Matataki (2010)

Also known as: Piecing me back together
Country: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: life&death, love
Cast: Kitagawa Keiko, Okada Masaki, Otsuka Nene, Shiro, Nagashima Eiko, Fukami Motoki, Chisaki Wakana, Shimizu Saki, Yoshinaga Johnny,
Synopsis: Sonoda Izumi is a young woman, who got into a traffic accident with her boyfriend Junichi. For unknown reasons she was able to come out of it with only small physical wounds while Junichi and other truck driver had lost their lives. Due to the shock she is unable to remember anything about how or why the accident happened, but constant nightmares and fragments of memories are haunting her to find out the truth about Junichi's last minutes.
Rating: 2/5
 I expected it to be another cute sad love story that will stay in my heart forever, but I expected too much as it turned out to be slow healing from trauma and nothing more.

There is nothing bad to say about Izumi, but she was a bit too nosy about Makiko's matters and she did not understand that her brother was just worried about her. I totally understand brother's actions, because he hoped that maybe so Izumi can finally move on and continue her normal life (as normal as it can be after this kind of accident). What I liked about Izumi, was that she decided to know the truth so badly, that she did not care anymore if the truth would turn out to be bad or good. Also, I bet one reason why she was unable to move on, was that she did not attend the funeral - from personal experience I know that it is really difficult to make yourself believe that this person is not with you anymore when you cannot say goodbye at funeral.

Kitagawa Keiko's acting was great, but at first her limping leg was a bit fake, but it is difficult to pretend to walk with a limp when your leg is totally fine. She is one of the reasons why many people even consider watching it. I find her great actress too and in this movie, she was able to show the character as she was. I would like to comment more about Junichi too, but I tell you that Okada Masaki had too less screen time! Only thing I can say about Junichi is that he had real artist soul - everything based on moment feelings and inspiration, he basically did what he wanted at the moment. I would have loved to see more about two of them, but what to do if the movie is already ready and out.

The other lead woman was Makiko, a lawyer who helps Izumi with her investigation. I actually think that most of what she did was not her job, but who cares about these things.. and I wonder if in reality it would be possible to get close to all those reports about the accident as they got? but these are things I know nothing about, so I will leave it there. Makiko was with her own problems too. Of course those problems were totally made up and worsen by herself, because I hoped that she has some juicy reason to go to psychologist, but it was nothing that important. She knew investigating well, because she knew many little details about her sister, even though she said that she has not been in contact with her for long time..

In whole the movie was rather depressing, but the interest to get to know the truth grew. I did not like that it was so slow and they tended to repeat one sentence like 3-4 times in a row, so in the end  it felt

like they are teaching me language and I must repeat after them to get the pronunciation right -.-. Technically was it really cool to watch because all the memories, dreams and present were mixed up and then you had to think which is reality.

Story itself got really great in the end, when the things started to become more clear or there were some movements in investigation, but then again the technical part of the movie could have been better there. It was like first part= (bad story+technically great) and second part= (great story+technically weaker). No matter what, the end result will make you cry your eyes out. Maybe it would be really great movie if they would add more scenes showing Izumi's and Jun's relationship and cut down on repeating and slowness.

Maybe you now think that the movie really sucked, but I must say that actually when it first came out it was on top of charts and just watch the trailer - it is much promising, ne? Watch the movie itself and let me know what you thought of it, because I have heard that for some people it is already favorite movie...
I will end my review with a comment by my sister: "It is more like a movie about two women solving each other problems.."

SPOILER-review: The English headline is sooo well chosen, because in the end she was literally piecing him back together.I actually loved this scene, because it shows so well person's behavior in shock situation. Izumi knew that for an artist fingers are really important and then how she desperately tried to put his fingers back on to hand was so sad and cute and I could not help myself than just cry. But as much as I know about first aid, she should not have put him to sitting position - he had broken his spine in several places. Actually I wonder how it was even possible that he did not die instantly?  But of course the English title is actually about getting back the memories and moving on with the life.