Hakase no aishita sûshiki

English title "The Professor and His Beloved Equation"

On the first day of class a young teacher enters an unruly room and begins his first lecture. To gain the students' attention he relates the story of what probably led him into a life of mathematics.

Told via flashbacks, the young teacher goes back to a time, probably 20 years earlier, when his mother was hired to look after a professor who suffered brain damage in an auto accident. The brain damage didn't harm the personality of the man but limited his short- term memory to 80 minutes. The accident occurred 10 years earlier, in about 1975, up to that point the professor has a clear memory of events.

The movie is tale of the relationship that follows, a simple and straightforward tale. The story is well paced, the mood upbeat. There's quite a bit of baseball in it, a good plot device through which the young boy becomes a friend of the professor and earns a lifelong interest in mathematics.

A central event in the movie is a no-hitter by Yutaka Enatsu of the Hanshin Tigers on August 8, 1973. He pitched 11 innings and, according to the movie, hit a walk-off home run to win the game. (The no-hitter and length of the game have been verified on Japanese baseball sites.) In the movie, the professor asks the boy what Enatsu's ERA is, the boy replies that "he has retired." In real life, Enatse retired in 1984 which fits with the estimated time span in the movie. That's the kind of attention to detail you'll find in the movie.

A good way to pass a few hours - especially when you are trapped in an airliner for 12 hours. (It's better than that, really.) The story is so entertaining that by the time you learn the beloved equation, you'd already forgotten it was coming.

Only three reviews of "The Professor and His Beloved Equation"? That must mean that most people have missed seeing this wonderful film. A film with really only about 5 characters, and all set in the same rural town, with essentially no sex, violence or earth-endangering plot may seem like a small film indeed nowadays, but "The Professor..." fills you up with a sense of three people's lives like few other more ambitious movies that I can think of. It develops slowly, organically. Things happen naturally, but not predictably, and you end up not only interested in the characters but utterly believing their motivations and reactions. There was not one false moment throughout. Some Americans may not have the patience or openheartedness to be able to approach "The Professor..." on its own terms, but those who do will be richly rewarded.

I am not surprised that some of the people were non-plussed after watching this movie ...Some saw only bcz they were stuck on a 12 hour flight.

To understand this movie u would have to understand the piece of Japanese folk dance at the end[ though that has got nothing to do with the movie ] or indeed the Japanese culture itself.

For most it's nothing more than a mild curiosity or a mere moment of interest, here n there ...

But when u watch it for a little longer u would understand how gentle, how subtle and yet so firm, the emotions are ..

How beautiful the noncomprehending noises r in the background .. N before u know u r floating in a river of solitude ..

Yes! this one is for those who love poetry, who admire beauty. Numbers r not just dead figures but each has a character like a human being ..

We have come to expect a regular dose of sex content in such movies from the Hollywood .. I guess for them it won't do without a boisterous love seen when there is a talk of extra-marital love affair ...

Anyways, there r so many things that I can talk about this movie but I won't, I am not even going to make an attempt.

However somethings I will cherish forever .. Eri Fukatsu's smile, Professor's character, The movie's feel, Root ..

Am I the only one I wonder .. surely it can't be!

Having read the book before watching the movie, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the movie does complete justice to the book! And it is a rare thing indeed. There are a few deviations from the book but I don't think that it takes anything away from the wonderfully poignant story.

A sweet simple tale about genuine affection between a housemaid, her son & a maths professor who has anterograde amnesia where he has a working memory of only 80 minutes. All the characterizations are quite well done & the actors are brilliant.

This is a very beautiful movie.

If Mathematics was never your choice subject in school, with the way the subject is presented in this movie, I'm sure it'll win some new fans over. The last time I can remember where Maths was used as a central plot device was in Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind, but here, it gains a lot more mileage than that Hollywood movie.

I enjoyed the method in which Maths was written into the script, into the characters, and given a life of its own. It revived interest in things like perfect numbers, prime numbers, pi, the imaginary number, and Euler's famous equation. Even if you're clueless about the concepts of these terms, the movie will succinctly introduce them in a highly enjoyable manner. I'm actually quite in awe how complex terms can be weaved so simply into the entire narrative, and made it all work together so well.

Borrowing a similar plot device to Memento, a Maths professor suffers from current memory loss, and can only remember events up until his accident. Everything else that is current lasts only 80 minutes, which is why he relies on little notes and his blackboards to remind himself of important current information each time he comes back to square one. A housekeeper is hired to look after him, and despite the trying times and unique circumstances, both of them manage to strike a deep friendship, through the help of mathematics - one who inspires, and the other who admires. The friendship develops further as the housekeeper's 10 year old son, nicknamed by the Professor "Root" for his square head, comes into the picture, and three of their lives become intertwined.

There are many touching moments in the movie, and almost everything revolved around mathematics, food, and even baseball! But you'd come to understand that the movie goes beyond that, and clearly the message is in the philosophy of maths itself, using concepts and applying it to real life, to living life. As such, it made the mathematical concepts introduced here quite accessible and easy to understand.

The formation of friendships is core to the story, and the antagonist is none other than a jealous sister-in-law trying to break up what seemed to be going good for everyone involved. I sort of paralleled it to real life, in a not-too-recent episode which I and a few friends personally encountered, and the subsequent treatment we suffered. It makes you wonder how sometimes, even though with honest and sincere intentions, and out of the earnestness in valuing a friendship, you're demonized.

It's quite uncanny, but all 3 characters in the professor, the housekeeper and her son are all quite lovable, both in character and in presentation. The cinematography is brilliant too, bringing out the best in the landscapes of the town that they live in, in a picturesque like fashion.

I liked the simplicity of the movie, and the feel good factor that exudes from it. It's very beautiful and poetic to watch, given its even and comfortable pace, and it's definitely one of my favourite movies of the year, and my choice as the best film during this festival! The last time I had such a feeling watching a movie was last year's Be With You (not to be confused with Eric Khoo's Be With Me). This is a must-watch if you have the opportunity!