When her young son Minato starts to behave strangely, widowed mother Saori knows there is something wrong as he becomes ever more subdued and withdrawn. The drama unfolds Rashomon-style, via flashbacks and conflicting points of view, through the eyes of the mother, her son and his schoolteacher. However, in the end, the film offers us hope, not despair and its uncomplicated final message is that the wider world needs to adapt and accept the differences of children like Minato and his friend Yori, rather than the other way round.
Kore-eda is a sensitive and experienced director of children (for example in: I Wish; Like Father, Like Son; Our Little Sister and Shoplifters) and encourages wonderful and prize-winning performances from Sōya Kurokawa as Minato and Hinata Hiiragi as Yori.
At the 76th Cannes Film Festival in May 2023 the film received the Best Screenplay and the Queer Palm awards.
“A film created with a great moral intelligence and humanity.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
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