Be with You

Takumi (Nakamura Shido) is a man who lives with his wife Mio (Takeuchi Yuko) and their six-year-old son. But when Mio dies suddenly, Takumi’s whole world falls apart. He is heartbroken, and left totally unsure how to make ends meet. He struggles to keep the house in order and his own health begins to suffer, leaving him blacking out on occasion and unable to stop his son from blaming himself for Mio’s death. The young boy’s only consolation is looking at a children’s book Mio once gave him. To book tells the story of a star that vanishes, but returns during the rainy season. One day, as the heavy rains begin to fall, Takumi and his son come across what appears to be Mio, sitting in a woodland, taking shelter from the rain. But there’s a problem with this “version” of Mio – she doesn’t have any recollection of who she is, and does not recognize either of them. Takumi takes her in and begins to tell her the story of how they met and fell in love. But is this really his dead wife, come back to life? And is the story he is telling her really what happened all those years ago? “Be With You” is a 2004 Japanese movie, based on a novel by Takuji Ichikawa, and directed by Nobuhiro Doi.