Toka (Honoka Matsumoto) is an unhappy young career woman in Tokyo who meets her estranged husband once a week even though they seem to have very little common. They only married three years ago and she is too ashamed to share the news of its failure with family.
As it is the 3rd year anniversary of her mother’s death, Toka returns to the family home on the remote island where her father is the local School Principal. Her brother Midori (Sho Kasamatsu) picks her up at the Ferry port to give her a ride but fails to prepare her for the shock she is about to receive. Her father Seija (Itsuji Itao) greets them at the door wearing her late mother’s clothes, and is totally oblivious to her reaction to this sight..
There is more surprise to come however when her father introduces Kazuo (Kenta Hamano) a local handyman that he is going to marry and who will then become part of their family. He’s also brought with him school-aged Daria (Serena Motola)who he spuriously claims is his daughter. Midori is seemingly perfectly happy with the way the family has adopted a bizarre and non-conformist attitude which in itself is quite shocking given the conservative nature of the tiny island where they live.
Tohka simply cannot deal with what now confronts her and storms out of the small house to a neighborhood bar to get drunk and meets up with an old school mate she can barely remember and knows only as Lobster Boy but who has been harbouring a crush on her forever.
As this eccentric and totally charming drama unfolds even the uptight Tohka starts to accept that she needs to re-think the whole concept of family. Especially when her father, in one of the film’s most touching scenes, confessed that he had only started wearing hie wife’s clothes to improve his cooking skills, and as it worked he kept with it.
This is no big homosexual romance story but simply a tale of two totally different middle-aged men who discovered a commonality with each other which they knew was perfect for them and their extended family. Defining the idea of family on their own turns, makes this honest wee film so very watchable
Labels: 2019, drama, Japanese, transgender
