[Movie] Tegami

[Moved from my old blog.]

Starring: Yamada Takayuki, Tamayama Tetsuji, Sawajiri Erika.

Movie. 2003.

T_T Spoilers.

Tsuyoshi and Naoki were orphans since they were very young. Tsuyoshi worked hard to support Naoki and his schooling fees - he had always hoped that Naoki would attend university as he himself never had the chance to do so. Due to overworking, Tsuyoshi hurt his hip and found himself in a situation where he couldn't work anymore. In need of money to finance their daily lives, Tsuyoshi decided to commit a crime. He robbed an old woman and accidentally caused her death. Tsuyoshi had to face lifetime imprisonment because of his actions.


Naoki exchanged letters with his elder brother ever since but he was often discriminated at everything he did because of his criminal brother. He didn't attend university and worked at a factory for his third job. This was where he met Yumiko. A girl who spoke with a funny Kansai-ben. She took the initiative to approach Naoki only to be rejected by him. One day, a senior at the factory encouraged Naoki to follow his dreams of doing Owarai (a type of Japanese comedy usually performed by a duo.) with his friend Yuusuke.


They duo found success soon only to have their success to face a threat that is to be connected with a murderer. Naoki decided to escape from the entertainment scene and left Yuusuke performing solo. His relationship with a rich girl who later became his fiancee was also messed up when the girl found out that his brother was a murderer.

Naoki later moved and did not inform his brother about his new address. Thus, the letters failed to reach him and he lost contact with his brother. All this while, Yumiko seems to pop up wherever he is. One night Yumiko invited Naoki over to her house and handed him some letters written by Tsuyoshi. It appears that Yumiko had been sending computer printed letters in pretense to be Naoki on his behalf because she realized that for a jailed person, the only solace they can find is in the letters of their loved ones.


Naoki and Yumiko became a couple since then and got married. Naoki stopped running from reality and accepted the fact that his brother is a criminal. They got married and had a kid named Miki. This could have been the end but it was not. Naoki found his daughter being discriminated as well because of his brother's imprisonment so he wrote a letter to his Tsuyoshi telling him the whole story of what happened and forbade Tsuyoshi to write to him ever again.



Naoki visited the son of the woman Tsuyoshi murdered and tried to apologize only to find that Tsuyoshi had been writing to the man all along. The last letter mentioned Naoki's decision to cut of ties with himself, and his realization that he hadn't been repenting as his letters brought suffering to Naoki and his victim's family as well. The victim, Ogata told Naoki that he would like this to end here and stop blaming and stop the anger. Naoki wept. (I don't know why he wept, but yeah... his mucus was flowing from his nose and I was disturbed.)


The last scene showed Naoki doing the Owarai with Yuusuke again at the prison, while Miki and Yumiko were at a park. The scene cuts back and forth. Naoki and Yuusuke were joking about something and suddenly Naoki's brother was mentioned. And Naoki said his brother was irreplaceable after all and not something that he could just throw away. Miki finally was accepted among the kids at the playground. Tsuyoshi was in the audience witnessing the duo's performance. Tsuyoshi was weeping despite the program was actually a comedy. (His mucus was also flowing, but this time I wasn't disturbed, probably because I was busy looking at how hot Tamayama Tetsuji is. And wow, he is hot. ^^)



Movie ends with the happy family of three walking away from the camera.

***

Upon hearing that the movie stars SawaEri, Yamada and Tamayama, I initially thought that it would have been about Yamada and Tamayama fighting their ass off for the affection of SawaEri who would probably play some diseased, dying beautiful and determined and brave young girl.

xD Yamada would probably get the girl and Tamayama would probably get herpes. That was the first image that came into my mind before reading the synopsis for the movie.

Well, after I watched it, an unexplainable anger burned in me for the character Naoki. I mean, Tsuyoshi was trying to get money to support Naoki and he just brushed him off like that. It was life imprisonment that Tsuyoshi got. In his 20s, how many years does he have to suffer like that? And to think it was all for Naoki's sake. And god knows time must crawl slower than a snail when you're in jail.

The poor thing.

And SawaEri's kansai accent was horrible. It wasn't anywhere near believable. She should go take some lessons from her costar Nishikido before trying it on. =D It sounds so fake, her accent. Oh trust me, I know, I have only been watching years and years worth of Kanjani8 TV shows within one or two months. To have them brainwash me with their accent is like... sorta... very good education? Nya whatever.

So there, second Yamada Takayuki movie/drama in such a short time. This time he looked hotter than he was in Crying out love, but overshadowed by actor/model Tamayama.

Rating: 3/5

And just because I feel like it, here are some screencaps of Tamayama with a crew cut. I like short hair!^^ Men should just have short hair.