Akira (Tsunehiko Watase) and Kunie's (Yukiyo Tokae) daughter Masako
(Mayuko Wakamori) is suffering from weird symptoms inclunding mouthlock
and a swollen tongue, and thus her parents fear for the worst, including cancer
and meningitis, so it should come as a relief that the girl's only
suffering from a Tetanus infection ... only it isn't, as the symptoms she
develops soon become life-threatening, and she is hospitalized pretty much
right away. Her
parents want to stay at her bedside permanently, but seeing their daughter
deteriorating takes its toll on them and brings them down mentally, to a
point where they think they suffer from Tetanus infection as well. But
when they've finally lost all hope, the doctors' treatment finally shows
some results, and after a month, Masako is healed. One thing up
front: Writhing Tongue is definitely not a feelgood-movie (except
for the ending maybe), it's the detailed depiction of a girl suffering and
even more so her parents suffering with her on a mental plane, and until
the happy ending, there's only little in terms of relief. To achieve that,
the film is as realistic and serious as can be - and that's maybe the film's
problem, in all its realism and seriousness it lacks a personal note and
artistic ambitions that go beyond the pure and sober depiction of events -
and thanks to that, the film really isn't any more than showing people
suffering, which in turn is something you might not want to watch unless
you need something to get you into a really bad mood ...
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