»Family gives me the clearest idea of human bonds. […] My parents were living separately before my mother gave birth to me, and divorced when I was one and a half years old. I was raised by my aunt’s family. […] My aunt didn‘t have a child, so she and her husband took care of me like their real daughter. And I was adopted by them when I was in the fourth grade, and I officially took their surname: Kawase.«
– Naomi Kawase

When Naomi Kawase went to stay with her foster parents, they were already 65 years old. Her adoptive father died when she was 14 years old. Following that, she lived alone with her adoptive mother Uno Kawase. It is a relationship theme she has frequently returned to in her films. In Chiri, she accompanies Uno until her death at the age of 95. Chiri is a farewell film, which tells of the horrors of death without inching from the pain. Once again, Naomi Kawase has brilliantly explored the vulnerability of human existence.