Love life has incredible emotional punch and humor. It is not a light movie. Koji Fukada takes us into the life of Taeko, a woman facing a terrible misfortune. “Taeko” lives with her second husband “Jirôwho” has cheerfully adopted her rather lively young son “Keita” who is always playing games. His continuing presence puts everyone under a microscope that assesses decisions made and those yet to come for not just the tree directly involved, but for grandparents who wanted a grandchild of their own and for people from both of their past lives. It deals with the expected emotions of guilt and torment, but it manages to avoid steeping us in sentimentality nor does it immerse us too depressingly in what is clearly a scenario riddled with grief and “what ifs?”. The Young Shimada is enjoyable to watch at the start and there is a definite chemistry here as the adults come to terms with their situation. It may seem a little long, but we felt Kôji Fukada paced this well allowing the characters to evolve in a natural fashion and making this quite an enjoyable poignant, at times darkly humorous, tale of family.