Ryosuke Otani

Shinichiro Hanasaki, a former detective with the police department, is currently engaged in running a nursery called “Smiling Garden.” He wishes to help poorer families and single parents by offering very low fees for childcare, but this leaves the nursery struggling financially. To replenish the budget, Shinichiro decides to open a private detective agency at night.

The Japanese 38th South Pole research expedition team are at the Dome base. Located 1,000 km away from the main Showa base at an altitude of 3,800 m, it is called the most inhospitable place on earth with an average temperature of -54 deg Celsius. No living thing or even a virus can survive in such an environment. Three of the seven-member expedition team are researchers and the remaining four are support personnel. However, they are common men who have to live together in the confined space of the Dome base for one year.

Two historical incidents that deepened the friendship between Japan and Turkey are connected in this story of friendship and compassion: In the night of 16 September 1890 the Turkish frigate Ertuğrul is caught up in a typhoon and sinks off the Japanese coast. Risking their own lives, local villagers are able to rescue 69 Turkish sailors. Although being very poor and having hardly to eat, the villagers share what little they have with strangers from a country 9,000 kilometers away. 95 years later, during the Iran-Iraq War, more than 300 Japanese are stranded in Tehran. In the morning of 19 March 1985 a Turkish Airlines aircraft takes off for Tehran to evacuate the Japanese. But the remaining Turks at Tehran Mehrabad Airport still need to be convinced that they won't be able to board their own country's rescue flight.

Work life for Shunsuke Osaki has been success after success, but at some point his family began to slip by the wayside. As his elderly father begins to show signs of dementia, Shunsuke takes the family on a trip in a desperate attempt to pull them together before it is too late. Director Mitsutoshi Tanaka's adaptation of Masashi Sada's short story of the same name received the awards for Best Director, Best Actress and Best Music at the 1st Asia International Film Festival in Taipei.

Reiko, a child guidance worker, tries to persuade Misaki, who is pregnant, to stop drinking. Since her first child was born intellectually disabled, Misaki is determined to stop and goes to see an obstetrician, and is prescribed an unapproved drug to curb her alcoholism.