The Moon

DOJIMA Yoko (MIYAZAWA Rie) was once a popular novelist, known for a novel about the victims of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, but has since lost her drive to write. Seeking a change, she begins working at an institution for the disabled hidden within a forest. Not long after meeting the facility’s socially-ostracised residents, Yoko is horrified to witness staff abusing them, but is held together by empathetic young carer SATO (ISOMURA Hayato).

Soon enough, Yoko discovers that, in spite of her age, she is pregnant. Fearing that the unborn child may be disabled, and having already lost one son, she considers prenatal testing. Meanwhile, SATO begins to exhibit eccentric thoughts on the residents and the value of their lives, which Yoko finds very disturbing…

Directed by ISHII Yuya (The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue, JFTFP23), one of the most skilled directors of his generation, The Moon is a chilling adaptation of the novel of the same name, itself based upon a 2016 incident in Japan that saw 19 mentally disabled people murdered in the name of “mercy” by a care home employee. With a furious intensity, ISHII asks scathing questions on the state of the Japanese care system and the meaning of life itself.

かつて人気作家だった洋子は、スランプを脱するために森の中の重度障がい者施設で働き始める。しかし施設内での虐待や若い介護士のさとくんの
奇妙な思想に直面し驚きを隠せない。そんな折、洋子は自身の妊娠に気付き、命の価値を再考する。2016年に実施起きた、知的障がい者殺傷事件を基に、福祉制度の問題や生の意味に迫る社会ドラマ。辺見庸の同名小説を映画化。

(Special thanks to Eikoku News Digest)