By NORIKI ISHITOBI/ Senior Staff Writer
April 18, 2022 at 13:12 JST
A scene from “One Day, You Will Reach the Sea” (Provided by Bitters End Inc.)
Two of Japan’s fastest-rising actresses star in the latest work by director Ryutaro Nakagawa, but it is not another coming-of-age story.
Instead, “One Day, You Will Reach the Sea” is about a woman who tries to deal with life after her best friend from college disappears in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami disaster.
Nakagawa’s past works include “Mio on the Shore,” released in 2019.
In “One Day, You Will Reach the Sea,” shy and withdrawn Mana, played by Yukino Kishii, and cheerful and sociable Sumire, portrayed by Minami Hamabe, develop an unlikely friendship.
After entering a university, they meet at a drinking party held to welcome new members of a student club.
While Mana feels out of place and awkward, Sumire is popular among the male students.
But Sumire actually loathes such gatherings and sneaks out of the party with Mana. The two students form a tight relationship.
One day, Sumire goes on a trip to the Tohoku region alone and is swept away by the tsunami.
The story unfolds as Mana remembers her deceased friend.
Nakagawa himself lost a friend from his school days who killed himself soon after the 2011 disaster.
“I kept wondering about the relationship between myself when I was left behind alone (by his death) and Japanese society that changed after the disaster,” he said. “I thought it would be a good opportunity to visit that question once again.”
After the disaster, a huge seawall was built in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, to protect the coast from future tsunami.
Nakagawa opted to show the oppressive-looking structure in a cool-headed manner in the movie.
“Almost all of the visible scars have disappeared, but I felt a shock that was different from what I experienced after the disaster,” the director said. “The disaster-stricken area had become a lifeless and standardized space, symbolized by the large embankment. I’m not sure if that is what reconstruction from a disaster means.”
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