Three directors, three lives, one sinking island — who gets to call home?
Three stories from Shiratsuna Island: "Mikan no hana" Shiratsuna Island is the only remaining island city in Japan, but it is being merged with a city on the opposite shore. Housewife Misato Tomita lives on the island. "Umi no hoshi" Yōhei Hamasaki, who was born on Shiratsuna Island, lives in an apartment in the outskirts of Tokyo with his wife, Tomomi, and their son, Taichi. "Kumo no ito" Popular artist Hirotaka Kurosaki, who is a native of Shiratsuna Island, goes back to his hometown after seven years.
Direction
Three distinct visual languages unified by shared grief.
Cinematography
Shiratsuna's decaying beauty shot like a fading memory.
Director
Yuji Nakamae
Hirosue Ryoko
Misato Tomita (segment "Mikan no hana")
Miki Mizuno
(segment "Mikan no hana")
Kei Tanaka
(segment "Mikan no hana")
Kenji Mizuhashi
(segment "Mikan no hana")
Yasuhi Nakamura
(segment "Mikan no hana")
Mayu Yamaguchi
(segment "Mikan no hana")
Momoko Tanabe
(segment "Mikan no hana")
Mitsuko Baisho
(segment "Mikan no hana")
Atsushi Ito
Yohei Hamasaki (segment "Umi no hoshi")
Mayumi Wakamura
(segment "Umi no hoshi")
Seishirou Katou
(segment "Umi no hoshi")
Aya Hirayama
(segment "Umi no hoshi")
Mahiru Konno
(segment "Umi no hoshi")
Yuna Taira
(segment "Umi no hoshi")
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film mirrors real Japanese 'merger' policies where remote island municipalities are absorbed by mainland cities, erasing centuries of local identity.
Directors Nakamae, Shinjo and Fujii reportedly never met during production; their segments were edited together based solely on shared location scouts.
JP
