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The protagonist of the psychological family drama Ah, Haru is Hiroshi Nirasaki, a man in his mid-thirties who works for a securities company on the verge of bankruptcy. He hides this fact from his wife, an emotionally fragile woman from a well to do family. She is a good housewife, and on the exterior their domesticity is the envy of the neighbors, but it's tranquilizers that keep her calm. Hiroshi grew up without a father, whom his mother always claimed was dead. On his way home from work one day, a tramp approaches him and tells him he is his father. Shocked by this revelation, Hiroshi cannot help bringing the old man home to find the truth. The presence of the eccentric old man is taxing for all members of the household except for the little boy, who enjoys the attention of his newly found "grand dad." As the story develops, it's not important if he is the real father or not --his presence has already changed the members of the household irreversibly. Director Shinji Somai is the creator of what is known as the "Somai style" in Japanese cinema, a stylistic approach using long, unedited takes which is even taught at Japanese film schools today (his films are commercially successful as well). Ah, Haru, which carries all these trademarks of the director, was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999, and it received the FIPRESCI Award given by the International Film Critics Federation.