Aoi is a high school student living with her father, Kazuo, who suffers from depression. Kazuo owns a sushi restaurant but is unable to operate due to his illness.

Aoi has no choice but to succeed her father to be a sushi chef and save the restaurant although it is not what she really wants to be.

Nobody seems to be able to help her, not even her own mother, Fusako, who is living with her current husband.

One night, Aoi bumps into Mr. Umeda, an ex-coach of a little league baseball team she used to belong. Aoi asks him to practice batting because his pitch has some kind of power.

Finally, Aoi decides and tells her father that she will take over the sushi restaurant.

Producer, Screenplay ,Director : BUNJI SOTOYAMA

Born on September 25th 1980 in Fukuoka, Sotoyama graduated from the Japan Institute of the Moving Image. His short screenplay Stardust Serenade (2006) won the Grand Prize and the Staff Award at the Isama Studio Film Festival in 2005 and it was made into a short film a year later winning him the Honorable Mention / Kawaguchi Citizen’s Award at SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL in 2007.

His next short film, On This Side (2010)a heart-wrenching tale about an old man caring for his disabled wife, won five awards including Best Short Film at Monaco International Film Festival. His feature length screenplay A Sparkle of Life (2013) was awarded the Grand Prize and the SKIP CITY Prize at the 6th Cinema Plot Competition 2011. Sotoyama continues to highlight the emotional and physical struggles of the elderly. A Sparkle of Life is the director’s first feature commercial theatrical release. The film participated in the 38th Montreal World Film Festival.