The work of the late novelist Yasushi Sato, who took his own life in 1990, has been enjoying a minor cinematic renaissance over the past decade. Starting with Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's "Sketches of Kaitan City" in 2010, the author's stories have spawned four films to date.
Mipo Oh's superb "The Light Shines Only There" and Nobuhiro Yamashita's less convincing "Over the Fence" completed the so-called Hakodate trilogy of tales set in the author's Hokkaido hometown. The latest addition, "And Your Bird Can Sing," is actually based on a 1982 novel about Tokyo suburbanites, but writer-director Sho Miyake's adaptation relocates it to present-day Hakodate — albeit a version of the city where the residents speak like they've arrived fresh from the capital.
The unnamed protagonist (Tasuku Emoto), listed simply as "Boku" ("Me") in the film's credits, works at a bookstore while sharing an apartment — and bunk bed — with his unemployed pal, Shizuo (Shota Sometani). They're not the most dynamic of duos: After missing a shift and getting scolded by his boss, "Boku" makes a date later in the evening with co-worker Sachiko (Shizuka Ishibashi), only to oversleep and end up drinking until dawn with his roommate instead.