Sakura (Hanae Kan, Nobody Knows), a moody teenager, lives in Yamato, Japan. A small town one hour away from Tokyo, it is unremarkable in every way except for the massive US military base that remains at its center. This closeness to American culture has also shaped Sakura’s consciousness: she dreams of becoming a rapper, like the American musicians she admires. Already feeling like an outsider in her own home, her routine is further disturbed when a young Japanese-American girl, Rei (Nina Endo, Tourism), visits from the States. The daughter of an absent G.I. that her mother is dating, Rei has friendship to spare... which Sakura initially resists.

Yamato (California), Daisuke Miyazaki’s sophomore film following End of Night (2011), stands out to this day as his most personal and heartfelt: a tale of growing up in Yamato (the director’s own home town) at a particular nexus of postwar histories and imperialisms both large and small, cultural and otherwise. Taking the military base as his backdrop and symbolic gateway to address the long-standing influence of American culture on Japanese society, Miyazaki weaves a musical coming-of-age film affectionate of slackers yet propelled by a creative impulse to make life worth remembering.