Nitaboh

Nitaboh

A boy named Nitaroh loses his sight to sickness, and what's left of his mother is a shamisen. A blind musician passing through town shows him how the strings work, and something in the kid locks in. He practices until his fingers know the neck better than his eyes ever knew the world. Then the road opens up. Friends come and go, some stay, and the music he's chasing doesn't fit the polite styles anyone taught him. He's pushing toward a sound of his own, and the people who guard the old ways aren't thrilled about a blind upstart rewriting what the shamisen is supposed to do. What does it cost a man to hear a song nobody else can, and keep playing it anyway?