Thomas Wolfes posthumous novel You Cant Go Home Again was published in 1940, and critics and readers have been debating the truth of its title ever since. Wolfe himself had no doubt: His autobiographical writings, with their biting, thinly disguised portraits, made him persona non grata in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina.

In Japanese films, however, characters are forever heading back to their furusato (hometown), no matter how frosty the reception. Feelings of duty to family often prompt the move, as do hard economic facts: Home may not be where the heart is, but you can usually get three squares a day there.

Misaki Yoshida (Hiromi Nagasaku), the feisty, emotionally wounded heroine of Taiwanese director Chiang Hsiu-chiungs Saihate nite: Yasashii Kaori to Machinagara (The Furthest End Awaits), is under no such obligation or duress when she decides to return to the ruggedly beautiful Noto Peninsula. Instead she has other more personal reasons for taking up residence in the ramshackle boathouse that is the sole bequest of her fisherman father (Jun Murakami) missing at sea for eight years and out of her life for nearly 30.

Based on Nako Kakinokis script, the film falls into the popular heroine finds her groove in picturesque locale genre. Also, Misakis occupation she roasts and sells her own coffee blends to customers all over Japan has parallels in recent Japanese films with foodie or back-to-basics themes, such as the recent Little Forest duology, whose heroine grows and prepares her own delicious-looking organic veggies.

Chiang, who trained under Taiwanese master directors Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, lifts Misakis story out of its generic rut by sensitively focusing on specific human dilemmas rather than eye-candy (or coffee) visuals or the miraculous curative powers of Misakis roasted beans.

Instead of a fantasy figure enjoying a rural idyll, Misaki impresses from the start as a dedicated artisan and savvy businesswoman, if one yearning for a father she barely knew. Soon after arriving she has the boathouse looking ship-shape and her coffee roaster up and running. But her only neighbor a statuesque beauty named Eriko (Nozomi Sasaki) living alone in a huge lodge with her two young children is unaccountably rude and abrupt. (Why am I even talking to you go away! is her brush-off when Misaki comes calling.)

When Eriko goes to her job as club hostess, the kids third-grader Arisa (Hiyori Sakurada) and her younger brother Shota (Kaisei Hotamori) are left on their own with hardly any money, hardly any real food (instant ramen being the nearest substitute) and hardly anything to do. Naturally they gravitate toward the strange lady down the hill, who is doing something interesting with a funny-looking machine.

Being a kindly sort, Misaki takes them in and even gives the delighted Arisa a job as her assistant. But the girls flighty-if-well-meaning teacher (Asami Usuda) becomes concerned about her home life (or absence thereof), while her classmates bully her for an alleged theft. Also, the children must live with the ominous presence of their mothers much-older boyfriend (Masatoshi Nagase), who shows up out of the blue with an air of quiet menace.

One fateful day, Misaki returns to the boathouse to find him inside, playing her fathers beloved guitar. Her carefully constructed world, founded on the impossible dream of a father-daughter reunion, is about to fall to pieces.

The ensuing crisis brings Eriko and Misaki together in a way that, given what weve seen of the former, seems little short of miraculous, but with coffee serving as a healing bridge begins to make life-changing sense.

Originally posted here:

Waking up and smelling the roasted coffee