‘Satoko Always’: A multilayered story discombobulates and delights

Three women named Satoko — played by (left to right) Hikari Ishida, Kasumi Arimura and Kashun Himeno — are linked in strange ways by narrative threads and tropes in Shuichi Okita’s “Satoko Always.” | © 2026 “SATOKO ALWAYS” PRODUCTION COMMITTEE

Sep 10, 2026

Shuichi Okita makes quirky, warmhearted dramedies that move as well as entertain. One standout is “Woodsman and the Rain” (2011), which hilariously skewers a disastrous indie film shoot while sympathetically depicting the father-son relationship that develops between a helpful local lumberjack and a lost young director. 

But that early masterwork looks relatively conventional compared to his latest, “Satoko Always,” with its not-always-reliable protagonists and discombobulating multilayered story. 

Based on Okita’s original script, whose three title protagonists share a first name but write it with different kanji, the film begins as a standard enough seishun eiga (teen movie) but morphs into something stranger and smarter, propelled by a daring formal ambition.

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