In My Back Page (2011) and The Drudgery Train (2012), Yamashita Nobuhiro expanded his views on his specialty genre, the youth film or coming of age drama. At the same time, he expressed his hope of returning to small and simple film making any time due to fatigue of making large scale films. Like Linda, Linda, Linda (2005) and A Gentle Breeze in the Village (2007), Yamashita Nobuhiro once again displays his specialty of capturing the decisive moment of youth without any dramatic events and only with plain episodes. In Linda, Linda, Linda, without knowing anything about the world of high school girls, he directed the film as if he is observed. In A Gentle Breeze in the Village, he completely trusted and followed the sense of female screenwriter Watanabe Aya. As with those films, this time he relies solely on the expression of Maeda Atsuko who plays ‘Tamako’. The result seems satisfactory for both of them. Maeda Atsuko shows irreplaceable attraction and once again Yamashita Nobuhiro imprints his unique and solid status in Japan’s film industry. (PARK Jinhee)