Writing
After already conquering hundreds of planets, the Great Star League Gozma sets its sights onto Earth. To defend the lands in such a great crisis, the military begins a special branch known as the Earth Defense Force, comprised of elite members from all areas of the military. Under the supervision of Commander Ibuki, the numerous gathered soldiers of the Earth Defense Force begin a harsh training.
Four women in their thirties reevaluate their relationships, both shared and private, after a startling revelation concerning one's marriage forces each of them to ask one of life's biggest questions: "Am I who I want to be?"
Keito Myose (Yuya Yagira) and Yuichi Saeki (Masato Yano) were involved in a horrible case when they were young. They are now all grown up, but still suffering from that incident. At night, Keito and Yuichi meet again. A woman who is an acquaintance of Keito is killed in Keito's room. While the police investigates, a detective tells him "... you know Yuichi Saeki is a suspect and is on the country's most wanted list..."
Antonym is a slow-burning drama about human connection, told through the story of two women who come together to write a radio drama. Vain and self-centred Aya is forced to find a writing partner to work on the radio script she is developing. Heavily reluctant to collaborate, she partners shy co-worker Sachiko, who eagerly embraces the project. Peppered with coincidental occurrences and failed relationships, and powered by the friction and growing friendship between the women as they work on the script, Antonym is as much about the inevitability of human connection as it is about the necessity of it.
In an audacious reworking of the biopic, this ensemble drama sees jazz pianist Minami Hiroshi’s memoir cleverly reinterpreted into a surreal and playful story about chasing dreams, disillusionment and the inner lives of professional artists. Closer to playing two sides of the same coin than tackling a dual role, Ikematsu Sosuke embodies two versions of Minami – the naïve upstart and the jaded pro – who magically cross paths as they become entangled with a cast of colourful characters in the seedy alleyways and jazz clubs of Ginza over a single night.
After his parents die, a teenager goes to live with his older brother. As his loneliness grows, he becomes engrossed in practicing modern dance with his classmate.
Satsuki lost her boyfriend, Hitoshi, in a car accident. Unable to face up to his death, she spends her days unable to sleep properly. At some point, Satsuki began to jog at dawn as part of her daily routine, and on a bridge she always passes, she meets a mysterious woman named Urara.
Aki and Naoko are childhood friends who are drifting apart as adults. Immersed in her family life, Naoko now has a husband and daughter; Aki, on the other hand, remains single and is on leave from work due to a personal crisis. The plot might sound familiar but it has never been told like this. The director Kusano Natsuka stages the interactions through an actors’ table-read and, as the lines are repeated, the scenes gradually develop into on-location conversations. Moreover, she repositions the dramatic peak of the story to the beginning: Aki has murdered Naoko’s daughter.
23th installment in Broadway's "Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi" series.
