This bitter-sweet drama focuses on the odd friendship between a Japanese food vendor and an elderly lady replying to his ad for p/t staff. It’s a heart-warming tale with a rather sad ending though depending on one’s perspective it may well be the other way around. Sentaro (Masatoshi Nagase) is a middle-aged man who works very hard at a tiny dorayaki shop. For the uninitiated, dorayakis are little round pancakes filled with ‘An’, otherwise known as sweet red bean paste. It’s obvious that Sentaro isn’t exactly a happy man, going about his daily duties and serving the few locals, which mainly consist of noisy and chatty girl – all secondary school pupils. One girl named Wakana (Kyara Uchida) comes to visit the shop almost on a daily basis, eating dorayakis and engaging in small talk with Sentaro. Although he seems to tolerate the girl more than actually enjoying her company he never fails to give his ‘special customer’ a bag full of rejects before she leaves. Upon realising that work is simply getting too much for him, he places a notice on the shop’s window looking for a co-worker. Ideally, Sentaro would like nothing more than quit his job altogether but he can’t, because he is indebted to a loan shark whose wife is the owner of the shop. Some years ago Sentaro was involved in a bar brawl during which he seriously injured a man, the outcome for Sentaro was not only a prison sentence but a hefty pay-out to the victim and yes, he got the reparation money from said loan-shark… By the looks of it, Sentaro needs to bake dorayaki pancakes for all eternity until his debts are cleared! One day, a rather odd old lady in her mid-70’s happens to read the notice stuck on the shops window and expresses her interest in the position of a co-worker. Although Sentaro is polite he is also firm with the old woman, who introduces herself as Tokue (Kirin Kiki) and makes it clear that she may be too old and too weak for the job while handing her a complimentary dorayaki. But Tokue doesn’t give up easily and after several failed attempts she returns with a small container that’s filled with her very own red bean paste. At first, Sentaro chucks the container in the bin once the woman is out of sight, but then his curiosity gets the better of him and he actually tries the paste. It’s like nothing he ever tasted before and he has to admit that Tokue’s red bean paste is simply superb. Upon seeing her next, he offers her the job and soon after business flourishes with locals and school pupils patiently queuing for the pancakes. When he asks her for the secret of her bean paste recipe, he comes to realise that in Tokue’s case it’s not just a question of the ingredients but the strange woman actually ‘communicates’ with the beans before turning them into the precious paste, asking them about their journey from the harvest stage to the pre-cooking stage. In fact, Tokue also seems to communicate with the blossoms of cherry trees (her favourite) and the moon! Despite her eccentricities, Sentaro is grateful for having her as his co-worker and slowly but surely a bond of mutual trust and respect is established. Wakana and some of the other schoolgirls are equally intrigued by the old woman and want to know more about her background. Wakana in particular wants to know as to why Tokue’s fingers seem so deformed, to which she replies it’s down to an illness she had when she was young. A little later the shop’s owner turns up with rumours that the deformity of Tokue’s fingers is down to leprosy and asks Sentaro to ‘let her go’. When he reminds her that it’s thanks to Tokue that business is flourishing the bossy shop owner reminds him that he still owes them money, and as long a he owes them he has no saying in any matters. Reluctantly he lets Tokue go with the excuse that the work is too exhausting for her. Weeks pass, and business in the dorayaki shop is almost down to zero again. Sentaro, who still feels guilty about Tokue’s unfair dismissal, and Wakana decide to visit the old woman upon receiving a heartfelt letter from her with the address on it: a sanatorium for former leprosy sufferers. As it turns out, Wakana has just run away from home and taken her beloved budgie Marvy with her as no pets are allowed in her family’s apartment. Sentaro suggests that Tokue will no doubt look after Marvy. The sanatorium is located in vast parkland with beautiful trees and flowers. Tokue is visibly touched by the visit and re-assures Sentaro not too feel guilty about the dismissal, she simply had a great time working at the shop while it lasted. Back in the shop, Sentaro’s boss has plans for some changes and brings a young man along who looks like trouble – a favourite cousin of hers who’s good at grilling meats. Upon a second visit to the sanatorium both Sentaro and Wakana learn that Tokue has passed away as a result from pneumonia, and that she freed Marvy the budgie from his cage to ‘fly free in the skies’. A cherry tree has been planted in the sanatorium’s garden in Tokue’s memory, and before her death she gave instructions to leave her bean paste making equipment to Sentaro. She also left a recorded tape with a very personal message for him and Wakana… In the final scene, we see Sentaro in a park with his own little food stall – right underneath huge cherry trees – and selling dorayakis to the passing public. It would appear that although he still owes money to his boss’ husband, Sentaro is now a happier man thanks to his newfound independence! A gem in its own right, the film protrudes its magic from the subtle performances of the two protagonist and the believable chemistry between Nagase and Kiki. film-news.co.uk