As his parents’ marriage fractures and eventually collapses into divorce, high schooler Takeshi becomes increasingly obsessed with hunting for a mysterious ‘ball of fire’ rumored by a childhood friend. Using this quest to escape the quiet turmoil at home, Takeshi leaves his younger brother to shoulder the family’s emotional weight without realizing it. At just 24 years old, director Yaza Takenoshin demonstrates astonishing maturity and rigorous visual control. He deftly conveys the suffocating tension at home in a manner echoing Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s Tokyo Sonata. Within neat, tightly ordered domestic spaces, Yaza exposes the inevitable fractures of human connection, where the facade of calm gives way to suppressed emotion. The search for the ball of fire offers less warmth than a fleeting spark against cool-toned isolation, yet the film’s spatial mastery and brilliantly executed finale signal a promising new talent to watch for the future. (GU Pengyuan)