Sinsin and the Mouse
A quiet grief story that doesn't announce itself
Sinsin and the Mouse follows Chizumi, a young Japanese woman still raw from her mother's death, who accepts a friend's invitation to visit Taipei—less as a vacation, more as an escape. What she finds there isn't closure. She meets Sinsin, a young local man whose presence begins to matter to her in ways neither of them fully anticipates, and the film traces their time together through unfamiliar streets and conversations that don't resolve anything neatly but somehow shift something inside you anyway. It's not a love story in the conventional sense. It's quieter than that—a film about what it feels like to carry grief through a city you don't know, and finding, against all odds, a small reason to keep going.
Released: 26 June 2026 (Japan) | World premiere: Glasgow Film Festival, 6 March 2026 | Runtime: 108 minutes | Rating: G | Also known as: Sense of Loss
Where to watch right now
The film is available on major streaming services following its theatrical run in Japan. Availability varies by region—use Movie OTT's where-to-watch tracker to find exactly where you can stream it today in your country. The widget updates automatically as new platforms confirm the title, so you're not hunting through five different apps to find it.
The source material and who made it
This one comes from Banana Yoshimoto, the Japanese author who built a reputation writing about loneliness and tentative human connection with surgical precision. Her short story—drawn from the collection Mittens and Pity—has that unmistakable Yoshimoto quality: no overselling the emotional stakes, just people circling each other carefully.
Director Yukinori Makabe and co-writer Noriko Kato adapted it, and the thing worth noting is that Makabe has festival ties (Glasgow Film Festival circuit), which is where Sinsin and the Mouse premiered on 6 March 2026. This is a Japan-Taiwan co-production—Robot Communications and Flash Forward Entertainment produced it—and that kind of cross-border indie film requires real industry alignment to happen.
The cast and performances
Yukino Kishii plays Chizumi, the grieving woman at the center. Her job isn't to be simply sad. Fresh grief is more disorienting than that—prone to sudden laughter, to distraction, to the kind of emotional whiplash that doesn't photograph easily. She's navigating Taipei's unfamiliar rhythms while carrying that internal weight, and festival coverage suggests that's where the film finds its most honest moments.
Tseng Jing-hua has the harder role. Sinsin needs to feel like a real presence without becoming a symbol of healing. That's a tonal line that's genuinely difficult to walk, and hard to say if every scene lands—but the festival response suggests the central performances hold.
Supporting cast: Kisetsu Fujiwara, Seina Nakata, Tokio Emoto, and Kayo Ise on the Japanese side; Lin Chen-Hsi, Angel Lee, and Lin Mei-Jen for the Taipei setting. It's an ensemble that earns its keep without stealing focus.
What the early reviews say
Mixed-to-warm. Screen Daily called it a "verbose, meandering two-hander"—which is fair, and also, depending on your tolerance for that pacing, might be exactly what you're looking for. Other festival coverage leaned into its tenderness, its willingness to let scenes breathe without forcing resolution.
What's striking is this: the central setup—two people who don't share a language or a city, circling each other carefully—is one that could tip into precious indie-film territory so easily. The fact that it apparently doesn't (at least not entirely) says something about what Makabe and his cast are doing.
This is a G-rated film about grief and romantic connection that doesn't seem to be softening either subject. It's just approaching them with restraint rather than melodrama. Rarer than it sounds.
Who should watch this
If you're drawn to slow-burn stories about people finding each other in unfamiliar places—and if Banana Yoshimoto's name means anything to you—this belongs on your list. It won't work for everyone (patience required), but for audiences who respond to restraint over spectacle, to a film that trusts its performers rather than pushing for easy catharsis, it's the kind of quiet discovery that makes festival cinema worth following.
First-time watching Yoshimoto adaptations? Start here. The pacing trains your eye for what she does best—the space between words matters more than what's said.
Check Movie OTT's international streaming chart as availability expands across territories. The film's rolling out gradually, so this week's options in your region might differ from next month's.
FAQ
Q: Where can I actually watch this?
Major OTT services have it now. Your exact options depend on your region. Movie OTT's where-to-watch widget at the top of this page shows what's available to you right now—updated daily as new platforms confirm the title.
Q: Is it really based on a Banana Yoshimoto story?
Yes. The short story comes from her collection Mittens and Pity. Yukinori Makabe directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Noriko Kato.
Q: Who's in it?
Yukino Kishii (Chizumi) and Tseng Jing-hua (Sinsin) carry the film. Kisetsu Fujiwara, Seina Nakata, Tokio Emoto, and Kayo Ise in supporting roles.
Q: When did it come out?
World premiere: Glasgow Film Festival, 6 March 2026. Japanese theatrical release: 26 June 2026, distributed by Culture Publishers.
Q: Is this a movie I can watch with kids?
It's rated G, so technically yes. But at 108 minutes, with themes of grief and loss, it'll probably land harder with adult viewers. There's nothing graphic—it's just emotionally focused.
Q: How long is it?
108 minutes.
