The three main characters are quite unfortunate. The leading one, Nanba, has neither money nor girlfriend: a complete turn-around from the high school days when he used to play on the baseball team. Ishioka used to be the baseball team's ace, but after he injured his elbow, he chose to become a policeman. Then there is Eiko, a helpless alcoholic woman who spends more time drunk than sober. Youthful scenes from the days when Nanba and Ishioka were baseball players at the high school show Nanba's side profile, staring into the distance in the orange sunset, filled with happiness, completely different from how he looks now. The three share an "intense love of baseball", though in different forms, regardless of how distorted the forms may be!

Screenplay Ujita Takashi
Photography (colour) Hashimoto Kiyoaki
Music Akainu
Production Nippon Shuppan Hanbai, Inc., Victor Entertainment, Inc., Stairway
Year of production 2006
Running time 96’
Format 35mm

Kumakiri Kazuyoshi

Born 1974 in Obihiro, Hokkaido. Kichiku, his graduation production at Osaka University of Arts, became a big hit in Japan and received the semi Grand Prix at the 20th PIA Film Festival in 1997 and the Grand Prix at Taormina. The film was invited to many international film festivals including Berlin. In 2001, he directed Hole in the Sky as a scholarship production of the PIA Film Festival. The film was screened at the film festivals of Berlin and Rotterdam, where it gained the Special Mention of the International Film Critics Prize (FIPRESCI). His third film, Antenna, was officially invited in 2003 to the Venice (section Upstream) and Toronto film festivals. Other films include also Imouto no teryori, Asagao, The Volatile Woman, Tadareta ie zoroku no kibyo yori (all realized in 2004).