I felt Ishikawa's previous film, Tokyo.Sora, set out to make boring an accomplishment so I wasn't interested in seeing this until I discovered Hiromi Nagasaku in "Don't Laugh at My Romance" and "Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers!". She's a very versatile actress who elevates every film she's in and brings the necessary talent to make this low-key character study work. The script and story here aren't much, typical melodrama, but Nagasaku, and her younger self counterpart played by Aoi Miyazaki, are truly engaging. I could literally see their thought and emotional processes. If you are going to leave the camera on an actor for minutes at a time without any dialog, you better have good actors. The director's signature long, pale, landscapey photography compliments well here.
