We can’t choose our parents. When his mother dies in a freak accident, 3-year-old Akira is left in the custody of his father, Yasu (Hiroshi Abe), a manual laborer working in a seaside town in western Japan.
Quick to anger and overly fond of his drink, Yasu isn’t exactly ideal dad material: When his wife gives birth, he’s in the middle of a brawl in the hospital corridor. However, having been raised an orphan himself, he’s determined to give Akira a better upbringing. And when he gets things wrong — which is often — the local community steps in to help, including close friend Soun (Ken Yasuda) and restaurant owner Taeko (Hiroko Yakushimaru).
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