Morning.
Dad? It's so cold upstairs we can't stand it.
We can't sleep like that.
That's why I told you to hurry and do something about it.
Myself?
Of course.
You three are the ones that sleep upstairs and you're the only man.
Then, give me some money to do it! I need funds.
If I had money, this wouldn't be so hard.
If you can get it done without using any money, that's the
first time you'll be able to claim you did a man's job.
But I'm still a child!
You're a man, too, aren't you?
I know you have a you-know-what.
We're counting on you, Jun.
Do something, will you?
Did you hear that? That's why I can't stand it.
How're ya doing?
We're fine.
Is Aunty Yukiko going out today?
She's staying home today.
Is she as pretty as ever?
I think that's a matter of taste.
Don't be a smart aleck, kid.
I have a favor to ask.
It's so cold upstairs, we can't stand it. Please think of something.
Think of something yourself!
Aunty Yukiko's cold, too!
I'll go over later!
Young people these days.
We all lived like that long ago.
There was no such thing as insulation. When we got up
the quilts would be frozen white.
Goro!
Good morning!
One minute?
You have a guest from Tokyo. A woman.
A lawyer from Tokyo?
It's a woman.
Don't you think
she's here about Reiko?
Where're they meeting?
I'll get right to the point.
Do you have any desire
to mend your marriage with your wife?
In other words, get back together?
I'm sure you have a lot of complaints about what's
happened so far.
But your wife has complaints, too.
Are you insisting that
you want to go through with the divorce?
Your wife doesn't want that.
But you do? Am I correct?
May I interpret it that way?
I understand.
Let's assume that.
Now, comes the issue of the custody of the children.
I understand, that while the children were living in Tokyo,
you let your wife
deal with everything about their lives.
And your children
were much closer to your wife in every way.
I think anyone that knew them would agree to that.
Was it your decision
to bring them here or the children's?
Did the children really say that they wanted to come here?
The children....
are still young....
So it was your decision?
It was solely your decision to bring them here, wasn't it?
I have another related question
to ask you.
It's been a little over a month since you came here.
Your wife told me
she's sent 3 letters to the children.
Care of Nakahata Kazuo of the Nakahata Lumber Yard.
Have you received those letters?
Have you given them to the children?
And the children have read them?
Is that so? I'm relived to hear that.
Your wife says she includes a return envelope,
but the children have never written back.
She thought the children hadn't gotten the letters.
That's why I've told you
It's all right
if you can't forgive me.
But...
I don't want any money.
You can take everything in the house, too.
But...
the children...
the children are a different story.
The children have nothing
to do with all this.
What have you ever done for them until now?
I'm the one that gave birth to them.
I raised them.
Welcome home.
Is Jun going at it?
No, it's Hotaru.
You have to scold Jun.
He's over at Katsumi's house watching TV again.
That's enough firewood. We'll open it tonight.
I hope it worked all right.
It's Dad. Welcome home.
I did all this myself.
Okay. I'll help.
I'am sorry. Get to it.
That night, Dad took out the food we'd smoked.
It was the third time we were preparing things to smoke
so we'd gotten used to it.
How to salt the food, how to burn the wood chips,
and how to hang them in the smoker, too.
I think
I've become somewhat of a veteran at smoking.
You can ask me anything about it, Keiko.
It's December now, and the afternoons have become shorter and shorter.
It's already pitch dark at 5pm.
Sota comes at nights a lot.
He goes to a boxing gym in Furano
on Monday and Saturday nights,
so he should be tired.
But he still always comes on Saturday nights.
The reason why is
Saturday night is when we heat the furo bath.
And Sota always comes
when it's time for Aunty Yukiko to go in.
Young people these days!
I thought really hard about whether to go to Tokyo.
Why? It's a lot nicer here.
No way!
No girl is willing to become a farmer's wife.
But your family runs a dairy.
It's the same thing.
Try getting kicked out of bed at 4:30am.
every morning and worked like a dog. No girl will come. And the stink just clings to your skin.
Mention a ranch in Hokkaido and city girls will rave about
how wonderful and romantic it must be.
But do they want to marry you to work it?
That's a different story.
They all say they'd have to think about it.
What would you say if you were asked?
Do you think you could live with cow dung
and dirt stuck to you all day?
What're you doing there?
Discussing the lack of wives
for farming families in Hokkaido.
Cut it out! That's dangerous!
Hold it a minute.
Tsurara: She's not a virgin, you know. Sota: Who? T: Yukiko. S: Don't think all girls are like you. T: So you think she's a virgin? S: I don't care! T: Someone that pretty living in Tokyo? No way some guy wouldn't have done it to her. S: Done it? That's so vulgar. I understand, so forget it.
Are you mad?
It's safe today.
What?
My cycle.
I'm tired from boxing today.
You told me you especially
want to do it on boxing days.
Shouldn't humans have production regulations, too?
Who knows what that means?
Me, me, me!
When the cows at a dairy make too much milk...
and
the guy from the milk company come and put red dye in it.
That's part of it. Anyone else?
Me!
The farm aren't supposed to gather more than their share.
And?
What if they do
anyway?
They throw it away.
We see onions and other vegetables
thrown out a lot.
But after going to all the trouble of growing something
good to eat, isn't it a waste to throw it away?
It is.
What do you think, Jun?
When you go to supermarket,
it says how much one onion costs, right?
But if you pick up the ones that've been thrown away, it's free, isn't it?
Why don't people pick up the free ones?
My Dad does.
Your family picks the onions up, Hotaru?
And the carrots, too.
Because they're all over the fields.
You're not supposed to pick those up!
Why not?
Because if you don't pay for it, the farmer will have a hard time.
Then, they should sell it instead of throwing it away.
But they don't. They're not supposed to. Do you know why?
I met her on the way home
from school that day.
You must be Jun.
And you're Hotaru?
I came here from Tokyo on an errand from your mother.
Can I talk to you somewhere nearby?
Let's go, Jun.
Wait a minute. I'm not going to say anything bad.
Your mother wants to see you both very badly.
Let's go!
Wait a minute.
Jun?
Your mother's waiting for your letter.
She's written you several letters. You read them, didn't you?
Jun!
Haven't you read them?
Why not?
Your mother's written 3 times using the Nakahata's address.
Haven't you gotten the letters?
Jun!
All right.
Your mother gave me this to give you to read.
Write an answer to it and I'll give it to your mother.
My name is Honda. I'll be staying at the hotel tonight.
Jun! I'm going.
Wait Jun! Your mother's letter!
Hotaru,
I asked at Sumie's house.
That lady was telling the truth.
Dad's been accepting the letters and hiding them.
If that's true, it's a huge issue.
Want to sneak over to the hotel with me?
To hear what she has to say.
Why not!
Dad has to be tricking us!
Let's go get water.
What's wrong?
On days that it snows, the sky stays dark even in the afternoon.
All you can see are faint white spots that are ducks.
The frozen sands come on the wind and pull the mugwort out.
The uprooted mugwort
fly off towards the city
one by one.
Your mother's waiting for your letter.
She's written you several letters. You read them, didn't you?
Haven't you read them?
Aunty?
The mailman doesn't come to our house,
but don't we get any letters?
Mail? I think it might be going to the Nakahatas.
So Dad's been getting it?
That's right.
Why do you ask?
I wonder
if Dad doesn't want to show us the
letters Mom's written us?
What do you mean?
She hasn't sent any letters, right?
If there was any, he definitely would have passed it on.
Think so?
Of course, he would.
What are you getting at?
So you think you dad is trashing the letter
that have come?
Are you stupid?
You dad isn't the kind of person
that would do something like that.
Quit complaining and eat.
But that's what she said.
Who?
Who said that?
Welcome home.
I'm done.
Jun?
You have a letter
from Mom.
You met a woman today, didn't you?
She said Mom gave it to her to give to you.
You and Hotaru should write an answer to her tonight.
I'll take you to the hotel tomorrow.
So you can talk to her directly.
Jun,
I never told you,
but you got 3 letters before this, too.
I
got rid of them.
I made the decision on my own to burn them.
Today, I heard
you went to ask the Nakahata's Sumie secretly today.
Uncle Nakahata wasn't in on this.
He gave them to me.
Aunty Yukiko didnn't know either.
I did it on my own.
Jun?
I'm
a selfish man.
I didn't
want to lose you,
so I tore the
letters up and burned them.
You can condemn me for it.
Jun? Hontaru? Are you well?
Are you eating right?
Are you sleeping well?
You're not too cold?
Are there things you need?
Do you have any problems?
Are you going to school?
Are you studying hard?
Have you made new friends?
lu lu lu lu lu lu
Is it true?
Did you really
burn all her letters?
But
I suppose....
even Sis...
I'll bet she'll be surprised.
Mom said you had the night shift,
so you wouldn't
come home tonight.
I was supposed to!
So I thought you weren't coming home!
Surprised?
And happy.
~ Rose Beauty Salon~ It's already closed.
Closed already?
I wonder if she went home.
We might've missed her.
Let's go around back.
A record's playing.
She must still be here.
Open the door
quietly.
The next day, Dad took me
to the hotel to see the woman.
The hotel was well heated
and it seemed like the city inside.
Want something to drink?
How about something to eat?
I'm not hungry.
You can have something to eat. I'm hungry, too.
Really.
This is room 311. I'd like to order 2 sandwiches and 2 teas.
It's been a long time since I had sandwiches.
Didn't Hotaru come with you?
Since she's still little.
The truth was
I was mad at her.
I asked her all last night
and this morning to come with me.
But she refused.
And she wouldn't
tell me why.
Are there thing you're missing at school?
No.
Your mother cries every day
because she misses you.
I heard your father burned her letters.
How horrible.
I had Mr. Nakahata there as a witness and questioned
him last night until he told the truth.
The Nakahatas were disgusted, too.
But you got the letter I gave him yesterday, didn't you?
Did you read it?
Do you have an answer?
Later...
I'll take my time to write it.
I don't have much time left,
so I'll hurry through everything.
I have to say to you.
You're in the 4th grade,
so you must have your own opinions.
Who do you like better? Your mother or father?
I guess
that's too much to ask.
How about this? Where do you want to live? Tokyo or Hokkaido?
This room is warm,
but the house you live in is cold, isn't it?
I understand you
almost left for Tokyo once before already.
Why did you change your mind?
Thank you.
You'd really rather live in Tokyo, wouldn't you, Jun?
And live with your mother?
For some reason,
I remembered the cigarette ashes.
My mother loved a certain group
and whenever Dad had
the night shift,
she'd play their record.
One night, when I got up to the bathroom,
I saw a light on in the den
and saw Mom talking on the telephone.
That's the first time
I'd ever seen Mom smoking a cigarette.
It was almost all burned up
and the ashes were about to fall.
Mom scolded Dad all the time
about doing that.
I wanted
to jump into the room
so I could tell Mom about it.
But Mom seemed
like a differentt person.
Mom!
The ashes will fall!
What's wrong?
Several nights after that,
Dad had been drinking and Mom was scolding him again.
About the burn in the carpet
that had been made by a cigarette.
The one that Mom made
that night when she dropped the ashes.
She didn't
realize she'd done it.
Dad just assumed he had and tried to fix it.
It would've gotten complicated if I said anything,
so I just kept my mouth shut.
Not long after that,
Mom left us without warning.
And the burn on the carpet was still there.
Are you listening?
Don't you agree?
I don't think he's a bad man
but
I don't think your father is a normal person.
Especially about the letters.
That wasn't manly at all.
So
I want to take you and Hotaru out of this place...
You're worried about such strange things
Have you been listening to what I've been saying?
I had been.
I
don't know why,
but
it was painful...
I love Mom a lot.
I want to see her, too.
Tokyo is better than this place.
And Dad kept making me mad.
But
this lady
had nothing to do with me.
Or Hotaru or Dad.
I wouldn't have minded Mom doing it,
But I couldn't stand hearing someone that had nothing to do with us talk badly about Dad.
After all,
I'm my dad's son.
It's your Mom. Talk to her.
What's wrong? It's your Mom.
What's wrong?
Hello? I'll put him on right now.
Jun!
I didn't understand
what I was feeling.
I'm sorry Mom.
I'm sorry I didn't talk to you on the phone.
It's just that
I....
Is it over?
Did you talk to Mom?
lu lu lu lu lu
I didn't even tell Hotaru
about what happened that day.
And Hotaru
didn't ask.
I had a dream
about Mom that night.
There was some nostalgic music on
and Mom was in front of a mirror.
Jun?
I can't call you from here.
But the telephone is a wonderful thing.
Maybe the best invention
of all time.
Although it was always so close,
I never realized until now how wonderful it was.
I lay there in a daze
for awhile after I woke up.
I didn't think that
it was a dream.
I think Mom really did say that
to me
from faraway Tokyo.