One night. One email. Two years of what-ifs. This is slow-burn agony at 60 minutes.
In "Mienai Koi no Hanabi," Kana Kojima is a 27-year-old dental assistant living in Tokyo. A depressed girl who has delusions while denying her fateful encounter. One summer day, Kana visits Fukuoka for work and meets a tall, handsome, medical consultant, Hiroki Watanabe, who she becomes interested in on their first encounter. Kana spends the night on a drive around the city in Hiroki's car. Escorted by a man from Fukuoka, Hiroki, Kana has an emotion she has never experienced. "I wish the night didn't end ..." After the end of the night, they never met again. The only thing they did was exchange one email the next day. However, her thoughts for Hiroki did not go away. Two years later, summer comes back to Fukuoka. On the night of the Ohori Fireworks Festival, Kana decides to meet Hiroki. Does the love between Tokyo and Fukuoka have no beginning or future?
Cinematography
Fukuoka at night never looked this cruel and beautiful.
Acting
Ren Ishikawa's face does three years of longing in one glance.
Direction
Horai stretches 60 minutes into what feels like a whole summer.
Director
Tadaaki Horai
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Ohori Fireworks Festival is a real Fukuoka tradition, making the timing feel cosmically fated—or cruelly coincidental.
This is the fifteenth (!) entry in a regional romance anthology series, each set in different Japanese cities exploring how place shapes love.
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