Izumi (Ai Ikedea) is a high-schooler whose good heart leads to difficulties in the Japanese drama "About the Pink Sky." Courtesy Keiichi Kobayashi

“About the Pink Sky”

World Dramatic

*** (three stars)

The sky isn't pink in this black-and-white Japanese drama, but the hopes of the high-school kids we meet in it are rosy. Izumi (Ai Ikeda), who marks up the paper with a personal tally of good news every day, finds a wallet with 300,000 yen (about $4,000). She's persuaded by her friends to return it to rich kid Sato (Tsubasa Takayama), but only after she loans some of it to a destitute fishing buddy. Since some of the money is gone, Sato pressures Izumi to write items for a “good news” newspaper he's publishing to cheer up a hospitalized friend. Writer-director Keiichi Kobayashi captures some poetic moments as these teens dance on the line between childhood and responsibility.

-- Sean P. Means

“About the Pink Sky” screens again:

• Saturday, Jan. 21, 9 a.m., Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City
• Sunday, Jan. 22, 3 p.m., Salt Lake City Library, Salt Lake City
• Thursday, Jan. 26., 1 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 7, Park City
• Friday, Jan. 27, 10 p.m., Holiday Village Cinema 4, Park City

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