Thomas Wolfe's posthumous novel "You Can't Go Home Again" was published in 1940, and critics and readers have been debating the truth of its title ever since. Wolfe himself had no doubt: His autobiographical writings, with their biting, thinly disguised portraits, made him persona non grata in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina.
In Japanese films, however, characters are forever heading back to their furusato (hometown), no matter how frosty the reception. Feelings of duty to family often prompt the move, as do hard economic facts: Home may not be where the heart is, but you can usually get three squares a day there.
Misaki Yoshida (Hiromi Nagasaku), the feisty, emotionally wounded heroine of Taiwanese director Chiang Hsiu-chiung's "Saihate nite: Yasashii Kaori to Machinagara (The Furthest End Awaits)," is under no such obligation or duress when she decides to return to the ruggedly beautiful Noto Peninsula. Instead she has other more personal reasons for taking up residence in the ramshackle boathouse that is the sole bequest of her fisherman father (Jun Murakami) — missing at sea for eight years and out of her life for nearly 30.