Pecoross’ Mother and Her Days

ペコロスの母に会いに行く (Pekorosu no haha ni ai ni iku)

Yuiichi Okano is a baby boomer born and raised in Nagasaki, Japan by his mother Mitsue. Now divorced, and a much older comic book artist with not much hair on left on his head, Yuiichi, who goes by the nickname Pecoross due to his bald head’s likeness to a ‘pecoross’ onion, is forced to face the fact that his dementia-suffering mother will need to be moved to a nursing home. As his mother Mitsue spends time in the home with its idiosyncratic inhabitants, her memories gradually lead her to retrace her secret past.

Drawing on social issues in Japan surrounding its ageing population, this sweet and heart-warming story focuses on the touching relationship between a son and his elderly mother, played by the then 89-year-old Harue Akagi, an actress with an illustrious career spanning many decades as a supporting actress, in her very first starring role. Directed by Azuma Morisaki, a master of socially conscious films and Japan’s oldest active filmmaker working today, the story topped both ‘best of’ lists for Japan’s two most famous film magazines in 2013, Eiga Geijutsu and Kinema Junpo.

長崎在住の漫画家が自費出版で発表したエッセー漫画を映画化。グループ・ホームに入居する認知症の母と、離婚歴があり、今や頭がすっかり禿げ上がってしまった息子。ボケたことで、死別した夫と頻繁に話すようになった母親を見た息子の心に浮かんだ思いは「ボケるとも、悪かことばかりじゃなかかもしれん」。深刻に語られがちな介護や認知症といったテーマを温かく描く。

監督: 森崎東
出演: 岩松了、赤木春恵、原田貴和子

Distributor: Spirits Project

Image: © “Pecoross’ Mother and Her Days” Production Committee