Hirokazu Koreeda

Koreeda turns the popularly held conventions of the typical samurai tale on their head in this story of a man whose quest to avenge the death of his father gradually takes a back seat to his emerging role as a key figure in the community. The year is 1702, and young samurai Sozaemon Aoki has arrived in a poor neighbourhood of Edo seeking revenge against the man responsible for the death of his father. But when Aoki takes on the task of teaching the children of Edo to read and write, his bloodlust starts to subside, and even more after he falls in love with the beautiful widow Osae. Aoki must decide whether to follow the way of the samurai or to choose peace and reconciliation….

A young woman's husband apparently commits suicide without warning or reason, leaving behind his wife and infant.