Movie: River of First Love Romaji: Amemasu no kawa Japanese: 雨鱒の川 Director: Itsumichi Isomura Writer: Kenichi Kawakam, Hirotoshi Kobayashi Producer: Cinematographer: Release Date: November 13, 2004 Runtime: 113 Min. Language: Japanese Country: Japan **Plot** 8-year old boy, Shimpei, who loves fishing and painting, lives with his beautiful mother, surrounded by nature. His mother, Satsuki, has a weak constitution and lost her husband years ago. She takes care of her son lovingly but sometimes strictly, on her own. Shimpei's childhood sweetheart, Sayuri, is deaf, but somehow they can understand each other and they always spend time together. One day, big news comes to their town: Shimpei's picture received the Grand Prize in a Children's Pictures Exhibition in Paris. On the night that Sayuri's father, Takakura, holds a celebration party for Shimpei, Satsuki leaves her son in Takakura's care and goes out of the house. Feeling uneasy, Shimpei goes to look for her but finds his mother dead, lying calmly and peacefully in the beautiful, white snow...Fast forward to the future, Shimpei has been offered a fake job in Tokyo. Sayuri's father arranged everything so that Shimpei would not interfere with Sayuri's marriage. **Cast** Hiroshi Tamaki - Sinpei Kato Haruka Ayase - Sayuri Takakura Shunsuke Matsuoka - Kawashima Hiroshi Abe - Shiro Takakura Miki Nakatani - Satuki Kato Akira Emoto - Hidejiro Tasaki Ayumi Ito - Mika Inoue Yuriko Hoshi - Matsuko Takakura Mirai Shida - Sayuri - adolescent Kenta Suga - Sinpei - adolescent Daisuke Honda Tadashi Sakata