High schooler Yu is growing up in a small town in rural Japan, and having a difficult time at summer school, made all the worsen by the fact that he's deeply unhappy about their female body, and has always seen himself as a boy. Yu's confusion grows when a pretty girl from the year below confesses that she has a crush on him.
Acting
Mayu Inukai's restrained, heartbreaking stillness.
Direction
Iizuka lets silence do the heavy lifting.
Cinematography
Harsh summer light that feels like exposure.
Director
Kashou Iizuka
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
One of the earliest Japanese films centering a transgender protagonist without sensationalism, made with a micro-budget but major impact on queer Asian cinema.
Director Iizuka cast non-professional actors from the actual rural region, lending Yu's isolation an documentary-adjacent authenticity that resists typical coming-out narrative arcs.
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