'37 Seconds' Review: A gentle story that tackles cerebral palsy with sensitivity and a few surprising turns
Spoiler alert for '37 Seconds'
37 seconds is the length of time that Yuma (Mei Kayama) went without breathing when she was born. It's not mentioned until late in the movie, but that small amount of time is what was responsible for Yuma's cerebral palsy, a condition that defined her entire life.
Those 37 seconds are something that she's had to come to terms with it, and the events of the movie do just that - giving her a chance to come to grips with the small mistake that made her life that much more difficult.
Yuma Takada is a 23-year-old woman living in Japan with her mother, Kyoko (Misuzu Kanno). She works as a manga artist for a spotlight-stealing YouTube star named Sayaka (Minori Hagiwara), who takes credit for Yuma's art and keeps it a secret.
Kyoko and Sayaka serve as Yuma's entire support system, and this severely curtails Yuma's freedom. Seeking to make her own name as an artist, Yuma begins applying to more adult publications, and that starts her on a journey that helps Yuma find the independence that she's been sorely lacking all her life.
The people that Yuma meets are incredibly kind, and helpful. Yuma's more direct forays into the larger world lead her to pay a sex worker (Shohei Uno) to take her virginity. Another sex worker, Mai (Makiki Watanabe), who specializes in servicing disabled clients, goes out of her way to help Yuma experience normal things for a woman her age, like a night on the town all dressed to the nines. Despite the sudden shift into more adult tones, the film never loses its gentleness - there is a scene that sees Yuma and Mai shop for a suitable dildo for Yuma to use that is filled with nothing but sweetness, and support.
Yuma's journey, while taking some wild and surprising turns, is never played for laughs or for shock value. She fumbles her way towards her own independence with a strength that Mei Kayama portrays so naturally that you come to realize that it was there all along, just waiting to be revealed.
There is nudity in the movie, and even a sex scene, but the movie never loses its gentle tone - with one exception. The gentleness that guides most of the movie makes the slightly violent confrontation with Yuma's mother all the more shocking and highlights just how vulnerable someone in Yuma's condition can be.
The characters of '37 Seconds,' with the exception of Sayaka, are brimming with goodness that shine through most of the film.
Even Kyoko, who is driven to extreme measures out of fear for her daughter's safety, is ultimately painted as sympathetic. The movie's progression is subtle, and though some of its turns can seem to branch away from the story initially being told, it all comes together in the end, and the movie never loses its tone.
Yuma's imagination comes into play a few times early in the movie, as her manga art comes to life and we see the drive buried in an otherwise quiet girl come to the fore.
'37 Seconds' is a movie that sells the impact of simple things. The first time Yuma gets to dress the way she wants to. The reason she starts dating. The 37 seconds that defined her life, and the reason she finds to finally come to peace with it - it all comes together in a beautiful way, with a storytelling style that brings a sense of peacefulness growing alongside the strength it conveys.
It's a beautiful, feel-good movie that manages to tell a moving story about cerebral palsy without losing out on the character work that drives the film.
'37 Second' is now streaming on Netflix worldwide.
