Uchu Imagawa

When a rookie actor is cast alongside a charming former classmate, he struggles to separate his on-set performance from his true feelings.

Tamon is an awkward 50-year-old rakugo comedian with no popularity, respect, or ambition. He struggles by, taking care of his father, who can no longer perform rakugo due to his steadily worsening dementia, and who does nothing but badmouths Tamon and calls him a disappointment. Kiko, a young female manzai comedian, ends up writing a skit based on one of Tamon's original stories she finds a recording of from her mother's cupboard. Kiko approaches Tamon initially for permission, then for advice. Tamon also reunites with his former girlfriend, Kiko's mother, and eventually ends up finding his passion in life and his art again.

Selected for NHK's Shunji Iwai's MOVIE Lab.

When a rookie actor is cast alongside a charming former classmate, he struggles to separate his on-set performance from his true feelings.