Drawing on social issues in Japan surrounding it’s ageing population and based on the autobiographical comic by Yuuichi Okano, this heart-warming comedy depicts a middle-aged comic artist’s humorous and touching relationship with his elderly, dementia-suffering mother.

When he isn't at his salaryman day job or watching out for his elderly mother, laid-back baby boomer Yuichi (Ryo Iwamatsu) is a middle-aged manga artist and singer-songwriter. With not much hair left on his head, Yuiichi, (who goes by the nickname Pecoross due to his balding likeness to a ‘pecoross’ onion) is forced to face the fact that his mother Mitsue (Harue Akagi) will need to be moved to a nursing home. Suffering from increasing dementia since her husband's death, she is a constant source of both comic energy and annoyance for Yuichi. But by jumping back in time, we see how Mitsue tracked the tumult of the latter half of the 20th century, being raised as one of 10 children, surviving the war, and having to push her alcoholic husband (Ryo Kase) along in life, as now embedded in the nursing home with its idiosyncratic inhabitants, her memories gradually lead her to retrace her past.

Directed by Azuma Morisaki (the oldest active film director in Japan) - who creates an emotionally complex work that is all the more profound and life-affirming for its cartoonish portrayal – this light, heart-warming gem topped the best film poll in two of Japan’s most famous film magazines (Eiga Geijutsu and Kinema Junpo) in 2013.

Image Credit: © Pecoross’ Mother and Her Days Production Committee

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