The 91st feature film from veteran Japanese director Yoji Yamada is a typically nostalgic affair, in which screen icon Chieko Baisho plays an elderly woman who bonds with her taxi driver (Takuya Kimura) while reminiscing about her eventful life.

A remake of the 2022 French film Driving Madeleine, this beautifully pitched drama was produced as part of Shochiku Studios’ 130th anniversary celebrations.

Baisho, a prolific singer and actress who has appeared in well over a hundred films, has been working in the entertainment industry since the 1960s. Her collaborations with Yamada date back to 1965’s A Trap, and she became a regular fixture of his long-running Tora-san series.

Read my full South China Morning Post review here