You know when I saw the title, I HAD to see this film, right? Yes, yes, I know. It’s just a movie. “Don’t be disappointed … don’t be disappointed … don’t be disappointed.” Aw, man. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas is just a movie. No, I’m not disappointed (grumble, grumble).
Info break. I’m not going to pretend I remember my high school biology class, so a quick briefing: the pancreas is an organ very roughly the size and shape of a polish sausage. It hides under the liver and behind the stomach, regulating your blood sugar and releasing enzymes to help digestion. It is possible to live without a pancreas, but then you need insulin supplements and enzyme pills.
Now, “What the Hell is up with the title to this film?” Short answer: Death by pancreatic cancer. Long answer: Painful death by pancreatic cancer. Seriously, our heroine Sakura (voice of Erika Harlacher) has fatal pancreatic cancer. She will die. She is fascinated, but only for titular introduction purposes, with the concept of cultures in which specific ailments are healed by eating the representation of the ailment. Like, if you have a stomach ache, you eat stomachs, if your leg hurts, you eat legs, and if you have a yeast infection, you eat bread. Anyhoo, the ultimate cure-all is eating the correlative bodypart of a friend. Hence, can Sukora find a friend who will sacrifice a pancreas for her lunch?
Sukora is a bubble-head. Holy Hell, I had no idea teen death could come in “shallow.” This is tolerable because the person she confides in is “Me” (Robbie Daymond), a sociopathic boy so dismally self-involved he won’t tell Sukora his name. Me doesn’t give a flying fart about anybody, even the dying Sukora. When he discovers her abandoned journal and reads it, his reaction to the death of a peer is little more than a shrug. Who are you two?
Puzzled, here’s my attempt at explaining the planning process that led to this film:
“Let’s make a movie!”
“Yeah!”
“What should we make?”
“Action!”
“Comedy!”
“Horror!”
“No, no, no. I don’t know how to make those.”
“How about romance?”
“Oh, that could work. What kind of romance?”
“Office!”
“Rival families!”
“No, teen! Everybody loves teen romance!”
“Yeah! And let’s make it tragic! “
“Yeah, tragic! Let’s give her a fatal illness!”
”This is great. But there’s a lot of tragic romances these days; how can we set our film apart? Like from Five Feet Apart and The Fault in Our Stars and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl?”
.
.
(silence)
.
.
“Ummmm…”
“Yes? YES?”
“Just thinking out loud … what if we made both leads unlikable? That’s new, right?”
.
.
“That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard. Anybody else?”
.
.
(even more silent than before)
.
.
(shrug) “Unlikable it is. We start production Tuesday”
This is just a guess, of course. But, let’s face it; if the title of your movie suggests cannibalism, you’re not looking to attract anything more than a cult audience in the first place, are you?
So the object I Want to Eat Your Pancreas laid out before itself was how to make Sukora and Me likable enough so that we will care when she dies. It wouldn’t hurt if they had a little chemistry, too, especially seeing as Me is the only peer Sukora has confided in (she likes his honesty, that’s why). Hence, there are awkward moments like Sukroa constantly manipulating Me’s actions with: “you know I’m gonna die, and nobody else knows, so you have to do what I want.” These lead to awkward scenes like escaping for a romantic weekend and playing “Truth or Dare” with a curmudgeon. I’ve seen the movie; trust me when I say Truth or Dare requires people capable of shame or deception. Curmudgeons and the brutally honest are lousy players.
Hence, this entire movie revolves around getting the audience to buy into Me’s growing and reluctant affection for Sukora all so that it can be torn from him when she dies. Wow. This is a most cruel film when you think about it. However, in the end, I did grudgingly find myself rooting for both teens just so I can be as miserable as they are. Great job, movie. Thanks.
There’s a new restaurant ‘cross the river
Where they serve organs whole or by sliver
A heart might be yum
But a pancreas, ummm
Want take out or maybe de-liver?
Not Rated, 108 Minutes
Director: Shin’ichirô Ushijima
Writer: Shin’ichirô Ushijima
Genre: Not Another Dead Teen Movie
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Teen introverts
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Pancreases
