Hotori no Sakuko

Three years after “Hospitalité,” Kiki Sugino and Koji Fukada return with a thought-provoking film centered on an 18-year-old girl navigating the transition from adolescence to adulthood during a summer in a valley, where she experiences romance. Sakuko, preparing for her university entrance exams, joins her aunt Mikie on a visit to a coastal town. There, she forms a friendship with Takashi, a Fukushima refugee who has left high school and is employed at a motel owned by Mikie’s friend, Ukichi. Caught between youth and maturity, Sakuko begins to grasp the challenges of growing up.