WIT Life #151: Fireworks from the Heart
Events, Film, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers 
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Yesterday I had the chance to attend the ANA-sponsored screening of Fireworks from the Heart (おにいちゃんのハナビ), a sentimental film based on the true story of recent high school graduate Taro whose sister Hana suffers from leukemia. The family moves from Tokyo to Niigata for her treatment, a change that Taro resents as has has to leave junior high in the middle of his final year. Hana ends up being hospitalized for six months, and when she is finally releases she comes home to find that Taro is now a 引きこもり (hikikomori), or social recluse. She makes it her mission to get him back into the world, and slowly but surely her effort pays off.
The 5000-person town in Niigata that they have settled in is famous for its annual fireworks festival, which is not corporate but individually sponsored. Each firework that goes up has a special meaning as it has been personally designed and dedicated. Hana encourages Taro to join the local association of his peers who are responsible for doing his age group’s fireworks in the next year’s festival. They don’t accept him at first as he is an outsider to the town, but eventually his persistence pays off. Just when it seems like Taro has finally gotten his life back on track, Hana has an unexpected recurrence and is hospitalized yet again. Taro decides to make an unforgettable fireworks display for Hana, and this is something that keeps her hanging on…
As Japanese movies tend to be sappy and considering the topic I was worried that the melodrama would be excessive, but this touching movie pulled at my heartstrings in just the right way. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the theater when it ended. The matsuri scenes with their vivid colors and sounds brought back many great memories of my yukata-clad summers in Kumamoto. I could almost smell the assorted flavors wafting over from the various yatai. As the seasons passed, the gorgeous shots of Niigata’s snow brought me back to reality and the winter wonderland waiting outside the theater door.
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