We often spin tender lies out of love for someone. Fourteen-year-old Kiita has grown up in just such a lie, living alone with his blind mother, Hanae. As his voice begins to change, the boy decides to venture beyond the fence on his own, and in the back alleys of Tokyo comes face to face with realities far removed from what he has known. Yet just as truth has many faces, so too does its opposite, and Kiita gradually comes to see—and accept—that the lie that has protected his world has another face of its own. Echoing its original title, where beginning and farewell intersect, the film suggests that growth is the process of bidding farewell to a familiar world while encountering it anew. The songs and music that color scene after scene, along with the landscapes of the seaside town, gradually take on new shades of meaning. Kumamoto Ryohei’s feature debut traces a boy’s growing pains with a warm and tender gaze.
Born in 1990. Kumamoto graduated from Tokyo Zokei University and joined AOI Pro., Inc. in 2015, where he directed commercials and music videos. He has won awards including the Gold at the ADFEST Film Lotus Viral Film category and the Gold in the Music Videos category at the London International Awards (LIA), and later expanded into long-form work, including TV dramas. After the Song is his first feature film.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
