Takahiro Ueno

Lover of Mother

Sensual love story about the romance between a single mother and a younger man. Directed by Ueno Takahiro of Pink Lady Woman Cannot Stand It. Koike Ryoko (Mizushima Yuko) lives with her daughter Mina (Sasaki Kokone), who she has raised by herself while running an izakaya restaurant. One day, Mina brings her boyfriend Kitagawa Kota (Sugawara Masanori) to apply for a part time job at Ryoko's restaurant. Ryoko keeps her distance at first, but she starts feeling drawn to Kota's kindness…

A fiction right after you wake up

An absence of sound in Takahiro Ueno’s seemingly inevitable A fiction right after you wake up, triggers, at first, a seriousness that belies the understated humor infusing this entrancing film. Filmmaker Ueno deftly pairs text-on-screen excerpts from his dream diary with a visual track of travel photos (taken by a friend) stacked neatly by hand (hands we see), one-by-one on a table shot by an overhead camera, creating a quietly comic and priceless dream travelogue. Satisfyingly drenched with the absurdities of dream stuff and coupled with the smartly curated vacation photos, A fiction right after you wake up will be as inspiring to writers as to filmmakers, and an all-around pleasure to us dream-keepers, travelers, and ordinary filmgoers.