Acting
Keiko surprises everyone when she overcomes adversity to win her first two boxing fights. But when an unexpected incident threatens the closure of her gym, she is pushed further than she thought possible.
With a contagious sense of abandon, three young adults' lives become intimately entangled over the course of a long summer in Hakodate, Hokkaido.
In summer, Nagisa and Natsuo meet by the sea. Their vacant gazes reflect each other as they exchange awkward words and wade into the rain-drenched ocean. In winter, Li, a screenwriter, travels to a snow-covered village. There, she finds a guesthouse run by Benzo.
Set in snow-covered Hokkaido, each moment of three high school boy's life is captured in rough monochrome. Three high school boys on the verge of graduating from high school start working at a security guard company owned by an older student in their hometown. In an attempt to get away from the frantic pace of life, they learn how to drive a car in order to be useful in their work, but...
At the beginning of the 19th century, Japan was under a policy of national isolation. A group of Dutch scholars who wanted to open the country secretly completed a copy of a map of Japan under shogunate control. They sent a young Dutch scholar, Michi-an, as a secret envoy to deliver the copy of the map to the Dutch. Michi-an, hiding himself and making his way through the deserted winter mountains, but the mountain guardians, led by Takayama, had begun hunting in the mountains with a description of Michi-an's appearance arranged by the shogunate.
Takaya and Sakura have been living in the same apartment splitting the rent. But Sakura wants to move out of there as soon as possible. In addition, Takaya was recently fired from his part-time job, so Sakura has to work harder, even more when Takaya is not motivated to do anything.
Young novelist Haruhiko, along with his girlfriend Ririko, are having lunch with his cousin Yoko as she talks about an important night from three years ago. We cut to: Jiro visits a bar run by Akira and Yoko and reunites after a long absence. Akira and Jiro are best friends since college. Yoko and Akira are now married, but Yoko had a relationship with Jiro in her past. The three friends are excited to be reunited, but at the same time, there is a sense of tension. Yoko and Jiro disappeared while Akira was in the bathroom. Two people burning up under the overpass. Akira catches them in the act... Haruhiko begins writing a novel based on these three people. Ririko tries to stop Haruhiko from sinking into Yoko excessively, but the world of novels has an unexpected ending...
This is the question posited by director Nakamura Yutaro at the start of his latest film, a series of vignettes that bleed into each other. Memories? dreams? Whatever they are, they belong to highschooler Hikari who, along with a friend named Yujiro, get involved with an emotionally unstable man named Takaya. Flash-forward a decade or so and they are all 20-somethings bumbling around on New Year’s Eve night. Hikari has picked up an admirer, Kotaro, while Takaya is shacked up with a young woman named Anzu. A tumultuous night together leads to a quarrel and a truly bizarre New Year’s Day. It’s not a straightforward experience as we surf through these experiences and question whether they are imagined but the feeling of airy freedom and endless possibilities at the end is pleasant.
