Film

Going West: to the West

1997 · 1h 39m

Sakuma Ryu, who runs a liquor store alone in downtown Tokyo, ends up living with his eldest son and his wife after a small fire breaks out. His sons are always there to help, but Ryu, who has stubbornly lived alone since her husband's death, feels uncomfortable there, and frequently visits his tea-drinking buddy Kinue to vent his frustrations. However, Kinue's sudden death and a postcard inspire Ryu to set off on a solo trip in her husband's beloved Mini Cooper. Her destination is Matsuyama in Shikoku, where she spent her childhood and where her first love, for whom she harbored a faint crush, still lives. The Mini Cooper speeds smoothly between Gifu and Kyoto. But when Shota and a young couple from the future join Ryu in the Mini Cooper, things start to look ominous...

Chikage Awashima

Ryu Sakuma:

Mikio Osawa

Shota Mizukami

Miki Fujitani

Ito Mirai

So Yamamura

Shogo Kawahara

Nijiko Kiyokawa

Kinue Kurata

Akito Nakagaki

Hiroshi Sakuma:

Hisaya Morishige

Neighbor Osamu

Gin Maeda

Susumu Sakuma

Tsurugi Miyuki

Michiko Sakuma

Hiroko Hayashi

Nobuko Yoshii:

Reika Mukae

Murakami Ritsuko

• Kan MukaiDirector
• Kazuo KomizuScreenplay
• Akiko KawaseScreenplay
• Saburo NaitoProducer
• Yutaka MashimaProducer
• Yukiko OmagariProducer
• Shiro SuzukiDirector of Photography
• Naoki NishimuraOriginal Music Composer
• Toshihide FukanoEditor

Release date

October 18, 1997

Status

Released

Original language

Japanese

Runtime

1h 39m