Final Rating: 3/5
Set in Okinawa, Purehearted, directed by Kaoru Haga, tells the story of a young woman determined to produce local rum. Based loosely on true events, the film is an uplifting story of people from all walks of life coming together to celebrate their home.
Purehearted stars Sairi Ito as Majimu, a contract worker at a venture capital firm, and daughter of a tofu maker. After a long day at work, Majimu is blown away when she tries Agricole rum for the first time at a local pub. She’s shocked to learn that the main ingredient in rum is sugarcane, one of Okinawa’s main crops, and yet no distillers in Okinawa produce rum. Majimu immediately sets to work learning all she can about rum production and submits a business proposal at her firm to create the first Okinawan rum business.
At the core of Purehearted is the delicate balance between pushing a community forward and robbing it of its identity. Majimu’s goal is to make a rum that is Okinawan, which to her requires pulling together locals for every step of the process. Her partners, however, are more than willing to stretch the definition to simply “a rum made in Okinawa,” or “a rum made with Okinawan sugarcane.” Majimu fights tooth and nail to avoid hiring a renowned Tokyo distiller, a move which puts her at odds with her senior coworker Keiko (Kavka Shishido).
Majimu sees herself as a champion of her community, but in proposing such a large change to local industry, others naturally see her as an outsider. As she fears her idea of “Okinawan rum” being watered down to meaninglessness, the farmers fear “Okinawan rum” encroaching on their established sugar industry. Majimu’s insistence on using sugarcane from a small island with several sugarcane plantations comes across to the island’s farmers as a city girl telling them how to do their jobs.
As Majimu, Ito is warm and determined. It’s delightful to see her get in over her head and regularly exceed others’ expectations of her. Early on, she’s berated by her co-workers, her grandmother, and the more senior farmers on the island, but by the end she’s proven herself a competent CEO with an exciting vision. Ito’s performance is fun, but frictionless. Purehearted is a film with relatively low stakes, but even so, Majimu rarely feels challenged by her environment. The script certainly gives her journey ups and downs, but Ito performs Majimu as someone who weathers adversity so effortlessly it hardly feels adverse at all.
The supporting cast has decent chemistry with Ito and each other, though several suffer from being underwritten. The major exception is Keiko, Majimu’s cynical coworker, who serves as something of an antagonist, despite ostensibly being on Majimu’s team. Shishido is cold as Keiko, contrasting Ito’s warmth when the two are together. The actresses have great chemistry, really selling how scary Keiko is to Majimu, despite being only a few years her senior.
Purehearted’s themes of community and local pride are universal, even if the setting of introducing rum production to Okinawa is quite specific. The film isn’t an especially deep exploration of those themes, but it’s charming, nevertheless.
Purehearted was seen during the 2026 Toronto Japanese Film Festival
