Sometimes when a film is recommended to me, I'm disappointed. Not this time.

This beautiful shot film is very powerful. The acting is natural and believable. In terms of the action, for the most part, it might appear that not a lot happens. The characters are moody, devious, misguided and lovable. Yet, the longer it plays, the 'more' appears to be going on. Like the best short stories, it's not until later that things begin to fall into place. And when they do, I'll challenge you not to be moved.

There are subtleties of plot that are hard to explain. Sometimes the action doesn't seem to make sense. There appear to be references that don't have a hook. Don't worry, this film is like life: when you're in the moment, you don't see the bigger picture.

At the risk of heightening your expectations, I too am going to recommend this film.

If you're in any way a fan of Asian/Japanese indie cinema, I really don't think you'll be disappointed.

...seems that the critics do not have soul and idea of what s going on with this movie... Sometimes Life put you between a rock and a hard place; sometimes the system does not help with situations that you find in front of you; sometimes you are at the wrong spot in the wrong time.

What about Karma? What about to try to be a better person but somehow the planets do not align? How about to be an outsider in a society that does not open doors to you? How about to have been alone little by little? How about cruelty?

These and many more is what you ll find in this film; but all very smooth and with the right pace, not pretending to be more of what really is. Plus Blowing in the wind by Dylan as a lei motiv.

Hope you like it!

From Yoshihiro Nakamura, the director of the wonderful shaggy dog tale A Fish Story comes this story of a young man who goes off to college and meets a man named Kawasaaki and then tries to get to the bottom of what is really going on with the people around him. As one of the characters says "You've come into a story that's not your own", and its true as our hero tries to make sense of all that's going on around him.

I'd really like to explain whats happens except that doing so would remove some of the layers of the film. Normally that might be okay, except that in this film the story replays events several times as we and our hero learns things. If I tell you what things mean then I'll have stripped away some of the layers and that isn't fair. Things like in life are not always what we took them to be on face value. I know its not fair, but thats life and this film.

I will give you a bone and say that the film begins with the robbery of a bookstore, for a dictionary and goes forwards and backwards from there.

This is a small gem that is no doubt doomed to obscurity because its a small little film with out explosions, monsters or an armful of awards. In all honesty I only found out about the film because the film is being screened as part of the Japan Society's Japan Cuts series which this year is focusing on unreleased films (in America) from the last 10 years. Because of a scheduling conflict I ended up finding this as an import DVD and in all honesty I'm happy I did.

Trust me, as with the directors meandering and equally charming Fish Story, bite the bullet, find this film and just let it take you where ever its going.