Asian Drama

A young couple, namely an art student named Yumi and acting club member Naoya, is in a pinch. They noticed that Yumi is unexpectedly pregnant, and they don't know what they will do in the future.

The past and the present go back and forth, and an emotional gradation that is close to the heart, creating a love movie as if we are peeking through the lives of the couple.

Sawada Kyoka works as a yoga instructor. Her mother died two years ago and she moved in with her father Sawada Rintaro afterwards. Sawada Rintaro works as a Japanese language scholar. His only interest now is in the study of the Japanese language. After his wife died, his life seems to have no energy.

Sawada Kyoka gets into arguments with her father Sawada Rintaro constantly and she is also burdened with taking care of him. Sawada Kyoka wants to have a life where she can focus on herself. Due to everything around her, Sawada Kyoka doesn't care about getting married. But, one day, Sawada Rintaro finds a divorce document among his late wife's belongings. This pushes Sawada Rintaro into wanting to remarry. He also pushes his daughter Sawada Kyoka to find a marriage partner. The father and daughter begin to look for a person to marry. At this time, Sawada Kyoka meets Higashimura Seita, who is single father with a 7-year-old son.

An Kazutaka (Emoto Tasuku) is a young, bashful psychiatrist whose jazz piano skills are as good as a pro. He also has a love for records and books. He searches for his place in the world in his youth. But when he meets the cheerful Shuko (Ono Machiko), who becomes his wife, he finally feels at peace with himself. Right after they have their first child, the Great Hanshin Earthquake strikes. Although his family is affected by the disaster, he begins to search for what he can do as a psychiatrist. As he listens to the stories of disaster victims, he realises that he can help not by treating them, but restoring their capacity to heal. Later on, he compiles his observations of the disaster-hit area as a psychiatrist into a book, and wins a prize for social sciences. He sees this as a positive sign. However, one day when he is 39, he discovers that he has cancer.

Onda Kokoro is an oncologist called Dr Onkoro for short by the people around her and teased that she was born for this path. She got married to Takumi, whom she had known since she was a student, and they had a son. Life was going smoothly for her. But three months ago, her husband fell in an accident and remained unconsciousness even though he underwent emergency surgery. Although Kokoro puts on a brave face at work, she still has not been able to accept reality. One day, she meets Kajiyama Kaoru, a competent gastroenterologist who has transferred to work at the hospital. Kaoru understands the need for oncology as a surgeon and gives emotional support with her sunny personality as a colleague. She becomes a dear friend whom Kokoro feels is sudden a ray of light in her personal and professional life…

Shohei is now retired from his job as a middle school principal. On his 70th birthday, he tells his wife Yoko, first daughter Mari and second daughter Fumi that he has Alzheimer's disease. First daughter Mari is a housewife with a husband and a child. Second daughter Fum is still single and she agonizes over her life. The three women are embarrassed for Shohei who is losing his memory. One day, Fumi, Mari and Yoko realize that Shohei still holds onto fond memories which they have already forgotten.

After suffering from a shoulder injury, shy first-year university student Haruki Bandou gladly takes the opportunity to give up judo, failing to find happiness in the sport regardless of his family owning a dojo. However, he did not expect that his best friend Kazuma Hashimoto would also decide to leave their university's judo club at the same time as him. Despite Haruki's protests, Kazuma already has plans for a new and revolutionary activity: a cheerleading team made up of only men. Although heavily reluctant, Haruki ends up helping his friend set up the team. Through sheer determination, and with support from their newfound club members, Haruki and Kazuma persist in founding the Breakers, the first-ever all-male cheerleading team of Meishiin University, slowly making history in spite of the feminine tag attached to the sport of cheerleading and the prejudices, physical challenges, and self-doubts that inevitably follow.

Higashiyama Yui works as a director at Net Heroes, a web production company. Due to her workaholic father and bad experiences in the past, she loathes working overtime. Even 2 years ago, she broke off her engagement to Taneda Kotaro because he was a workaholic. At her job, Higashiyama Yui always leaves at the end of the regular working day and never works overtime. She tries to be efficient as possible and productive during her normal working hours. After she leaves her office, Higashiyama Yui normally drinks beer at her regular Chinese restaurant. Her peaceful days begin to change after a new department head arrives at work.

Higashiyama Yui works as a director at Net Heroes, a web production company. Due to her workaholic father and bad experiences in the past, she loathes working overtime. Even 2 years ago, she broke off her engagement to Taneda Kotaro because he was a workaholic. At her job, Higashiyama Yui always leaves at the end of the regular working day and never works overtime. She tries to be efficient as possible and productive during her normal working hours. After she leaves her office, Higashiyama Yui normally drinks beer at her regular Chinese restaurant. Her peaceful days begin to change after a new department head arrives at work.

It is a youthful love comedy where Yuto Kurashima encounters varied people and becomes mature step by step. Yuto Kurashima, played by Ryota Katayose, is a young magazine writer who often visits a coin laundry in Tokyo. Yuto Kurashima (Ryota Katayose), a magazine writer who cannot make any progress, goes to a coin laundry like he does every day. There, he meets a trainee photographer named Kotone Terazaka (Kurumi Shimizu) who just came to Tokyo. Terasaka is being too overfamiliar with Kurashima. Then a "laundry fairy" appears in front of them.

The story follows seven friends and how a few stay back in their hometown Maebashi, while others go to Tokyo to pursue their dreams.

Yoshitaka Niimi works at the editorial department for a major publishing company. He is good at his job. The Chief Editor Ryuhei Kashiwazaki assigns him to work at the fashion magazine Pipin.

On his first day at Pipin, he is shocked at the different environment. The female staff seem rather unusual and then there's the appearance of the fashion models!

17-year-old Aoi came to Yui Obstetrics and Gynecology clinic as a part-time nurse apprentice in Summer 1997. Right after her entry, she is shocked after witnessing an abortion surgery. However, she also met staff members like Yui, the head of the clinic who is careful about everything, Sayako, a reliable and experienced nurse, and Sakaki, the gentle head nurse, who face each pregnant patient and support them after surgeries. Fumika, Aoi's mother, is worried about her clumsy nature and poor communication skills, but Aoi's unique compassion and kindness draws patients' hearts. "I wonder what's life..." Aoi matures while looking at the newborn babies' overwhelming life and asking herself that question.

The 95th NHK Asadora is about Sumire, a girl born in the uptown of Kobe in the early Showa period. In the wake of wartime devastation, she works hard toward making children's clothes for a living, and later establishes a first-ever children's goods store in Japan. -- NHK

On 9 August (Showa 20) 1945, one streetcar starts to run on the streets of Hiroshima which has been devastated. The surviving employees of the electric tram company had begun recovery work since the day after the atomic bomb was dropped. The bent tracks were hammered down and the overhead wires were set up again. A mere three days after the bombing, they manage to resume service on a section of the route. The drivers are young girls in their mid-teens who work while studying at the company’s girls school for home economics. Working in place of the males who have gone off to war, they are crew of the streetcar and even in charge of driving. 16-year-old Amada Toyoko (Kuroshima Yuina) is one of them. Born in a farming village in the outskirts of Hiroshima, Toyoko had heard that she could study while working, and came to Hiroshima. She was driving during the morning shift on the day that the atomic bomb was dropped, but miraculously survived although she was thrown out of the streetcar. Now she stands at the driver’s seat with her head wrapped in a bandage. The car is filled with people who are going in search of family members. Everyone clings to hope and stares ahead. Then the end of the war greets them. The streetcar continues to run on the streets of Hiroshima which has lost everything.

“Once the streetcar runs, Hiroshima will come to life again!” Matsuura Akitaka (Abe Hiroshi), the head of the electric tram company’s electrical section and a widower with three children, is tasked with restoring the main routes within one month. The streetcar which travels the forlorn streets becomes the hope of Hiroshima before anyone realises it.

"Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo" tells the story of two high school students who crosses social boundaries between the elite and lower class at their school. Ryoya Maeda, from the lower class, is a member of the film club, while Hiroki Kikuchi, from the elite class, is a non-participating member of the high school baseball team.

* Movie is based on the novel "Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo" by Ryo Asai (first published February, 2010).

* Ryo Asai's original novel "Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo" is an omnibus story telling the stories of numerous characters. The movie "Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo" focuses on two characters from the novel Ryoya Maeda & Hiroki Kikuchi.

* Filming takes place in Kochi City, Japan.