Dear Doctor

Graduating from a Tokyo medical college, Soma (Eita) elects to take a position in a remote mountain village, with a largely elderly population, and there assists the local doctor Ito (Tsurube Shofukutei).

Everything goes smoothly, until a serious medical problem arises. A widow in the village is diagnosed with stomach cancer, which is probably inoperable, and wants to conceal this from her adult daughter who works in a medical centre in Tokyo. Ito is able to keep this secret for her, because he has one of his own…

Director Miwa Nishikawa, who has novelised several of her works herself, is an auteure in the truest sense, and definitely a director for the next generation of Japanese cinema. A protégé of Kore-eda Hirokazu, Nishikawa received recognition from the Japanese Film Academy for Best Screenplay in 2010 for this work, also winning the prize for Best Director at both the Hochi and Blue Ribbon Film Awards.