Momo e no tegami

It suddenly occurred to me as I rode into Nagasaki by bus that I hadn’t been to the cinema yet on this trip. In fact, I hadn’t even considered the idea. Being that my main opening to interest in Japanese culture and language is via the medium of cinema, I thought it was about time that I did. On my first trip to Japan, I went to see the Miyazaki film ‘Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea’. I promptly fell asleep during it. But this was 2008, when I was young and wistful and the only Japanese I knew was ‘konnichiwa’, ‘arigatou’ and ‘kamikaze’.

But now is now, and I know some more Japanese words now. Ima (now in Japanese), I headed to the Toho Cinema that I had passed on the bus to see if anything good was on. Apart from the seminal ‘This Means War’ (known as ‘Black and White’ in Japan), there was nothing on. I then went to the United Cinema down the road and found ‘Momo e no tegami’ (‘A Letter to Momo’) on. From the same director as ‘Jin-roh’ – a film that I didn’t particularly like – I thought I’d give it a go.

Now, being that my Japanese is limited, I had to fill in a few plot holes as I went along, but I think I got the gist of it: A girl, Momo, has an argument with her father just before he dies. After his death, Momo finds a letter he had started to write with the words ‘To Momo…’ on it. Oh, what did he want to say? This is where the film gets a bit peculiar with three spirits then appearing to help her overcome her loss, as well as annoy her. The seven police car chases and tranny getting boffed might have been my imagination going wild; but generally, I followed the story.

I think I enjoyed it and got through it all without falling asleep. Being very Studio Ghibli-esque, I can see this one making its way to the UK, so I might be able to see if I was write about the story in a couple of years.