What struck me most with this film was the words "it can't be helped",  said by the lead star Sawako (Hikari Mitsushima) at least a couple of times here. This embodies her nature; a kind of resignation to the situations before her, a rather tired outlook in life. When she goes back to her hometown to oversee the clam processing business of her now-ill father, this will put her to tremendous tests. Comical but not outwardly funny, this film lets us into the life of a woman who has to reinvent herself and eventually finds out more about herself.