Japanese Drama Freak

"Boku no Ita Jikan," the hours of my life, is a drama released by Fuji Television in Japan in 2014. 

The drama leads its viewer through a young man's, Takuto Sawada, life from when he is graduating from university till the last stage of his disease. Not long after he finally finds a job and starts to date a classmate, Megumi Hongo, Takuto discovers that he has ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). Patients with ALS wil slowly become immobile, first loosing the ability to move their limbs then other muscles one by one; by the last stages of the disease, the patient will no longer be able to eat, talk, and breathe, and will need to rely on machines to do so. 

He decides to break up with Megumi so that he won't have to experience the pain of Megumi leaving him instead when she learns about his disease. Takuto's father owns a hospital, so his family had expected him to inherit it and become a doctor when he was young. However, Takuto failed his courses along with his family's expectations. So his parents tansfer all their attention and love to his younger brother, Rikuto, who is always a top student, and neglect Takuto. His brother, on the other hand, grows up looking down on Takuto, taking every chance to humiliate him. Rikuto is actually secretly jealous of Takuto's freedom as their parents' expectations give Rikuto a lot of pressure. Due to his disconnection with his family, Takuto doesn't tell his family about his disease and refuses to ask his family to come with him to listen to the doctor's report.

After finally breaking down one day, Takuto realizes that he needs to reach out. Thus, he finially tells his family and his company about it. Instrad of focusing what he is going to loose, he decides to focus on what he can do and do it as well as he can. For example, he starts to play wheelchair-soccer after he lost the ability to move his legs.

The drama focuses on how Takuto realize how precious life is and learns how to cherish it. The story gives its audience a very positive attitude as it shows that attitude can change how you live: you can eiher drown yourself in distress and shut yourself out or live your life actively and do what you can to enjoy it.

Boku no Ita Jikan. 27 April 2014. DramaWiki. 12 May 2014.