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Majime (Ryuhei Matsuda) is, by all accounts, a word person. Physically clumsy and socially awkward, he only truly feels at home within the rules and confines of lexicography. After struggling in the sales division of the Genbu Books publishing company, he manages to land his dream job in the Dictionary Editorial Department, where he can use his talents to compile a new dictionary, called "The Great Passage." Partnering with Majime is a callow young man (Joe Odagiri) who is slow to develop an appreciation for the challenging task ahead. Majimes love of language, however, leaves him speechless when he meets Kaguya (Aoi Miyazaki), his landlady's granddaughter, who moves into his building and beguiles him with her obsession with cooking knives and fine cuisine. Majime soon finds that the words he has studied his whole life are inadequate to express his true feelings for Kaguya. Meanwhile, complications begin piling up as the dictionary department descends into chaos. Rising Japanese director Yuya Ishii sets this gentle dramatic comedy in the 1990s, well before the Wild West attitude of Google and Wikipedia. THE GREAT PASSAGE is a kindhearted tribute to a time when the written word still contained an element of magic and romance.
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