Rie Tomosaka, the lead in the 12 episode Asian TV series, Things You Taught Me, ( http://www.tbs.co.jp/eng/catalog/english/drama/86.html ) studied me from Nobody Nowhere to inform her character, of Mayuko ( http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0256559/ ). Nobody Nowhere is cited in the credits for the program, although the series in no way mirrors the story of Nobody Nowhere.

Having watched the series, I can see a lot of aspects of my autism and some of my personality in the character of Mayuko. She is extremely different to Sigourney’s character in Snowcake and this reflects strong differences between those like Temple and Ros who Sigourney must have studied, and those like me.

Mayuko displayed really significant meaning deafness, visual fragmentation, extreme sensory confusion with touch, vision and sound and her own quite autistic language and significant Exposure Anxiety… all of which I can relate to. Mayuko was not at all cold or snappy like Sigourney’s character and whilst she had her own strong interests was not as OCD as Sigourney’s character. Also I felt Sigourney’s character displayed no Exposure Anxiety in her character, more a sort of emotional psychopathy. Where Mayuko displayed meaning deafness, Sigourney’s character displayed literality. Where Mayuko displayed a lot disorientation and fascinations due to visual perceptual fragmentation, Sigourney’s displayed obsessional self stimulatory fascinations with sparkly things. Where Sigourney’s character was rather clipped and emotionally detached, Mayuko was aloof, flighty. They were both solitary but in very different ways.

I met Rie Tomosaka in Tokyo as well as the male lead, Takaya Kamikawa. Rie is so beautiful as a person, a really light but deep sort of soul, and I found her quite ‘autie’ in real life. Takaya was a delightful, warm man, you could almost imagine him as a really fab care worker working with auties. He was very autie friendly.

The hanging sculpture Rie kept fixating on in Mayuko’s bedroom in the series, is in my house. I was generously offered it by the lovely producer, Tsunenari Yamasaki. It’s really buzzy.

Things You Taught me is in no way a film about me, nor based on my life, but the lead really does capture a pretty good range of my experiences and some degree of my personality.

The series also features two songs from my first album, Nobody Nowhere: Sometimes and Beyond The When.

It has played throughout Asia and I think it has now been released with English subtitles.

Donna Williams
http://www.donnawilliams.net

Jonathan

yes, I remember you two.
There’s no mention of Snowcake being modelled particularly on Ros.
Perhaps Ros identifies with it. I’m sure a number of relatively high profile people with autism will identify with it. Its good to see the NAS in Wales supporting the film.

I know they researched many people with autism for Sigourney’s Role.
And as it was not a UK production nor set in the UK, I’m not certain they’d have sought out and based it on Ros in particular, who is very much a UK person and, having met her on the public speaker’s circuit, she’s as similar and different as any of us with this shared label.

As Ros has a video with NAS UK its very possible they sourced that, among other materials, to draw upon for Sigourney’s character.
If it was modelled on Ros, the film would have to cite this somewhere and all it cites is that Sigourney’s character was developed after researching the lives and experiences of a range of ‘high functioning’ people with autism.

I think any film involving a character with autism should never define the whole of that condition because those with the label are way too diverse for that. I think the strength of a film featuring an autistic character has to be in its storyline, not specifically in the portrayal of a condition (which is the job of documentary). Sounds like you enjoyed it as a beautiful film in its own right, which is how it should be. The interesting thing for the general public about autism isn’t always how ‘different’ we are or may be, but where our shared humanity meets.

… Donna *)

Remember me? The man in the wheelchair, friend of Sue Norris in St. Helens, UK – we are still fighting for support for her.

But it’s a film I’m writing about.

At the second International Welsh Conference on Autism in Cardiff (which I think you nearly attended) we spent an afternoon watching a preview of a new film, ‘Snow Cake”. It’s a story around a woman with high-functioning autism and massive compulsions, dealing with the death of her daughter in a car crash. The man who was driving the car spends time with her, struggling to come to terms with his own feelings and the woman’s extraordinary, to him, behaviour.

In my view the situation was dealt with with amazing sensitivity and accuracy. Nothing jarred as being out of place or untrue. The ‘autie’ characteristics were coached by and modelled on Ros Blackburn, who you may know.

As the film is set in the Canadian winter, it’s being released in the UK in November or December to be seasonal. I don’t know what they’ll do in Australia!

But everyone should see it if possible. It could open a new level of understanding of the ‘autistic situation’.

Good blog!

Jonathan Griffith.

Also, Amelie? A french movie with Audrey Tatou. My other favorite. Try them both and let me know what you think.