The Sound of Grass

Suffering from poor mental health and unable to continue with his work at a publishing company in Tokyo, Kazuo (HIGASHIDE Masahiro), decides to move back to his hometown of Hakodate together with his wife Junko (Nao). There, he starts regularly seeing psychiatrist Masako (MUROI Shigeru), who advises him to take up jogging as a form of treatment for his condition. Kazuo adopts the activity into his daily routine and, rain or shine, he persistently goes on his jogs. Gradually, as he comes to communicate with the young people he meets on his outings, something begins to change…

Director SAITO Hisashi portrays the realities of life with mental health issues in Japan, adapting a novel by SATO Yasushi (the author of And Your Bird Can Sing and The Light Shines Only There) based in Hokkaido, in commemoration of the 30^th anniversary since the author’s death.