Fuyuko lives quietly, working as a freelance proofreader, her days largely free of contact with others except for occasional outings with an outgoing colleague. Accustomed to solitude, she moves through her days without expectation. Her only personal ritual is walking alone through the city at midnight on her birthday. A subtle shift begins when she meets Mitsutsuka, a reserved high school physics teacher, at a local culture center. Drawn to his gentle manner and his words—”Next time, let’s talk about light”— Fuyuko begins meeting him regularly at a café. As their encounters slowly accumulate, a fragile sense of connection takes shape. Yet both carry things they do not easily reveal.
Born in 1983 in Nagano, Japan, Sode Yukiko is a filmmaker and screenwriter whose work has established her as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Japanese cinema. She won two awards at the Pia Film Festival for her debut feature Mime-Mime (2008), which went on to screen at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Her second feature Good Stripes (2015) earned her the Kaneto Shindo Award, one of Japan’s most prominent newcomer prizes. Aristocrats (2021) — a sharply observed portrait of women navigating class and identity in Tokyo — premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and became a significant arthouse success in France, drawing over 71,000 admissions. She also wrote and directed the Disney+ series Because We Forget Everything (2025).