Slow Learner

8 short stories comprise this anthology movie, based on the Tales of Terror TV series. The segments are, in order: The Night Watchman (directed by Akio Yoshida), Wisps of Smoke (Kosuke Suzuki), Gloves (Hirohisa Sasaki), The Weight (Kosuke Suzuki), Full-Length Mirror (Ryuta Miyake), Line of Sight (Keisuke Toyoshima), The Promise (Keita Amemiya) and Hisao (Shun'ichi Hirano).

After learning her boyfriend and colleague was already in a relationship and about to marry another colleague, Takako quits her job and falls into a slump. Her uncle, Satoru, offers her a job and room in his used bookstore in Jinbocho. Despite her initial lack of interest, Takako is slowly drawn into the world of books through contact with the customers who frequent the store.

During a suicide attack on an airport, the hand grenade of 'M', one of three terrorists, malfunctions, leaving him captured. Exposed to maltreatment in prison, he slowly loses his grip on reality as he is forced to confront his ideological convictions.

The bittersweet events in the lives of people in Hakodate, a regional city connected by a streetcar network. A laid-off man and his younger sister go up a mountain to see the first sunrise of the year. Meanwhile, Haruo has inherited his family's gas business, but things aren't going well in his new endeavor and he becomes increasingly frustrated.

From the late 1950s through the '70s, more than 90,000 of the ethnic Koreans in Japan emigrated to North Korea, a country that promised them affluence, justice, and an end to discrimination. KAZOKU NO KUNI tells the story of one of their number, who returns for just a short period. For the first time in 25 years, Sonho is reunited with his family in Tokyo after being allowed to undergo an operation there. Sonho’s younger sister Rie is at the centre of the film, and is not hard to recognise as the director’s alter-ego. In her documentaries DEAR PYONGYANG and SONA, THE OTHER MYSELF, Yang Yonghi told the story of her own life, and how, at age six, she experienced the departure of her three older brothers, who left their family for Pyongyang.

The story, set in the heady post-war 50s into the early 60s , revolves around a love triangle between Tomoko, long playing the mistress to married older writer Shitto and the new stud who comes into her life, Ryota Kinoshita. Tomoko is sick and tired of her relationship with writer Shingo, who is married and has children. Shingo is a talented writer, but has yet to be recognized by the public. Tomoko then enters into a sexual relationship with younger man Ryota Kinoshita, but Tomoko is not satisfied.

Mari is exhausted by life in the city and opens up a shop selling snow cones in the small town of Nishiizu where she grew up. The simple flavors of her cold desserts soothe the emotional wounds of her customers and Mari comes to terms with herself by spending time with a young woman with a scarred face.