Young parent Tasuku has spent his life assiduously avoiding any responsibility in his small town in northern Japan. But when he’s caught drunk and naked on live national TV coverage at the local Namahage festival, in which men dress as ogres and scare children into behaving, he flees to Tokyo in shame. After two years of rock-bottom city living, he returns home, ready to embrace adulthood. But will the town and his family have him back? Skilfully weaving traditional culture into a thoroughly contemporary story, this sensitive and assured drama asks what it truly means to be a man.
