‘Between Us’ Review: Estranged Teenagers Process Past Tragedy Through High School Theater in Fitfully Ambitious Japanese Drama
Variety | 29.10.2026 13:53
The lingering trauma shared by two middle-class families, once friendly but now estranged following a tragic camping incident, is finally addressed through the unlikely prism of a high-school drama club production in “Between Us,” Shingo Matsumura’s well-intentioned, yet only fitfully successful, exploration of unprocessed grief. The writer-director’s fourth feature film premieres as part of the Tokyo Film Festival’s revamped and newly competitive Nippon Cinema Now section and is bolstered by a quartet of assured performances from its female leads.
