A Girl Named Ann

When underage Ann is arrested by the police for her involvement in illegal prostitution and possession of methamphetamines, she is interrogated by the comical Inspector Tatara. He recommends that she register at a therapy centre for addiction support, where he also works as a coach alongside his work for the police. For Ann, who grew up in a socially difficult environment - she lives with her alcoholic, violent mother and her dependent grandmother in a messy household - meeting Tatara is the first glimmer of hope for a positive turnaround towards a safer life. But the Covid pandemic throws a spanner in the works and she soon finds herself confronted with the same challenges she thought she had left behind. A journalist also intervenes to help, but his motives remain unclear for the time being.

The film by screenwriter and director Yu IRIE is based on an actual case, which he has expanded to include several facets. Irie, previously better known for glossy crime thriller action (Memoirs of a Murder, 2017), has created a sophisticated and dense social drama here. His convincing leading actress Yuumi KAWAI is already familiar to Japannual visitors from a whole series of films (JPL‘23: A Hundred Flowers and JPL’22: A Man, Plan 75, Love Nonetheless & Just Remembering). This year she can also be seen in Desert of Namibia and heard in Look Back. Detective Tataro is played by Jirō SATŌ, who impressed in the film Missing two years ago. Gorō INAGAKI plays the journalist and was seen at last year's Japannual as the lead actor in IMAIZUMI's By The Window.