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In movies, we always see the beginning of a story like this: the hero and the heroine meet by chance and thus begin a romantic relationship, but this is not the beginning of every story.

For example, this recently released Japanese movie also begins with the encounter of a man and a woman, but the story goes in a different direction -Everything at Dawn。

This is the latest work of Japanese director Uta Miyake, adapted from the novel of the same name by Maiko Seo. It previously participated in this year's Beijing International Film Festival and was nominated for the Tiantan Award for Best Film.

Like his previous work "Keiko, Gaze", the film focuses on a special group.

The heroine is a patient with premenstrual syndrome. Affected by hormones, she suffers from the disease every month, becoming irritable for no reason and hostile to everything and everyone around her.

This disease has seriously affected her life. She once had a sudden attack at work, had a conflict with her colleagues, and lost her temper in the office.

The doctor changed her common medication, but the drug's side effect of drowsiness made it impossible for the heroine to concentrate on her work, and she eventually had to resign.

After several years of twists and turns, the heroine finally got a job in a small company, where her superiors and colleagues were very tolerant of her condition. Whenever the heroine fell ill, everyone would step forward to stop her and comfort her.

After each attack, the heroine felt very guilty and always bought some snacks as compensation and gratitude to her colleagues.

Recently, she had another attack and suddenly lost her temper with her junior Shan Tian, ​​leaving Shan Tian confused. Her colleagues could only skillfully help him out and calm the heroine's nervousness.

It can be seen that this disease has caused great distress to the heroine, and it is persistent. Because she has regular attacks every month, she has basically no friends around her except familiar colleagues, which makes her feel surrounded by loneliness all the time.

Until one day, the heroine accidentally found a "kind"——

The junior Shan Tian, ​​who was inexplicably scolded by her, actually suffered from panic disorder. When he had an attack, he would feel extremely helpless, have difficulty breathing, and be unable to control his body.

He didn't dare go to crowded stations, let alone take public transportation. In order to suppress the onset of the disease, he could only drink carbonated drinks, chew gum, and stay away from people around him at all times.

But these methods were of no avail. One day Shantian had a panic attack at work, and what was worse was that he suddenly couldn't find the pills he brought with him.

At this time, the heroine remembered the pills she had picked up earlier and handed them to Yamazawa in time, helping him get rid of the trouble of the illness.

This episode at work made the heroine suddenly feel that she was no longer alone. She took the initiative to find Yamazawa, hoping to become his partner and fight their respective diseases together.

When the heroine learned that Shan Tian was afraid to take public transportation, she gave her bicycle to Shan Tian to help him expand his range of activities.

When she found out that Yamazawa wanted to cut his own hair, she volunteered to help.

The heroine's initiative touched the usually withdrawn Yamazawa. He also began to pay attention to this "peer" with similar experiences, and even took the initiative to consult the doctor about premenstrual syndrome during the follow-up visit.

It was from this time that the two originally lonely and helpless people seemed to have found their life-saving straw and became each other's concern.

When the heroine returns to her hometown shrine to pray, she will also ask for a peace amulet for the hero. After Yamazoe learned about premenstrual syndrome, he came up with a method of cleaning the car to help the heroine overcome the anxiety that lurks every month.

According to the logic of general feature films, this will be the beginning of a special love affair. You can even imagine how the heroine and Yamazoe support each other, fight their respective illnesses together, and slowly become better versions of themselves in love.

However, "Everything at Dawn" is not the love story we expected. It does not even have many obvious twists and turns and intense conflicts. The film revolves around the life of the heroine and Yamazoe from beginning to end.

But what’s interesting is that even in these seemingly dull and boring everyday scenes, we can still capture two lonely people moving closer to each other.

At the beginning of the story, the heroine once again had a relapse of illness, so she bought some desserts for her colleagues as compensation. When she gave them to Yamazoe, he simply refused in a concise manner, which made the heroine feel a little embarrassed.

But in the second half, the conversation between the two was obviously more relaxed like that between friends. They talked about their troubles while working overtime together, and their words were less restrained by honorifics, so they could tease and complain to each other.

They can even discuss work problems together at one of their homes. These scenes seem to hint to the audience that this is the beginning of a sweet relationship, and even make people wonder -

Does pure friendship really exist between men and women?

This reminds me of the domestic film "Stop and Go" that I talked about some time ago. The male and female protagonists met again by chance and spent a special time together.

The two did create a different spark while shooting their low-cost homemade movie, but in the end they did not have a happy ending, but missed each other in the process of stopping and starting.

Many viewers felt sad about their ending, especially the ending where the two people's car "stopped and started" on the road, which was very similar to the life they kept missing out on. The director set this sad ending to highlight the regrettable normality of life.

In contrast, in "Everything at Dawn", although there is no love between the heroine and Yamazoe, the special interaction between them allows the audience to see another possibility between the opposite sexes.

They are like the male and female protagonists in "Stop and Go", who just happened to meet and accompanied each other on a "journey".

In fact, the heroine and Yamazoe once talked about this topic - in addition to romantic relationships, men and women at least help each other.

Their conclusion reflects their current relationship with each other. Although they are not lovers, they can still reach a certain understanding and support each other in life.

From this perspective, although "Everything at Dawn" is not the "healing" Japanese movie we imagine, it does seriously tell the story of the healing process of two suffering people.

This is an alternative growth story that begins with helping others, gaining care in the process, and ultimately finding one's own value.

During the film adaptation process, the metal company where the heroine worked in the original work was changed into a company that manufactures microscopes and planetarium models. One of the important plots is that the heroine and Yamazoe need to complete a speech together.

The two thought about the content for a long time, and finally found inspiration from the work notes left by a senior in the company. This speech script echoed the title of the film "Everything at Dawn" -

The darkness before dawn is not negative, because it allows people to see the stars farther and wider, and pay attention to the world outside the earth. With darkness, we can always stare at the night sky, connecting us with this world.

This also happens to summarize the process of the heroine and Yamazoe supporting each other in the film. The two people who were in pain and darkness discovered each other's existence. They did not become more disappointed with the world together, but anticipated the coming dawn, supported each other through the night, and ushered in the "morning" full of hope.

At the end of the film, Yamazoe, who was originally not satisfied with his job, chose to stay in the company because the subtle growth during this period gave him the confidence to calmly deal with the disease.

The heroine found a job closer to her mother. Perhaps she will never be able to reconcile with her illness in this life, but at least she discovered the starlight in the darkness before dawn and gained more courage from others.