Thorn and Sugar

棘と蜜

🇹🇭 Thailand · 2026 · Short Film

Lisa Mifune was once a star — a hit lead role, commercial deals lined up at her door. Then a scandal broke, and she lost everything. Now she scrapes by doing care work, a ghost of who she used to be. Enter Ito Hirata, a young actress just starting out. "Your acting still shines," she tells Lisa — the only person to say so since the world moved on. Ito gives Lisa the words she could never say to herself. "Talent doesn't answer to sin." "In Japan, your past follows you everywhere. Start over somewhere else." The things Lisa was too proud or too broken to believe, Ito says them like they're obvious. At first, Lisa was the one in control. The older woman, the mentor, the one who kissed first. But somewhere along the way, the balance shifted. Lisa can no longer believe in her own worth without Ito's voice telling her it's real. One pricks with thorns. The other binds with sweetness. Which is which — even they can't tell.