Synopsis
Machi is a high school student who continues to think about her older brother who disappeared 6 years ago. She is best friends with her classmates Tomohiko and Hotaru, and they plan a short trip to Tokyo during their final high school summer vacation. They find out that Machi\'s brother is in Tokyo, and board a train with a scant clue and anticipation in their hearts.

Program Note
High school students, summer vacation, swimming pools, club activities, unrequited love, dysfunctional family relationships... TSURUOKA Keiko’s first feature film The Town of Whales seems to be a perfectly qualified Japanese teen movie. Hotaru likes Tomohiko, but Tomohiko falls in love with Machi. Machi, however, only cares about a delivered peach that is the only trace of her brother, who has disappeared. Internalizing their own different interests, Machi, Hotaru and Tomohiko set out on a trip to Tokyo. Their thoughts are vague, and no one has a clear purpose or conviction. The film deftly captures the uncertainty and fascination that youth typically possess through the characters’ ever-changing emotions and the tensions between their relationships. The peach doesn’t indicate a hope to see her brother again; rather, as Machi realizes with a sense of loss, it signals his absence and an unrecoverable loss. “Everything is gone”, moans Machi, her figure in front of the sea, in a scene that conveys a moment of loss that is a rite of passage to becoming an adult and, at the same time, evokes an image of 3.11. [HWANG Miyojo]