April Story

This self-consciously light miniaturist study of an 18-year-old's early days at college is in two movements. The first is a dulcet, scherzo-like rendition of the sights, sounds and sensations of starting afresh, as Uzuki (Matsu) moves into her new flat and meets her neighbour and classmates; this segues into a more rhapsodic paean to youthful rapture as the film focuses on Uzuki's motives for leaving her hometown on the northern island of Hokkaido for university in Tokyo. The delicately captured sensual minutiae, the soundtrack's childlike piano refrain, and not least the lead performance work in harmony so that the film slowly catches you up in its idyllic rhythms.