Ito

Ito is a high school student in Hirosaki, in Aomori. She plays the Tsugaru shamisen, the three stringed instrument of the region, which she learned from her late mother, herself a fine player. The problem is not the instrument but speaking: she cannot get a word out in front of people. To break that, she takes a part time job at a maid café, choosing to work somewhere she will have to talk all day. Satoko Yokohama's film gives Aomori, the home region of both the director and her lead Ren Komai, along with its dialect and its music. It won both the grand prix and the audience award at the Osaka Asian Film Festival.