Crying Out Love in the Center of the World

Sakutaro Matsumoto is in his thirties and about to marry Ritsuko Fujimura when she abruptly leaves, saying only that she needs to go away for a while. He spots her on a television news report about a typhoon approaching a distant city, one that holds special meaning for both of them. He sets out to find her, and the journey pulls him back into memories of his high school years and of Aki, a girl from that time whom he has never quite left behind.

The film is a Japanese drama directed by Isao Yukisada, who wrote the screenplay with Yuji Sakamoto and Chihiro Ito. It followed his 2001 film GO in his directing career. Takao Osawa plays the adult Sakutaro, with Ko Shibasaki as Ritsuko, Masami Nagasawa as Aki and Mirai Moriyama as the younger Sakutaro. Tsutomu Yamazaki and Kankuro Kudo also appear.

Crying Out Love in the Center of the World opened in Japanese cinemas in May 2004 and runs 138 minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.2 from around 4,000 votes, and on TMDB a matching 7.2 from a much smaller number of votes, so the two scores are consistent. The audience response places the film in solidly favorable territory rather than at either extreme.