Summary of One Litre of Tears

My current favourite movies : One Litre of Tears. It wasn’t actually a movie, but it’s a serial film. The story is about a girl who infected with “Spinocellar Degeneration Disease” or what we called Ataxia. This disease is famous because it is incurable, so when you get infected, you can’t perfectly back healthy.

Before I go through the summary of the movie, I’ll tell you more about the disease so you will understand. Ataxia is a disease when your the cells on your cerebellum have degenerated and it is very connected with our movement. There isn’t any exact reason why people could have this disease. It started with falling down often, your body can’t move even if you want to move, then you can’t hold things perfectly, speak unclearly. From that, you will walk unstably and then you can’t walk anymore, you can’t talk, and it’s very hard to make even a simple move or hold a pen. Do you understand?

By the way, this story was adapted from a true story. So the film was based on the diary of Kitou Aya, a girl who died on 1988 because of this disease.

Let’s continue to the story. ^_^

(The Ikeuchi Family)

So the main character in this story is Ikeuchi Aya, and she’s 15 when the film start. Her family name was Ikeuchi, and the family had 6 member.

The father, (~~I don’t know his name because his name wasn’t exist on the story)~~ Ikeuchi Mizuo (I found it on google) handled a Tofu Shop called “Ikeuchi’s Tofu Shop”, and he’s an energetic father.
The mother (Ikeuchi Shioka) was a very beautiful and lovely mother, and she worked as a health consultant. She always prepare some delicious food so her children could have some good nutrition.
The first children was Aya-Chan, and she’s the smartest children on the family. She’s cute, nice, friendly, and also energetic but she’s careless. She passed the SHS test and enrolled Higashikou, the best school on the place where the family lived.
The second children was Ikeuchi Ako, a beautiful girl whom was very different with Aya. She’s trendy and wanted to join the latest mode, and she’s not smart as her onee-chan (her sister). But she did have talent in drawing. She was always have a fight with her father, though it’s just some joke. Sometimes she could be so annoying but it’s all because she’s jealous to her onee-chan.
The third children was Ikeuchi Hiroki, and he’s the only son they have. He’s still on elementary when the film started and was very good at sport.
The last children is Ikeuchi Rika, and she’s the youngest and she’s the cutest girl on the family because she’s still a child. Same as Ako, she was also good at art.

~~Will continue later.~~ (I have just received an important call, so let’s continue!)

So the story started when the 15 years old Aya joined the High School test, and she was late to the test because she was fallen asleep on the bus. She stopped at the next bus stop and run as fast as she could the Higashikou. Then, she was fallen down on the Bicycle park and met with Haruto Asou. Because she was already late, Haruto took him with his bicycle into the school, and they could join the exam because of acceptable reason. Then, both of them passed the test. Ikeuchi’s family was really proud of their oldest children. But Haruto actually didn’t want to join the test.

Well, then Aya became the class president and also the conductor for Higashikou Choir Competition, their song was “Sangatsu Kokonoka” (you can find the music file in this blog, I’ve already uploaded it and the text with it).

Aya’s condition started to be worse when she was fallen down again in front of her home and she was bleeding. Her mother took her to hospital and told the doctor about the things that had happened to Aya recently, when she was falling down occasionally and couldn’t hold chopsticks well. The doctor suggested her to go to Neurology Department and had some check up. A few days later, Shioka received a phone call from Dr. Mizuno (let’s called him Mizuno-sensei) to met him on the hospital. He told her that her daughter was having the “Spinocellar Degeneration Disease” and told her what would happen next to her daughter. Shioka told the doctor to never told anything yet about the disease to Aya, because she wanted her to have a perfect life before she knew about her disease.

But Aya was a smart girl, day by day, her condition became worse, and she realized that something had happened to her. She searched on the internet and finally found the answer by herself. But then, she didn’t want her parents knew that she knew about her disease. But after the choir competition, they were together went to the hospital and finally he told her the condition.

This disease, why did it choose me? Fate. It can’t put into words

Aya was really shocked and felt that her world had totally changed. From an optimistic girl, she turned out to a different girl, even though she tried to look normal in front of the family and her friends.

The view I see is same as yesterday. The street I walk on is still the same. But my whole world has changed. I definitely cannot smile like that again. Who I was up until yesterday, will never show up again.

Aya had a crush on her senpai (senior), which called Kawamoto-senpai. He asked her to go to see the Fireworks together (it’s Japan traditional event, it was happened when the first day of summer. People usually wear Yukata), and Aya accepted the invitation. On that day, she was fallen down and bleeding so much. Ako was there and brought her to the hospital.

She need to stay at the hospital for the whole summer, and had some rehabilitation twice a week. When she was free from the hospital, she walked unstably and became so slow. Everybody was pity to her. From that condition, she then couldn’t move freely and had to quit from basketball team (have I mentioned she was good at sport?). A couple of months later, she needed to use wheelchair and her bestfriend, Saki and Mari, helped her.

But the other student and parents couldn’t accept the condition anymore. The student’s grades were falling because the lesson was slower than before because Aya was really slow at writing, the lesson always started late because she was late from the break. Nobody supported her but Haruto. They became closer.

Aya had to move to disability school, and she met with another people who had the same disease. She learned many things at the school and graduated from that place. (I’m going to make it fast now, since it is just a summary. I’m not going to tell you every single detail of the film, you have to watch it by yourself, lmao XD). After she graduated, she stayed on hospital and became worse day by day. But one of the disability school’s teacher, Takada-sensei, liked Aya’s poem and he came every week to put the poem into a novel. Then, they agreed to publish Aya’s diary, that’s why this film was existed.

Aya couldn’t speak, and need a board where there was hiragana letter on that. She had to point at one by one letter if she wanted to interact with other. Then, five years later, and the age of 25, she was died on the hospital. Aya was just not motivate herself, but she motivated the other who read her diary. Her diary was sold for 18.000.000 copies and until now people still purchase the diary. The diary title is The Diary of One Litre of Tears.

Morals that I got from watching the film was when you feel you have bad luck, look at the another side of the world. There are still many people who are worse than your condition, and you have to give thanks. And also don’t give up. Even if you have incurable disease. Keep fighting till the end of your life.

I hope this review is fine and you can understand it (sorry my English bad!) :P