Inland Sea

Overview

At 86, Wai-chan remains one of Ushimado’s last fishermen, still casting his net alone from a tiny boat in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, all while dreaming of the day he can finally retire. Nearby, 84-year-old Kumi-san roams the shoreline daily, convinced the government-funded welfare facility took her disabled son to cash in on subsidies. Koso-san, another elderly villager, keeps her late husband’s seafood shop alive, feeding locals and stray cats with unsold scraps. Yet as postwar modernization sweeps past, Ushimado’s ancient customs and once-tight community are quietly fading away.