Mother's love is an eternal topic, no matter when it is always touching people infinitely, in Japanese movies, there is never a lot of topics about mother's love, and this "Piping Hot Love" is definitely a masterpiece, portraying a tough mother image vividly, with flesh and blood.
First, the plot summary
Futaba is an ordinary housewife who runs a public bath, Konoyuki, but because her husband suddenly disappears, the family-run bath closes its doors. Even if the husband suddenly disappears, but life still has to go on, Futaba lives with her daughter An Cheng, during the day Futaba goes to work, daughter An Cheng goes to school, they are like most mothers and daughters, both intimate and quarrelsome, plain but also warm.
An Cheng has been reluctant to go to school because of school bullying, and there are many disputes with her mother, Futaba and other things can be discussed, but the school thing is very firm, absolutely not allowing An Cheng to escape from school, she believes that things are like this, with a give up is bound to have a second time. Futaba, who was alone in support of the whole family, went to the hospital for examination, but was told that she had little left in her life.
The inspection results were like a thunderbolt on a sunny day, and the split head covered the face. Futaba mourned and braced himself, hid his illness from his daughter, and pretended that nothing had happened. In the deadline of his life, Futaba begins to arrange the aftermath, the first thing is to find her missing husband. Under the influence of a private investigator, Futaba soon obtains the address of her husband Kono's current residence.
Futaba's husband, Yukino, is a decadent middle-aged man, indecisive, cowardly, and has no sense of responsibility, and has to get by with everything, and is still messed up with his predecessor. The previous disappearance was also because the woman he had been in contact with before had found him with her daughter, hoping to live with him, and Yukino saw that his predecessor was isolated and helpless, so he left the futaba costume to "disappear".
When Futaba came to the door, Yukino lived alone with his youngest daughter Catfish, and the woman who had lived with him before could not stand the poverty life, leaving Yukino and his daughter to find a better life. Yukino did not expect Futaba to come to the door, but when he heard about Futaba's condition, he still fell into a state of consternation, and blamed himself for his own fault.
Kono returned home, Konoyu was able to reopen, and the family had an income. Futaba's first wish was granted, whether Yukino was an incompetent person or not, he could take care of his daughter to some extent after he left. Yukino brings back catfish, and Futaba has to take care of Ansumasa as well as because of her, while on the other hand, Azumi's bullying at school is getting worse and worse.
The female classmates with innocent malice to apply paint on An Cheng's body and face, Futaba received a school notice to rush to go, An Cheng just smiled, said to Futaba that he counted the number of colors, a total of 11 colors, and Futaba squeezed out a smile, asked her what color she liked the most, An Cheng replied aqua blue, Futaba bought aqua blue underwear in advance to give to An Cheng.
The problem of school bullying has appeared in many Japanese movies, such as "Sunshine Sister Tao", the mother faced the problem of her daughter being bullied, and directly beat the big sister who bullied her daughter with her teenage partners, and returned the other body in the other way. In the film, Futaba tells An Cheng with actions that when people are bullied, they must show their attitude, rather than blindly cowardly and avoid.
An Cheng's uniform was stolen by someone prank, Andong could only wear sportswear to school, this time in the face of the malice of her classmates, An Cheng did not calm down as usual, but told the mischievous people in her own way that she did not like to be treated like this. Her resistance showed her attitude and ended the bullying of her classmates.
In the treatment of her daughter, Futaba is definitely a very competent mother, pampering but not doting, even as a catfish's stepmother, she still chooses to be kind to each other. When the family finds out that the catfish has disappeared, Yukino has no clue, but Futaba can immediately tell that if the catfish is not picked up by her mother, it must be in the previous rental house.
Second, the end of the story and the feelings
It turned out that catfish had always remembered the agreement with her biological mother, believing that her mother would come to pick her up, but when the agreed time came, her biological mother did not appear. In the end, futaba carried her home. Although not the birth mother, although they have only recently met, Futaba treats the catfish with sincerity. When the movie arrived here, the foreshadowing that had been buried before also came in handy.
The Kono family receives tall crabs every year, and every time they send them, Futaba asks An cheng to write a thank-you note, and the second half of the movie also reveals the stranger's face, and the person who sent the tall crab is not someone else, but An Cheng's birth mother and Yukino's first wife. Because he was not very old and deaf at the time, he abandoned his children and struggled to survive. For years to come, Futaba treated An Cheng as if he were his own.
Futaba's third wish is to find her mother who abandoned her, but when she finds out, she sees the happy scene of her mother's family, and Futaba's grievances erupt. Futaba never received maternal love, but she was a very qualified mother, even though neither daughter was her own. The word motherhood could not have been more appropriate to her. All in all, this is a very touching movie and worth watching.