The Lion Standing in the Wind (2015)

This is one of the greatest masterpiece that I’ve watch. I am not actually good at this kind of thing but because I’ve watched this movie, I thought of making a movie review about it.

The movie is based on a true life story of a Japanese doctor that was made into a song entitled “Kaze ni Tatsu Lion” popularized by Sada Masashi in 1987.

The story revolves on the life of a Japanese doctor Shimada Koichiro (Osawa Takao) who was deployed to a research facility in Kenya, Africa by a university hospital. The idealistic doctor, Koichiro was then requested to assist at Lokichiogo Field Hospital. When he and his colleague arrive at the hospital, they were surprised by the number of war casualties that is brought in the field hospital. He stayed at the hospital for a month but then he requested to stay there longer to help. Then, there’s a newly dispatched nurse from Japan named Kusano Wakako (Ishihara Satomi) was then sent to Lokichiogo to assist Koichiro.

One day, Koichiro met Ndung’u; a wounded boy who’ve fought in the war. Aside from physical scars, Ndung’u also bears emotional scars which was then later revealed on the movie. Ndung’u was then given by Koichiro a nickname Miche’ (short for Michaelangelo). Koichiro gave that nickname to Ndung’u because of the drawing that was showed to Koichiro (it’s a portrait of Koichiro).

There are some fillers on the story, which at first I didn’t knew where it came from. A story of a woman named Akishima Takako (Maki Yoko) was then inserted and also a backstory of Koichiro’s colleague and his wife who is Koichiro’s classmate during high school. At first, I didn’t knew who is Takako and as the story progresses, I found out that she is the girlfriend that Koichiro left in Japan.

On Christmas, everyone was celebrating and then Santa Claus appeared. HAHA. The appearance of Santa Claus wasn’t something everyone didn’t expect, even I didn’t expect that a Santa would appear out of nowhere. HAHA. He then distributed gifts for the kids and the last one who got a gift was Ndung’u. Everyone was surprised by what Koichiro had given Ndung’u and from then, Ndung’u had revealed the emotional scar that his bearing – this part of the story made me cry for the emotional scars that the boy was bearing has been opened to Koichiro.

On the night I had watched this movie, I really had to stop from time to time because of the external noise made by our drunken neighbour. I was only watching it from my phone and the headset wasn’t working so, I found it hard to watch the movie. As the story progresses, I was so enthusiastic to finish it in one go.

The portrayal of Osawa Takao was really superb; there really is no doubt that he really immersed himself into the role. As what I’ve read from the internet, he was the one who convinced the singer Sada Masashi to make the song into a novel and now a movie. Meanwhile, the actress Ishihara Satomi’s acting does not fall behind. Her portrayal of Wakako is something that amazed me. I first watched her at "From 5 to 9" (together with Yamashita Tomohisa) and thought that she may be something – which is now, I’ve proven.

I think the best lesson this story has to offer was how a person you meet can change your life. Just like how Koichiro’s life was changed by Ndung’u and how Ndung’u’s life has been changed by Koichiro. There will be a time that you’ll meet a person that’ll have an impact on you – this person may or may not change you.

The ending of the story has also some twist because it contains Koichiro’s back story while the song “Kaze ni Tatsu Lion” was played. The back story was something I didn’t expect and it made me knew what inspired this idealistic doctor to stay in Africa amidst the conflict.

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