Permanent Nobara

It can hardly be more Japanese than this film: based on a manga, starring an ex-pop singer, and with the theme of the search for a new life in the village of her birth.

Yet Daihachi Yoshida’s 4th feature film does not fall into clichés: this is a tragicomedy with a high independent-women content. The film focuses on single mother Naoko, who ends up in Permanent Nobara, her mother’s hair salon, with her daughter after a divorce. There she soon discovers that she is not the only one who can no longer stand her man, although romance is never far away in this small village either…

Permanent Nobara strikes a perfect balance between good laughs on the one hand and subtle love drama on the other, making it the ideal Friday night film to de-stress after the working week, as a couple or with a group of girlfriends*. Fun guaranteed!

*Single men are also welcome.

All images: © 2010 “Permanent Nobara”