Masana Hirabuki

The story of a teenage boy called Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while operating for the sake of sin as an upskirt photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing - which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian - dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with the guilt that's a legacy of his Catholic upbringing.

A novelist Rihito Shiraishi meets Saki Honda, a somewhat eccentric woman, and he is attracted to her. Triggered by Saki's suicidal attempt and reading her diary, Shiraishi recognizes that their encounter was not a coincidence. United by an airplane accident, they start to face their true selves eventually, influencing one another.

Miyoshi City, Hiroshima Prefecture. The junior high school boy with a zeal for finding fossils discovers the history of his hometown and experiences the changes around him. This is an ambitious work that depicts the land and time by blending various drama and documentary footage.

The story begins with a little boy named Syui, a cheerful child who is focussed on going to a museum with his father. Unbeknownst to him, when he returns home, his mother and sister will be gone as his parents have decided to separate. We get a glimpse of what happens to Syui and his family during this period. In his latest film, FUJIKAWA Fumito (The Name of the Whale (2015), winner of the Audience Award at the 2015 Pia Film Festival) presents a dramamentary shot in the suburbs of Tokyo with a real-life family of four acting out the split. With no script to work from and naturalistic performances from the Hirabuki family based on their everyday lives, FUJIKAWA and his non-professional cast give us an honest snapshot of contemporary city life in Japan in a light but absorbing experience.