Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2011

The appearance of a young, exciting filmmaker is something that film critics live for, especially if the auteur exhibits a unique vision and fresh energy that makes film art so enjoyable. Yuya Ishii is one such director. At the tender age of 28 he has made eight films, and already received significant accolades. Kawa no soko kara konnichi wa (2010, reviewed in this column) was a wonderful dramedy which screened at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival and netted him the Best Director at the Blue Ribbon Awards in Tokyo. The present piece is equally charming and effective as Ishii stays in his wheelhouse of comedic drama with emotional touches. Miyata (Ken Mitsuhashi) is a 50-year old single dad who is devoted to raising his two kids, drifting 19-year old Toshiya (Ryu Morioka) and high school student daughter Momoko (Jun Yoshinaga). After having lost his wife to cancer 15 years earlier, Miyata has been determined, despite his working class driver job, that his kids will want for nothing. Suddenly, he starts feeling unwell, and must think about his kids’ future without him. Leaning on his best bud Sanada (Tomorowo Taguchi), Miyata attempts to maintain appearances while scrambling to figure out what to do. Funny, touching and not too melancholic, Ishii once again strikes a superb balance.