From our other sites
The story
It was announced on the 11th that the film *Even If Mom Is No Longer in This World: My Diary of Life*, starring Haruna Kawaguchi, topped ¥1 billion at the box office just nine days after release. The source material is a true-life memoir by Nodoka Endo, who was profiled in a segment of the variety show *100 Million People’s Big Question!? Warattekoraete!*; her record of holding onto her love for her husband and child while battling Stage IV colorectal cancer struck a chord with audiences nationwide. On 5ch, the thread ranged from criticism of the promotional line “sobbed so hard I was gasping for air,” to comparisons with the box office of similar true-story “tearjerker” films like *Bride with One Month to Live*, to the budget realities pushing Japanese cinema toward TV-drama-style productions, to comparisons with other young actresses’ standing.
October 11, 2026, 11:22 AM
It was announced on the 11th that the film *Even If Mom Is No Longer in This World: My Diary of Life*, starring actress Haruna Kawaguchi, topped ¥1 billion at the box office just nine days after its release (October 2).
The film adapts the bestselling memoir (published by Shogakukan) written by Nodoka Endo, whose story — followed in the “Wedding Trip” segment of the Nippon TV variety show *100 Million People’s Big Question!? Warattekoraete!* — moved the whole country to tears as a “true story that won’t stop the tears.” Set in 2018, in Aomori: Nodoka, then 21, was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer. Even so, what she refused to let go of was her love for her husband, Shoichi, and for the child she was about to bring into the world…
Source: news.livedoor.com / Original article here
What people said
Did something happen?
Probably about half of commercial Japanese films are tearjerker types.
Re: #7
Whether I cry or not is for me to decide after watching — I wish they'd stop marketing it with "it'll make you cry," "I cried," "so moving," and the like.
It just kills the mood.
Agreed.
It gives off that same shady vibe as the 24-Hour TV charity telethon.
Still, did this really need to be a theatrical film?
Could've just put it on YouTube, or done it on Netflix.
A 2-hour TV drama slot would've been plenty.
Well, fair enough, lol
When I read a novel marketed as a tearjerker and a sickly girl shows up, I already know she's going to die, so it's just painful, lol
I hated that whole wave of tearjerkers where the hero or heroine just dies for the sake of it.
"Sobbing," "wailing," and especially "bawling" are all different ways of crying, aren't they? Not that it matters, but still.
That's exactly what bugged me the moment I saw the title.
If you just made that up, fine, but if the article actually wrote it that way, that tells you how sharp the writer is, lol
*Warattekoraete!*? Why was that running on a variety show meant for laughs?
spend that time living your own damn life like it matters, every minute of it.
The fact that you're here on the afternoon of the middle day of a 3-day weekend means you're already flushing your time down the drain in a big way.
Can't they make something that goes full entertainment instead?
Big entertainment blockbusters need huge sets and action sequences, and that costs money.
Unless you've got a budget on the scale of Hollywood — more than 10 times what Japanese films get — it ends up looking cheap.
That kind of spectacle gets handled in anime instead, where you can just draw it, while live-action Japanese films settle for human drama.
Isn't this the one about choosing between saving the pregnant mother who has cancer, or giving up on the mother to save the baby being born?
If it were me, I'd choose my wife.
That's exactly like the wife of a former Yomiuri TV announcer.
Looks like she might even top Ryusei Yokohama and Suzu Hirose too.
Of course there's going to be both glowing reviews and brutal pans.
The one writing the article can cherry-pick too, you know.
But that's how reporters' writing has always been.
Whether it's flattery or bashing, whoever wrote it doesn't want to take responsibility for it.
So they frame it as "we're just reporting that these voices exist," nothing more.
The film *10 Years of Life Left* grossed about ¥2.87 billion (cumulative box office).
Tearjerkers are always a hit — it's basically a law of nature.
I guess people just can't help wanting to be moved.
If you lived your whole life without ever being moved by anything,
I'm not even joking, wouldn't you just die? That's humans for you.
Speaking of which, what ever happened to that Haruka Ayase movie?
Did it even clear 100 million?
The only Riho Yoshioka movie that was actually good was probably *Haken Anime!*
She's got a Kyu Sakamoto biopic coming up — wonder how that'll turn out…
*Haken Anime!* probably would've been a hit with a different lead.
Given the timing, it could've slowly built its way to a billion yen.
Ending at ¥180 million was a huge flop box-office-wise.
She's not an actress you get to write off as a flop anymore.
"Kirin ga Kuru" and "Chimudondon"
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
The film’s source material is a memoir by Nodoka Endo, who was followed for a segment of the Nippon TV program *100 Million People’s Big Question!? Warattekoraete!*; it’s based on the true story of her recording her love for her husband and child after being diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer at age 21. True-story “tearjerker” films cited in the thread, like *Bride with One Month to Live* (¥3.15 billion gross) and *10 Years of Life Left* (about ¥2.87 billion), tend to perform well at the box office, and this film’s billion-yen milestone falls in that same lineage. The thread’s real fault line wasn’t over the film’s quality itself, but between discomfort with the “it’ll make you cry” marketing angle and appreciation for it as a record based on a true story. It’s also easy to miss that the headline phrase “sobbed so hard I was gasping for air” is a quote from the distributor’s own promotional comment, not a statement about the film’s actual quality.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “Haruna Kawaguchi’s Film “Even If Mom Is No Longer in This World” Tops ¥1 Billion at Box Office — Voices Saying “Sobbed So Hard I Was Gasping for Air for the First Time in a While”.”
Leave a Reply