Hiroshi Matsui

With a contagious sense of abandon, three young adults' lives become intimately entangled over the course of a long summer in Hakodate, Hokkaido.

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.

In a small cockpit-like room, we see two young hip hop musicians from Tokyo giving birth to a beat: precision, patience and camaraderie hold sway, midway between an installation and sitcom.

A Garden in Winter is about Alexandra, who owns a garden where someone builds a shed to spend the night. At first, she’s bothered, but then she starts helping with the shed for someone she never met but appreciates.