Echoes of Motherhood

Michi, a young woman who works for a non-profit organisation supporting children in Tokyo, returns to her family home in Nara after learning that her mother Kanako has terminal cancer. Kanako has refused treatment, and despite Michi’s determination to care for her, years of resentment quickly resurface when they are reunited. Kanako has always disapproved of her daughter’s choices and remained constantly critical of her, while Michi has grown up carrying the wounds of that rejection. As their arguments continue, the edges of their old wounds seem to catch against one another, reopening the pain they have never truly overcome. Eventually, Michi is forced to ask herself whether she is caring for her mother out of love or a sense of duty, and whether she even knows the difference. When Michi’s husband Toshizo joins them, the already fragile bonds holding the family together begin to unravel even further.