My Little Sweet Pea (2013)
It isn't easy to find a dream to chase when you're young, but Mugiko has one: she can't wait to become an anime voice actress. Saving up for classes while she works part time in a manga store, she lives with her older, gambler brother after her father's death. When the mother she never knew turns up out of nowhere and moves in, it only causes irritation for the aspiring otaku. But when her mother just as quickly disappears, it leaves Mugiko (or "Sweet Pea") searching for answers, bringing her back to her mother's hometown to discover what happened to her mother's own dream.
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Excellent but underrated film
Best movie of this year hands down!
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
The spirit of Ozu inevitably comes up in Japanese family dramas, and there is a similar gentleness of pace and love of character expressed in the generational conflict of Keisuke Yoshida's My Little Sweet Pea. There is something more about the film however, about the individual circumstances of each of the characters that is itself uniquely and entertainingly Japanese. Mugiko, for example, is an anime fan who dreams of becoming a voice-over actor in a country where such a career can be a valid aspiration. If there is a similar character to Mugiko's brother earning a living working in a pachinko parlour and her mother working as a cleaner in a 'love hotel', deep down their aspirations and realities are universal. As are the family matters that lie at the heart of the film when Mugiko takes a journey to a remote country village (another very familiar device seen in many Japanese movies), to get back in touch with human feelings and discover the mother she never really knew. Using the same actress, Maki Horikita, for daughter and the flashbacks of her younger mother might seem an obvious device, but it does actually help to define the bond between them, revealing character, personality and life in what is a sweet, engaging and warmly humorous film.