After hearing about her friend Mariko’s death on the news, Tomoyo Shiino (Mei Nagano) begins to think back about their time at school together. Tomoyo recalls how Mariko (Nao Honda) was abused by her father and the trauma it caused. After visiting her apartment to find that she has already been cremated, Tomoyo decides to steal her ashes. After confronting Mariko’s father and his new wife, she takes her friend’s ashes and decides to head to the sea with them, a trip she and Mariko had discussed. On the way she reminisces about their school days and comes to terms with her passsing, often conversing with her old friend.
Based on the webcomic by Waka Hirako and directed by Yuki Tanada, “My Broken Mariko” deals with diffuclt themes of child sexual and physical abuse. Through flashbacks we see a young Mariko with a bruised face and hear her father verbally abusing her from behind their apartment door. The way that this violence is portrayed, through the resulting injuries and unseen moments, is impactful and heartbreaking. It puts us in the same position as Tomoyo in feeling aware of the tragedy unfolding yet utterly impotent to prevent it. Mei Nagano’s emotive performance as Tomoyo, often acting alone alongside the box of ashes, drives the story forward as we feel her distress and sense of regret and helplessness. Tomoyo herself is a child of divorce and Nagano manages to instill the character with a sense of depth as we see her dealing with her personal demons as well as attempting to understand her friend’s troubles. Despite the dark subject matter, the film is not without lighter moments or a sense of fun at times; such as the sequence in which Tomoyo escapes Mariko’s father’s apartment with the box of ashes, abandoning her shoes in the process. The melodic score captures both the plaintive and adventurous tones of the drama and the cinematography, by Futa Takagi, provides several beautiful reflective moments.
“My Broken Mariko” is a road-trip movie with a difference, as Tomoyo takes her friend’s ashes on a final journey. Through flashbacks we see the two of them at school together, their friendship and fallings out. It provides a devastating picture of the impact of child abuse on the victim as we see Mariko lacking self-confidence and falling repeatedly for abusive men. The film also details the sense of loneliness and emptiness after losing a friend, the feeling of regret and things left unsaid, and in this particular case the inability of Tomoyo to help her friend through the most difficult of situations. However, the film ends on a positive, if somewhat bittersweet, note, showing the power of friendship to make a difference, even if for a short while. Althoug Tomoyo and Mariko are unable to understand one another completely, their relationship provides both with a degree of stability and comfort in a bleak world.
