This movie is about a mother named Yuriko (Masaka Suda), who slowly loses her memories, and her only son, Izumi (Masaka Suda) and his own memories. The film aims to illustrate the nature of human memories, what it means to be a parent, and the present-day issue of dementia through the two characters' falling out and eventual reconciliation. The memories of the mother suffering from Alzheimer's disease and her son's memories will be illustrated in alternation. Say, for example, you're in a car accident and your body is okay but you lost your memories. Can you still consider yourself the same person? Probably not. On the other hand, if your entire body is replaced with machines but your memories were left intact, perhaps you're still the same person. Humans are defined not by their bodies but by their memories. Even trivial memories are part of a complex system rooted in a person's identity.
What's missing from each of their memories are the perspectives and emotions of the other. It's because memories are by their nature, in first-person, that we doubt and hold grudges against one another. But this can also serve as the force that draws people together so that they may belong and love one another. In the finale, this film will illustrate the moment when two people unable to share their memories and perspectives come together through a miraculous event. As a rule of thumb, this film uses one cut per scene. Just as we don't get to cut.our life experiences like a movie, time keeps flowing without compromise. However, it's also true that we experience fragmented flashbacks during our daily lives prompted by unassuming events.
They often occur spontaneously and without context as they interfere with our lived reality: like remembering a rough breakup while taking a train; or about a fight you had with a friend when your small during an important meeting; or about something you saw in the news the day before, during supper. When you think about it, we live each day influenced by these arbitrary and incomplete pieces of memories. The film will convey this type of brain activity through camera work, editing and sound. In a single scene, reality and flashbacks will intertwine as they progress in parallel. The series of flashbacks that are suddenly inserted throughout the film will foreshadow certain events and all be retrieved in the climax of the final.
Written by Gregory Mann.
