The brand new film by Tetsuo Shinohara, whose previous effort Tengoku no Honya ? Koibi (Heaven??s Bookstore ? The Light of Love) was a romantic smash hit. This time he recruited popular model Karina to star in her debut role, Azumi??s Narimiya Hiroki, Sky High the Movie??s Tanihara Shosuke, and Nagasawa Masami who starred in the film Sekai no Chushin de, Ai o Sakebu. With a cast of bright up-and-coming actors, this coming-of-age tale is set to be equally moving as Tetsuo??s previous work!

How many people, masochists included, would voluntarily fly to a tiny island off Okinawa and chop sugar cane for one month? In Tetsuo Shinohara's "Shinkokyu no Hitsuyo (The Necessity of Deep Breathing)," the answer is Japanese twentysomethings who want to refreshen their hearts and minds under the blue Okinawan sky . . . or something like that. Because what is clear from the beginning about Shinohara's seven cane-cutting heroes is they have pasts they want to hide, demons they hope to exorcise.

The film begins with five getting off a boat together at a tiny port, but barely speaking to each other, even after they realize they are all there to cut cane for the same old couple, Granny (Taeko Yoshida) and Grandpa (Sabu Kitamura) Taira.

Outgoing Hinami (Karina) has been temping in Tokyo and looking for a new direction (and, as it soon seems obvious, a new man); moody, sharp-tongued Daisuke (Hiroki Narimiya) is a college boy on vacation; tall, thirtyish, sagely smiling Shuichi (Shosuke Tanihara) doesn't seem to belong (but is Hinami's idea of Mr. Right); ditzy Etsuko (Sayaka Kaneko) arrives dolled up for a resort vacation, right down to her long, painted nails; shy Kanako (Masami Nagasawa) looks like a squelched virgin and says nothing beyond her name.

Their foreman is the brisk, bronzed Yutaka (Nao Omori), who helps the Tairas every year and makes a living going from harvest to harvest, something like an educated migrant worker, with options.

None of the five newbies quite realized what they were getting into: 35 days of back-breaking labor. If they fail to cut the cane, their kindly hosts, the Tairas, will face ruin. Yutaka, camp-counselor-like, tries cajoling them into something resembling enthusiasm and competence, but the work goes slowly as resentment builds. They are free spirits and privileged children of the middle class -- not slaves! Finally Etsuko and Daisuke, the two most disgruntled of the lot, make their escape. Will anyone but Yutaka and the Tairas be left when the 35 days are up?