Shingo Matsamura's gripping drama “The Lump In My Heart” about a student who is challenged by a life-changing diagnosis is based on a script adapted from Yokoyama Takuya's eponymous stage play, and penned by Takahashi Izumi, producer/ director/ writer who has proved his writing versatility with contributions to genre (“Sunny”, “My Girlfriend is A Serial Killer”, “Kamen Rider Black Sun”, and both installments of “Tokyo Revengers 2”) and dramas (“Kids On The Slope”, “True Mothers”) alike.
The Lump In My Heart is screening at Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme
When Chinatsu (Yoshida Mizuki) runs into her chidlhood friend and teenage crush Kohki (Okudaira Daiken) at the university campus, she becomes obsessed with something he had said to her a long time ago that made her aware of the male gaze. That particular remark made such an impact on her in the past, that she has developed a permanently complicated relationship to her body. When her breasts come to focus again many years later, due to a medical check-up she is required to do, her emotional trauma switches to another level.
“The Lump In My Heart” is a study of the emotional struggles one young woman is going through upon being diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. It is also about the relationship between Chinatsu and her single mother (Takako Tokiwa) who is overwhelmed by a feeling of helplessness.
Men are mostly kept in the background, occupying the positions of trust abusers. None of their characters is developed maliciously, and their actions are not extreme. As a matter of fact, they are quite unaware of the damage they are causing to women whose affection they simply fail to notice. One of them, Akiko's superior from the factory Mr. Kimura, who turns out to be falsely accused of a sexual assault in the past because his attempt to help a woman who suffered a heat stroke was perceived as inappropriate (although guided by a medical helpline). The man is simply blind to any advances. He is just trying to win friends and start anew.
“The Lump In My Heart” goes further by exploring to which extent health problems impact individuals, but also how the Japanese emotionally buttoned-up culture deals with sick people. There is another single mother who lives in the neighborhood, whose son is intellectually disabled. The youth is bullied by completely unknown people and overlooked for a job as a circus usher which he is perfectly fit to do. In one scene, his mother – unaware of the sinister news, tells Aiko that unlike Chinatsu, her son has no future. The sense of despair and hurt is omnipresent in the movie, but “The Lump In My Heart” can not be called a melodrama. With schmerz finally tuned and dialogues that do not sound like written and memorized words, but as something coming from people's minds, this is an example of good writing. The awkward comes from awkward situations and awkward people, which are always present in real life as well.
Yoshida who is most famous for her role in the Netflix series “Alice in Borderland” is terrific as Chinatsu. Surprisingly good is also the former pop star Atsuko Maeda (of AKB48) as Akiko's best friend. Unfortunately, the male actors are not casted to the film's advantage.
