Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Look Back" follows two teenage manga artists whose shared dreams bind them in what the filmmaker describes as a "platonic but passionate love story." The film, adapted from a one-shot online manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, stars Furi Nanase and Rokka Okada as young versions of Fujino and Kyomoto, with Natsuki Deguchi and Aju Makita playing them as adults.
According to the Guardian's review, the film explores friendship, the weight of artistic success and what it means to pursue a creative vocation with your closest collaborator. Kore-eda frames the story as both sad and beautiful, centred on two obsessive artists whose initial shared aspirations gradually diverge as they grow older.
Fujino dreams of becoming a published manga artist and seeing her work adapted into film. Kyomoto shares her passion for manga. Their connection forms the emotional core of the narrative, which traces how creative partnership and personal ambition can both unite and ultimately separate two people.
The material Kore-eda adapted already existed as manga, and has previously been adapted into an anime film. Kore-eda's live-action version brings his own directorial approach to the story of artistic vocation pursued collaboratively.