The fact that Sho Miyake’s latest movie (Tabi to Hibi in Japanese) is based on two manga may cause some misunderstanding. The manga author is Yoshiharu Tsuge, whose work is subtle and idiosyncratic, meaning it doesn’t adhere to the kind of exaggerated theatrics that most manga deal in. Both stories take place in Tsuge’s native Hokkaido, but are quite different, not in tone so much as in narrative presentation. The first one is framed as a writing assignment by a screenwriter, Li (Shim Eun-Kyung), who has been hired to adapt one of Tsuge’s stories for the screen. We watch her struggle to make the proper changes and then see the end result, meaning the movie the script turns into, which is about two young people (Yumi Kawai, Mansaku Takada) getting to know each other on a secluded stretch of beach over the course of the summer. What happens in this film-within-a-film is less significant than what happens after the movie is screened at a university where Li is the guest who fails to answers the students’ questions about it. She was invited by a film studies professor (Shiro Sano) who later encourages her to visit Hokkaido to see the place that Tsuge was writing about, since she’s never been there.

The second half is prefaced by a tragedy that spurs Li to make that journey on her own, and it becomes clear as she disembarks from the train into the snow-bound resort town that she isn’t much of a traveler. Having not made any reservations she can’t find a place to stay and is forced to trudge halfway up a mountain to an inn that looks as if no one has stayed there in decades. There is only occupant, a reticent middle-aged man named Benzo (Shinichi Tsutsumi) who, at first, seems put out by Li’s entreaties to let her stay, but soon it becomes apparent that he just isn’t used to having people around, and as the host-guest relationship develops we learn a little about the way his mind works, and he seems willing to let Li write about him. In fact, it sounds just like something Tsuge would write, and I guess it is.

Miyake isn’t much for vivid expression, and the movie’s slow pace and undercurrents of melancholy can have a narcoleptic effect. Moreover, the dialogue, which often fades into philosophical musing, feels unnatural, especially for a film that is mostly about how we observe human interaction. In the end, when Benzo is questioned by the police about something he claims he didn’t do you feel as if the movie is about to say something, but it turns into a red herring. Life is like that, I suppose, but life isn’t always interesting. 

In Japanese and Korean. Opens Nov. 7 in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Chanter Hibiya (050-6868-5001), Theatre Shinjuku (03-3352-1846), Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Human Trust Cinema Shibuya (03-5468-5551).

Two Seasons, Two Strangers home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2025 Tabi to Hibi film partners