Kyōichi Ōmae

A tale of two islands and growing up as a stranger in a strange land, told with an artistry that recalls Hou Hsiao-Hsien at his best. Based on Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story of the same title (1922), Kawaguchi’s film moves the original early 20th-century Izu Peninsula to present-day Taiwan, where the strength of family ties is singularly put to the test. Yumiko (Machiko Ono), who married against her parents' wishes, has struggled on in stubborn determination since her husband’s death, moving her family from their Tokyo home to the verdant, rural Taiwan village of her in-laws. Her son Atsushi, strongly conscious that in ethnocentric Japan he is "different," is in a state of rebellion against both the society in which he has grown up and his mother. In their new home the family rediscovers the bonds that unite it.

Long ago, Japan was home to several navies. The Murakami Navy, said to be the strongest of them all, once defeated even Nobunaga, and refused to join Hideyoshi, choosing to pursue their love of freedom and the sea. The man who led these samurai of the sea was the great pirate lord Takeyoshi Murakami. And now Kaede Murakami, a descendant of Takeyoshi, is an elementary schooler living on an island. On her 12th birthday, Kaede discovers a flute in her family's storehouse that has been passed down through the Murakami family for generations. The flute holds the key to finding the Murakami Navy's buried treasure. This adventure story tells the tale of an ancient pirate and his descendant forming a connection that transcends time, uniting the island.