Moe Haruno, who wrote a short story based on the nursery rhyme “Akatonbo (Red Dragonfly)”

Full text available on the Book Shorts website.

TOKYO /PRNewswire/ — Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & ASIA), one of Asia’s largest international short film festivals accredited by the Academy Awards® is pleased to announce the 8th Book Shorts Award winner selected for the short stories project. View all of the grand prize-winning novels have been posted on the Book Shorts website.
Website https://bookshorts.jp/20210801a_eng

This award is held as part of the 2021 Japan Expo sponsored “Stories from Around Japan” project.

While maintaining the themes of the previous Book Shorts Award, we especially collected 1,067 submissions for “stories from various regions of Japan”.

The winner, “The one I want to meet” by Moe Haruno, is a short story based on the children’s song “Akatonbo” (Red Dragonfly). Based on a melody and lyrics that many people in Japan have heard before, the story depicts the relationship between the main character, and a neighborhood sister, a woman he met once, and their grandmother.

Inspired by a phrase in the song, this story talks about the person that we wish to see again or regret not seeing them enough. Those people are often a bitter memory that causes pain but we are often encouraged by their presence. “The one I want to meet” carefully depicts the sense of loss that the protagonist feels, while at the same time showing how his encounter with a certain woman leads to a positive change in his life.

SSFF & ASIA 8th BOOK SHORTS AWARD WINNER “The One I want to meet”

SOURCE Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia