MovieChat Forums > Ôkami kodomo no Ame to Yuki (2012) Discussion > I liked it a lot but thought it was re...

I liked it a lot but thought it was really depressing

posted 12 years ago by blondiebear_17
8 replies | jump to latest

The mother ended up all alone after her husband died her son abandoned her to do his own thing in the wild and her daughter graduated to middle school. She has to live out in the countryside all alone with just the memory of her husband to keep her company. I feel bad for her she had to let go of her kids far sooner than an ordinary woman would of had. Her son ran away at 10 and is it normal for a Japanese middle school to have dorms? I know its fiction but that's crazy.

JEFF : I hate Glee.
PIERCE : I'm not crazy about Glee either.

[–] jjoxx 11 years ago

There weren't many other ways it could've turned out, and of those most would be bittersweet – it probably would've been more depressing if Ame had abandoned his destiny up the mountain to live another decade with his mom in their isolated country home. As the closing theme alludes to, behind everything else a mother simply wants a good life for her children, and if that means letting go and allowing them to forge their own way in the world (even at age ten!), so be it.

As for the middle school dorms, that's not entirely unheard of in the US anyways, as in private or military schools that house the students on campus. Otherwise, it probably has to do with distance – the real estate agent early in the film mentions the elementary school being 30 minutes away, but the middle school is a 5 hour round trip from the mountain, so a dormitory for students who live so far away makes sense.

[–] sazzrah 11 years ago

I think I felt saddest when Ame went to meet the wolf in the wildlife sanctuary and discovered it's spent it's whole life in captivity. They certainly did a good job of capturing his sadness. The fact it looked like he was being kept in some kind of dungeon probably didn't help!

As for Yuki going to a dorm, it's probably simply explained by what Hana is told at the beginning when she moved into the big house - for a kid to get to school it's a 5 hour round trip everyday. It's no way to spend your childhood - I'm sure for kids who grew up deep in rural Japan, going to a dorm is the norm? I'm just guessing but it seems logical.

[–] strahd9 10 years ago

In my mind I was hoping the community up there would become a larger part of her life at that point. Cause Hana was a pure saint, giving up so much of her life to raise her kids. And to lose that with nothing else to replace it would make a bittersweet movie quite a big bummer.

drew

I'm a person just like you
But I've got better things to do
- Minor Threat

[–] The-Peake 10 years ago

I think the ending is open enough to allow for any number of happy events. Hana's children might be gone, but she has all of her friends on the mountain, and has the chance to live her own life after spending 12 years raising her children alone, fixing up the house and farming vegetables. Plus, it's not like Yuki would be away forever, she would presumably return home for school holidays. And there's no reason Ame couldn't visit his mother once in a while.

I think I liked it better when he just said "Annyong".

[–] aexl 10 years ago

If you think this was depressing then you shouldn't watch Grave of the Fireflies / Hotaru no haka (1988).

[–] ridho271 10 years ago

I think this has more emotional impact for me than grave of fireflies though it matter on ppl opinion

[–] MrsBuckyBarnes 9 years ago

i wanted her to remarry to be honest, to reinforce the point that life is about transition. her children got to live two lives, one with her, and one where they follow their path and create a future. meanwhile all she had was the house and an old driving licence of her dead husband. i assume she had the company of the community but it would have like to see love passion re-enter her life too.

[–] Suzume-san 8 years ago

Life doesn't always have a happy ending.