A modest yet ambitious feature debut by director Nakamura Mayu, who works in Japan and the US, describes the wandering years of high school girl Mizuho in `90s Kyoto. She doesn`t get along with her mother and rather depends on her father, however her father abandons her trust to start a new family with another woman. Confused, she quarrels with her boyfriend and opens up to an American man who comes into her mother`s store. Then she gets pregnant. Though on the surface the story seems to deal with a troubled youth, the theme of the film carries more weight. The director Nakamura questions the social prejudice towards single mothers and Kyoto`s image, and seeks the possibility for change. Her direction is simple yet confident. Mizuho gives birth to a child that comes from one night with her mother`s American friend but it is clearly her choice rather than a mistake ? and her mother respects it as it is. Her child is just as precious as the child between her father and his new wife. All these incidents fill the space of Kyoto. The city earns modernity, Mizuho learns the way of life, and the director proves her vision and talent. (Kwon Yong-min)