I wasn't too keen to watch this at first since my broken mariko is also getting a movie but since you've said its quite different, I'm looking forward to watching it! Have you watched the film, if so then how did you find it??
Well, a friend unwilling to accept her best friendās death (here, disappearance) and trying to liberate herself from guilt and sorrow - is what I found similar. This is of course going by the synopsis listed here coz I havenāt read the original novel.
I'm expecting some makeup or prosthetics. But I totally agree it would look really exaggerated and phoney.
Then again, in the productionās defense, they would find it easier to make a ābeautifulā person look āuglyā than letās say make an āaverageā looking person look drop dead gorgeous and āuglyā at the same time.
But then just as you mentioned, these terms can get pretty hard to define as they are relative to each person.
2 
Ikeda Elaiza's lookin cool nonetheless.
Edit: Iāve found it!
But then just as you mentioned, these terms can get pretty hard to define as they are relative to each person.