37 Seconds

37 Seconds is a Japanese movie I found on Netflix. It is the story of Yuma, a twenty-three-year-old manga artist with cerebral palsy. It stars Mei Kayama, an actor… with cerebral palsy!! Yuma lives with her overprotective mother and works for Sayaka, her childhood friend, now an influencer, blogger, and manga artist… publishing Yuma’s work under her name. It’s a “coming-of-age” story for this disabled woman, the tale of her creative, personal and sexual emancipation.

This is nothing like most movies about disability we see these days. For one thing, no cripping up, all the disabled characters are portrayed by disabled actors! But also, even though Yuma’s CP is quite central to the story, we are clearly shown that her disability is not all she is. We see her drawing, making phone calls, taking the bus, the train, going places, all independently, maneuvering her own electric wheelchair without help. Now, I’m told that Japan is far from the most accessible place to live, so I don’t know how realistic those situations are in the real world, but the point is we see a disabled woman living her life, rather than a disabled woman just being disabled.

Christmas Ever After

I don’t always watch cheesy romantic Christmas TV movies, but when I do, it’s because its main character is in a wheelchair and played by a disabled actress.

When I heard, a few weeks ago, that Lifetime had made a movie starring Ali Stroker (of Broadway fame), I shrieked. A Hallmark-style Christmas movie in which the main romantic character is in a wheelchair? And not only that but played by a disabled actress, so NO cripping up? No way this was a real film, I had to be dreaming.

Reader, I was not.

The Fundamentals of Caring

This film had been on my Netflix list for ages—probably since 2017, when it first came out. I decided to watch it last week, because I felt like writing up a movie review for my blog. So I read the blurb —

In this inspirational buddy comedy, a young shut-in and his caregiver take a road trip in search of landmarks, but end up finding hope and friendship.

—and confirmed that the lead actor, Craig Roberts, is not actually disabled.

Cripping up, and “inspirational” as word three of the blurb. Oh boy, I thought, I’m in for a rough inspiration-porny ride.

So I cracked my knuckles and prepared to write a scathing review…

And then didn’t. I loved the movie. Sure, it’s not perfect, has some missteps, but it was so much better than I expected!

Keep reading for my review of a film that, despite appearances, is not a rough inspiration-porny ride!

Love & Other Drugs

In 2012, I was wandering around Netflix’s (back then meagre) selection and picked a 2010 rom-com starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. In it, Jamie is a successful drug rep, navigating around hospitals and conventions, pressing Viagra into rich men’s hands. He meets Maggie, a beautiful young woman with stage 1 Parkinson’s disease. Of course, they fall in love, because otherwise it wouldn’t be a rom-com.

So I watched it, and fell in love with it. Bought the DVD, and watched it twice more in the following year, loving it even more every time.

Back in 2012, my diagnosis was just over a year old; I still walked relatively normally, and mobility aids were something I didn’t even think about. I didn’t yet consider myself disabled, and wouldn’t do so for a number of years still. Over the next few years, Netflix started producing its own stuff, my to-watch list became unmanageable, and I didn’t have the time to rewatch this movie I had loved so at a time. Until last month, when I decided to give it a go in order to write a post about it here. I was fully prepared to be disappointed, as I was now watching it as a fully disabled woman who has been disappointed by Hollywood’s portrayal of disability before.

Reader, I was not disappointed. The thing holds up!

Ni no Kuni

This is another disability-related film I found on Netflix, not so much because it was about disability but because there’s a guy in a wheelchair on the poster, and because it’s associated with Studio Ghibli. I don’t know much about anime, but I do know that Studio Ghibli films are usually amazing.

As I understand it, Ni no Kuni is originally a video game, on which the movie was based, using the same world but different characters and a new storyline. I also understand that the movie was not particularly well received by fans of the video game, but I am coming at this review purely focused on the disability side of things, not the anime aspect.

Breathe

Some time ago, looking for an interesting movie to watch on a Friday night, I typed “disability” in the Netflix search bar, and the 2017 movie Breathe came up:

After being paralyzed by polio at age 28, Robin Cavendish refuses to be immobile and with his loyal wife, Diana, becomes an advocate for the disabled.

Okay, sounds interesting, I thought. Plus, it has Claire Foy, and I like Claire Foy. Let’s go.