World Premiere

39-year-old Yuko is a high-achieving and proud woman whose career ambitions took her from a sleepy part of Amagasaki City, to Tokyo. When she loses her job due to her “high standards” attitude, she loses her drive to do anything and ends up retreating to her family home where she lives as a NEET with her laidback joker of a father, Ryutaro. For years, the two get along until her 70-something old man brings home Saki, his 20-year-old bride-to-be. When the younger woman shacks up with the two, a comedy of manners based, quite understandably, on a scandalised Yuko’s “you’re not my mom!” attitude ensues as the younger woman takes to mothering her but when crises occur, Yuko truly begins to evaluate just what a family can be.

Inspired by the city of his birth and the “Amagasaki lock gate,” which protects from flood damage, director NAKAMURA crafts an easygoing and sentimental comedy that shows how love and family are constancy and reliability. [Jason MAHER]