Little DJ: A Tale of a Little Love (J-Movie) (2007)

Her hero is Taro (Ryonosuke Kamiki), a 12-year-old into baseball and radio, especially “Music Express,” a song-request show. Sound quaint? But it is 1977 and a small town in Hokkaido, a more innocent, pure-hearted time and place, we are told. Taro, however, has a blood disease that lands him in the hospital where his aunt is a nurse. Rounds of tests, transfusions and injections sap his spirit, despite the kindness and dedication of his young doctor (Shigeyuki Sato) and the doc’s hospital-director father (Yoshio Harada).

The latter, a music buff who broadcasts classics over the hospital’s PA system, asks Taro to relieve him as DJ — and soon the boy is ensconced in the hospital director’s well-stocked library-cum-studio, spinning popular J-Pop tunes. The Candies, anyone?

He also becomes acquainted with Tamaki (Mayuko Fukuda), a girl he first calls “the mummy” because of her bandages and full body cast — she was injured in a traffic accident. He later changes his tune when she is revealed as a cute 13-year-old — for him, an older woman.

We can see what’s coming, can’t we? Young love buds and blooms. Meanwhile, Taro’s PA program (called, imitatively, “Sound Express”) becomes a hit with the staff and patients, including Tamaki, though Taro’s three adult roommates are not all enthralled. Inevitably, Tamaki heals and leaves, while Taro stays — and weakens. I won’t spoil the third act for you, though you can write it yourself if you’ve seen more than one Japanese hospital melodrama. Also, the film’s framing device — with a present-day Tamaki (Ryoko Hirosue) as a reminiscing radio producer — doesn’t telegraph the ending so much as announce it. — Japan Times