Always: Sunset on Third Street 2

Tokyo, 1959, in the neighbourhood under the rising Tokyo Tower, with the same people: the Suzuki family and their small car repair shop, Chagawa struggling to deliver stories to children's magazines, and Junnosuke, the boy left in his care. In this film the boy's real father turns up. It is not interested in a nostalgic view. It is interested in who counts as family: Chagawa has no money, his house is falling apart and he has no legal claim at all; and he is the one raising the child. The form rests on a city rebuilt digitally. Takashi Yamazaki directs the effects himself, and the Tokyo of the fifties, the steam trains and the tower under construction are recreated by computer, which is the most discussed thing about the series. The same cast returned: Hidetaka Yoshioka, Maki Horikita and Shinichi Tsutsumi. The series was a large commercial success in Japan and did well repeatedly at the domestic awards. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese period film and emotional family stories, and anyone who saw the first film. Who it is not for: anyone who wants a distanced view. The film idealises the past deliberately and treats poverty as warm decor.