A lovely scene of Mr. Onuki and Paco reading together
A lovely scene of Mr. Onuki and Paco reading together

Revisiting a film like this in a spare moment between playing with my child feels wonderfully relaxing. Watching a movie steeped in this kind of fairy-tale color now and then feels like being handed a piece of jelly by a small child. This kind of children’s film has no “depth,” and isn’t meant to be deep. The children in it are simply children — and even the adults end up learning from them.

The patients in the film (including the nurse) are, in truth, all psychological patients themselves — some lost in past glory, some unable to stand weakness in others, some weighed down with guilt over their own cross-dressing… but through some inexplicable force, everyone ends up healed. That force is love.

At the end, Paco’s death still moved me a little. To be moved now and then by a fairy tale — I think that’s a good thing.