One Million Yen Girl 2008

21-year-old Suzuko Sato Yu Aoi struggles to land a proper full-time job after graduating from junior college. She shares a cramped home with her parents and her younger brother, Takuya Sato Ryusei Saito, who is in the sixth grade, yet a persistent restlessness gnaws at her. Seeking a more stable space, she agrees when fellow part-timer Riko Kami Hiraiwa proposes that they share an apartment. Just before moving in, Riko reveals that her boyfriend Takeshi Hamada Tomohisa Yuge will also be joining them. Suzuko moves in after Takeshi, who had already settled, and she is stunned to learn that Riko has already broken up with Takeshi, leaving Suzuko and Takeshi as the only two residents.

On a rainy day, Suzuko spots a kitten left in a cardboard box and brings it back to the apartment. Takeshi abandons the kitten while Suzuko is out buying food, and when she returns to find the kitten dead, she erupts in anger, discarding all of Takeshi’s belongings and moving out. Takeshi presses charges of property damage, and Suzuko is detained and fined 200,000 yen, which she pays. Back home, her younger brother’s harsh words amplify her discomfort with neighbors and former classmates. She tells her family that she will leave once she saves one million yen, and she commits to working hard at part-time jobs.

Her first destination after leaving home is a seaside town, where she takes a job at a beach house. The owner commends her skill at making shaved ice, and life there goes smoothly for a time. However, Yuuki Terunosuke Takezai, a flirtatious regular customer, annoys her, prompting Suzuko to quit the beach house once her savings reach one million yen.

Next she moves to a peach-producing region and finds work at a peach farm as a live-in employee. She stays with an elderly mother and her single middle-aged son, and her peaches-picking prowess earns praise from the mother. The village chief, alerted by the coffee shop owner, arrives and declares Suzuko the village’s “Peach Girl”—a spokesperson to promote the village’s peaches with a related budget. A national TV crew is scheduled to cover her in a week. Suzuko refuses the role, prompting an emergency village meeting where she is harshly criticized. She declares she does not want to be the Peach Girl and, to escape scrutiny, blurts out that she is an ex-convict, then runs from the hall. She longs for a life where no one knows her, and appearing on TV feels inescapable yet out of reach. The harvest may end, but the mother and son of the peach farmer still express their gratitude as she leaves.

Her next stop is a small city in Saitama Prefecture, about an hour by express train from Tokyo. Suzuko lands a part-time job at a DIY store in the gardening department. Her boss, Kogure Keisuke Horibe, is abrasive, but her colleague, Ryohei Nakajima Mirai Moriyama, is a steadying presence. One day, Suzuko and Ryohei cross paths again, and over coffee she confesses her past and her dream of one million yen. Ryohei’s immediate warmth unsettles her, and she regains her resolve to move on, yet the two share a brief, intimate moment before Suzuko decides to distance herself.

Soon Miyamoto Tomoyo Saya Yūki, a classmate from the same university as Ryohei, is assigned to the gardening department and grows close to him. After a night of passion, Ryohei asks Suzuko for 50,000 yen, which she lends him. The pattern repeats—another loan when they’re together at a coffee shop, and again after he is with Tomoyo. Suzuko begins to blame him for loving her only for her money and decides to end things and leave the town.

When Suzuko returns to the DIY store for another farewell, Ryohei repays every cent he borrowed. Later, Tomoyo confronts Ryohei, asking, “Are you okay being misunderstood by her? You borrowed the money from her because you didn’t want her to leave after her saving reaches a million yen, but she left before she saved up a million yen!” Ryohei chases Suzuko to the station on his bike, but cannot catch up. The two exchange looks on a bridge as the film draws to a close, leaving their paths unresolved and the city lights fading into the horizon.