There Is No Lid on the Sea

"There Is No Lid on the Sea" tells the story of Mari, a young woman that decides to give up her job in Tokyo and go back to her hometown, where she opens a little cafe selling 'kakigōri', a Japanese dessert made with shaved ice, syrup and sweetener. She gets the help of Hajime, a young woman who is staying with Mari's family for a short period.

"There Is No Lid on the Sea" keeps all very simple and cozy. Mari, played with security by Akiko Kikuchi, is an interesting character, who suffers from remembering the past through a rose-tinted patina, all things better then than now. The movie, directed with little flash by Keisuke Toyoshima, is a naive and innocent look on the change that happens to little towns and cities when their inhabitants decide to move to the bigger cities, dying little by little (a situation that in some parts of Japan, as the one represented in the movie, has put a huge economic and demographic pressure on these places).

In the end, the movie is about the need to accept change, the little dreams humans have and about accepting that going back to your roots doesn't mean you have failed in life. Its simplicity is part of its charm, but at the same time keeps it from being anything special.