JUNO

Hello, everyone~!

On Wednesday, I watched the movie "JUNO". I happened to know this movie when I visited the iTunes store for the US customers. I check theatrical trailers there regularly because it tells me what's happening in the US's box office, and I can watch trailers of movies that are unscreened in Japan much much earlier. It's really fun to watch and predict what to come. And hopefully, my English proficiency improves by watching them. I think it does because trailers I can get there are always without subtitles.

"JUNO" is one of them. I also see this movie's soundtrack climbed up the ranking of the iTunes. At the time, I was wondering why.

Though I always feel frustrated time lags of releasing between the US and Japan, it's finally come to Japan. The fact that the movie was made low-budget but it got really famous after all made my expectation high. And one of the reviewers that I heard of on TV said that the way Juno dealt with her pregnancy was fascinating and that's one of the points that he said you should check out.

Is that really so? That's what I thought and I'd been actually thinking of watching it as soon as possible.

For some of you who might not be familiar with the movie, I'll explain the story briefly. If I could explain very shortly, it's about "the girl who gets pregnant and how she and the people surrounding her deal with that". That's it. But what if the girl was 16 years old? What do you think she should do? That's what you'll think and enjoy, I guess.

At first, the girl, Juno, thought of getting pregnant as a simple thing. But her mother said it wasn't. So, she started thinking of abortion and visited the hospital. She ended up getting out of the hospital, however. And the decision she made finally was to give her child to someone who desperately needed.

In Japan, movies and dramas about teenage pregnancy have a negative image because though we should not quickly judge by the image or figures that all of teenage moms are not good, we can't say that it's a good choice to have a child at that age either. So, we usually end up making a conclusion that they should get abortion and sadly, the number of people who get abortion has been on the rise. These days, a kind of mailbox for children has been placed in several hospitals in Japan and mothers who they think can't afford to raise their children go there and put their children away. Some say it's irresponsible while others say it works because it makes sure that children are protected. It's very sad and hard to accept, but it's the reality in Japan. So, what the Japanese might think of when we hear the word "teenage pregnancy" or "abortion" would be things I mentioned above.

So, as I said, how Juno and the people surrounding her dealt with her pregnancy really fascinated me. And I found that her pregnancy brought a family connection that their family has lost for years. How Juno changed emotionally and physically through her pregnancy is also interesting to watch!

If you have time, why don't you give it a try?
I hope you'll like it! ^^