Naoki Hashimoto	...	(Director)
Naoki Hashimoto, Kiyotaka Inagaki	...	(Writer)
Miho Fujima	...
Ako Masuki	...
Sayoko Oho	...
Hiroshi Sakuma	...
Ryoko Takizawa	...	(as Ryôko Takizawa)
Miyu Yagyu	...	(as Miyu Yagyû)
Hiroyuki Kôzu	...	Composer
Hiro'o Yanagida	...	Cinematographer

Comments: The girl who plays the "lead" in Birthright quit acting after making this film. Seen by about a dozen LBders, it's her highest ranked film by popularity. I don't know what to take away from that

If you watch this film and don't know what it's "about" before you dive in, it will still be about an hour before you know what it's "about" (maybe you can guess). There's hardly any dialog, heck, there's hardly any sound at all for the first hour

It's very compelling, however, in that way that it seems to be involved in heavy lifting set up mode

I often punt when I feel a director is purposefully trying my patience with vague scenes that go on a lot longer than necessary (trying to be alt-y/indie-y). That definitely happens here but it also feels like there's a bunch of meat on the bones. Maybe because it almost spins into ... like ... not a snuff film by any means, but like you are watching something more real than a movie (I'm over-stating/over-playing it a bit to say that. If you're the type that's into snuff films you won't be satisfied with this)

Is the ending worth it? I don't know. It's satisfying in that it sort of gut-wrenches, but it's also a little questionable as to whether it had any other choice

I love that this film exists and does what it does how it does it, but it's hard to recommend it to anyone unless you know they like to wallow in slow burn discomfort. You know who you are

I wish the film looked better. It's very dark, and very gray, and has that turn of the century DVD fuzz that a lot of turn of the century Japanese DVDs have


Summary: Mika, who was abandoned by her mother at birth and grew up in an orphanage, is now an adult and finds her biological mother, Naoko. Naoko lives with her kind husband and their only child, Ayano. For a few days, Mika watches them from a distance… And she makes a decision.