Choose Your Language / 言語を選択:
Introduction
What a Physical Therapist Who Stays Close to His Patients Finds at the End of Powerlessness
July 17 is Physical Therapy Day.
On this day in 1966 (Shōwa 41), the Japanese Physical Therapy Association was formed by the 110 physical therapists who had passed the first national physical therapist examination. Physical Therapy Day is established after this day of the association’s founding.
A physical therapist (PT) is a rehabilitation professional who, for people whose bodily functions have declined due to injury, illness, or disability, supports the recovery of basic movements such as sitting up, standing, and walking through exercise therapy and physical therapy, guiding that person to lead an independent daily life once again. In recent years, they have expanded their field of activity beyond supporting recovery into the area of “preventing” illness and injury. Physical Therapy Day is an observance established in the hope of having more people come to know this work of physical therapists.
For this day, we take up the 2018 film Shiori. It is a precious work that shines a light head-on on the profession of the physical therapist — one that has rarely been the protagonist of a film before. What is especially notable is that the director and screenwriter, Yūsuke Sakakibara, himself once worked as a physical therapist at Mie University Hospital. This film is, so to speak, an autobiographical work that director Sakakibara spun from events he experienced in the field, and it also received the special sponsorship and supervision of the Japanese Physical Therapy Association. The un-faked reality that could only be depicted by a genuine physical therapist holding a national qualification is the film’s greatest appeal.
The story’s protagonist is an earnest, devoted young physical therapist working at a hospital in Ōita Prefecture. Facing patients of various circumstances, at times drawing his heart deeply close to them, he nonetheless comes up against the harsh reality that “there is a limit to what a physical therapist can do.” Swaying between the ideal and the real and tormented by powerlessness, he grows little by little. To watch this film on Physical Therapy Day becomes an opportunity to deeply understand the preciousness and the difficulty of the physical therapist’s work of staying close to a person’s body and life.
Basic Information & Synopsis
→ For synopsis and production information, see our Database Article
Director: Yūsuke Sakakibara
Year: 2018
Runtime: 99 minutes
Commemorative Day: Physical Therapy Day (July 17)
Background Knowledge
An Autobiographical Work Directed by a Former Physical Therapist
What makes this film special is the background of Yūsuke Sakakibara, who served as its originator, director, screenwriter, and editor. Director Sakakibara was originally a physical therapist working at Mie University Hospital. He first aspired to become a physical therapist through rehabilitation for an injury suffered playing soccer, and out of an interest in brain function he joined the university hospital; but as he faced patients with intractable illnesses, he came to nurse a growing wish to “connect the worlds inside and outside the hospital” and to “have many people see the figure of each patient striving at rehabilitation with hope,” until at last he left the hospital and set out on the path of visual expression.
The protagonist of this film, Masaya, richly reflects director Sakakibara’s own actual experience. In addition, episodes gathered through interviews with other medical professionals are woven in, and an un-faked reality that only someone who knows the field could depict runs through the entire film.
Supervision by the Japanese Physical Therapy Association
This film received the special sponsorship and supervision of the Japanese Physical Therapy Association. With a professional body of physical therapy providing supervision, a sure accuracy is guaranteed for the depiction of rehabilitation and the work of physical therapists. Among students aspiring to become physical therapists and working physical therapists alike, it is widely known as “a work that realistically depicts the world of physical therapists.” At the time of its release, a dialogue was also held with the association’s chairman. As a film to introduce on Physical Therapy Day, there could be no more fitting work.
The Field of “Recovery-Phase Rehabilitation”
To understand the background of this film, some knowledge of the medical field where physical therapists work is helpful. The medical care in which patients who have finished treatment for a stroke, a fracture, or the like receive intensive rehabilitation to return to daily life is called “recovery-phase rehabilitation.” Here, patients who have become paralyzed on one side or lost their speech, and who suddenly can no longer perform the actions of eating, bathing, or using the toilet that they used to do as a matter of course, take on rehabilitation.
That said, where Masaya works in the film is not a facility that handles only such recovery-phase rehabilitation. As Masaya’s father, Minoru, undergoes surgery for a brain tumor, and the boy Kaito dies suddenly from a worsening of his condition, it is a general hospital that takes on everything from treatment right after onset to end-of-life care — a field where life and death stand side by side. Within a medical condition that changes moment by moment, how far can a physical therapist intervene, and where do the limits lie? The conflict this film depicts is rooted in the reality of this taut medical field. The work of a physical therapist, supporting both physically and mentally a patient whose life has been utterly transformed, is no ordinary thing. This film honestly reflects the harshness and the preciousness of that field.
What Makes It Exceptional
The Reality That Comes Precisely from Being “Genuine”
The film’s greatest strength is the un-faked reality depicted by a director who is a former physical therapist. How a physical therapist engages with a patient, what techniques they use in rehabilitation, in what situations they struggle — each of these depictions holds a persuasiveness that only one who knows the field could bring. There are many medical dramas with a doctor as protagonist, but works that shine a light on the profession of the physical therapist this deeply and accurately are rare. In coming to know the reality of the work of physical therapy, this film holds a value hard to find elsewhere.
The Cast’s Dedicated Performances
Playing the protagonist Masaya is Takahiro Miura, who won the Newcomer of the Year award at the Japan Academy Film Prize for Railways. His restrained, somehow listless-seeming bearing lends deep persuasiveness to a protagonist tormented by powerlessness. Miura himself has said in interviews that he had at first understood the physical therapist to be “a work full of hope,” but that in playing the role he confronted situations in which a patient would improve no further and only the status quo could be maintained, and felt it was “very difficult to know where to direct one’s emotions in doing the work.” Overlaying the role with himself, Miura frankly reflects that he has “lived alongside powerlessness” and that “alone, one can do nothing” — words that quietly resonate with the core of the character Masaya.
Especially highly praised is Shinnosuke Abe, who played Takashi Fujimura, a former rugby player with a cervical spinal cord injury. Fujimura is set as unable to move below the chest, and Abe has revealed that he struggled to “make his body internalize moving no muscles at all.” For the role, in order to express a body that could exert no strength, he repeated stretches until his forward bend went all the way flat, while on the other hand he also did upper-body training to convey the persuasiveness of a former rugby player. Interviewing a person who had actually suffered a cervical spinal cord injury, and being struck to the heart by that person’s positive attitude, also became a support for his performance. The contrast between Miura’s restrained acting and Abe’s explosive acting is such that the director himself said it was “like watching a session between the two up close.”
The formidable presence of the veteran Shingo Tsurumi, who plays the father and shows the intensity of a figure growing gaunt from illness, also adds weight to the work. Sei Shiraishi, who plays the younger sister Haruka, was in effect early in her acting career with this film, and her relationship of looking up to Miura as an “older brother” overlaid directly onto the sibling image in the film. The sure presence of the supporting actors who fill out the edges — Kō Maehara, who plays the colleague Nagata, and the celebrated character actor Seizō Fukumoto, for whom this became one of his final works — also supports the film.
Incidentally, this film adopted a directorial approach of not deciding movements in detail beforehand but capturing the acting born on the spot, and most scenes were filmed in long takes with a handheld camera. Director Sakakibara handled the editing himself, and the raw breath of the actors is inscribed directly onto the screen.
Related Articles
- Shiori Database – Synopsis & Production Details
- Yūsuke Sakakibara – Filmmaker Profile
- Takahiro Miura – Actor Profile
はじめに
患者に寄り添う理学療法士が、無力感の果てに見出すもの
7月17日は「理学療法の日」です。1966年（昭和41年）のこの日、第1回理学療法士国家試験に合格した110名の理学療法士によって、日本理学療法士協会が結成されました。この協会結成の日にちなんで、「理学療法の日」は制定されています。
理学療法士（Physical Therapist、略してPT）は、ケガや病気、あるいは障害によって身体の機能が低下した人々に対し、運動療法や物理療法を通じて、起き上がる、立つ、歩くといった基本的な動作の回復を支え、その人が再び自立した日常生活を送れるよう導く、リハビリテーションの専門職です。近年では、回復の支援だけでなく、病気やケガの「予防」の分野へも、その活動の場を広げています。理学療法の日は、こうした理学療法士の仕事を、より多くの人に知ってもらうことを願って定められた記念日です。
この日に観る作品として、2018年公開の映画『栞（しおり）』を取り上げます。本作は、理学療法士という、これまで映画の主役になることの少なかった職業に、真正面から光を当てた、貴重な一本です。特筆すべきは、監督・脚本を手がけた榊原有佑が、自身もかつて理学療法士として三重大学医学部附属病院に勤務していた、という点です。本作は、その榊原監督が、現場で経験した出来事をもとに紡いだ、いわば自伝的な作品であり、公益社団法人 日本理学療法士協会の特別協賛・監修も受けています。国家資格を持つ本物の理学療法士だからこそ描けた、ごまかしのないリアリティが、本作の最大の魅力です。
物語の主人公は、大分県の病院で働く、真面目で献身的な若き理学療法士です。彼は、さまざまな境遇の患者と向き合い、時に深く心を寄せながら、しかし「理学療法士にできることには限界がある」という、厳しい現実に直面していきます。理想と現実のあいだで揺れ、無力感に苛まれながらも、彼は少しずつ成長していきます。理学療法の日に本作を観ることは、人の身体と人生に寄り添うという、理学療法士の仕事の尊さと難しさを、深く知る機会となります。
基本情報・あらすじ
→ あらすじや製作情報はデータベース記事へ
監督: 榊原有佑
製作年: 2018年
上映時間: 99分
記念日: 理学療法の日（7月17日）
予備知識
元理学療法士が監督した、自伝的作品
本作を特別なものにしているのは、原案・監督・脚本・編集を務めた榊原有佑の経歴です。榊原監督は、もともと三重大学医学部附属病院に勤務する理学療法士でした。もともとはサッカーで負ったケガのリハビリを機に理学療法士を志し、脳機能への関心から大学病院に入職しますが、難病の患者たちと向き合うなかで、「病院の内と外の世界をつなげたい」「希望を持ってリハビリに励む患者一人ひとりの姿を、多くの人に見てほしい」という思いを募らせ、ついに病院を退職して、映像表現の道へと進みました。
本作の主人公・雅哉には、榊原監督自身の実際の経験が、色濃く反映されています。それに加えて、他の医療従事者への取材で得たエピソードも織り込まれており、現場を知る者だからこそ描ける、嘘のないリアリティが、全編に貫かれています。
日本理学療法士協会の監修
本作は、公益社団法人 日本理学療法士協会の特別協賛・監修を受けています。理学療法の専門職団体が監修することで、リハビリの描写や、理学療法士の仕事ぶりに、確かな正確さが担保されています。理学療法士を目指す学生や、現役の理学療法士のあいだでも、「理学療法士の世界をリアルに描いた作品」として、広く知られています。公開時には、同協会会長との対談も行われました。理学療法の日に紹介する映画として、これ以上ふさわしい作品はないと言えるでしょう。
「回復期リハビリテーション」という現場
本作の背景を理解するうえで、理学療法士が働く医療現場についての知識が、助けになります。脳卒中や骨折などの治療を終えた患者が、日常生活へ復帰するための集中的なリハビリを受ける医療を「回復期リハビリテーション」と呼びます。ここでは、半身が麻痺したり、言葉を失ったりして、それまで当たり前にできていた、食事や入浴、トイレといった動作が、突然できなくなった患者が、リハビリに取り組みます。
もっとも、劇中で雅哉が働くのは、そうした回復期のリハビリだけを担う施設ではありません。父・稔が脳腫瘍の手術を受け、少年・海音が病状の悪化によって急逝するように、そこは発症直後の治療から看取りまでを引き受ける総合病院——生と死が隣り合わせの現場です。刻々と変化する病状のなかで、理学療法士がどこまで介入でき、どこに限界があるのか。本作が描く葛藤は、この張り詰めた医療現場のリアルに根ざしています。人生が一変してしまった患者を、身体的にも精神的にも支える理学療法士の仕事は、並大抵のものではありません。本作は、そうした現場の厳しさと尊さを、誠実に映し出しています。
優れている点
「本物」だからこそのリアリティ
本作の最も優れた点は、元理学療法士の監督が描く、ごまかしのないリアリティです。理学療法士が患者とどう関わり、どんな手技でリハビリを行い、どんな場面で葛藤するのか——その描写の一つひとつに、現場を知る者ならではの説得力があります。医師を主役にした医療ドラマは数多くありますが、理学療法士という職業に、これほど深く、正確に光を当てた作品は稀です。理学療法という仕事の実際を知るうえで、本作は得がたい価値を持っています。
俳優陣の熱演
主人公・雅哉を演じるのは、『RAILWAYS』で日本アカデミー賞新人俳優賞などを受賞した三浦貴大です。彼の、どこか無気力にも見える抑制された佇まいが、無力感に苛まれる主人公に、深い説得力を与えています。三浦自身、インタビューで、当初は理学療法士を「希望に溢れた仕事」だと捉えていたが、演じるなかで、これ以上良くならない、現状維持しかできないという場面に直面し、「どこに感情を向けて仕事をしていけばいいのか、すごく難しい」と感じたと語っています。役柄と自分を重ね、「無力感と共に生きてきた」「一人では何もできない」と率直に振り返る三浦の言葉は、雅哉という人物の核心と静かに響き合っています。
とりわけ高く評価されているのが、頸髄を損傷した元ラグビー選手・藤村孝志を演じた阿部進之介です。藤村は胸から下が動かない設定で、阿部は「体の筋肉を全く動かさないということを体に染み込ませる」ことに苦心したと明かしています。役作りのため、力の入らない身体を表現しようと前屈が「ベタッ」と着くまでストレッチを重ね、一方で元ラグビー選手としての説得力を出すために上半身のトレーニングも行いました。頸髄損傷の当事者に取材し、その前向きな姿に胸を打たれたことも、演技の支えになったといいます。三浦の抑えた芝居と阿部の爆発的な演技の対比は、監督自身が「二人のセッションを間近で見ているようだった」と語るほどです。
父親役のベテラン・鶴見辰吾が見せる、病でやつれていく姿の凄みも、作品に重みを加えています。妹・遥を演じる白石聖は本作が実質的な出演作の初期にあたり、三浦を「お兄ちゃん」と慕う関係が、劇中の兄妹像にそのまま重なりました。同僚・永田を演じる前原滉、そして本作が遺作の一つとなった名脇役・福本清三ら、脇を固める俳優たちの確かな存在感も、作品を支えています。
なお本作は、事前に動きを細かく決めず、その場で生まれる芝居を捉える演出方針がとられ、大半の場面が手持ちカメラの長回しで撮影されました。榊原監督自ら編集も手がけており、俳優たちの生々しい呼吸が、そのまま画面に刻まれています。
関連記事
- 栞 データベース – あらすじ・製作情報
- 榊原有佑 – 監督プロフィール
- 三浦貴大 – 俳優プロフィール
