98 minutos
Set in Sapporo during the oil crisis of the early '70s, the film centers on the Hokkaitei soba stand run by a stoic patriarch and his perky wife. One New Year's day, a haggard-looking mother and her two adorable moppets poke their heads into the restaurant and ask for a single bowl of kakesoba. Noticing that the trio is looking a little low in the heels, she puts in an extra scoop of noodles. The youngest boy declares that the soba is delicious. The next year, the same threesome appears again asking for one bowl of kakesoba. This time the old man dumps in two helpings. He is struck by how much the youngest looks like their own son who was hit by a truck three years previous. The following year, the three return and this time the mother tells her story...
Tsunehiko Watase
Proprietor of Hokkaitei
Pinko Izumi
Mother
Shingo Tsurumi
Elder brother
Masaya Obi
Elder brother as a boy
Hidetsugu Takiguchi
Younger brother as a boy
Kōen Okumura
Leonard Kuma
Shingo Yanagisawa
Shino Ikenami
Kazumi Kawai
Masayo
Wataru Shihôdô
Hattori
Hiroshi Tamaoki
Sayuri Kokusho
Midori Kanazawa
Takako Sasuga
(voice)
Etsuko Ichihara
Narration (voice)
Yoshie Ichige
Proprietress of Hokkaitei
