Always: Sunset on Third Street ’64 2012

In 1958, as Tokyo’s TV broadcasting tower edges toward completion, a looming symbol of Japan’s rising post-war recovery fills the city with a sense of momentum and possibility. Mutsuko [Maki Horikita] arrives from the provinces to begin her first job at Suzuki Auto, hopeful about carving out a place in a rapidly changing world. At first dazzled by meeting the company “president,” Norifumi Suzuki [Shin’ichi Tsutsumi], she quickly learns the truth: the workplace is not a sleek headquarters but a shabby auto repair shop tucked away in Tokyo’s down‑at‑heel Yuhi district.

The atmosphere is taut, yet warmth lingers at home. Suzuki is a tough, sometimes sour boss, but Mutsuko finds a welcome refuge with his wife, Tomoe [Hiroko Yakushimaru], and their impish five-year-old son, Ippei [Kazuki Koshimizu]. Ippei’s curious nature leads him to a nearby five‑and‑dime store, a storefront tutor to his wanderlust and imagination, run by the ever‑presently restless Ryunosuke Chagawa [Hidetaka Yoshioka], a struggling serial writer who still clings to old dreams. Chagawa views the era’s celebrated writers—like Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe—as overrated, preferring to persevere as a creator who can still mix sci‑fi yarns with the sale of toys on the side, never fully satisfying either audience.

Into this delicate balance steps Hiromi [Koyuki], a magnetic newcomer who opens a sake bar that quickly draws a following with a storytelling flair that feels almost like a manga in motion—bold, brisk, and visually charged. Her establishment also becomes a new stage for Junnosuke Furuyuki [Kenta Suga], the orphaned son of the bar’s previous tenant, a presence that tugs at the thin threads connecting the neighborhood’s lives. As Hiromi’s bar gains character and regulars, the boy’s quiet needs begin to intersect with the bar’s ambitions and the broader currents of the era.

Amid these entwined stories, Chagawa faces a personal crossroads. Though frequently buoyed by drink and a rough charm, he is drawn into guardianship of the boy, a decision that binds his own fragile ambitions to the family he encounters in this changing Tokyo. The film threads together the evolving economic optimism of the 1950s with intimate portraits of companionship, responsibility, and the small, often surprising ways people reach for something sturdier than the life they’ve inherited.