In Michihito Fujii’s romantic drama You, Like a Star, Suzu Hirose and Ryusei Yokohama play young lovers trapped in a turbulent, decades-spanning relationship that defines their lives.

Adapted from the novel by Yuu Nagira, who provided the source material for the actors’ last on-screen collaboration, Wandering (2022), the drama touches on intriguing and volatile topics without ever daring to broach them fully. The result is a polished but aggressively generic chronicle of romantic tragedy, elevated only by its eye-catching cast.

Kai (Yokohama) first meets Akimi (Hirose) at school after transferring from Kyoto to a small island in the Seto Inland Sea with his mother (Machiko Ono), who opens a bar and quickly gains a reputation as a flirt and a lush.

Read my full South China Morning Post review here