Umimachi diary

Three sisters – Sachi, Yoshino and Chika – live together in a large house in the city of Kamakura. When their father – absent from the family home for the last 15 years – dies, they travel to the countryside for his funeral, and meet their shy teenage half-sister. Bonding quickly with the orphaned Suzu, they invite her to live with them. Suzu eagerly agrees, and a new life of joyful discovery begins for the four siblings. Of course, the main characters in the film are four sisters, and you can also say that the film is about the youngest sister, Suzu, affirming her own identity and the oldest sister, Sachi, accepting her parents. But more than that, I believe it also focuses on the town and the time that accrues there every day. Just like the movement of the sea’s tides on the shore, the town remains, essentially unchanging, despite the regular arrivals and departures of inhabitants. Some day in the future, when all the characters in the story have died, others will come to the town and spend a part of their lives there. It is as if the life of a human is only a tiny thing – a grain of sand on the beach. (Koreeda Hirokazu)