Steeped in the culture of 1980s Japan, Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s adaptation of Kurumi Inui’s novel is cinematically playful and emotionally sophisticated in its coming-of-age tale of a young man navigating his responsibilities as an adult and his confused emotional attachments to two women. As a young man, Takkun finds the girl of his dreams in his Shizuoka hometown in the form of Mayu, a pretty, simple and always-sunny girl-next-door type. But when he is transferred to Tokyo by his office, he finds himself in a more sophisticated world and attracted to his well-bred colleague Miyako. The title refers to a question posed by Miyako to Takkun. Is his feelings for Mayu merely “initiation love”, a puppy love that does both a disservice as the years pass. As he slips into an affair with Miyako, he has to make a series of difficult choices that will define him as a man. The Japanese promotion of the film emphasises the twist in the film’s final five minutes that takes a radically different course from the novel. The film’s ending is not just a cinematic coup d’etat, it also reveals a painful truth about love that is a lesson for all men and women.

imdb:tt4119590