Even If This Love Disappears from the World Tonight <今夜、世界からこの恋が消えても> is a Japanese film (2022) starring Michieda Shunsuke and Fukumoto Riko. I watched it on the plane and it’s soooooo good, brings back my nostalgic feel of J-doramas.
The female lead is Maori Hino who suffers from a memory disorder that causes her to forget what happened the day before when she falls asleep at night. She got the disorder due to a car accident three years ago when she tried to save a kid.
The male lead is Tooru Kamiya who is a school mate of hers from the same school, he confessed to her in order to save a friend from being bullied and surprisingly she agreed.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
The movie began with Maori waking up to a room full of notes being pasted on the wall, reminding her of the accident she had, her memory condition and to definitely read her diary that she writes every night. She reads her diary and then comes out of her room, to be greeted by her parents who tells her what happened previously, basically reminding her all over again and re-assuring her that she’s done a great job recovering from the accident.
That particular morning, she remembered mildly what happened yesterday, that she hurt herself while painting, and her mother was so happy so they went to the doc’s and the doc said that her condition is improving. So they started removing some of the pasted notes and in the course of it, she discovered a sketchbook where she drew a boy all the time. She asked her best friend Izumi who that boy is which she is sketching and her best friend lied that he is just a model for model drawing.
And then we cut to a scene of Tooru confessing to Maori in school and she agreed. This is where the real story starts. He was caught by surprise she agreed and the next day, he told her the real truth that he was fulfilling a condition to save a friend from bullying. She said that he did save his friend isn’t it, and now they can start a fake dating relationship if he were to accept her three rules for dating her. (1) They only contact each other after school, (2) Keep the communications simple, (3) He should really not fall in love with her – and he agreed. Naturally he would, she’s pretty and she’s also popular in school, so why not.
And then we see them spending time together and going out on dates.
On their first date, she fell asleep during picnic and when she woke up, she couldn’t remember a thing and ran away. When Tooru found her, she come clean about her strange memory condition – Anterograde amnesia. She has clear memories of what happened before the accident but no new memories can be formed after that. He listened to the end calmly. She suggested that they end the fake relationship but he counter-proposed that she doesn’t write in what happened today in her diary today, and when she wakes up tomorrow, they can continue their relationship because he likes being with her.
And so she did what he counter-proposed.
Day after, she acted like nothing happened and came to look for him and he also behaved like before. Both of them just spending time together in the days that followed and taking a lot of videos and pictures of their time together.
At a book signing event, Izumi coincidentally met Tooru, and found out that her favourite author is actually Tooru’s sister. From this meet, Izumi also realised that Tooru knows about Maori’s memory impairment, when he said that he hasn’t met “Today’s Maori”. And Izumi guessed correctly that it was from the date at the park when Maori fell asleep. Tooru asked Izumi to keep it a secret from Maori that he knows.
Tooru and his sister sat down for a coffee and when his sister asked if he has a girlfriend, he said she is more a friend than girlfriend, and he just wanted to fill her diary with happy days because of her memory impairment. His sister is glad that he has someone important to care for.
This day after school, Maori invited Tooru and Izumi to her house to wait for results of a book prize and in her room, he saw the couple key ring that they both have, hers hanging on a bag and so he took out his keyring from his pocket, trying to show her that he also has it all the time, but Maori has no recollection of it at all. Maori, feeling awkward, excused herself from the room, and Tooru thinks that he should leave, but Izumi stopped him and questioned him back – isn’t he prepared for this? And then Izumi showed him the notes in her room and Tooru discovered how Maori lived her life everyday bravely.
One afternoon in school, Maori was telling Tooru how she win a prize for drawing and Tooru looked up “procedural memory” on his phone and told her that skills like drawing will not be forgotten, similar to her skills to riding a bicycle. Therefore, from that day onwards, Maori would draw Tooru all the time, hoping to accumulate her skills of drawing.
Days passed, and Maori is very happy to be spending time with Tooru everyday. This day in August, they are going on a date to see the fireworks festival, and Maori even wore a kimono for this occasion. She also initiated holding hands with Tooru and he held her hands back. Maori is upset that she won’t be able to remember all of these, all these precious memories. And then she asked Tooru if she could break the third rule, Tooru was like, I already broke it a while back, and then they kissed.
And then come graduation day, we see that Maori’s memories of picnic, fireworks and the couple keyring were all of with Izumi instead of Tooru.
Izumi looked pained. And then flashback to a conversation that Tooru had with her, Tooru might have a bad heart he said, he fell down yesterday so he is going to get tested tomorrow. His mother died of a heart disease as well, so just in case.
And then one day, Izumi got a phone call from Tooru’s sister that he passed away. He collapsed yesterday and did not wake up. ***OMG***
Izumi brought Maori to Tooru’s funeral and Maori cried uncontrollably even though she has no memory of him except of what she has written in the diary. Her state of mind could not take the death of Tooru well, and so Izumi decided to follow Tooru’s wish – to delete him from Maori’s diary and phone when he passed on.
Izumi enlisted the help of Tooru’s sister to re-write the diary, and she deleted all of the videos in Maori’s phone, re-decorated the room like before, remove traces of Tooru. All of these are to Maori’s parent’s knowledge as well. Izumi was crying uncontrollably while doing all of this, when Maori’s asleep.
Back to the present, beginning of the movie, where Maori found the sketchbook of Tooru and does not know who he is. Maori found herself re-drawing and painting this boy whom she does not know. All of this is eating Izumi up, so Izumi decided to come clean and brought Maori the real diary. Maori consoled and thanked Izumi for respecting Tooru’s last wish.
And so Maori read her real diary, she has no memories of Tooru at all. She begged to be able to remember but she could not, she just feel very happy reading the diary. *Cues many flashbacks
Maori went on a picnic with Izumi, the same she had went with Tooru. And she fell asleep too, a flashback of the then picnic, and when Maori woke up, it’s like she vaguely remembered.
The ending scene is of Maori drawing Tooru, she said that even if this love disappears from the world, my heart will draw you.
DramaKaffe 