General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Be With You (いま、会いにゆきます) (2004 film)

Be With You (いま、会いにゆきます, Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu) is a 2004 Japanese romantic fantasy film directed by Nobuhiro Doi (土井裕泰), adapted from Takuji Ichikawa's (市川拓司) bestselling novel of the same name. It stars Yuko Takeuchi (竹内結子) as Mio, a wife who returns to her husband and young son during the rainy season, one year after her death, and Shido Nakamura (中村獅童) as the husband Takumi.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Japanese release	October 30, 2004, distributed by Toho³
Director	Nobuhiro Doi, a television drama director making his feature film debut⁴
Source	Takuji Ichikawa's novel Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu (Shogakukan), which had passed 450,000 copies sold by the time of the film's release²^•⁵
Screenplay	Yoshikazu Okada (岡田惠和)³
Cast	Yuko Takeuchi as Mio, Shido Nakamura as Takumi, Akashi Takei (武井証) as their son Yuji¹
Running time	118 minutes per the Japanese Film Database; 119 minutes per eiga.com, allcinema, and Kinenote¹^•³^•⁶
Theme song	"Hana" by ORANGE RANGE²

Spoilers

Plot

A year after Mio's death, her husband Takumi and their six-year-old son Yuji each carry private guilt: Takumi believes he failed to make his wife happy, and Yuji believes his birth shortened her life. Mio had left behind a picture book she made herself, with the words "I will come back in the rainy season." When the rainy season arrives, she appears to them in a forest, alive, but having lost all memory of her life before.³^•⁴

Takumi and Yuji take her in, and the three resume their family life. Takumi retells the story of how they met and fell in love, and the two fall in love a second time, while Yuji delights in a second chance to know his mother. As the six weeks of the rainy season draw to a close, it becomes clear that Mio must leave again when the season ends.⁴^•⁶

The film's ending reinterprets the story through Mio's diary. Takumi learns that while she was hovering between life and death after a traffic accident during her university years, Mio experienced a jump into the future: she lived the married life with Takumi, learned that marrying him and bearing Yuji would mean her early death, and chose that marriage anyway. The six weeks of her return confirm to Takumi and Yuji that she had been happy.³

Production

The film was produced by a committee centered on TBS and Toho, with Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Shogakukan, S.D.P., and MBS among the participating companies.²^•⁷ Doi Nobuhiro came to the film from a run of hit TBS dramas including Beautiful Life and GOOD LUCK!!, and Be With You was his first theatrical feature.⁴^•⁸ The screenplay was adapted by Yoshikazu Okada, the cinematography was by Shibanushi Takahide, the music by Suguru Matsutani (松谷卓), and the art direction by Yohei Taneda (種田陽平).¹^•⁷

Takeuchi, previously known for the hit Yomigaeri, played a mother for the first time in this film; Nakamura, a kabuki actor, played the husband.⁸ The supporting cast includes Mikako Ichikawa as Takumi's colleague Midori, Katsuo Nakamura as his boss, Fumiyo Kohinata as a doctor, and Suzuki Matsuo as a cake shop owner.⁹

Reception

The film was a commercial success in Japan.⁴ WOWOW's program notes describe it as a hit that "made all of Japan cry," and note that ORANGE RANGE's theme song "Hana" also became a hit at the time of release.¹⁰ On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 92% Popcornmeter score from more than 5,000 audience ratings.¹¹ On Filmarks, a Japanese review aggregator, it carries a 3.7 average from about 58,000 user reviews.¹²

Legacy and remake

The film is remembered as one of the representative Japanese pure-love (純愛) films of the 2000s, and Ichikawa's novel was later adapted again in South Korea with So Ji-sub and Son Ye-jin in the lead roles.¹²^•¹³ Doi later directed the 2025 film Hiraba no Tsuki, reuniting with the same production lineage.¹

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026