Haruka, Nostalgia (はるか、ノスタルジィ)

A production by Kunio Kawashima & Kyoko Obayashi

A Nobuhiko Obayashi film

Haruka, Nostalgia

Produced by Kyoko Obayashi & Katsumi Koide

Directed and written by Nobuhiko Obayashi

There are things in life you must not forget.

Simply recalling them and continuing to suffer from them

can be a form of atonement.

This is the tale of a man with a strange heart,

who returned to his hometown after a span of 30 years,

as if called back by distant memories.

The year 199x otaru, spring

I had intended it to be a short trip.

I had planned to go straight back to Tokyo

after two or three days in this hilly town.

However...

Ouch...

Are you OK?

Yeah.

Here.

What'll you do about this?

- Damn it... - Let's get it to the cleaners, OK?

I know a great place, fast, friendly, perfect for travelers.

- Did it break? - Yeah.

Can't be helped.

It's not like there was anything I wanted to photograph, anyway.

Really?

Something wrong?

This might sound like an excuse, but this is the first time I've ever fallen over.

You suddenly felt your age, and fell over!

Hey!

This way!

Sorry for making you take a detour.

- I'm just happy to help you out. - Is that so?

I fall over all the time, you know.

That's different to this, though.

I never imagined I'd fall over like that,

but meeting this girl twisted my journey into a wholly unforeseen direction.

Unforeseen...but was it really?

Hey, big brother.

You got a customer. He fell over up on the hill.

Just look at this! I told him that you're fast and friendly,

so make it snappy, please.

It'll take some time.

Cutting back on time is one of the friendliest

things you could do for a traveller, right?

"There is a time for everything."

I can't just lengthen or shorten time.

Come back at 10 tomorrow.

9 tomorrow, then!

Thank you.

What a wryly guy.

So, that's that!

- So, how about a coffee? - Huh?

As a thank you.

Thanks for the invite, but...

I see. No reason why you'd be into this clumsy old man, really.

You're not cold?

No, not at all.

"'It's spring in Otaru now,'

said the girl.

From that moment, the entire world turned into spring.

That's what he thought."

- You... - "Love is High Tide".

Shinsuke Ayase!

If you want to thank me, write me into one of your novels.

Goodbye!

Don't go falling over any more!

The girl's smile was as bright as spring,

but my heart was dark.

The reason I had originally set out for Otaru

was because of the death of an old friend.

Seemed like he fell down totally unexpectedly.

It was the first time something like that had happened.

He was pretty surprised himself.

He'd been staying up all night for quite a while.

I said, "How about you rest for a day or so?", but...

There's something I have to take care of today.

- It's pretty windy now. - Be careful!

The cover of "Love is High Tide".

It's truly a masterpiece. He knew Ayase would be pleased.

- Hello. - Thank you for coming in all this rain.

He said that his mind began to overflow

with images of the heroine, Manami Setouchi.

He was full of enthusiasm, saying it'd be one of

Shinsuke Ayase's "Otaru-esque" series' most famous works.

He phoned late at night, which was unusual.

All he would say was, "Hello? Hello?"

So when I responded, raising my voice,

he said, "So you are there! I can hardly hear you!"

"You should be able to hear me, I can hear you loud and clear!" I said,

"That's odd," he said, "maybe my hearing's gone bad."

"Shouldn't you be coming home soon?",

I yelled two or three times into the mouthpiece,

and he replied...

"I'm drawing! I'm drawing so much!"

...just like a child.

Children...!

When one of his students visited Kinomiya's workplace in the morning,

they found him collapsed under his desk.

Mr. Kinomiya! Mr. Kinomiya!

Blood was trickling out of his ears, so they called a doctor.

But by then, he was already...

Recently, there have been more funerals than celebrations.

It was always somebody else that passed away, though.

To think that your time comes so suddenly...

Enough already! Die already, quickly!

Dear!

Akira Kinomiya, your work just gets better and better.

I've decided on a title for the 8th book.

"Love is High Tide". Sounds good, right?

- Yeah. - Make it a masterpiece, Ayase.

Take a look at these fan letters, though.

Oh, this is me.

Ayase's "Love is..." series...

half of their popularity came from Kinomiya's portrait illustrations.

If Akira Kinomiya dies, half of Shinsuke Ayase dies as well.

For me, all of it.

It didn't turn out to be bright and cheerful,

but I still had a memorable youth.

Dreams for the future mixed with compromises,

- and my friend's beautiful fiancée. - OK, photo time!

That was what symbolized my youth.

Oh, no, the person in the middle dies first.

That's you.

Write a masterpiece, okay?

I'm counting on it, Shinsuke Ayase.

Shinsuke Ayase? What a wonderful name!

- Don't you think, Okazaki? - Yeah. Our "hope"!

Perhaps we're finally at the age where we can't get work

that'll last us for the year, or even six months, perhaps.

It's pathetic that we can't settle down into a nice big job.

Though we ought to have been the future of Japanese literature,

perhaps our lives will end with Lil' Bunko novels.

Thinking of my own death is unbearable.

What is this?!

I couldn't sleep, not even a wink until morning.

That girl's voice would ring in my ears now and then.

Shinsuke Ayase!

If you want to thank me, write me into one of your novels.

Thank you.

"There the girl stood, as if he had foreseen it."

"Love is a Gentle Breeze".

I think I'll take that coffee after all.

It's you! What's up?

I thought getting a date with a famous

writer might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

"'Is it a bother?',

the girl said in an adult-like way, stretching taller with all her might."

It'd be my pleasure, young madam.

"Love is Tedium".

That was how the strange story of this girl and I began.

Looking at it this way, Otaru has indeed changed considerably.

"Nostalgic memories gradually come to nothing."

- Is it sad? - No.

That's why I felt alright coming here.

Has it been a while?

Yeah.

Since high school.

Really? That far back?

There are still students like that here, I see.

What a silly boy.

Were you like that back in those days?

- Yeah. - Sorry for the wait.

I had heard that it'd all changed, that all that had been destroyed.

I came to make sure that was true.

"I have no past here anymore."

"It was all buried in the far reaches of my memory."

"It was all buried in the far reaches of my memory."

- "I felt much better about my present." - "I felt much better about my present."

- "Love is Illusion". - "Love is Illusion".

I give up! You really have read all of them, haven't you?

All your novels have the same themes, after all.

Well...perhaps so.

It's weird, though, why do you only write

about Otaru, even though you want to forget it?

So that I can forget it.

I paint it over with a false, present-day Otaru.

You hate Otaru that much?

I hate who I was as a boy.

How literary of you!

- That's because I'm a novelist. - I guess so.

Reading your "Love is..." series,

I always thought you were in Otaru all year round.

That's why I thought bumping into you like that wasn't such a strange experience.

How did you know it was me?

Well, you appeared in the Popprui Grand Prix just the other day.

"Shinsuke Ayase: in the Midst of a Passionate Romance!"

With a lovely young woman, Reiko was her name, right?

My partner Akira Kinomiya always used to research Otaru for me.

Akira Kinomiya! Manami Setouchi from "Love is High Tide"..

don't you think she looks just like me?

- Did she? - "Did she"?

It's Lil' Bunko's latest book!

If I was a girl in one of your "Love is..." series novels,

what would you call me?

"Yoko Miyoshi".

Yoko Miyoshi?

How would you write it?

The kanji for "3",