Hirugao Movie

I finally watched the Hirugao movie. Hirugao was a very popular  2014 Japanese TV drama series and the show became a social phenomenon.

I was so looking forward to watching the movie version of this show and was going to watch it as soon as it became available on the rent movies online site.

The leading actress is Aya Ueto (Sawa) and Takumi Saito played Sawa’s lover.

In this posting, I will be sharing the review and spoiler alert! The posting includes the ending of the Hirugao movie.

Hirugao movie overview and story

In the original Hirugao TV series, Sawa was leading an ordinary life as a wife.

But something happened and Sawa met Yuuichiro (Takumi Saito), and they fell in love even though they were both married.

Their forbidden relationship became public and eventually Sawa and Yuuichiro had to break up.

Later on, Sawa divorced her husband and Yuuichiro and his wife moved to a different city to start over their broken marriage.

3 years later..

Sawa lived in a beach town after losing her job and husband. She was working in a restaurant right by the beach.

Yuuichiro was working as an affiliate lecturer at the University and came to the town Sawa lived. He came to give a lecture on firefly.

After learning about Yuuichiro’s visit, Sawa couldn’t help herself but to go to the lecture hall.

She just wanted to see Yuuichiro.

Sawa sat in the back, hiding her face so Yuuichiro wouldn’t see him, but when the Q&A time came, a boy who was sitting right in front of Sawa raised his hand to ask Yuuichiro a question.

When Yuuichiro saw Sawa, he couldn’t hide his nervousness and just said he was going to the Mihara forest to find fireflies.

Then Sawa got on a bus and headed for Mihara forest..

Yuuichiro didn’t show up after all, but she happened to find Yuuichiro doing some work in the field.

Sawa screamed “Kitano Sensei!” from the bus. She couldn’t hold her feelings back anymore.

They saw each other again and started to see each other right by the river in the forest once a week.

 

They felt guilty for seeing each other, so they didn’t exchange words nor do they even hold their hands. But they enjoyed their shared time together.

But one day, Yuuichiro’s mentally unstable wife (she really is!) who was suspecting something. One day, Yuuichiro and Sawa decided not to see each other again and got on the same bus.

But Yuuichiro’s wife was waiting for them at the bus stop. When Noriko saw them together, she became hysterical and told them to go to the hotel room with her and tell them to have sex in front of her. But they said they didn’t do anything other than trying to find fireflies and Sawa was distraught and fled the hotel room. Then Yuuichiro ran after Sawa.

Feeling betrayed and abandoned twice, Noriko was left in the room alone. She was so shocked that she couldn’t move.

Yuuichiro caught up with Sawa and asks her to trust him this time because “he is going to make things right this time.”

Fast forward, Yuuichiro and Sawa started to live together and they looked almost like a newly wed couple.

On the other hand, the owner of the restaurant Sawa worked was attracted to Sawa. But learning about Sawa’s past and her affair, he felt furious because his ex wife cheated on him and left.

The owner confronted Sawa, “Do you understand what’s like to be betrayed?” Sawa couldn’t continue to work for him so quit the job.

Yuuichiro was seeing his wife frequently to complete the divorce process. One day Noriko fell from the stairs and needed to use a wheelchair. So he decided to help her until she recovers.

Yuuichiro doesn’t say much as usual, and Sawa followed Yuuichiro one day and found him driving his wife one day. She felt devastated, thinking that they got back together. She didn’t know the circumstance.

Sawa finally confronts Yuuichiro. “Because I was the one who betrayed someone, so I can’t trust you either!”

Sawa went to see Noriko to see what was going on and realized that she was on a wheelchair. Yuuichiro was just trying to help his ex wife.

Noriko tells Sawa that she was finally able to let Yuuichiro ago after realizing his true feelings for Sawa. She wanted to work with Yuuichiro to finalize the divorce and reassured Sawa that she wishes nothing but happiness for Yuuichiro. She sounded supportive and stable.

Sawa felt much better after talking to Noriko and even started to feel bad for her. After Noriko finally signed the divorce paper, Sawa and Yuuichiro were finally free and released from the guilt they had felt.

Yuuichiro wanted to marry Sawa and bought an engagement ring for Sawa. They decided to have a small wedding by the river they met once a week to find fireflies. As a surprise, Yuuichiro hid the ring in the box right by the river.

On the day Yuuichiro went to see Noriko to pick up the signed divorce paper, Sawa saw soon to be husband Yuuichiro off in front of their shared apartment…

Yuuichiro couldn’t really confess his feelings for Sawa but as he left Sawa that morning, he mumbled something to Sawa but she couldn’t hear.

The ending-Spoiler Alert!!

Sawa was enjoying herself at the local festival.

She ran into the owner, her former boss and he apologized to her for his past remarks. He was simply regretting for having projecting his anger onto Sawa.

They reconciled and enjoyed the time at the festival.

On the other hand, Yuuichiro received the signed paper from his soon to be wife. She offered to drive him to the station. He got into her car with smile.

She was driving too fast.

Then she tells Yuuichiro that she didn’t fall from the stairs but that she actually attempted suicide by jumping off the balcony.

Noriko screams “I can’t think about life without you! I can make you happy. Why Sawa, and not me?”

Yuuichiro didn’t know what to say.

Noriko drives faster and Yuuichiro finally says “I chose Sawa because I like her”

At that moment, the car fell through the guard rail and falls to the bottom of the valley..

—

Police contacted Sawa and she headed for a morgue. She learned that he had died instantly. Police warns Sawa that the corpse is so damaged that she may not be able to recognize him.

Sawa wasn’t ready for this. Sudden death of the love of her life.

She hugs Yuuichiro’s T-shirt covered with blood and breaks into tears.

Sawa finds a receipt of her engagement ring Yuuichiro bought for her. She wanted to find the ring desperately but couldn’t find it.

Noriko who was driving at the time of accident was ok and the police treated this as an accident.

Later, Sawa goes to see Noriko and asked about the ring, but she was on crutches. Noriko simply tells Sawa that she doesn’t know anything about the ring.

Then Noriko goes on to say, “You killed Yuuichiro. I will never forgive you for the rest of my life.” Then she left with her parents and had the disturbing smile on her face.

Sawa felt like an empty shell after losing the love of her life. In their apartment, Yuuichiro’s futon was still laid just as before.

Devastated Sawa tried to commit suicide at a railroad crossing. The moment the train approached, she thought she saw a firefly flying to the starry sky from her wedding ring finger.

Sawa was pregnant.

Last scene:

A little boy and a girl were playing by the river Sawa and Yuuichiro used to hang out.

Then the boy finds a ring hidden in a box.

He gently put the ring on the girl’s finger.

—

My Feedback

hum..I really liked the Hirugao TV series even though the show is about an affair. The TV series had a bad ending. It was kind of shocking, and a lot of people probably went to see the movie because they really wanted to find out what happened to Sawa and Yuuichiro since then.

If you haven’t watched the drama series, you should see that first before watching this movie.

If you didn’t watch the TV show, you may just think that affairs do end badly. Aya Ueto is a popular Japanese actress and she seemed to have lost a lot of weight for this movie and she just looks sad and unhappy before she runs into her love again.

Even if you don’t agree with an affair, you would probably want to support pure love Sawa and Yuuichiro have for each other. And I don’t blame Yuuichiro for wanting to leave his wife in the first place. Even if Sawa didn’t exist, it could have been someone else and their marriage didn’t last long.

Yuuichiro is played by Takumi Saito and he really did a good job playing a naive geeky lecturer. He really doesn’t look like the kind of guy who would cheat on his wife, let alone getting involved with a married woman.

Even though Noriko says she will forgive Yuuichiro at one point, you can sense her anger and based on her crazy behavior in the TV series, you can kind of sense that she isn’t going to let Yuuichiro go.

She rather kills the love of her life if she was to give him up so he could be with someone other than her.

The theme of the movie is “Double infidelity.” The movie has the message that nothing good will come out of affair. What they had might be a genuine love, but the movie really teaches us the consequences of infidelity and no real happiness awaits when you have an affair.

Sawa will likely continue to search for Yuuichiro’s illusion for life..I like happy ending, so I really wish they could be happy and get married by the river as they promised one night.

I just didn’t expect Yuuichiro to die and that really ended their relationship. I enjoyed the movie and it was very beautiful, but it is such a somber movie and I really felt bad for these two. Nothing justifies this woman’s behavior and even though she wanted to blame Sawa for killing her exhusband, we all know that she was the one who killed him.

She wanted to control her husband but it was an unhealthy attachment.

the interesting thing is that the movie director had a different ending in mind. Sawa was supposed to break up with Yuuichiro because she was worried about their relationship not being the same when she was finally about to tie the knot with Yuuichiro.
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Aya Ueto tears up when Takumi Saito praises her professionalism. She is a mother and has a lot going on while filming this movie, but she didn’t bring any of her personal stuff into the movie set and was very professional.

Ueto tells Saito to just write a love letter later because she was about to burst into tears.