The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2023
Sotetsu's one-shot film ages a father and daughter 12 years — ADFEST Grande
To celebrate its new line into Tokyo, Sotetsu cast 50 lookalike actors as one father and daughter, aging them 12 years in a single uncut train ride.
Sotetsu Holdings
What it had to solve
Sotetsu, a Kanagawa railway operating since 1917, opened a direct through-service to central Tokyo in March 2023 via a connection with the Tokyu Line — a long-awaited dream since its founding. It needed a launch film that made the milestone feel personal.
How it works
In March 2023 Sotetsu — a private railway serving Kanagawa since 1917 — finally connected directly to central Tokyo by joining the Tokyu Line, a goal it had chased since its founding. To celebrate, it released 'A Train of Memories' (父と娘の風景), a launch film that never shows a map or a timetable.
The film follows a father and daughter over 12 years as they commute to work and school on the same Sotetsu train. Shot in one take, it ages them seamlessly through 50 lookalike actors — 25 fathers and 25 daughters, led by Odagiri Joe and Sakurazaka46's Ten Yamazaki — with 3DCG recreations of the line's trains and stations. In the last scene the father gets off at their usual station, but the daughter continues on the new through-line to her university in Tokyo.
The film won the ADFEST 2024 Film Craft Grand Prix plus nine more ADFEST awards, Spikes Asia Film Gold, and Cannes Lions Gold for production craft. It turned an infrastructure announcement into a widely shared story about growing up and leaving home.
Why it lands
- The new line was the payoff of the story: the daughter's ride into Tokyo in the final shot is the through-service itself, so the product is the emotional climax.
- The one-shot, 50-actor time lapse made 12 years watchable in minutes and gave the film a craft talking point worth sharing.
- Family, not railway, was the frame — a commuter train became the setting where a relationship quietly changes, making a corporate milestone feel universal.
- Real rolling stock and stations, rebuilt in 3DCG, gave train enthusiasts authenticity while keeping the aging illusion seamless.
What it did
The film won the ADFEST 2024 Film Craft Grand Prix and nine further ADFEST awards, Spikes Asia Film Gold, and a Cannes Lions Gold for production — and turned a railway opening into an emotional story about a child leaving home.
What you can take
A functional milestone is really a people story: add an emotional arc and one astonishing craft feat — 12 years aged in a single shot — and the film out-carries any map or timetable.
Since then
The film collected awards through 2023–2024: Epica Grand Prix, Cannes, Clio, D&AD, One Show, ADC, Ciclope and MAD STARS honors on top of ADFEST and Spikes. It circulated on Sotetsu's official YouTube and special site from March 2023, and the campaign became a reference example of 'breakthrough in production' in award annuals, frequently cited for its casting and one-shot filmmaking.
Sources
- A Train of Memories — HAKUHODO work page
- A Train of Memories — D&AD Annual 2024
- オダギリジョー＆櫻坂46・山崎天が父娘役で初共演 相鉄東急直通線開業記念ムービー公開
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