Why not abandon your stressed urban existence, move to a picturesque part of the world and live the simple life? An old dream, but still powerful, as shown by the recent spate of Japanese movies about women getting back their grooves by relocating to a beautiful middle-of-nowhere. Usually their dream has something to do with food or drink and not a lot to do with men. They blend and sell gourmet coffee, like Hiromi Nagasaku in "Saihate nite: Yasashii Kaori to Machinagara" ("The Furthest End Awaits"), or grow organic crops, like Ai Hashimoto in the two-part "Little Forest," in a sort of splendid isolation.
By contrast, when guys attempt a similar escape, the result is commonly comedic. See Shota Sometani's bumbling apprentice lumberjack in last year's "Wood Job!" for a laugh-out-loud example.
Keisuke Toyoshima's "Umi no Futa" ("Sea's Lid"), based on a 2006 novel by Banana Yoshimoto, promises more of the generic same. His heroine, the gangly, earnest Mari (Akiko Kikuchi), leaves her job as a stage designer in Tokyo and returns to her hometown: a small port town on the western side of the Izu Peninsula. (The real-life town of Toi, where I vacationed with my family back in the day.) Mari's dream is to open a small shop selling her favorite childhood treat: kakigōri (shaved ice with flavored syrup).
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