Before you call someone a 'weirdo,' I want you to watch this: My thoughts after watching 'Weekend Rebels'

A story about actually going to stadiums to see for yourself and decide on a favorite soccer team?

What is that? Sounds interesting!!

I had almost zero prior knowledge about the movie.
I didn't even know it was based on a true story until the end credits rolled.

I also know almost nothing about international soccer.
Since my husband watches the Premier League, I know a little bit about Kaoru Mitoma of Brighton and Liverpool (my husband's favorite team).

“Maybe I'll find a favorite Bundesliga team along with the protagonist~♪”

That was my lighthearted mindset.


But what remained after I finished watching was...
Not soccer knowledge, nor a list of potential favorite teams,
but an understanding of autism.
No, it was a perspective of trying to understand.


Even though I realized halfway through, 'Wait? This is a bit different from the story I expected,' for some reason, I couldn't look away.

“There is a war going on in my head.”

People with autism themselves know that their thoughts are contradictory.
But they can't compromise on either.


There is a scene like this.

The protagonist, Jason, ordered his pasta and sauce separately.
The dish that was brought out did indeed have the sauce on the side.
But three penne noodles had sauce on them.

Just three.
Even if you say they have sauce on them, it's so little that we wouldn't even notice.

But for Jason, it's a huge incident.
A huge panic.

Why doesn't his dad just eat the penne with the sauce on it?
→ It clashes with his personal rule of “no sharing food.”

・Let's have them remake it.
　→ It clashes with his personal rule of “don't waste food.”

Neither works.
He can only scream, “Fix it!”

But there is no solution.

He is the one most tormented by the rules he created himself.
He doesn't do it because he likes it, but it ends up that way.

To put it really simply, it's “hard to live.”
But that phrase is too light, isn't it?

And another impression I had was,
“I guess all smart people are weirdos.”
I don't want you to take this impression in a bad way.

I want you to take it in the best possible way you can.
To be obsessed with one thing, to explore it, to excel at it.

That is not something that can be done easily.
But “weirdos” are able to do it.

Perhaps they seem like weirdos precisely because they can do that.
The reason this world has developed so much is perhaps because of

a handful of “weirdos” and the people surrounding them,
what we commonly call “normal people.”
I think the debate over what “normal” even is has been had countless times already,

so I will dare to call them that here in the sense of the “majority.”
To borrow Jason's words,

everyone has their own individuality and is a different person.
If you walk down the street a little, you'll see people whose actions or words make you think, “Why would you do that?”

Even more so in the ocean of the internet, you can find them without even trying, right?
I don't expect you to understand thoughts different from your own.

I don't think you need to understand them, either.
But isn't it possible to imagine just a little bit?

What is happening inside someone else is not easily understood.
Since they are other people, it's natural not to understand.

It's okay to not understand.
But I want to remember that I don't understand.