Mitsuko Delivers Review

Having impressed with Sawako Decides, Yuya Ishii slightly loses his way with this backstreet fantasy rooted in the working-class shomin-geki tradition perfected by Yasujiro Ozu. There’s a standout display of tenacity by Riisa Naka, but this Amélie wannabe lacks edge and occasionally drifts like the cloud that brings the pregnant Naka back to the Tokyo tenement where she grew up. When not convincing her parents she is thriving in the States, Naka nurses ailing landlady Miyoko Inagawa, flirts with old flame Aoi Nakamura and urges bachelor Ryo Ishibashi to declare his love for café owner Keiko Saito. Yet, for all her ebullience, Naka can’t disguise the slenderness of the storyline and the aura of overwrought contrivance.