Close-Knit

Eleven-year-old Tomo is abandoned by her mother again; there is no food in the refrigerator and the woman has not come home for days. Tomo goes to her uncle Makio's house. Makio has a partner: Rinko, a trans woman. Rinko works as a carer at a nursing home, cooks, knits, and builds Tomo an order nobody has shown her before. The three begin living together. Then Tomo's mother comes back. Naoko Ogigami's film treats trans identity not as an issue but as a given condition of a life. The narrative draws its conflict not from who Rinko is but from who counts legally as a parent in Japan. Toma Ikuta plays Rinko and Rinka Kakihara plays Tomo. Ogigami's quiet manner and her scenes of cooking carry the narrative here too. Who it's for: Viewers who like quiet Japanese drama, narratives about forming a family, and films with trans characters. Who it's not for: The narrative is didactic in places. Casting a non-trans actor as a trans character is also a choice argued over today.