{ "id": "eps6sefjy1", "slug": "always-sunset-on-third-street", "title": "Always: Sunset on Third Street (ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "label": "Drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films", "label": "Biographical and historical drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2000-2005", "label": "Released 2000 to 2005", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2000-2005" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020: Drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "label": "Drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Always: Sunset on Third Street (ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日) is a 2005 Toho drama directed by Takashi Yamazaki, adapted from Ryōhei Saigan's manga, set in 1958 Tokyo; it won 12 Japan Academy Outstanding Prizes including Best Picture and spawned 2007 and 2012 sequels.", "snippet": "Always: Sunset on Third Street (ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日) is a 2005 Toho drama directed by Takashi Yamazaki, adapted from Ryōhei Saigan's manga, set in 1958 Tokyo; it won 12 Japan Academy Outstanding Prizes including Best Picture and spawned 2007 and 2012 sequels.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2000-2005", "markdown": "# Always: Sunset on Third Street (ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日)\n\n**Always: Sunset on Third Street** (*ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日*, Always San-chōme no Yūhi) is a 2005 Japanese drama film directed by Takashi Yamazaki, adapted from Ryōhei Saigan's long-running manga *Sanchōme no Yūhi*, that follows the residents of a working-class Tokyo neighborhood in 1958 as the country rebuilds after the war[1](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/). Released by Toho on November 5, 2005, it became a major popular success and dominated the 29th Japan Academy Prize, winning twelve Outstanding Prizes including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay[1](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/) • [2](https://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=29). It launched a trilogy, followed by *[Always: Sunset on Third Street 2](https://www.edgepedia.org/always-sunset-on-third-street-2)* (2007) and *[Always: Sunset on Third Street '64](https://www.edgepedia.org/always-sunset-on-third-street-64)* (2012)[3](https://entertainment.iid.co.jp/always-sanchome-no-yuhi-delivery/).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日 (Always San-chōme no Yūhi)[1](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/) |\n| Release | November 5, 2005, Toho; 132 minutes (some databases list 133)[1](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/) • [4](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=36803) • [5](https://jfdb.jp/title/390) |\n| Setting | Shōwa 33 (1958), the fictional shitamachi district of Yūhi-chō Third Street, with Tokyo Tower under construction[1](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/) |\n| Source | Manga *Sanchōme no Yūhi* by Ryōhei Saigan, serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic Original[6](https://www.vap.co.jp/always/intro/) |\n| Principal cast | Hidetaka Yoshioka, Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Koyuki, Maki Horikita, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Tomokazu Miura[7](https://nd.jpf.go.jp/events/event/always-sunset-on-third-street/) |\n| Japan Academy Prize | 12 Outstanding Prizes at the 29th ceremony, including Best Picture, Director (Yamazaki), and Screenplay (Yamazaki and Ryota Kosawa)[2](https://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=29) |\n| Series box office | The three films earned a combined 11.2 billion yen[8](https://www.show-hey-cinema.com/library/5e157a5dbd16fed77998ba70/5fe2de7c1f86066d0e0a9179.pdf) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and characters\n\nThe film is set in the spring of Shōwa 33 (1958) in Yūhi-chō Third Street, a downtown Tokyo neighborhood within sight of the half-built [Tokyo Tower](https://www.edgepedia.org/tokyo-tower)[1](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/). Mutsuko Hoshino (Maki Horikita) arrives by the group-employment scheme that brought young workers from the provinces to the city, expecting a job at a large firm, and is disappointed to find herself living and working at Suzuki Auto, a small car-repair shop run by the short-tempered but family-minded Norifumi Suzuki (Shin'ichi Tsutsumi), his gentle wife Tomoe ([Hiroko Yakushimaru](https://www.edgepedia.org/hiroko-yakushimaru)), and their schoolboy son Ippei (Kazuki Koshimizu)[1](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/) • [7](https://nd.jpf.go.jp/events/event/always-sunset-on-third-street/).\n\nAcross the street, the candy-shop owner Chagawa Ryunosuke (Hidetaka Yoshioka), a third-rate pulp writer, is talked into taking in Junnosuke (Kenta Suga), an orphaned boy, at the request of Hiromi ([Koyuki](https://www.edgepedia.org/koyuki)), the proprietress of a small drinking bar for whom he harbors feelings[1](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/). When Chagawa learns that Junnosuke is a devoted fan of his serialized boys' adventure story *Shōnen Bōkendan*, his reluctance softens[1](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/). The neighborhood ensemble also includes the doctor Shiro Takuma (Tomokazu Miura) and the shopkeeper Ota Kin (Masako Motai)[7](https://nd.jpf.go.jp/events/event/always-sunset-on-third-street/).\n\nThe film is an ensemble piece rather than a single-protagonist story, and its drama is built from the intersecting daily lives of these households against a backdrop of rapid change: the arrival of the \"three sacred treasures\" of the era, television, refrigerator, and washing machine, and the rising tower that marks the passage of months[9](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/review/).\n\n### Interpretation\n\nCommentators have read the film as a central example of the [Shōwa nostalgia](https://www.edgepedia.org/showa-nostalgia) that circulated in late Heisei Japan[20](https://tufs.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2000710/files/dt-ko-0348_en.pdf). The Japan Foundation's program notes argue that its view of the 1950s is nostalgic without being an attempt to return to the past: ROBOT invested heavily in computer graphics to reproduce realistic images of 1950s Tokyo, but the film's point is less a realistic depiction of the period than a fantasy the audience can immerse itself in[7](https://nd.jpf.go.jp/events/event/always-sunset-on-third-street/). The Academy's own synopsis frames the setting the same way: an era neither as convenient nor as wealthy as the present, in which people pressed forward dreaming of the century to come[2](https://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=29).\n\n## Production and visual effects\n\n**Yamazaki's dual role.** Takashi Yamazaki, born in 1964 in [Nagano Prefecture](https://www.edgepedia.org/nagano-prefecture), came to directing from a visual-effects background: after joining the CG production Shirogumi he worked as an SFX adviser on numerous Japanese films, debuted as a director with *Juvenile* (2000), and directed *[Returner](https://www.edgepedia.org/returner)* (2002) before this film[10](https://news.mynavi.jp/techplus/article/20080526-yamazaki_vfx/). On *Always* he served as director, co-screenwriter with Ryota Kosawa, and VFX supervisor simultaneously[6](https://www.vap.co.jp/always/intro/). The production company was ROBOT, and the film was financed by a consortium including Nippon Television, Shogakukan, VAP, Toho, Dentsu, Yomiuri TV, the [Yomiuri Shimbun](https://www.edgepedia.org/yomiuri-shimbun), Shirogumi, and Imagica[4](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=36803).\n\nThe film's signature achievement was its reconstruction of 1950s Tokyo. The production combined an elaborate full-scale set built at Toho's studios with miniatures and computer graphics to recreate the streets, the Tokyo streetcar, Ueno Station, the [C62 steam locomotive](https://www.edgepedia.org/jnr-class-c62), and Tokyo Tower rising over the neighborhood[9](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/review/) • [11](https://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/vm/2024d40/2f0b2a6f07adfcb721c1834519ea4d5efa7d2035.pdf). Yamazaki described the result as a time machine, saying in press conferences that the film was like traveling to 1950s Japan to shoot there[11](https://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/vm/2024d40/2f0b2a6f07adfcb721c1834519ea4d5efa7d2035.pdf). In interviews he explained that he planned each scene's technique, live action, miniature, or CG, early through rough CG previsualization, and that he deliberately built real ground surfaces for actors to walk on so that the CG would not betray itself at the point where feet meet pavement[10](https://news.mynavi.jp/techplus/article/20080526-yamazaki_vfx/).\n\nYamazaki later said the film expanded his sense of what VFX could do: with the period streets and the gradually completing Tokyo Tower recreated convincingly, he concluded that cinema could carry an audience to any era, past or future[12](https://serai.jp/hobby/1163802).\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nThe film was received as both a commercial and critical event. It won the Best Picture award at the 30th Hōchi Film Award, with supporting-acting awards for Tsutsumi and Yakushimaru, and took the Ishihara Yujiro Award and supporting-acting prizes at the 18th Nikkan Sports Film Awards[1](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/). Kinema Junpo's 2005 Best Ten ranked it second among Japanese films while its reader poll placed it first[6](https://www.vap.co.jp/always/intro/). At the 29th Japan Academy Prize ceremony on March 3, 2006, it received the Excellence Award and the Outstanding Prize for Best Picture, with Yamazaki winning Best Director and the Yamazaki–Kosawa script winning Best Screenplay, and Yoshioka Hidetaka taking the lead-actor prize[2](https://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=29). A scholarly account in Kansai University's sociology journal describes the film as sweeping that year's Japan Academy Prize and as greatly raising public interest in the Shōwa period, particularly the 1950s[13](https://kansai-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/9416/files/KU-1100-20070330-03.pdf).\n\nAudience response has remained strong. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 90% audience score on the Popcornmeter from more than 250 ratings[14](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/always_sunset_on_third_street), and on the Japanese service Filmarks the series' second installment carries a 3.8 average from over 44,000 user reviews[15](https://filmarks.com/movies/34915). A 2024 survey on films that convey family love ranked *Always: Sunset on Third Street* first, ahead of *Home Alone* and the *Tora-san* series[16](https://www.atpress.ne.jp/releases/557230/att_557230_1.pdf).\n\n## The trilogy\n\nThe film spawned two sequels directed by Yamazaki with the same cast and crew. *Always: Sunset on Third Street 2* (*ALWAYS 続・三丁目の夕日*) opened on November 3, 2007, set four months after the first film with Tokyo Tower now complete, and critics noted that its meticulously recreated Shōwa 30s streetscape carried over the first film's worldview without a break[17](https://eiga.com/movie/34056/critic/). Its opening features a CG Godzilla destroying the Shōwa streetscape, a sequence Yamazaki said was a major part of his motivation for making the sequel[10](https://news.mynavi.jp/techplus/article/20080526-yamazaki_vfx/).\n\nThe third film, *Always: Sunset on Third Street '64*, opened on January 21, 2012, set five years later in [Shōwa 39](https://www.edgepedia.org/1964) (1964), the year of the Tokyo Olympics, with an original story that departs from the manga and was presented as the trilogy's conclusion[18](https://eiga.com/movie/55987/critic/). It was released in stereoscopic 3D, with Shirogumi introducing a color-management system for the production[19](https://www.eizo.co.jp/solutions/solution/creative/SHIROGUMI_INC.pdf). Across the three films the series earned a combined 11.2 billion yen at the Japanese box office[8](https://www.show-hey-cinema.com/library/5e157a5dbd16fed77998ba70/5fe2de7c1f86066d0e0a9179.pdf).\n\n## References\n\n1. [ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日 : 作品情報・キャスト・あらすじ, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/)\n2. [第29回日本アカデミー賞, 日本アカデミー賞公式サイト](https://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/prizes/?t=29)\n3. [ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日の配信はどこ？全3作の見る順とサブスク, IID Entertainment](https://entertainment.iid.co.jp/always-sanchome-no-yuhi-delivery/)\n4. [ＡＬＷＡＹＳ　三丁目の夕日 - 作品情報・映画レビュー, KINENOTE](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=36803)\n5. [ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日, JFDB](https://jfdb.jp/title/390)\n6. [作品情報 | ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日, VAP](https://www.vap.co.jp/always/intro/)\n7. [Always – Sunset on Third Street, The Japan Foundation, New Delhi](https://nd.jpf.go.jp/events/event/always-sunset-on-third-street/)\n8. [桜の季節, 映画図書館資料](https://www.show-hey-cinema.com/library/5e157a5dbd16fed77998ba70/5fe2de7c1f86066d0e0a9179.pdf)\n9. [ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日 : レビュー・感想・評価, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/41221/review/)\n10. [昭和34年の日本をVFXで再現『ALWAYS続・三丁目の夕日』- 山崎貴監督に訊く, TECH+](https://news.mynavi.jp/techplus/article/20080526-yamazaki_vfx/)\n11. [Ritsumeikan University oral history transcript on Japanese animation and VFX](https://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/vm/2024d40/2f0b2a6f07adfcb721c1834519ea4d5efa7d2035.pdf)\n12. [〖インタビュー〗山崎 貴「この世にないものをＶＦＸで創り出す」, サライ.jp](https://serai.jp/hobby/1163802)\n13. [関西大学「社会学部紀要」第38巻第3号 (2007)](https://kansai-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/9416/files/KU-1100-20070330-03.pdf)\n14. [Always: Sunset on Third Street, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/always_sunset_on_third_street)\n15. [ALWAYS続・三丁目の夕日 - 映画情報・レビュー・評価, Filmarks映画](https://filmarks.com/movies/34915)\n16. [家族愛を感じる映画ランキング, アットプレス](https://www.atpress.ne.jp/releases/557230/att_557230_1.pdf)\n17. [ALWAYS 続・三丁目の夕日 : 映画評論・批評, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/34056/critic/)\n18. [ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日'64 : 映画評論・批評, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/55987/critic/)\n19. [白組『ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日'64』制作チームが認めた, 株式会社映像情報誌](https://www.eizo.co.jp/solutions/solution/creative/SHIROGUMI_INC.pdf)\n20. [Always Sanchōme no Yūhi '64, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies repository](https://tufs.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2000710/files/dt-ko-0348_en.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Biographical and historical drama films 2000s › Released 2000 to 2005*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/always-sunset-on-third-street", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/always-sunset-on-third-street.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Always: Sunset on Third Street (ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/always-sunset-on-third-street. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Always: Sunset on Third Street (ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日)](https://www.edgepedia.org/always-sunset-on-third-street)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/always-sunset-on-third-street](https://www.edgepedia.org/always-sunset-on-third-street). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Always: Sunset on Third Street (ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/always-sunset-on-third-street. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Always: Sunset on Third Street is a 2005 Toho drama directed by Takashi Yamazaki, adapted from Ryōhei Saigan's manga, set in 1958 Tokyo; it won 12 Japan Academy Outstanding Prizes including Best Picture and spawned 2007 and 2012 sequels." }