[JP] Hold My Hand at Twilight

It is a story about how life seems to be a series of departures and arrivals, and amid it all, how we try to stay still to learn who we truly are.

Hold My Hand at Twilight (夕暮れに、手をつなぐ) is a 10-episode Japanese drama that follows the story of a country girl Soramame Asagi (played by Suzu Hirose) as she finds her way to Tokyo and gets more than she bargained for. She experiences the nth departure in her life and an arrival she never expected. He who would accompany her as she navigates a new life in a new city, creating dreams and consequently herself. His name is Oto Umino (played by Ren Nagase).

It is a poignant drama that dives into the human experience of life: how it is about the search of be-ing of oneself and how this is shaped by encounters—some simply passersby, some transients, some long-time guests. Some we’d hope to be permanent residents, but inadvertently upped and left. These departures many times break us. But in any case, all of them did not depart without leaving any foot prints behind.

All arrivals, no matter how long their stay in our lives are, shape us—in one way or another.

In her journey in Tokyo with Oto among the series of new arrivals she welcomed in her life, Soramame was able to create who she is. She learned how it is to dream. She learned how to fall and how to stand up. She learned to embrace her full identity, including all the departures she once wanted to omit. Finally, she learned to embark on her own departure, to leave the arrivals she held dear, to further grow the new self they helped her create.

Life is a series of departures and arrivals. Yet that does not mean one cannot return. Nor does it mean one cannot stay. Nevertheless, no matter who comes and goes, who returns and stays, in the middle permanently stands the self. Only the self.

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Hold My Hand at Twilight (2023) is quite an emotional, picturesque piece about the joys of arrivals and the pains of departures. The gift of encounters. The courage in leaving. And the same courage in returning and staying. The strength in holding on, in holding up. The gift of finding an anchor within.

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