The director and star from the highly successful <b>Poppoya-Railroad Man</b> return for <b>The Firefly</b>. Whereas in the earlier film, director Yasuo Furuhata captured the audiences by depicting the mental state of the middle-aged in Japan, in this film he deals with the scars of the Pacific War. Yamaoka and his wife Tomiko are an old couple living in a small fishing village. It′s the end of the Showa era in 1989, and their old friend Fujieda commits suicide. The two begin to examine their past. In the deepest recesses therein lies a Korean man named Kanayama, who died during the war. Now, in the twilight of their lives, they visit Kanayama′s hometown and seek repentance. Some of the Kamikaze suicide bombers were in fact Koreans. Yamaoka′s confession, after 40 years of silence, shows that this problem is something not only Koreans, but Japanese people must also deal with. The director′s heartfelt intentions to seek a way to heal the tragic consequences caused by the Pacific War are fully realized in Ken Takakura and Yuko Tanaka′s superb performance. (Kwon Yong-Min)