Dir.: Naomi Kawase; Script: Naomi Kawase; Phot.: Masaki Tamura; Ed.: Shuichi Kakesu; Mus.: Masamichi Shigeno; Cast: Jun Kunimura, Machiko Ono, Sachiko Izumi, Kotaro Shibata, Yasuyo Kamimura; Prod.: Takenori Santo, Koji Kobayashi, Bitters End Inc., 101 Villa New Century, 10-5 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo (Japon), tél.: (81-3) 3462 0345, fax: (81-3) 3462 0621; Sales: Seawell Films, 45, rue Pierre Charron, 75008 Paris (France), tél.: (01) 47 20 18 73, fax: (01) 47 20 15 43 .

Nishiyosino-mura is a village in a forest famous for its Yoshino cedars. Kozo Tahara is the head of a family that has worked in forestry for generations. In 1971, the economic crisis hits the village, forcing many of its inhabitants to leave. The same year a project to build an access tunnel to the village is announced. Kozo, who lives modestly with his mother Sachiko, his wife Yasuyo and his nephew, Eisuke and his beloved small daughter Michiru, is excited by the tunnel project. It embodies his hope for the future. But, halfway through construction, the tunnel is abandoned. Fifteen years elapse. The Tahara family now lives on the edge of poverty and is financially dependent on Eisuke, who works in a bar outside the village. Yasuyo has also taken a part-time job in the bar. Michiru is now a teenager and her feelings for Eisuke, whom she always loved as a brother, undergo subtle changes. So, too, do Eisuke's feelings for Yasuyo. One day Kozo leaves the house with his favourite 8 mm camera... "Writer-director Naomi Kawase's debut feature is a sorrowful account of the slow disintegration of a family and the disappearance of a way of life in a remote, timber-producing village in the Japanese mountains. Far more concerned with atmosphere than with plot, this acutely observed minimalist drama washes over the audience with gentle brush strokes, creating a portrait of uncommon poignancy..." -- David Rooney (Variety)