Touch(2024)

Kristófer (Egill Ólafsson) finally tracks down Miko (Yoko Narahashi). After spending a few hours with him and asking for his forgiveness, she tells him the truth about why she and her father disappeared.

Miko’s mother was pregnant with her when the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. Her father, Takahashi-san (Masahiro Motoki) was deathly afraid of Miko becoming pregnant, thinking her children would be deformed. He became so obsessed that he was going to force her to be sterilized, only to discover she was pregnant with Kristófer’s child. Enraged, he closed up the restaurant and left London to go back to Japan.

Miko gave birth to a son and her father bullied her into giving him up for adoption. It is heavily implied that Miko was so angry with her father for making her give up her son and Kristófer that she cut him out of her life that day and he died alone.

Miko tells Kristófer that she never married nor had other children before revealing the saddest truth of all. Her father’s fears were unwarranted. Their son, Akira, was adopted into a good family and has lived a full and healthy life, became a chef, and had two daughters (i.e. their grandchildren).

Miko and Kristófer visit his restaurant where Miko has become a regular though she will never reveal that she is his mother. Miko tells Kristófer how much Akira looks like him and Kristófer is overcome with emotion. He too decides not to reveal himself to Akira, content that their stolen future at least resulted in one good thing.

The film ends with Miko and Kristófer walking home, with Miko asking Kristófer to sing that song he sang fifty years ago, the song that made her fall in love with him. He begins to sing it as they walk, the implication they will spend the rest of the time they have left, together.