International Premiere | In Competition
Japan, 2026, 115’, Japanese
Directed by: Nakagawa Shun
Screenplay: Nakagawa Shun
Cinematography (color): Sung Rae Cho
Editor: Sagara Naoichiro
Music: Moshimoss
Producers: Tsujimoto Tamako, Fujimoto Itaru, Utagawa Yasushi, Taguchi Yusuke
Cast: Santoki Soma, Kanno Miho, Nishino Nanase, Minami Kotona, Tanaka Taketo
Date of First Release in Territory: March 27th, 2026
Caregivers are in short supply in Japan, with its aging and shrinking population. Also, though Japanese municipalities dispatch what are called home helpers to individuals in need, round-the-clock care is a rarity, with family members expected to fill the gaps.
Thus the dilemma of Tasuku (Santoki Soma), a high school senior charged with caring for his mother, Misaki (Kanno Miho) in Nakagawa Shun’s semi-autobiographical drama
90 Meters. She is suffering from ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), a progressive disease of the nervous system that has left her bedridden and totally dependent on others.
Based on the director’s own caregiving experiences, the film sounds, from its storyline, almost too sad to watch. A teenager has to not only be present at his mother’s suffering, day by day and minute by minute, but also give up his normal life. While his classmates chat about going to karaoke, he has to trudge home and carry his mother from the bed to the toilet and back.
In the opening scenes of Tasuka as a boy and his single mom still healthy, we sense the strong bond between the two, with Misaki telling her son that it’s ok to cry after losing a basketball game. “You gave it your all,” she says.
But the reality of caregiving strains this bond to the limit. Tasuku performs his duties resentfully and glumly. Once a star player on the school basketball team, he wanders through the halls like a ghost. When a sympathetic teacher talks to him about college plans, he is dismissive. “Who is going to take care of my mom?” he asks.
Also, Misaki is no saint. In Kanno Miho’s pitch-perfect performance, she becomes petulant when Tasuku doesn’t bring exactly the right cup. She also resents the gadget that allows her to summon him from as far as 90 meters away. She wants him by her side, not out of sight.
Then a bureaucratic miracle happens: 24/7 care is arranged for Misaki. “Live your life” she tells her son, with the wide smile we glimpsed when she was still well. Meanwhile, Tasuku’s stone-like expression begins to soften. Normality beckons.
There is still much more to the story, which is as much about Tasuku’s difficult return to his old life as it is about Misaki’s heart-wrenching decline. A basketball team manager (Minami Kotona) wants to help ease his transition, but she finds it hard to penetrate his reserve. A teammate (Tanaka Taketo) who had to take his place – and failed the team in their biggest game of the season, harbors a barely concealed resentment.
Thus the film edges into
seishun eiga (“teen movie”) territory, but it never loses its primary focus, which is the relationship between mother and son. And also between Misaki and her home helpers, who are uniformly framed as warm-hearted, caring professionals.
90 Meters could be accused of being overly rose-tinted. Not everyone is as knowledgeable and determined as Misaki in negotiating the bureaucracy. (Those caregivers didn’t appear out of nowhere.) But the film could also serve as a truly felt reality-based guide for what the caregiver experience is like – and how someone like Tasuku, who has fallen behind at school through no fault of his own, can play catch-up in the college race.
One tip: He has one of the best-ever subjects for his college essay and, having returned to his confident pre-caregiver self, is not afraid to use it.
Nakagawa Shun
Nakagawa Shun (b. 1987) initially worked as an event manager before studying filmmaking at the New Cinema Workshop. His LGBTQ-themed short Kalanchoe won the Grand Prix at Rainbow Reel Tokyo in 2016. Nakagawa made his commercial feature debut with the teen drama Sayonara, Girls. (2023), based on a novel by Asai Ryo, which premiered at the 2022 Tokyo International Film Festival and was released in Japan in February of 2023. His semi-autobiographical film 90 Meters was released in Japan on March 27th, 2026.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2023 – Sayonara, Girls
2026 – 90 Meters