A nurse falls for a baby shaped like nothing human. You will too.
Hatsuko, a nurse who was put in charge of Room Zero in the pediatric ward, couldn't believe her eyes when she entered the room. There she found a boy named Tarou, 1 year and 4 months old, a lump of flesh with no human shape whatsoever. Hatsuko was so shocked that she even wanted to quit the hospital, but as she worked hard to nurse Tarou, who had never even been held by his own mother, she began to feel affection for him. Original work: "Pediatric Ward" by Egawa Haru
Acting
Kaori Momoi's face does impossible emotional calculus.
Production
Room Zero feels like a punishment, not a set.
Director
祖父江信太郎
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Egawa Haru's 1975 novel, this emerged from Japan's reckoning with institutionalized children and medicalized abandonment.
Kaori Momoi fought to keep the makeup minimal; the actor playing Taro was a contortionist, not a prop.
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