Just Remembering

ちょっと思い出しただけ

July 26th is Teruo Saiki’s birthday. This story that begins on July 26th, 2021, portrays the six years of a couple’s relationship in reverse, from its end to its beginning, by revisiting the same day of each year of their relationship. Teruo, who gave up his career as a dancer due to injury, and Yo, a taxi driver. Among the birthdays that these two characters spent together, some were special, some were not. Just remembering those sweet days that are now gone forever.

July 26th, 2021. Morning. As usual, Teruo Saiki, who just turned 34 years old wakes up, waters his cactuses, and exercises along with the music playing on the radio. Teruo, who now works as a stage lighting staff, is shedding light on dancers, just as usual, on his birthday. Meanwhile, Yo, a taxi driver, drives her passenger, a male musician, across Tokyo at night, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. When Yo stops her taxi to let her passenger off for a toilet break, she also steps out the taxi and walks toward the building as if being guided by the sound of footsteps that seem to be coming from inside. Her eyes fall upon the stage where Teruo is dancing.
Rewind back to July 26th, 2020. Teruo is engaged in an online meeting, while Yo, masked up, is driving a taxi with an anti-splash plastic sheet put up between the front and back seats. On his birthday night, Teruo quietly goes to sleep in his room, alone. Going back another year, birthday boy, Teruo visits the barber during the day to cut off his long hair, and at night after his shift at a live club, is having drinks at a bar he frequents, with the bar’s regular, Fumio, and his former dance group member, Izumi (Yuumi Kawai). Around the same time, Yo, who is attending a match-making party at a bar/restaurant, steps out to smoke and is approached by a stranger. As the course of the conversation leads Yo to exchange LINE accounts with the stranger, he asks Yo if she has a cat, noticing Yo’s icon. Flustering, Yo replies, “Well, not now…” and continues with a slightly sad expression, “He took the cat with him.” Yo’s LINE icon was Monja, the cat that Teruo still has.

Revisiting the same day year by year, the story reveals the early days of Teruo and Yo’s love relationship and how they first met. Just remembering those sweet days of two clumsy and pure people, the days that are now gone forever.

The song, "Night on the Planet" by Sekaikan Ozaki of Creephyp, inspired by Jim Jarmusch's masterpiece, was the motivation for Director Daigo Matsui to pen an original screenplay.
The film stars talented actor, Sosuke Ikematsu, and award winning actress, Sairi Ito.