An (Sweet Bean) (2015)

Cast: Nagase Masatoshi, Kiki Kilin, Uchida Kyara

Director: Kawase Naomi

Synopsis:

“An” by Kawase Naomi tells a story about Sentaro (Nagase Masatoshi) - a struggling tiny Dorayaki stall manager and his life-changing encounter with Tokue (Kiki Kilin) - a 76-year-old Leprosy patient, as well as Wakana (Uchida Kyara) - a teenage schoolgirl who is close to him. Sentaro offered Tokue a job at his tiny shop after being moved and convinced by the taste of her An - which she appreciates a great deal. Just like how the red beans grew close in the pot, their relationship started to sprout in the tiny shop of Sentaro’s.

Thoughts:

We were first introduced to the demotivated Sentaro, selling Dorayaki in a tiny shop, without a smile on his face in Act 1. In contrary, we have the bright and positive Tokue whom questions why would Sentaro runs a business of something he doesn’t have the passion of. As their relationship grow, he became to enjoy companies and appreciate the process of making An and selling Dorayaki - something that was seemingly dreadful to him. 

Nagase Masatoshi as Sentaro

Coming into Act 2, Tokue was loving every moment she’s had at the shop until the familiar and cold harsh truth faces her. The deathless stigma and discrimination towards lepers or Leprosy patients that was purely based on distorted assumptions and misinformation - which drastically dropped the numbers of the Dorayaki shop customers to nil. Sentaro suggested her to take a rest and soon enough, she quit. It became quite a difficult period for Sentaro as he reached a setback after finally triumphing over a mediocre life. A visit to Tokue’s sanatorium with Wakana allows him to get in touch with Tokue and his feelings. Inspired by Tokue’s cooking, Sentaro and Wakana begins their quest of creating a new Dorayaki menu to start anew with the shop.

However, another hitch revisited him when the owner of the shop decided to run a renovation to the shop - making him unable to do anything during the period. Now in withdrawal, feeling unsatisfied, hopeless and demotivated by yet another setback - Sentaro falls back into the undesirable dungeon of depression. He and Wakana finally went back to the sanatorium only to be welcomed with the devastating news of Tokue’s death. Tokue has already prepared a recorded tape, telling her story. Uplifted by her words, we later see the now cheerful Sentaro selling Dorayaki using the cookery tools gifted by Tokue, by a sunny park surrounded by children, people and cherry trees. Now in Act 3, this scene showed how he has started to enjoy selling Dorayaki as compared to how forceful and demotivated he was to do the same thing at the beginning. It also showed how he has unchained himself from the tiny Dorayaki shop and the haunting of his past mistake. 

Kiki Kilin as Tokue

Kawase has successfully addressed the distorted perspectives that the society have towards Leprosy patients. It is known that Leprosy patients were treated in such terrible manners by both society and government in Japan. Forced abortions, sterilization and life-long quarantine of Leprosy patients without any legit scientific grounds forced the Japanese government to compensate the patients in 2001 by a court rule. Sentaro taking Tokue in as a helper in his shop was a major thing for her, where she’s finally able to live like normal people. Kiki Kilin depicts her role as a leper perfectly - confined yet desires to be free and accepted by the society, which is why she could see the misery in Sentaro’s eyes. Sentaro’s character had also developed tremendously throughout the movie. He became a much more positive person who has finally found a purpose in his life by the denouement, despite it being seemingly trivial - selling Dorayaki at the park.

This film is an address towards depression, isolation and finding life purpose to finally accepting and triumphing above all. Spectacular is what the film deserves to be called.