The Ceremony

Masuo Sakurada and his cousin Ritsuko leave Tokyo for a southern Japanese island after receiving a telegram announcing the death of their cousin Terumichi. During the journey, Masuo recalls twenty-five years of family history, from 1947 to 1971, marked by war, mourning, and disillusionment. As a child, he fled Manchuria with his mother after the Russian invasion. Back under the authority of his grandfather Kazuomi, he witnessed the weight of family secrets and violence. His mother's death in 1952 led him to abandon baseball. Drawn to his aunt Satsuko, he helplessly observed the cruelty of the patriarch and the tangled relationships between Satsuko, Terumichi, and Ritsuko. Over the years, marriages, suicides, and scandals followed. Tadashi died, Satsuko took her own life, and Terumichi vanished. In 1971, Kazuomi also died, leaving Masuo as the head of a broken family. After learning of Terumichi's suicide, Masuo and Ritsuko travel to his island. They find his body and a will declaring the end of the Sakurada lineage. Ritsuko chooses to die beside him. Alone on the shore, Masuo recalls his childhood, once again listening to the heartbeat of his lost brother buried in the earth.