Yume no kayoiji

Mari moves from Tokyo to a small town and starts going to the local high school. With her antisocial behaviour, she quickly ends up insulting the popular girl Satsuki. She also tries to get rid of a boy called Takao, who wants to befriend her. Instead, she begins to hang out with a girl called Rie, who likes to play the piano.

The town has a legend about ghost children, and what unfolds is mainly a ghost story, but it is not a horror movie, because the ghost appearances are not set up to be scary.

As the title suggests, there are some dreamlike sequences. The movie is mostly calm and contemplative. It probably had a tiny budget, but it smartly manages to express a certain event by showing a photo collage instead of special effects.

Rie was a bit unexpressive, but it worked out well considering her personality. The others were good, especially Satsuki, who made lively face expressions in most scenes.

Though not dramatic, the movie is nice rather than boring.

It might not be easy to find it with English subtitles, so I translated it myself and wrote my own. That's how much I love this movie, even though I failed to express it in the review.