AKA:
The Prodigy

Summary:
One 13-year-old piano prodigy, Uta Naruse (Riko Narumi), and her struggle with the meaning of playing classical music. Her father (Hidetoshi Nishijima) died mysteriously some years earlier, leaving her mother (Satomi Tezuka) poor and obsessed with making Uta fulfill her immense promise. But Uta is not sure if she even wants to play the piano.

She gains a new perspective one day when she runs into Wao Kikuna (Kenichi Matsuyama) in a park.The piano-playing son of a greengrocer who is still trying to enter the music academy after several failures, Wao is six years her senior but far below her level of talent.

Yet through his clumsy and misguided but earnest efforts to pursue music, Uta touches a more down-to-earth love of playing the piano. Wao, although a bit envious of Uta's genius, is sparked by her presence to have his own moments of brilliance.

Cast:
Riko Narumi ... Uta Naruse
Kenichi Matsuyama ... Oto Kikuna
Satomi Tezuka ... Mika Naruse
Masahiro Komoto ... Kazuo Nagazaki
Hidetoshi Nishijima ... Koichiro Naruse
Shihori Kanjiya ... Kane Kamogawa
Kazuyoshi Kushida ... Professor Mikoshiba
Kazuyuki Asano ... Professor Komiyama
Midoriko Kimura ... Masako Kikuna
Keita Okada ... Susumu Ikeyama
Kazuya Sato ... Morimoto
Tamae Ando ... Kikuko Mishima
Erisa Yanagi ... High School Student
Hideko Yoshida ... Professor Katsura
Akira Emoto ... Hisashi Kikuna