Dogs and Punching Bags

After years of living a deeply isolated existence in Tokyo, thirty-four-year-old Nichiko abandons her solitary routine to return to the remote island where she grew up. Her homecoming is prompted by a grim necessity: tending to her estranged father, a long-time alcoholic who is now entering his final days. The journey forces her back into an environment she thought she had left behind forever, confronting her with the quiet weight of her past and the fractured family ties she never fully resolved. During her stay on the island, Nichiko crosses paths with Chimaki, an eccentric young man whose presence unexpectedly disrupts her guarded emotional state. His arrival stirs dormant memories and awakens feelings she had long convinced herself she no longer deserved to experience. Despite his boundless, puppy-like enthusiasm for life, Chimaki harbors a complex inner world that belies his cheerful exterior. His relentless, almost obsessive drive to rescue both people and animals suggests he is attempting to atone for something far darker than his bright demeanor implies. As their lives intertwine against the backdrop of her father’s fading days, Nichiko must navigate the fragile connection forming between them, gradually realizing that Chimaki’s desperate need to save others may be shielding an unspeakable history of his own.