to brief scenes at the dinner table. But there interactions were nuanced and spoke volumes about how they've been supporting each other in the background.

It makes sense, seeing as how it was Nobumasa's story of triumph. The acting was really solid. There were times were Yoko The mother, seemed to be reading her lines. But I'm not sure if that was just how her character was. I really loved Nami's approach to her family with always supporting Yoshimi. It was so so heartwarming. I loved when she has to get her family back on track to do the right thing.

There were a few times were I teared up, so this movie does pull at the heartstrings when it needs to. It's not overly dramatic however. I would say it was a really good balance between triumph and sadness. There is little to no comedy.

The camera shots were really well done. There was a few particular scenes I was excited about. Nobumasa is always shown running against a wave of people up the stairs of the train station. I think it was a perfect visual of his struggle in the movie. There was another scene were the lighting transitioned from the depths of sadness to a ray of hope and it was so well executed. There were some really great transitional shots, I loved all of it. There were some fuzzy issues with like blurring lens focus but very minimal. You don't really notice it unless you are scrutinizing it like me lol. Wow usually makes an excellent product cinematic wise.

Music was well done and suitable. There's a great scene were the mom is with her daughter's and a possible piece is playing that really set a fantastic hopeful mood.

Overall it's a fantastic film to make you feel good. I initially watched it for Arimura Kasumi's random appearance and her single long dialogue scene was fantastic with what little time she had. She's barely in the movie at all, so I was happy that one of her only scenes was fairly moving.

Great film, totally recommend

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