Yoshimoto Creative Agency

There is a series of Buddha statue thefts in Kyoto. Beniko, a high school girl, gets the Buddha statue at her family's temple stolen and has her parents killed at the same time. She needs to know what caused the death of a parents and dreams of revenge. She goes on a fantastical journey to ultimately face the demon. The entire film is produced by hand drawing all the gods 'manifesto animation' or 'gekimation' based on the amazing hand drawings.

Two men, a freeter (played by Shusuke Fukutoku) and a man who used to be a non-combat solider (played by Junpei Goto), becomes involved in a cruel crime.

In suburban Tokyo in 1945, years of war and concentrated air raids by US forces have left the city in tatters and the population poor, tired, and hungry. The 19-year-old Satoko and her mother bide their time working nominal jobs and trying to stave off hunger. A displaced aunt turns up looking for shelter, but she is just another hungry mouth to feed. Satoko is becoming a woman and is drawn to the only eligible man in the neighborhood. This is a decidedly quiet film that focuses on a single character and her survival in dire circumstances in the spring of her life.

Years after she related to him the story of her parents’ death in a fire, for which – rightly or wrongly – she feels responsible, Japanese psychiatrist Dr. Sanada meets his former patient Azusa once again. Back then, she lambasted him for being wrong for the job. Back then, he let slip that she isn’t actually crazy. Now she’s a prostitute living in precarious circumstances in Los Angeles and is accused of murder, with her memories once again moving inexorably towards a fire. Sanada assesses her in the presence of an investigator who appears not to understand Japanese. Is Azusa now mentally ill for real? Was she back then? And why does the description of her tormentors upset him so?

Tōko works as a shrine maiden. Her days are full of joy, as she would be called out by the village people to play or sometimes simply savor time with nothing spectacular to do. One day, Tōko finds out that the village festival which she has been waiting for with great anticipation will be cancelled due to an old superstition. Tōko, who wants to make the festival happen, starts preparations against the advice of the villagers. Events unfold in an unexpected direction when she meets a strange little girl by the lake.

A visibly pregnant Yuko returns home to find her family still grappling with the recent passing of her mother, Emiko, while her father becomes increasingly withdrawn and her older brother hopelessly combative.