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This is one of those movies with lots of beautiful movie posters to choose from. They have the mizuki tree, the lighthouse, etc that it's very hard to pick which one to put. The movie itself is those movie with lots of time lapse because of the story itself, 10 years love story. The plot is based on a song with the same title, sung by You Hitoto, a very subtle yet moving song, which lyrics is pretty much what you see in the movie and will make you bawl in the middle of the movie too.

The story starts with the hanamizuki (dogwood) tree that Sae's dad planted in front of her house in Hokkaido before he died so that he can watch over her and her mom. Then grew up to be a high school student aiming for Waseda University. On the way to her exam, she met Kouhei, a fisherman son who aspires to take over his dad's fishery. Kouhei supports Sae's decission to go Japan to pursue her dream. While Kouhei's family also facing difficulties in Hokkaido, Sae also has her own problems and their long distance relationship starts to crumble. At the same time Sae meets Junichi who is her senior in university and they share similar dreams. So what will happen to Sae and Koichi in the end?

What I like from this movie is that even though the story idea may sound cliche, can't argue that we've seen tons of romantic movie with time lapse, 10, 20 years whatever, but it's different because of the character. Sae's character has her dream and she makes decision to reach it despite having a relationship with Kouhei who's bound to his hometown. On the other hand, Kouhei is your regular country boy, but he loves Sae to the point of accomodating her decisions although he himself are hurting which even more emphasizing on the phrase of love is to wish the person you love happiness. Example, when Sae decides to go to Tokyo, Kouhei gives his support then they do the long distance relationship. Then when Kouhei's dad passed away and he has to support his family, both Kouhei and Sae know it won't work out, so they broke it off, and Kouhei doesn't try to put more burden on Sae and still wish Sae to pursue her dream. And then on the next meeting, both are in their own situation (try not to spill more beans that I already have), Kouhei still wish Sae to be happy.

Lots of items that the movie used to connect Sae and Kouhei's love story. The obvious one, off course it's the hanamizuki tree. At first, it's symbolize Sae's dad love for Sae, but then as the movie progress, the tree also marks the unchange feelings of both Sae and Kouhei. I love how the movie use the tree in the beginning and the end, with different meaning. Next, we have the lighthouse. It's Kouhei's hiding place, but he shares it with Sae and just happen that Sae's memory of childhood in Canada involves lighthouse too. 2 different lighthouses in 2 different countries but they actually connect Sae and Kouhei in the beginning and later on they become the important turning point of the story toward the end of the movie. Then, we have Kouhei's handmade ship. I heart this ship because it conveys Kouhei's feeling of supporting Sae, especially the flag 'Ganbare Sae', and later on it has 'Arigatou' on the back of that flag.

To wrap it up. The OST. Off course it's got to be the Hanamizuki song that this movie is based on. I like the one that You Hitoto sang more, though the version by Aragaki Yui is also nice (she's the one playing Sae).