The work of the late novelist Yasushi Sato, who took his own life in 1990, has been enjoying a minor cinematic renaissance over the past decade. Starting with Kazuyoshi Kumakiri¡¯s ¡°Sketches of Kaitan City¡± in 2010, the author¡¯s stories have spawned four films to date.

Mipo Oh¡¯s superb ¡°The Light Shines Only There¡± and Nobuhiro Yamashita¡¯s less convincing ¡°Over the Fence¡± completed the so-called Hakodate trilogy of tales set in the author¡¯s Hokkaido hometown. The latest addition, ¡°And Your Bird Can Sing,¡± is actually based on a 1982 novel about Tokyo suburbanites, but writer-director Sho Miyake¡¯s adaptation relocates it to present-day Hakodate ¡ª albeit a version of the city where the residents speak like they¡¯ve arrived fresh from the capital.

The unnamed protagonist (Tasuku Emoto), listed simply as ¡°Boku¡± (¡°Me¡°) in the film¡¯s credits, works at a bookstore while sharing an apartment ¡ª and bunk bed ¡ª with his unemployed pal, Shizuo (Shota Sometani). They¡¯re not the most dynamic of duos: After missing a shift and getting scolded by his boss, ¡°Boku¡± makes a date later in the evening with co-worker Sachiko (Shizuka Ishibashi), only to oversleep and end up drinking until dawn with his roommate instead.