The lingering trauma shared by two middle-class families, once friendly but now estranged following a tragic camping incident, is finally addressed through the unlikely prism of a high-school drama club production in “Between Us,” Shingo Matsumura’s well-intentioned, yet only fitfully successful, exploration of unprocessed grief. The writer-director’s fourth feature film premieres as part of the Tokyo Film Festival’s revamped and newly competitive Nippon Cinema Now section and is bolstered by a quartet of assured performances from its female leads.

Ririka Kawashima is most impressive as the shellshocked teenager Makoto in a story that sees mothers and daughters emerge from the emotional fallout of losing a loved one to shoulder the burden of recovery and reconciliation. Never lacking in ambition, yet left somewhat wanting in execution, commercial prospects for “Between Us” may well be limited to specialist showcases with a particular focus on nurturing emerging voices still honing their craft.

Read my full Variety review here