Review of True Mothers (2020)
Seen in 2026.
Two women’s lives are entwined through the work of a third, who runs the Baby Baton. It’s a specialized adoption agency, named for the baton in a relay race.
Director Kawase Naomi has tight reins on the sentimentality of the presentation, interspersing scenery and realistic detail as usual, but she ultimately finds little in the story except sentimentality. Going further into the lives of secondary characters like Konomi and Tomoka, to humanize them as well, would have improved the political and moral relevance of the drama, but at the cost of mindless emotional punch.