Lives at Right Angles (Japan, 2026)
Aichi Insurance Physicians’ Newspaper
August 25, 2026
Scheduled to open August 28 (Friday)
＠Midland Square Cinema and other theaters.
This film depicts the everyday lives of a brother with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), his younger sister, and the people around them. After their mother dies prematurely, the siblings are taken in by their maternal grandmother.
The brother has a habit of arranging objects in parallel and perpendicular lines. For someone with a strong need for order and repetition, cleaning work can be an ideal occupation. Perhaps his ability to prepare rice-ball and rolled-omelet lunch boxes also comes from repeated practice. His meticulousness is an advantage in cleaning work, although an older colleague repeatedly complains that his thoroughness takes too much time. A support worker at the group home is also always ready to come running whenever help is needed.
The younger sister has long believed that it is her destiny to support her brother, ever since childhood. Her marriage becomes a major turning point in their lives.
A little girl who appears in the park at lunchtime and casually takes and eats the rice balls without permission provides a wonderfully subtle touch of seasoning. She seems to speak for the practical wisdom of everyday life, and her exchanges with the siblings are almost like watching a comic duo perform a routine. The film ends by bringing us to the starting point of a new life for the brother and sister.
I was greatly impressed by the straightforward and unpretentious remarks of director Shotaro Kobayashi, who appeared on stage after the screening.
When psychiatrists encounter families who support a relative or spouse living with mental illness, they cannot help but feel a deep sense of admiration and respect. How long can people remain living in their communities, regardless of whether they have an illness or disability?
Even in a society where people are considered “typically developing,” living alone is becoming increasingly difficult. Developmental disabilities are generally defined in terms of being outside the norm of typical development. Yet there is also an argument that the very notion of the “average human being” is a fictional construct. Works featuring ASD have included Rain Man, Mozart and the Whale, and School II, as well as the television drama Astrid et Raphaëlle.
This is a film that everyone interested in developmental disabilities should see.
