Kaasan Mom's Life 2011

I am a cartoonist. I support my family with my drawings. You might find us a little different.

"Why do mothers all over the world have to yell first thing in the morning, everyday?" Rieko Saibara (Kyoko Koizumi) is Mom to a son Bunji, 6, and daughter Fumi, 4. She supports her family drawing cartoons. Each morning is like a warzone for her, sending the kids off to daycare and getting to work. "I was the one who was afraid of letting go of him..."

Her husband Yutaka Kamoshida (Masatoshi Nagase) is in hospital. He was a war photographer and now he is battling an alcohol dependency. A free spirit, he does whatever he pleases... he sneaks out of the hospital, takes his son fishing and drinks when he shouldn't. His increasing dependence on alcohol makes his everyday behavior erratic. So Rieko divorces him. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, I want my family back. Finally realizing how lost he is without his family, Kamoshida decides to make an effort to reunite with them. Eventually he gets the better of his dependency and returns home. Rieko welcomes him back into the family, even though they remain divorced. But this time Kamoshida is diagnosed with terminal cancer. The family has to face their fate and eventually say goodbye...