Following the Sound is the fourth feature from director Sugita Kyoshi, known for Listen to Light (2017) and Haruhara-san’s Recorder (2021). It is a work that focuses on the simple but sophisticated combination of sound and image to create cinematic moments. The film follows the daily lives of three people, Haru, Yukiko, and Tsuyoshi. While searching for directions on a street, Haru happens to meet Yukiko, a woman around his mother’s age, and they arrive at the café that Haru has wanted to visit. Seeing it is closed, however, she becomes dismayed. Yukiko decides to take Haru home and makes her an omelet instead of turning her away. Later, Haru meets a middle-aged man named Tsuyoshi and they talk. The exact details of their conversation remain unclear, but there comes a moment when Haru’s story brings Tsuyoshi to the brink of tears. What is it about Haru, Yukiko, and Tsuyoshi that makes them so intertwined? In a typical family movie or a melodrama, their story would be a soap opera, but Sugita Kyoshi’s movie is different. Instead, it’s all about them meeting and doing things together now. And yet, there is a special cinematic sensation that arises from this. (NAM Dong-chul)