Soyoko Sonoda (Mei Furusawa) lives alone with her quadriplegic and blind father, Tamotsu (Hidemasa Mase), who suffers from retinopathy. At 19 years old, Soyoko dreams of pursuing art studies but is unable to due to her caregiving responsibilities and financial constraints. She repeatedly applies for welfare assistance, knowing that their current situation is unsustainable. However, her applications are persistently denied due to gatekeeping tactics.&nbsp;Additionally, Soyoko exhibits symptoms of ADHD, including inattention and hyperactivity, making it challenging for her to adapt to society. One night, Tamotsu cries out in distress. Due to his remaining sexual function, Tamotsu occasionally experiences discomfort, and Soyoko, unable to bear seeing him suffer, assists him in ejaculation—a grim and unspoken agreement between the two. A few days later, despite the insufficient welfare services available, Soyoko is dealt another blow when their trusted and kind veteran caregiver, Taguchi (Asuka Kurosawa), is reassigned. In her place, a new caregiver, Sato Kiritani (Rei Ogawa), is introduced. A newcomer to the role, Sato struggles with selective mutism. Feeling anxious and worried, Soyoko continues her part-time job at the dried fish factory, where she struggles to fit in, while attempting once again to apply for welfare assistance.&nbsp;Soyoko is informed by her caseworker, Endo (Masahiro Umeda), that he will be conducting a home visit. However, Endo unexpectedly arrives much earlier than the scheduled date, catching Soyoko off guard. Endo discovers Soyoko’s hidden savings of 500,000 yen during the visit and demands sexual favors in exchange for keeping it secret and approving her welfare application. When Soyoko refuses, Endo forcibly assaults her.Devastated and in a state of shock, Soyoko becomes a hollow shell of herself, abandoning her caregiving duties and skipping her part-time job. In her absence, Sato takes on the caregiving responsibilities alone. One day, Soyoko tries to return to work but finds herself unable to feel motivated. Instead, she wanders to a nearby seaside, seeking an escape. By evening, she returns home, only to witness a horrifying scene: her father forcing Sato to perform a hand job on him. Consumed by rage, Soyoko impulsively tries to strangle her father, but Sato intervenes and manages to stop her. At that moment, Endo arrives at the house with welfare paperwork. Unable to contain her pent-up emotions any longer, Soyoko grabs a kitchen knife and approaches Endo, driven by desperation and fury...

English

Soyoko  爽子の衝動

Voice of the River   川面に聴く

Four musicians and two shrimps live in the lonely boy's ear, playing and dancing in response to his tears. As appreciation, he shook his cookie tin with the objects he collected inside. The boy grew up and learned to control his tears...As an adult, the boy became a salesman, fascinated by a bird brooch found in a Japanese American internment camp that he saw on the TV news, he sets off again on a journey to collect lonely voices.This is a literary VR, written by Akutagawa Award-winning author Yoko Ogawa, directed by Academy Award-nominated artist Koji Yamamura, and produced by Kodansha VR Lab.

My Inner Ear Quartet  耳に棲むもの

Mamiko, an interpreter, hopelessly romantic, leaves home Tokyo to the hospital just as usual. Usually, she interprets for elderly patients. But today, when she enters one of the rooms in the general hospital, she sees her today's client, Eugene, a mysteriously handsome young man from America, standing. Mamiko immediately fascinated Eugene. He has sincerity and quiet strength. Mamiko feels a flutter in her heart and enjoys this out of the ordinary moment with Eugene. Then, while Mamiko interprets a meeting between Eugene and a social worker, Mamiko learns Eugene's secret.

Ain't It Pretty to Think So ～ そうだったって思ったら素敵じゃない ～

When the actress Ryo is immersed in memories of her late boyfriend, Teru, a letter arrives. It appears to be a continuation of the novel he had been writing before his death. As she reads, Ryo is pulled into that world and is reunited with Teru.Yet when she wakes the next morning, the letter has vanished—and the events she experienced are now written in Teru’s notebook. As these uncanny days repeat, the boundary between the letter’s world and reality grows increasingly thin.Before he died, Teru once said, “Writing is like placing memories in a treasure chest and burying it.” Determined to move forward, Ryo resolves to carry on his story. 役者のリョウが、彼女の亡くなった恋人テルとの思い出に浸っていると一通の手紙が届く。それは物書きだった彼が生前書いていた小説の続きのようだった。手紙を読み進めるうちに彼女はその世界に引き込まれ、テルとの再会を果たす。しかし翌朝目覚めると手紙は消えており、リョウが体験した出来事がテルのノートに記されていた。こうした奇妙な日々が繰り返される中で、彼女は次第に手紙の世界と現実の境目が薄れていくように感じる。生前、テルは「物を書くことは、記憶を宝箱に入れて埋葬するようなものだ」と語っていた。リョウは彼の物語を書き継ぐことで、前へ進む決意を固めるのだった。

23:07

After losing her sister in a tragic accident, Korean teen, Youngwon Park is admitted into a foreign exchange student program by her parents with hopes of reforming her into an ideal daughter. Landing in a small, Midwestern U.S. town, Youngwon finds herself at a trailer park living under the roof of her heavy-handed host mom named George. George requires Youngwon to abide by stringent rules and a never-ending list of grueling chores. No white picket fence. No television. No Statue of Liberty. No land of the free.Cut off from the rest of the world, Youngwon bonds with Keiko - a Japanese exchange student also living in this mobile hell home. Together, they must learn to communicate in order to protect each other from George’s wrath. This is a story of connection and survival. While under George’s delusion of the perfect family, how much can these girls endure in order to achieve their American Dreams? Warning: Strong Language

Parachutes

Young people pursuing their dreams live in the shared house Mebuki. A reclusive horror novel writer struggles with writing because of the extreme heat. She tries to devise a solution together with rather eccentric housemates. 夢を追う若者が集う「シェアハウス芽吹荘」。引きこもりのホラー小説家・霧山桐子は、猛暑のせいで筆が進まず苦しんでいる。桐子は住人たちと協力して暑さを解決しようと考えるが、ルームメイトはくせ者ばかりで…… 。&nbsp;&nbsp;

Summer at Shared House Mebuki    シェアハウス芽吹荘の夏

Bridal photographer Makoto Aira lost his father to illness. However, even after the funeral, he struggled to come to terms with his emotions. Two years later, he is given the opportunity to photograph the funeral of his friend’s father. As he prepares to face this “new funeral,” he revisits his father’s online funeral venue. There, he comes across messages from people who knew his father in the past and discovers a side of him he had never seen before. To mourn once more, he gazes at his father’s portrait in the virtual space, reflecting on his life and legacy.

Interfuit  それはかつてあったから

Set in the future shortly after singularity has happened, this is a story of a woman's decision in a world where the "scenario" has come to present optimal solutions. シンギュラリティを越えて間もない未来。「scenario」によって最適解が提示されるようになった世界で起きる、ある女性の決断の物語。

Scenario

In October 2023, Tommaso, a young photographer living in Tokyo, traveled to Noto Peninsula for a photo project. Tommaso is struck by the beauty of this place and promises himself to return. However, two months after his trip, the Noto Peninsula was hit by an earthquake of magnitude 7.5. The effects are devastating. Tommaso is worried, and along with a filmmaker friend, he wants to return to Noto to document what happened. The two friends meet Adriana, an Italian cooking teacher, who is organizing a volunteer activity in Noto. They decide on the spot to participate in her project. Soon, however, they realize that it is a very different experience from what they expected. Between insomnia, soups, devastation, tears, but also great laughter, the two friends return to Tokyo changed. Adriana and the people of Noto have led them to reassess the priorities of their own lives. 2023年10月、イタリア人写真家トマゾは能登半島を訪れ、美しさに感銘を受けた。しかし、2ヶ月後、能登で震度7の地震が起きた。大きな被害に心を痛めたトマゾは、友人と共に再訪を決めた。偶然、彼らは能登でのボランティア活動を計画中のイタリア料理講師と出会い、彼女の活動に参加することを決めた。しかし、想像とは大きく異なる体験が待ち受けていた。不眠、パスタ、事件、崩壊、涙、そして笑い。能登で出会った人々は、彼らの価値観を見直すきっかけを与えた。

Flowers of Noto  能登の花

Chris has an elder brother Mike, who is about to make his debut as a professional singer.&nbsp;Once they both aimed to debut as a duo professionally, but it did not happen due to the decision of the record company.&nbsp;Chris, however, continued to write songs for his brother to support his solo debut. But Chris was killed by an accident, making the grieving Mike unable to sing and putting his debut in doubt.&nbsp;What appeared to mourning Mike was... 青年クリスには、歌手デビューを目前に控える兄・マイクがいる。かつては共に歌い手としてデビューを目指した時期もあったが、レコード会社の事情により、クリスのデビューの夢は叶わなかった。クリスは未練を引きずらず、曲作りで兄を支え、共に夢を追う日々を送っていた。そんなある日、不慮の事故でクリスは、この世を去ってしまう。歌を歌えなくなるほど深い喪失感に囚われてしまった兄のマイク。そんな彼の前に現れたのは.....

Sing with me

Mari heads to Hanoi, Vietnam, while pregnant, to take a new step in her life. She wants to finalize her divorce from her wandering husband, Kaiji. Mari wanders around Hanoi, using a postcard from Kaiji as a clue. Will Mari, who doesn't speak English, be able to find Kaiji and get him to sign the divorce papers? 人生の新しい一歩を踏み出す為、放蕩夫のカイジと離婚を成立させたいマリは、カイジからの一枚の絵葉書を手掛かりに、身籠った身体でベトナムのハノイに向かう。英語も話せないマリは、カイジに辿り着き、離婚届にサインをさせることができるのか？

Lotus-Finding Goodbye 　ロータス、さよならを探して

Six-year-old Mako picked rape blossoms and gave them to her favorite grandmother, Miyo. The smell of the rape blossoms reminded Grandma Miyo of Sato-saa, a blind female she met shortly after the end of the war. Satosaa was a blind female goze (blind female travelling entertainer) who came to Miyo-chan's village in spring and lived off the rice she received. Before the spread of television, once a year she would come to the village to perform shamisen music and songs, which was an irreplaceable source of joy for the people. The culture of goze (blind women), who left their parents to undergo rigorous training as blind girls, is a benevolent culture that remained in Niigata Prefecture until the 1970s. The picture book “Goze-sa no Haru” was adapted into a film by Rena Masuyama, daughter of the author Yoshiko Masuyama, as part of a cultural assistance project by Niigata Prefecture in 2024. Naoko Kayamori, who was taught by Haru Kobayashi, the last blind female goze, played the role of the goze master, while Rieko Hirosawa, Kayamori's pupil and a blind blind blind female goze singer, played the role of Satosaa in her own image. The songs of that time remain deep in the recesses of her 70-year old grandmother. （ストーリー）6歳になるマコちゃんは、大好きなみよおばあちゃんに、菜の花を摘んで渡した。菜の花の香りを嗅いだみよばあちゃんは、戦後間もないころ、であった瞽女さのサトさあを思い出す。サトさあは、春になるとみよちゃんの村にやってきて、お米をもらうなどして暮らしていた盲目の女性旅芸人、瞽女だった。テレビが広まる前、一年に一度村で三味線演奏や唄を披露してくれる瞽女の存在は、人々にとってかけがえのない喜びだった。 目が見えない少女時代に親元を別れて厳しい修行をしていた瞽女文化は、1970年代まで新潟県に残っていた慈悲深い文化だ。令和6年新潟県文化補助事業として絵本「瞽女さの春」を原作者ますやまよしこの娘、増山麗奈が映像化。最後の瞽女小林ハルさんに指導を受けた萱森直子が瞽女の親方役を演じ、萱森の弟子であり盲目の瞽女唄うたいの広沢里枝子がサトさあ役を自身の姿に重ね熱演した。その時の唄が、７０過ぎたみよばあちゃんの奥深くに残っている。

Spring of Goze  瞽女さの春

Two Japanese sisters live separate lives abroad—one pursuing her career in Thailand, the other working as a journalist in Korea. When they reunite at a Mrs. Pageant in Bangkok after years of distance, old tensions resurface. Beneath the glamour of the event, unspoken regrets and diverging paths unfold. Through unexpected encounters with the other contestants, the sisters begin to confront their past, their differences, and the unbreakable bond they still share.Set in the vibrant yet tender rhythms of Bangkok, The Pageant is a quietly powerful story of reconciliation, rediscovery, and the complexity of family. 異国の地で別々の人生を歩む日本人姉妹。タイで働く妹と、韓国でジャーナリストとして生きる姉。長く離れていた二人が、バンコクで開かれるミセス・コンテスト「The Pageant」で再会する。価値観の違い、家族とのわだかまり、心の奥に抱えてきた迷い——。華やかな舞台の裏側で、姉妹は他の女性たちと出会い、それぞれの思いに触れながら、少しずつ心を通わせていく。 南国の光と陰を映し出す、家族と再生の物語。

The Pageant

“Broken &amp; Beautiful,” a new short documentary produced and directed by Wavecrest Films, chronicles the journey of Sandy and Lonnie Phillips, whose lives were shattered by the shooting death of their daughter and then rebuilt stronger than ever over the period of a dozen years. The documentary uses the metaphor of kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken items with gold to create something even more beautiful and resilient. Both in life and art, kintsugi teaches that brokenness is not the end, but rather an opportunity to rebuild with strength, beauty, and meaning.

Broken Beautiful  金継ぎ

Emi's mother, Meiko, lives in Hiroshima and Meiko was a survivor of the atomic bombing. Meiko was exposed to the atomic bomb in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and walked around Hiroshima searching for her father. During this time, she met some "&nbsp;Special Exchange Students from Southeast Asia " who were studying at a university in Hiroshima at the time. With their help, Meiko tried to survive This work depicts the fate of the students and Meiko, using Emi's drawings of her mother'sexperiences and an interview with Meiko herself 広島に住むエミの母は広島で被爆した明子（めいこ）である。明子は1945年8月6日、広島で原爆に遭い、広島市内を父を探して歩き続けた。そんなとき、当時、東南アジアから広島の大学に留学していた「南方特別留学生」に会う。彼らと協力しながら明子は生き延びようとした。エミが母の体験を描いた絵と明子自身のインタビューを交え、留学生達と明子の運命を描く作品。

MEIKO 明子

When Kanna, the main character of the story, was 5 years old, her father (Yoshio) suddenly passed away due to an unexpected accident. The daughter (Kanna), who had promised to play catch at the park that day, is at a loss.Time passes endlessly, but 14 years later, Yoshio　successfully wins the grand lottery held every year in heaven.　I have a chance to return to earth to accomplish what I left unfinished in this world for just one day...　Will Yoshio be able to fulfill his promise to Kanna? 物語の主人公である環奈が5才の時に父親 (良雄) が突然不慮の事故で帰らぬ人になってしまう。 その日公園でキャッチボールをする約束をしていた娘（環奈）は途方に暮れる。無常にも月日が流れていくが･･･14年後、 天国で毎年開催される大抽選会に良雄は見事当選し、1日だけ現世でやり残したことを達成するために地上に戻れるチャンスがやってきた・・・。良雄は果たして環奈との約束を果たすことができるのか?

Throwing Words, Catching Hearts あの日のキャッチボール

In Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, two fifteen-year-old students—Hikaru and Saki—are in love. But after the nuclear accident, Hikaru’s family evacuated to Niigata, so that the couple was separated. Thirteen years later, now 28, they live their own lives in Tokyo and Iwaki. They reunite at the photo studio of Hikaru’s father. Though they still care for each other, Hikaru, who left his hometown, and Saki, who decided to stay there, struggle to connect. Hikaru is tormented by the irretrievable loss of 13 years. But when he discovers a photograph, he comes to understand why his father fought so hard to keep the studio running and confronts his regrets. Now, as an illustrator in Tokyo, Hikaru begins to heal Saki’s heart by drawing the “shutter chance”—the happiness she missed photographing during the past 13 years. He then renovates his father’s old studio into an atelier, aiming for the revitalization of Iwaki. There, the photos they missed are displayed. What path will they choose from here?

Shutter Chance

Mitsuki (24), who lives in Kobe and has trouble socializing works from home five days a week.She moved from Tokyo a year ago. She doesn't talk to anyone outside of work,and doesn't have the opportunity to meet people face-to-face except when she goes out to buy food,so she doesn't know anyone in the neighborhood since she came to Kobe. One day, by chance, Mitsuki visits a nearby cafe. The cafe is frequented by regulars,varying from middle school students who are not going to school,and seniors who are killing time because they have nowhere else to go. In this cafe, where individuals with their own struggles naturally come to gather,Mitsuki discovers a place of belonging for herself beyond her own room. 人付き合いの苦手な美月(24)は、神戸に引っ越してきて1年になるが、在宅勤務をしていて、対面で人と話すことがほとんどない生活を送っている。そんなある日、近所のカフェに立ち寄った美月は、不登校の中学生や一人暮らしのシニアの常連に出会う。様々な事情を抱える人が自然と集まるこのカフェで、美月は新たな居場所を見つける。

Ajisai Cafe: A Place Where I can be　　わたしの居場所

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We will schedule on Sep. 1-14 2025 on-demand and theater screenings.  Venue: The Japan Foundation LA,  Hang On To The Dream Theater,  JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles  & OAA , New Gardena Hotel, Newport Beach Higashi Honganji

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