Synopsis
Taking place on the subtropical island of Amami, the story focuses on the interactions between two teenagers – the confident and more desiring Kyoko (Jun Yoshinaga) and the closemouthed, diffident and troubled but rather indifferent Kaito (Nijiro Murakami) – with each other and with their elders.
The slice of life coming of age narrative starts when Kaito, during the full-moon night of traditional dances, discovers a washed up body of a man covered in tattoos. He runs away, while leaving Kyoko – it seems she didn’t saw the body – surprised behind. The next day she expresses her unhappiness to him for not meeting with her as was planned: Kaito doesn’t answer. Kyoko tries to get closer to Kaito and eventually introduces the desire to have sex with him. Kaito once again remains silent only to offer her some moments later a ride straight home.
Apart from the lack of meaningful interactions with Kaito, Kyoko has another imminent change to give place to in her life. Her mother Isa (Miyuki Matsuda), who’s a delicate and beautiful shaman, is dying. Together with her father (Tetta Sugimoto), the owner of a local bar, they try to make her impending passing as joyful as possible. But Kaito, who lives alone with his hard working, divorced mother (Makiko Watanabe), while his father (Jun Murakami), a tattooist, lives in Tokyo –has troubles too. Troubles that seem to concentrate around the following albeit unspoken question of what binds a man to a woman. Will Kaito be able to overcome his current inhibited deadlock? Will he become able to give an answer to Kyoko?
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