thoughts on movies 2024/11/03

i made the last minute trip to see "Adabana" movie written and directed by Kai Sayaka. i hadn't expected to see a film about bioethics, but it completely overturned my previous perceptions. the film is set in the near future or a parallel world, where a viral pandemic has changed the human body's constitution, leading to an extremely low birth rate, and the United Nations, facing the threat of a global population decline, has no choice but to allow the creation of clones of "people who meet certain conditions" to prevent them from dying in vain. these clones are called "it". the first half of the story is told from the perspective of a man who is the next president of an organization that runs a facility in japan for transplanting organs, limbs, large areas of skin, eyes, and all other parts of the body other than the brain from "it" to the person himself, but who has been afflicted with cancer and is about to undergo organ transplant surgery from "it."

the subject and "it" are like identical twins separated at birth, but "it" never leaves the facility and receives the same food and education as the subject, but at the same time, "it" is shown the film of the subject's life many times and is told that it lives only to become a part of the subject someday. on the other hand, the subject is not allowed to meet "it", even though he knows of its existence, so that he will not empathize too much with "it", which has no human rights, and hesitate to undergo surgery.

however, he is so afraid of death that he can no longer find meaning in his life, in which he has climbed the ladder of success, following his parents' expectations, got married in a political marriage, and created an ideal (but loveless) family. he wants to know what kind of life "it" has lived up to now, so he uses his position to meet "it" many times. surprisingly, "it" is exactly like him in appearance, voice, and habits that were corrected at a young age, but is much more innocent, curious, intelligent, can draw, and has a bright and gentle personality. as he continues to interact with "it", he begins to dream of various memories that were buried deep inside him. for some reason, his father does not appear in these memories, but rather of his childhood when he was dominated by his mother, the past when he lost a loved one(or an ideal "mother"), and even deeper still, the trauma of having witnessed the scene where "it" that had provided its body and finished its role was disposed of. in the end, he is unable to use "it" and loses his life. however, there are other people in this story who are connected to "it". for example there is a pianist who wants to be provided by "it" but is unable to proceed with the operation due to mental instability, a former authority in brain surgery who can no longer use "it" due to the deterioration of his cognitive function, clinical psychologists who support patients before surgery, and medical professionals who are involved in raising, educating, and disposing of "it" after providing. strangely, they are divided by the color of their clothes. those who can use "it" wear black clothes, medical professionals wear white (of course), and "it" wears light gray. At the end of the movie, the clinical psychologist has a suspicion. she wonders if she is "it" who was replaced with her subject at some point in her life, and that her data is taken as a mousse for experiments. i think it's not just a story about bioethics, but about how the existence of clone shakes the memory, spirit, and very existence of the human "self" - everything about that. the lines that "it" said to the subject in the movie stuck in my mind. "i don't think that vain flowers are worthless flowers. it's not all about inheriting the gene. life has value when you know the purpose of life."

https://adabana-movie.jp/