I went into this movie without any high expectations, as it is rated significantly lower than most of Hayao Miyazaki's films, who of course is the legendary father of Goro, who directed this film. I must say I really like this film A LOT! I like it even more than some of Miyazaki's work, frankly. It has a whole different style, as it is way more realistic, but my god, this film had a great deal of depth! It's really a brilliant piece of film. The story works on three interconnected narrative levels, in my opinion.

First of all there is the Japanese community of 1964, right before the olympics, the event that kind of 'allowed' Japan to be part of the world again after its deeds in World War II. The country struggles between tradition and modernisation.
The film shows how it is not always good to completely ignore the past using a student house (the second level of the story) as an example of how a gritty building (past) still can hold some wonderful things.
Then there are the main characters, the third layer of the story. A girl falls in love with a boy, but because of something that happened in the past, this love seems impossible and wrong.

All three levels try to find a certain balance in a very similar way. The story is very ingeniously constructed. I'm not going into detail, as I don't want to give anything away.
I'm also a big fan of the music it features (Sukiyaki's Kyu Sakamoto is a very fitting musical symbol for the Westernization of Japan, as it is the only Japanese song that ever topped the Billboard top 100).

Great film! I absolutely adored it and I very much recommend it!