Acting
Jake Kimble, the sole survivor of the Chicago massacre, is killed while in solitary confinement. His doctor begins investigating the claims he made about a long-haired woman in white, as a mysterious Japanese woman arrives at his old apartment building to help them get rid of the curse.
Eguchi Yosuke plays the character of Onishi Katsuo, a 35-year-old carpenter and former college football player who sees life almost in the same balance as a football game (guts and glory along with team spirit). One day he learns that his friend (a college football teammate) was killed when his house burned down. His friend's wife is in a coma and his four kids are now homeless, Eguchi has the children live with him (in his one room apartment) above his bosses home.
In the year 2060, KEN, a 25-year-old young man raised by aliens living illegally on Earth, makes a living by selling dubious drugs, idolizing Carl Gotch as a god. One day, he is caught cheating on his drug sales and becomes the target of a gang. However, it turns out that KEN's ID is forged and alien, and he is deported back to the planet where he was raised. There, KEN encounters many unusual phenomena.
Hirayama Koichi and his wife Michiko eloped from Osaka to Okinawa, where they lived happily with their five children. When war erupts, their eldest son is drafted into the Imperial army. As fighting spreads, the family takes refuge far from the city, but soon, child after child is drafted to serve in various branches of the military and in organizations supporting the war cause. Koichi himself is faced with a moral dilemma when he is ordered to kill a wounded American soldier.
In the pressure-cooker of opening night, a Japanese playwright struggles with his aging, arrogant actor father for control of the play and their relationship.
The Winter Butterfly is a story about passion and love, depicting Matsunaga a samurai, as a corrupt oppressor rather than a hero. With the emergence of a new system during the Meiji period, many things changed in Japan for the sake of progress. The story told in four parts is related to the seasons of the year, which can be scorching, amenable, cold or unpredictable. All evoked by Stephen Warbeck's beautiful and sensitive score.
