A Song to the Sun (Taiyou no Uta, also known as Midnight Sun) is a 2006 Japanese film directed by Norihiro Koizumi, and starring Japanese singer/songwriter YUI. It helped to launch YUI's career and was screened at the Cannes Film Festival when it was released.
Kaoru Amane is a typical female high school student. Every morning, she stares wistfully out her window at Koji, the cute surfer boy at the bus stop across the street, and dreams of meeting him one day. Too bad that if she went out to see him, the sunlight would kill her.
You see, Kaoru suffers from Xeroderma Pigmentosum, which is most easily explained as an allergy to sunlight. Thanks to her watchful parents and understanding friend, she's avoided the worst, but still has to stay inside all day (which does wonders for her social life). To get through it all, she sings and plays guitar at the local train station every night, returning before sunrise. And as fate has it, she just happens to run into her mystery surfer boy.
The film has been adapted into a Japanese TV drama, manga, and musical. The musical is famous for having Girls' Generation member Taeyeon starring as Kaoru.
Midnight Sun, an American remake starring Bella Thorne, was released in cinemas in March of 2018.
Tropes associated with A Song to the Sun:
- Award-Bait Song: "Goodbye Days", which is still YUI's biggest hit to date. It's a subversion, though: She spends the whole movie writing it, and an orchestral version is used in the background throughout the film as opposed to only the end credits.
- Bittersweet Ending: Kaoru dies, but her CD is finally released.
- Bury Your Disabled: Kaoru, from seems to be implied, is a Type 1 example, given that life-threatening complications can arise from neurological problems.
- Floral Motifs: Kaoru and sunflowers, the latter which seem to symbolize hope and happiness, along with being the sunshine.
- The Hero Dies: Kaoru is an ill girl with an allergy to the sun. Thanks to her disorder, she isn't allowed outside often. Kaoru falls for a surfer boy and decides that Living Is More than Surviving, so she decides to go outside more (though mostly at night). Alas, her illness doesn't magically go away, and she eventually dies due to complications of XP.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Kaoru, however, she's also a tragic example.
- Odd Couple: Kaoru and Koji, though, this is more due to circumstances, as the former can only go out at night while the latter can go out whenever.
- Open-Minded Parent: Unlike other portrayals of parents with sick kids, Kaoru's parents are actually pretty open, with her father, Ken, inviting Koji to have dinner with them.
- Sense Loss Sadness: Eventually, because of her worsening condition, Kaoru loses her ability to play her guitar because she loses feeling in her hands, though, while sad, she takes this well and says, "I still have my voice."
- Silence Is Golden: The entry under Wham Shot below is completely silent, further accentuating its power.
- Shown Their Work: Xeroderma pigmentosum can come with neurological problems, which Kaoru starts to display before she dies.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the musical, Kaoru lives.
- Tragic Dream: Kaoru has XP and she can't do most things due to this condition. She falls for a boy, Koji, she sees out her window, but she can't interact with him except at night. Eventually, by a certain point, she does get to experience the outside world more but it's when she's dying
- The Shut-In: Kaoru, due to her condition, can't go outside in direct sunlight, and if she wants to go outside during the day, she has to wear a special protective suit (which isn't really comfortable from what's implied).
- Wham Shot: At the end of the film, we see a shot of sunflowers, but it pans out to show Kaoru dead with her coffin filled with sunflowers.
