Though an ice hockey player, teenager Takuya isn’t very passionate about sports, but his eyes light up when he spotsyoung figure skater Sakura on the ice. Seeing traces of his youngself in Takuya, Sakura’s coach Arakawa decides to train Takuyaand Sakura as a duo. Loosely inspired by his own experiences as a skater, Hiroshi Okuyama’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut Jesus is a sublime sports film that lifts the spirits with its transcendent beauty while gently subverting genre conventions. This melancholic wintry tale is one of the best coming-of-age films of the year.