⋮

All in all: Wanda is a film that requires you to interpret things on your own to a scale of a whopping eighty percent (aside from the blatant and glaring ignorance towards women, of course).

Another thing I'd like to put into the spotlight: How unlucky Wanda is. How she always ropes herself with questionable people, with evildoers. How this almost-two-hours-long film portrays Wanda as someone airheaded, but we could tell it was just her own way of getting through her days, her broken life with no meanings and goals. Very obvious but to finally see her breaking down, it finally hit me in the face. There are a lot of people suffering from this type of "silently disconnecting with yourself as to not let life burn you out" and I wonder why, or how people as a big system, structure of humanity decided that it is okay to let our civilization turn into this mess? It's as if, "Oh? Is she finally breaking down? Ok. At least she can pour it out now, though we can do nothing to help" because yeah, sure, people have their own problems and oftentimes it's understandable why they can't help others but it's also a tragic thing. Alas, this type of "awareness" and "justification" will likely fuel human's apathy even more.

1.𝅙Hanashiro had done the right thing when she slapped the arrogant, bully-bee classmate of her just because she appear nonchalant and "not your typical teenage girl."

The bully deserved it, otherwise she and her gang wouldn't grow outside the tiny box they put over themselves. It was also wise for the original novel writer, the artist, and the studio to include the scene where the bully girl finally apologized to Hanashiro; and she did the same: apologizing for slapping across her face forcefully.

2.𝅙Never have I been drunk in my entire life, so I couldn't say anything about the drunkard shitty father Kaoru has. It just never clicked in my mind that someone could be brute when they were stripped off their senses.

Still, to this day, I think being drunk doesn't make it as a valid excuse to justify your actions. It just make someone turns even more pathetic in my eyes– hiding yourself behind losing yourself to the moment caused by your own self-control failure? Perish yourself from my life, thank you very much.

3.𝅙The movie has a strong correlation with the Japanese maple leaves (紅葉/Momiji), and I'm gripped with the intensity to search the symbolism of maple leaves for Japanese people: transience and patience.

The Tunnel to Summer, The Exit of Goodbyes has one strong element of a "local legend surrounding a tunnel." The tunnel itself said to have an ability to bring back anything tangible, and upon entering the tunnel, we could see a single lane restricted by maple trees on both sides. According to an online article (dans le gris. 2024), one of the many symbolism of maple leaves is "to remind people of the transience of life and encourage them to enjoy each moment." In the case of Kaoru, I think the tunnel is trying to teach him to let go of his past regrets, the guilt (none of it was his fault), to move on from his dead sister and continue his own life. He is asked to make peace with himself. Hence, the tunnel gave him the illusory of her sister encouraging him to leave the space. And he did it! He realized there was something new he wanted to achieve: Anzu Hanashiro.

Now we have arrived on the second meaning, patience. I'd like to link the second symbolism to Hanashiro, how, despite her quick tempered nature, she decided to not follow Kaoru into the tunnel and continued her life to be a mangaka, respecting Kaoru's wish. "Rushing to our goals will only make things worse. (Lee, HaoYu. Sakuraco. 2022). Despite the tendency to isolate herself, she decided to wait for Kaoru, for 8 years. With point zero to none guarantee that she would hear something back from him (what with the time between their "outside" world and "inside the tunnel" differs quite heavily). The movie didn't focus on her arduous wait each year, each month, or even each week on the station; yet with how nonchalant the writer, artist, and studio portrayed her– when she started crying, I cried with her. It was such a relief for my poor heart to see her patience paid off in the end.

I can list some of the disturbing tell-tale signs right away, as soon as the scene panned into a woman somewhere possibly in her late 30s with a teenage boy, seemingly have just moved in to a new flat. And most people will think of the same thing, too: What do you mean there are two other little kids inside two different perfectly sealed suitcases? Is it even possible to stay inside a tiny space clearly not meant for human for I don't know how long the ride was, without any air? There is little to no possibility of the mom to sneakily open the zipper of both suitcases for her kids to get some air from the gaps, I think. As if to tell me, or any other viewers "This is still nothing", the director changed the scene abruptly into the night to show us that the family still had one more person left. A girl, possibly younger than the boy who "arrived normally into their new house", waiting all alone in the street. I can only make a wild guess that her mother done that to avoid the probability of being rejected to rent a flat. That's fucked up. That's a lot to process.

Forgoing the details of the film (because I can't physically and mentally went through the second replay inside my head, for I'm still processing things), I understand how demanding live is, I even understand why the mother of the four siblings has a child-like personality (linked to her own traumas and being "carefree" was probably her own way of keeping her barely there sanity intact), why her mother gave her oldest son the money and never her presence as a sensible, caring mother, why she ended up leaving her children inside such a cramped small flat. But again, as someone I know have said "her actions can't be justified" earlier today, I wholeheartedly agree to that. There is no way any person with a right mind would take the mother's side. Her less-than-ideal way of making decision had lead her children straight into a destruction. Children maturing rapidly to accommodate their environment shaped by an irresponsible adult, several disruption the children are going to go through on both their mind and body, children denied of the basic things they should have been able to enjoy–school; entertainment; hobbies— The last point is a tricky one, considering these all won't happen in the presence of money.

There are still a lot of things I wanted to pour out, if only I'm capable to find the right words. If only I'm quick enough to settle the discomfort within myself after watching the film. With that, I will probably be back to add more reviews after the discomfort has dissipated and I got my brain back to work.

Amélie is that one kid I'd view as a soul in tune with everything around her, more than the capacity of most kids. This is not exactly a bad thing for—to put it in a simple term—"the normal kids", nor is it exceptionally great for Amélie. As everything in this world, every living being will bring two outcomes from any occurrence; causality. The "less good" and "more good" outcome that honestly? We humans are the ones who established it ourselves. Not every person who loves to talk is guaranteed to have a better social life (because what if the same "positivity" people seem to see in this trait is the one that brings misery due to the words vomited endlessly?), and not every person who keeps their mouth shut is guaranteed to gain a higher advantage (again, what if their glued mouth is the main factor of them missing opportunities?). What matters is how the person views, thinks, chooses, and moves around the situation accordingly; and this is what Amélie did.

If we think about it, we are all parts of God (now, which God you choose to believe in, I don't care). We come from "The True Existence" born in our current form. Perhaps this is what Amélie feels deeply, with her extraordinary conscience for her age— hence, she first thought she was the God as in "a whole God." Only through experience and experiencing did she finally learn. That she is God but also her ownself. Knowledge and learning are two unseparated things, something as valuable as life itself. Throughout the film, we are constantly given scenes to see that Amélie is always learning. Always asking things that are often too heavy for kids her age. All those scenes rolled out perfectly— between the events in our daily lives and the meaning the director and producer were trying to tell us.

Take these two screen captures for example. The two brownish objects in front of Amélie are spinning toys (koma) made by Nishio-san on a whim when she sees Amélie zoning out (probably thinking why humans should die, as the previous scene told the viewers how her father's mother [a.k.a Amélie's grandmother] died). Here is my personal interpretation: when there is a cause; there is an effect. This is a universal law— and in this case, they (the director and producer) probably want to show us where there is life there will always be death in the form of both forces "clashing" throughout seconds (life), and when the time comes— all will be snuffed out.

We can take such obvious examples from these two screen captures, too. It's about war and again, death. As death always looms behind every war. Nishio-san was recounting her childhood experience with war to Amélie. How she ended up losing her parents and sibling. Maybe with the hope to relay "nothing is ever permanent in our lives" to Amélie.

Aside from the exquisite relation between every scene and action with the plot, what I truly love is the colour palette of this film. It's warm but also bright. It's not demanding my attention at first sight, it's just.. there. Showing serenity. Soft joy but also sorrow— It's welcoming, with all its weal and woe through colours.

This film is definitely reminding me again and again about the difficulty navigating through life. How I truly don't know anything about life, the universe, the purpose, and why. Why am I me? Why am I here? And why must I be alive? Why am I not.. anything? As Amélie told us at the very beginning of this film. Now, let me ponder on how I should view and navigate through my own life. All I hope is I get to learn and always find more knowledge like how Amélie is. Perhaps it will bring me into a happier, more optimistic stage of my life.

P.s. I actually don't really like how Amélie, Juliette, and Andre's parents treat them. It feels like they are not emotionally there for their children. It definitely feels like they don't put much effort into getting to know their own children. They aren't bad parents– something is just lacking in my eyes.

P.s.s. (on Japanese tradition where families raise koinobori [carps-shaped flag] to celebrate Children's [Boys'] Day) "Why a month for boys and not girls? Not even a day for girls. Not even a symbol." I'm wondering the same thing too, Amélie.

One thing I noticed the most was that the courtroom smelled like a psychological war field. It was awful. Full of gaslighting everyone in the room, and even oneself—in this case, Mrs. Sandra Voyter as the suspect— the same situation was probably applicable to similar cases, where, if we conditioned ourselves to think the suspect is indeed guilty, they and their team spent the whole sessions trying to gaslight everyone else. That. Was crazy. Something that I'm sure would always ended up in a failure if even one in the team was less smarter than the jury, and the chief as one mispoken word could crumble everything and if oneself decided to keep their silence— it was never an option in a courtroom, I guess. Unless it was demanded from you by the one in charge.

Second: We all knew Mrs. Sandra ended up free of her guilt. But was she? Was she truly not guilty? Because her son's (Daniel) lasts words after seeing her mom again was the fact that he was afraid of her coming back home, and she says that she was, too. Afraid of what, exactly? Why would they need to feel it? One possible option I could think of was: Daniel knew, Daniel realized that his mom had truly murdered his father, her husband. But why would he help her with his last testimony? Was he afraid of having to live alone and decided to take the least bitter pill for him to swallow?

I can not know for sure. We can not know. As I think it was intended by the director to leave the film with such an open-ending manner. The film makes me rethink and reconsider some things; the generally "accepted" definition of having a grey morality; how relationships supposed to work especially with unpredictable variables; how we should control our mind; and even how the juridical system work? Because I for sure as hell noticed that one jury in red robe, with shiny head, seemed like he was hell bent to shove Mrs. Sandra behind the prison bars. I mean, yeah, sure, it was great to know he was truly passionate to uphold justice if Mrs. Sandra was indeed guilty (We can not know. It will all be different inside our heads). Doesn't a jury need to maintain neutrality, even if they asked things around to collect more information and data? He was nowhere near neutrality, in my opinion. Or was it supposed to roll down like that? To give a heavy amount of pressures and practically cornering the "suspect"?

That has been bugging my mind out, and I think I need to find a real-life professional reaction, unbiased opinion towards this fictional case. Crazy to think they also utilize fiction inside a fiction. My big applause to the director and team.