First Love (2000)

First Love 2000 / はつ戀 2000 / Hatsukoi

Aida Satoka (Tanaka Rena) has just turned 16. The snow just does not seem to let up and there is no sign of spring anywhere. Her gloom is worsened when Satoka returns home and finds out that her mother is being admitted to the hospital 'for a check up' as her father tells her. But the days soon passes and it becomes months and her mother does not come home. Satoka soon finds out that her mom has a malignant ulcer and that she only has a few months left to live if they do not remove it. Upset at first, then depressed, Satoka looks around the house for things to remember her mother by when she finds a music jukebox with a sealed letter inside, written by her mother 24 years ago and addressed to a 'Mr. Fujiki Shinichiro.' The letter asks Mr. Fujiki to please meet Satoka's mother 'One Last Time' under the 'Cherry Blossom Tree.' Setting out to fulfill her mother's last wish, Satoka travels to the small village of Kami Ina to find Mr. Fujiki and have him meet with her mother one last time. Satoka eventually finds Shinichiro (Sanada Hiroyuki), an overweight slob who was abandoned by his wife years earlier and now spends his time hanging around pachinko parlors. Determined to clean him up and reintroduce him to her mother, Satoka nags Shinchiro until he finally agrees to her demands, and a gradual friendship develops between the two as Satoka drags him to the gym and a clothing store. But once Shinchiro's makeover is complete, he turns the tables on his young friend, and when the time comes for him to meet Sataka's mother, all concerned parties find themselves embarking on a new phase in their lives.