Corn Woman 🌽 @WomanCorn@schelling.pt

I want to note the way they tell you the Shoko's mother is a violent woman.

No one ever says it outright. You rarely see it on screen. But you see the blood on Ishida's mother's clothes and you know.

That sounds like a lot of criticism, but it's mostly confusion over what the point actually is.

The movie is generally good, but the fact that I guess I didn't really get it leaves it somewhat hollow to me.

That would explain her self-loathing.

Too bad it all got lost to adaptation decay.

I know Japanese movies don't do Oscar Bait, but it kind of feels like Shoko's deafness is a kind of pandering to make audiences feel like they're partaking in a minority culture.

Comments elsewhere say that a bunch of stuff got cut that made Shoko a bigger burden on her family.

Then what redemption is there to take place during the meat of the movie?

If the movie is about him overcoming his social isolation, then Shoko's deafness is a distraction from that story that takes up a huge chunk of screen time. That can't be it. But the ending leans that way.

Is it supposed to be a redemption story?

I guess, but the real meat of it must happen off screen then. Ishida learns sign language and works hard to pay back his debts before the movie begins.

He obviously regrets what he did, at least for how it hurt everyone around him.

Is this a love story? It doesn't really make sense as one.

Maybe it's a story of damaged people who help each other overcome their damage. That kind of works.

But Ishida's damage is mostly driven by guilt over his own bad behavior.

So that's the movie.

What's my takeaway?

I'm really not sure.

As they wander through the festival grounds, he has an epiphany: he has friends who love him and care for him.

Even the strangers don't seem so threatening.

Social interaction makes him sick to his stomach.

Nagatsuka tracks him down to pull him out of his shell.

His friends have been worried about him. They've been working on folding 1000 paper cranes (a traditional good luck/get well charm.)

After his recovery, Shoko takes him back to school for to meet up with everyone again. (At the school festival, of course. This is anime.)

And what we see, ultimately, is that Ishida has been suffering from some form of social anxiety. He can't look anyone in the eye.

Please, he asks, I want you to help me live.

And in sign (as far as I can read,) please be my friend.

Ishida finally wakes up. He is driven by one thought: he never really _apologized_ for the things he did wrong.

Before, and after.

He thinks he drove her to suicide by thoughtlessly putting pressure on her.

No, she says. She just wanted to disappear.

Ishida is in a coma.

Shoko blames herself for the fallout among his friends and wants to work to bring them back together.

She meets with everyone, even of it takes standing in the rain outside their work every night.

Yuzuru asks Ishida if he will go get her camera, which brings him to their home just in time to stop Shoko's suicide attempt.

And because this is that kind of movie, in his attempts to pull her back up after her jump, he falls off himself.

Ishida's nascent friend group has a falling out when his history as a bully becomes known.

He spends most of the summer with Shoko, even reconciling a bit with her mom.

They all go to the fireworks display together.

Shoko leaves early. To study, she says.

As two people who hate each other, can the just agree to coexist?

But Ueno's assumption is wrong. Shoko doesn't hate her.

Shoko hates herself.

Yuzuru has secretly videotaped the conversation and shows it to Ishida.

He says he wants Shoko to like herself.

Ueno tries to engineer a reconciliation between Ishida and Kazuiki Shimada, who was Ishida's best friend in elementary school, but threw him under the bus.

This fails.

Ueno blames Shoko for... roughly everything. She pulls her aside and suggests a peace treaty.

Ishida asks Yuzuru if Shoko is avoiding him. She suggests he ask her out; if she doesn't want to, she'll just say no.

Ishida invites her on a group trip to an amusement park. But someone didn't vet the guest list, because Ueno is there.

Shoko has fallen for Ishida. She gives him a gift and tells him she loves him. Out loud. This is no good, because her pronunciation is off enough that Ishida thinks she said "The Moon" and doesn't understand.

(Moon/Love puns are traditional in Japanese for some reason.)