The senior class was formally graduated yesterday. The imagined scene of weeping and crying didn't happen. Instead, everyone dressed up and danced and sang, took pictures, joked and packed away three years of memories, and said goodbye to each other amidst the hustle and bustle of starting a new stage of life.
 
What will I be like a year from now? How to face parting honestly? When people think of me, they'll be able to help but smile, just like in the movie "Yonosuke" (Kengo Kora). “Wow, it’s a blessing to have known that guy." is the subsequent response.
 
Who was that guy? He was a silly guy with fluffy curly hair. Wearing a shirt with vibrant stripes and a mischievous smile, he stood out. He was silly and happy every day. Neighbor Kogure said he was a strange person when they first met. His simple goodness in this complex and materialistic society does make him seem a bit strange, but it's this goofy genuineness that makes people think that they've earned it just by meeting him.
 
When his friend Ozawa (Tasuku Emoto) stammered and confessed to him that he was gay, he said, well isn't that a confession to me? Annoyed, Ozawa said you're not even my type, and he laughingly broke the watermelon in his hand in half and shared it with Ozawa. When he first met Chiharu (Ayumi Ito), his best friend whispered to him that Chiharu was just a woman who couldn’t live without man. He didn't think so. When he met up with Chiharu's mother he graciously introduced himself as a friend of Chiharu's and earnestly helped her mother with her luggage. When confronted by Ippei Kuramochi (Sosuke Ikematsu) , who dropped out of school because his girlfriend was pregnant. Ippei told him in a trembling voice what happened, and he sat with his hand propped up on the sidelines, and said, “I can lend you money, I don't have any use for it myself anyway.” And then without further ado, he helped Ippei move. When his first girlfriend, Sakura (Mei Kurokawa), who attended his grandmother's burial, he asked, “If I die, I wonder if they'll cry, if they'll think of me.” She replied in this way, “I think, if it was you, everyone would smile when they think about it. “Until the middle of the movie, the news of his death came over the radio.
 
"The 35-year-old photographer Yonosuke Yokomichi has passed away." The radio picked up a weak announcer's voice. Yonosuke died years later while attempting to rescue the woman from the railroad tracks.
 
It seemed like everyone had come to terms with the fact that Yonosuke was merely a transient figure in their life, someone who would eventually fade into obscurity.
 Whenever they remembered Yonosuke, there were no tears, no despair, just a smile. And then the memory carries them to the next part of the past.
 
The movie recounts the daily minutiae of Yonosuke's life through the scattered memories of his friends and lovers and takes nearly three hours to piece together his life. Even the story of his romance with the wealthy girl Shoko is so bland and happy. On a sunny spring day, Shoko wore a pretty dress and carried a pink suitcase, while Seinosuke wore a brown jacket and fiddled with a camera around his neck to take a picture of the girl. The two of them made a promise to make their first roll of film, and then Shoko got on a bus to study in France, shouting “You're the best” to Yonosuke on the bus. The two of them parted ways. On the street where cherry blossoms are in full bloom, Yonosuke walked aimlessly with his camera in hand, recording the spring light and passers-by, and the world was gentle and calm for him. He smiled and ran wildly.
 
“To have a son like Yonosuke is the happiest thing that has ever happened to me in my life.” The mother said this in her letter, and the movie ended.
 
Everyone looked back at Yonosuke with a smile on their faces. There were no tears at parting, no sadness at portraying death, and this ordinary man lived out his bright and short life just like that. It's a happy story, and he makes everyone feel happy and warm. The way the movie narrates is unhurried, unfolding, delicately portraying every mundane detail, and the parting isn't scary anymore. It's more like a gentle catalyst, where everyone tries their best to leave a perfect ending in front of others.
 
Like the protagonist in the film, maybe I will embrace the inevitable end to my life with grace. Every sincere and warm person who appears in my life is like Yonosuke. Even if it was a short relationship, when I think of it by chance years later, I will think that, “ wow, it was a blessing to know them.”