With Dear Doctor comes the feeling that something is always awry. It is greater than the sum of its parts and more complicated than it first seems. Coming across initially as a drama serial, the film eventually firmly places itself as a full length feature.
The majority of the film takes place in a small village, and
the movie begins with most of the town searching for an elusive doctor, many
disturbed and worried about him missing, particularly a young man and a pair of
eager detectives.
Cut to some time in the past and that same young man intern Soma
(dorama actor Eita) is travelling towards that village, ignorant and lost as he
stumbles into the small town, slightly judgmental but ultimately sincere. The
scene is ripe for some black comedy; funny locals ranging from the naïve
elderly to the seriously selfish await Soma as he waits patiently for his boss,
the mysterious Dr. Ino (Tsurube Shofukutei) initially shown helping a patients
pet. For Soma the small town life is a culture shock that takes some time to
adjust. He tries his best and after being introduced to the good doctor,
travels from door to door with him, helping the residents. Flash backs and
forwards litter these funny and insightful scenes, some more information is
realised regarding who the doctor is, and what ultimately became of him. It is
the story of both a superhero and a charity case; his bedside manners border on
sensitive to reveal a true vulnerability. There is a lot of poignancy from his
reactions to the more serious cases in the town, the pain elicited and the
personal relationships maintained. Ino is viewed as a positive manipulator, his
charisma and good nature authentic but still tinging with an upsetting issue
that is all his own.
This becomes all too apparent when his first emergency case
is presented to him, and he immediately displays unacceptable negligence, his
inability outweighs his natural goodness and in some very tense, accurate and
realistic scenes, his fraud is revealed. He meanders down the hallway as his
patient is taken to a bigger hospital, morals and ethics are questioned and
everyone that knew him are affected.
Ino is certainly the focal point of Dear Doctor, his
character is larger than life, but ultimately a tortured soul that soon
realises the damage he is causing. The movie has a few twists and turns,
particularly from the detectives hot on his trail, but the results of his
actions are the true stand out moments of the movie. In particularly one
patient and the daughter who travels back to the town to straighten things with
him. Like a trigger everything falls into place eventually and the sudden end
does little to tie up any loose ends, but is strangely fitting in its own right
and does offer a glimpse of the future of the village. It is a melancholy final
scene that perfectly describes Ino, both for his function and reasoning in what
he does.