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The story
The national box office rankings for October 2-4 were released, and Haruna Kawaguchi’s true-story drama “Even If Mom Is No Longer in This World: My Life’s Diary” debuted at No. 1. Based on the memoir of a young woman who died of colon cancer, the film earned 440 million yen in its first three days. Steven Spielberg’s new film “Disclosure Day” came in second. On 5ch, one thread saw comments like “terminal-illness films reliably hit no matter who makes them,” while discussion also heated up comparing attendance with other films released around the same time — including the 14th-place debut of Haruna Ayase’s “First Voice.”
October 5, 2026
The top 10 national box office rankings for October 2-4 were released by Eiga Tsushinsha (Movie Report Co.), and Haruna Kawaguchi’s starring film “Even If Mom Is No Longer in This World: My Life’s Diary” debuted at No. 1.
The film is based on the memoir of Nodoka Endo, whose story drew attention after being featured in the “Wedding Trip” segment of Nippon TV’s variety show “The 100 Million People’s Big Question!? Warattekoraete!” (lit. “Laugh and Bear It!”). Diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer at 21, Nodoka — the protagonist, played by Kawaguchi as the eldest daughter of the Kushibiki family — never lets go of her love for her husband Shoichi and their child right up until she passes away at 24. Mahiro Takasugi plays Shoichi. The director is Yuki Yamato, known for “Drowning Knife” (“Obareru Naifu”). The film earned 440 million yen in its opening three days.
Source: natalie.mu / Original article here
What people said
Just watch Chiikawa and be done with it! (Chiikawa — the hit cute-character franchise, also currently in theaters)
At the end of the day it's just a merch hustle
Bet they'll cram in new bonus goodies for the three-day weekend lol
Everyone's already sick of it though
Reliable hit every time
Probably Japan national team supporters turning out as a goodwill watch (Itakura: Ko Itakura, a Japan national team defender — the connection here is unclear)
Alien movies are just played out these days
It's cleared 2 billion yen
Since it's mostly IMAX screenings, it's earning more in revenue than the attendance ranking alone suggests
So it's below Odoru… huh (Odoru = shorthand for the 'Bayside Shakedown' film series)
Nolan's insane honestly — he's had tons of IMAX screenings this whole time and attendance barely drops, though the screening count finally did dip once Spielberg's film came out
Honestly the complaints sounded like unhinged nitpicking anyway (a jab calling the complainers 'menhera' — slang for someone seen as emotionally unstable/drama-prone)
Isn't it because she has so little time left that she wants to spend every extra minute with her child?
Probably the Spider-Man effect from this summer?
She's got real popularity with women too, I guess.
Re: #33
The Nidec effect (Nidec — a major Japanese motor manufacturer; the joke's connection here is unclear)
Wait, huh?
What about the movie Haruna Ayase is all over TV promoting right now???
Haruna Ayase's First Voice is
a total bomb, completely flopped,,,,,
11 *23136 *50710 *386 *57 111.4% We Are Aliens
12 *20235 *75589 *576 232 *53.1% The Swan and the Bat
13 *19579 130837 1042 249 *50.1% Matching TRUE LOVE
14 *17684 172066 1333 216 ****** First Voice
15 *17243 *59022 *383 156 *75.0% Super Princess Kaguya!
Haruna Ayase's starring film First Voice opened at 14th place,,
What happened
Meanwhile, Haruna Ayase's movie…
Lmao what a bomb
Haruna Ayase's movies really do have a lot of disastrous box office results
They played movie scenes while, for some reason, promoting today's soccer broadcast
They'll probably do it during the soccer broadcast too
Say what you want, the promotion game is always on point
It was only No. 1 last week
Thought it might stay on top but it dropped to 3rd
It was No. 1 at Aeon Cinema on the weekend but doesn't even crack the top 3 at Toho — the distributor clearly knows that and keeps scheduling it in a ton of garbage time slots, kinda sad lol
No idea why they only gave that one a release on around 350 screens
But now that I'm older, stuff like this will probably make me cry anyway
Doesn't feel all that different to me, honestly
Back in the day I got a bit full of myself, wrote a novel, and submitted it somewhere — and that novel basically came true in real life, so ever since then I've been a believer in that kind of thing, same as any fiction writer would be
Background and talking points
The national box office rankings are published weekly by Eiga Tsushinsha (Movie Report Co.) based on major theaters nationwide, and attendance figures and box office revenue can diverge depending on how a film is screened. Titles that run a lot of premium formats like IMAX tend to earn more revenue than their attendance numbers alone suggest — ‘The Odyssey,’ mentioned in the thread, is cited as one such example. It’s also typical for roughly a year to pass between filming and release, so an actor’s current activities don’t necessarily reflect what was going on when the film was shot. The pattern of true-story and terminal-illness-themed films performing strongly isn’t unique to this case — it shows up in past hits too, and having a source memoir or a TV feature piece helps build buzz ahead of release. On the other hand, differences in release scale (number of screens) directly affect attendance numbers, so a gap between how well-received a film is and how well it actually draws crowds is a common phenomenon in this industry.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisupo Sokuhou+) thread ‘[National Box Office Rankings] Haruna Kawaguchi’s starring film ‘Mom’s World’ debuts at No. 1 — Director Spielberg’s ‘Disclosure’ at No. 2.’
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