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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Just perfect...
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
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.
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