Leave it to the Nurses (2002)

Leave it to the Nurses (2002)


September 9th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)

Over the past three decades Japan has proven to be one of the premiere exporters of pop culture. But just as there are elements of American pop culture that do not lend themselves easily for export, Japan has a wide range of strictly domestic product. Leave it to the Nurses is a particularly good example of this.

The film is based upon a popular Japanese television series created by Fuji TV and featuring all of the same actors. The series focuses upon a group of young nurses at Wakabakai Hospital. In it, the nurses live their lives and are entangled in generous portions of comedy and melodrama. These factors have been greatly exaggerated for the film, which features both entangling romance and an eventual hostage crisis.

Many similar Japanese television series and films exist, although as previously stated they tend to remain invisible to the outside world. While their artistic quality is debatable, they do help to bring to light aspects of Japanese culture that are an education in and of themselves.

Japan, Director Kazuyuki Morosawa, Cast Arisa Mizuki, Yuki Matsushita, Uno Kanda, Naohito Fujiki and Yoshizumi Ishihara, 114 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles