Housen Cultural Foundation-supported program [Commendation for Student Films]
Seasonless Love
季節のない愛
Nozomi and Yoriko were best friends in high school but went their separate paths as adults. Fate brings them back together again as women reassessing their lives. Nozomi cut short a journalism career for marriage while Yoriko became a teacher and had a boyfriend, but neither found fulfilment and Yoriko even attempted suicide. As they reminisce about their youth they remember a promise they once made, to “go somewhere far away together someday,” and Yoriko tells her friend of a mountain rich with trees with a bell at the top which is said to bring happiness if you ring it…
Drawing from her own personal experience, NAKAZATO uses her characters to tell a universal story of a search for happiness, a journey that becomes compelling once characters are in the beautiful mountain surroundings where they might rekindle hope that life can bring happiness.