#anna miyagi

[padsdarlg]

FREDDIE FOX and HARUKA ABE as Freddie Baxter and Anna Miyagi

Cucumber (2015) S01E04

[taskfocusing]

you ever think about how at the end of the first slam dunk ryota and anna are playing in the ocean

how kaoru has always stared vacantly out at sea, towards the horizon as if looking for her husband and souta, but there’s never anyone there

but now as she looks towards the sea, her two remaining children are there, happy, displaying camaraderie with the thing that took two of her loved ones away

in the guidebook they mention how kaoru and ryota were often at odds because ryota still cling to souta’s memory while kaoru knew that she had to keep moving — even though her staring out at sea indicated that she also had trouble moving on

but at the end of the film, she’s finally taken a step forward as well — it isn’t just that her children are playing in the ocean that serves as an indicator that the miyagis are healing, but the fact that she also took the step to see ryota play against sannoh

i also think it’s significant that it’s anna who initiates the little splash fight between herself and ryota — anna, who also doesn’t shy away from souta’s memory, going so far as to ask for her mother to put up a picture of him

the family is finally moving forward together, no longer simply sitting with their grief and letting life move around them

the stagnancy that caused ryota and kaoru’s relationship to deteriorate is finally addressed, and the film ends with a feeling of a weight being lifted, of a grief being washed away by the sea

[supernatasha]

Haruka Abe as Anna Miyagi (Cucumber o1.o4)