Tears will flow, apparently. This autumn’s plushest, gushiest melodrama is being promoted with a marketing boast that 92.8% of test audiences cried during screenings, a statistic as remarkable as it is hilariously specific.
Tetsu Maeda’s “And So the Baton Is Passed” is adapted from a 2018 novel by Maiko Seo that’s sold over 1 million copies in Japan. The story has undergone some significant modifications in its transition to the screen, though nobody seems to have paused to ask if the underlying message isn’t a bit odd.
Yuko (Mei Nagano) is a chirpy high school senior with a pasted-on smile, who lives with 30-something office worker Morimiya (Kei Tanaka), the latest in a series of step-parents. The pair have an affectionate, almost sibling-like relationship, which makes up for the fact that Yuko’s mother is absent and her school life is a total mess.