Wood Job!

After failing university entrance exams and being dumped by his girlfriend, Yuki Hirano spots a forestry training programme advertised in a brochure and signs up, won over by the photograph of a young woman. The work turns out to be far harder than he expects, overseen by a demanding boss, and many of his fellow trainees quit. Yuki perseveres, passing the course and being posted to the remote village of Kamusari for a year of practical experience, where he gradually settles into the rhythms of mountain life and the company of its residents.

Shinobu Yaguchi wrote and directed this 2014 Japanese comedy drama, his fifth feature following Parco Fiction, Swing Girls, Tokyo Rhapsody and Robo-G. Shota Sometani leads as Yuki, with Masami Nagasawa, Hideaki Ito, Yuka, Naomi Nishida and a credited cast of around twenty. The film runs 116 minutes and was produced by Toho, Nikkatsu, Tokuma Shoten and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners.

Audience response has been consistently favourable, with a 7.5 rating on IMDb from roughly 4,200 votes and a 7.4 on TMDB from a much smaller base of 93, suggesting the film is better known to viewers than that second figure alone would indicate.