Aki

Character posters for Decision to Leave (2022) dir. Park Chan-wook

"One thing I’ve been saying is that this is a film for adults. Ironically, it’s also one of the very rare cases where I’ve made a film that’s totally fine for teenagers to watch, because there’s no shocking violence or nudity in this film at all. So young people could watch it, but I don’t know whether it will be at all appealing or meaningful to them. What I mean when I say it’s a film for adults is that it’s really about mature, human relationships. It’s for anyone who has lost somebody or had to let go of someone. It’s for those who know the experience of having a romantic relationship of great subtlety and hard to define feelings — the very complex psychological changes that happen to you over the course of life."

I’ve been requested to talk about this and there was nothing on the subject in the tag, so here it goes.

There is a real-life version of Ann’s story from episode 10/chapter 2 of Violet Evergarden. But no, the real one did not inspire the author to write this chapter, as it has only become known very recently. It was all pure coincidence, which makes the whole deal even more intriguing.

So last year, the Japanese portal Livedoor News published an article about a 18-year-old girl from Matsuyama named Rina. In the article, Rina, who was then under a nickname to keep herself anonymous, shared the story of her late mother’s letters. Every year, she receives letters from her mother, who passed away at 34. They were all written to Rina in advance when her mother realized that she would not win the fight against cervical cancer. The article went viral, for obvious reasons.

Later on, the newspaper Yomiuri Shinbun also published an article about it, which stirred more reactions and compelled people to reach out to Rina. Thus, the girl decided to come out publicly and tell her story in detail.

Still a high school student, Rina lives in a family home for children and teenagers who either are orphaned or can’t live with their parents. Her mother, Junko, wrote 15 letters addressed to her before passing away. She then left the letters under the care of her lawyer, the legal guardian of her daughter. They were to be sent to Rina every year, one by one, on her birthday. Last month, on her 18th birthday, the lawyer came to deliver the letter in person.

Rina lost her mother at 5 years old, and the letters are supposed to accompany her until she turns 20, which is the legal age of majority in Japan. The letters were easy to read and child-friendly at first, but as the years passed, the mother gradually introduced kanji and longer sentences to her writing, all so that Rina could read them without problems and not depend on anyone else for it. In short, this mother is literally raising her daughter into adulthood through letters. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

“When I was sick, there were many people who supported and encouraged me, so I realized how much I appreciated the warmth of people’s hearts. And I realized that even sadness and illness are part of the great happiness of being born,” is what the latest letter says.

The reason why Rina had never told anyone about her story, even though it has been going on for such a long time, is that she didn’t want people to feel sorry for her. But after the articles earned so many positive responses, she confided to an interviewer that she wanted everyone to get to know her kindhearted mother.

Rina will be going to college next spring to become a child welfare officer and plans to write a reply letter to her mother.

Now, I know that this real-life fairy tale seems very close to what the anime did, but the similarities with the novel are even more uncanny. Much like Rina, Ann was put under the care of a law counselor, who saw her through proper education and showed her that life wasn’t easy for the lower classes. I imagine that growing up in a children’s home must have inspired Rina to aim for child welfare as a career, just like Ann’s experiences inspired her to become a law counselor as well. It’s also noteworthy that Clara raises Ann through her letters in the novel, as Junko did with Rina. She gives Ann prep talks about things such as love, child rearing and new experiences, even going as far as giving Ann a car when she is old enough to drive. And at the end of the chapter, just like Rina says that she intends to write for her mother, Ann intends to write letters to her own daughter, through Violet. Everything really comes together and the coincidences are truly astounding, given that the real-life letters were written 6 years before Violet Evergarden was published.