Ride Your Wave

Ride Your Wave

Japan | 2019 | 96 minutes | Masaaki Yuasa

March 20 - 22, 2020

Winner of the Best Animated Feature prize at the 2019 Fantasia Film Festival. Hinako is a surf-loving college student who has just moved to a small seaside town. When a sudden fire breaks out at her apartment building, she is rescued by Minato, a handsome firefighter, and the two soon fall in love.

Just as they become inseparable, Minato loses his life in an accident at sea. Hinako is so distraught that she can no longer even look at the ocean, but one day she sings a song that reminds her of their time together, and Minato appears in the water. From then on, she can summon him in any watery surface as soon as she sings their song, but can the two really remain together forever? And what is the real reason for Minato's sudden reappearance?

"Yuasa entrances the eye, but he also knows how to make your heart soar with this deft, delicate, and highly entertaining story of loss, of coming to terms with grief, of moving on without ever forgetting."—Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle

  • Director: Masaaki Yuasa
  • Principal Cast: Ryôta Katayose, Rina Kawaei, Honoka Matsumoto, Kentarô Itô
  • Country: Japan
  • Year: 2019
  • Running Time: 96 minutes
  • Producer: Eun Young Choi, Yuka Okayasu
  • Screenplay: Reiko Yoshida
  • Language: Japanese
  • Has Subtitles: Yes