Sekai no Chuushin De Ai wo Sakebu (Japanese Drama - 2004)

Sekai no Chuushin De Ai o Sakebu (Crying out Love in the Center of the World) was a drama based on a japanese novel. It was a huge hit back in 2004. (There was later a film adaption, I have neither seen the film adaption nor read the book, both of which are available in the US, the film with subtitles and the book in english. The drama is not available.)

Theme Song from the Drama

The drama alternates between current day with Sakutaro (Saku) a grown man, still trying to come to grips with the death of his high school love Aki from leukemia 17 years prior. He is currently involved with a woman who has a little boy and is planning to marry her, but he finds some tapes she had made him in a box, and returns to the home town to try to reconcile some things for himself. The bulk of the drama is him and Aki in the past (1980's Japan in a small town), falling in love, dealing with the heartbreak and joys of life day to day, and finally dealing with her illness and eventually, her passing.

The drama does a wonderful job of really drawing you into the story of Saku and Aki as if it was open ended, when we know that it's going to end poorly. The drama is a bit too long (12 one hour episodes) which leads to some uninteresting side stories, but for the most part it's very engaging, at times feel good, and finally just absolutely heartbreaking, in a good way, if that makes any sense. It really makes you think about life and death and the people you care about. The relationship between the characters in high school is painfully real and something I am sure most of us can relate to, and because of that, watching Aki become more and more ill from her disease is just incredibly moving.

When we saw this, my wife was watching to see if i cried. Crying was not the issue, this drama just crushed me when it ended even though I knew what was coming the entire time. I literally went outside to sit and think about things once it was over and try to regain my composure. I'm not even kidding.

Anything that has that sort of impact to me is worth seeing. But it's not just a sad story, it's a very engaging drama with leads with great chemistry and one of the dramas which I feel really helps you to understand the Japanese drama format and why it's so wonderful at times at telling stories.

Very highly reccomended if you can find a subtitled copy. Check D-Addicts.com to see if there are any postings. Its from the SARS drama group (a group that subtitles dramas) so they may have it somewhere too.