Júhi no ato

Life in the fishermen’s town of Nagashima appears idyllic. Pretty Akane has been working as a server in a restaurant for a year, coming up with activities for the local children, and nobody has any clue as to why she moved here from Tokyo. Satsuki helps her husband, as most wives of the local fishermen do, and aided by the grandma she raises their (foster) son Towa. When he and his foster parents are finally ready for official adoption a few years later, the boy’s biological mother shows interest in him too. Satsuki’s dream of a functional family that she was trying to create for their son is crushed. She cannot accept that Towa would leave with a woman who abandoned him as an infant years ago. The emotionally charged drama about the conflict between the child’s biological mother and the woman who the child has called ‘mum’ virtually all his life asks tricky questions. Which of the women is the ‘true’ mother to the child is left up for the viewers to figure out. It may appear that even the authors of the film are not sure about that. Beautiful coast sceneries and long sunset shots will offer you a lot of time to contemplate the difficult topic. (Eiga-sai)