Yo Hitoto

Troubled high school student Makoto arrives in Tokyo to exact revenge from a past incident. He then falls in love at first sight with Ai, a daughter raised in a wholesome family. Around Makoto and Ai are Iwashimizu, who has feelings for Ai and Gamuko, a gang member who eyes Makoto.

In a distinctly contemporary Tokyo that looks backwards to the city’s disappearing past, Yoko is a writer investigating the life of a modernist composer of the 1930s. She is pregnant by a man she does not want to marry and has found a kindred spirit in a used bookstore owner who aids her research.

Yasutake Shingo is a newspaper reporter whose only redeeming feature is his earnestness. He meets Matsunaga Chie, who attends a music college, and they start dating. Each day becomes all the more bright and enjoyable for Shingo because of the lively Chie. She loves to laugh, sing and eat. After one and a half years, Chie is employed as a music teacher. One day, Shingo is informed that Chie has breast cancer. After thinking about it, he decides to share a lifetime with her and proposes. His proposal gives her the courage to undergo surgery which she had been mulling over. One day, Chie starts to teach 5-year-old Hana the “important things in life” such as laundry, cleaning and cooking. She thinks that even if she is no longer around, her daughter and husband will be able to live.

While researching a story on a school for problem children, Nakahara meets Emi, a college volunteer with a compelling tale of her own. After overcoming her initial reluctance to open up to the writer, Emi talks about her busted leg and her childhood friendship with the chronically ill Yuka.

The film is based on the true story of Yoichi Hatta (1886-1942), a civil engineer who traveled to Japanese-ruled Taiwan in 1910 to build a complex irrigation system in the barren southwest. Hatta manages to overcome the initial doubts of local farmers, but a tragic tunnel accident eventually halts the project and shakes his confidence.

Sakura Kiyose (Riru Yoshina), a high school student in the art club, wants to go to Tokyo to study at an art college, but her mother Tamaki (Yo Hitoto), who does not expect her daughter to leave home, does not listen… Sakura's father, Koichi (Kanji Tsuda) returns home after a long absence. Sakura and Tamaki, looking forward to Koichi’s return, spend time together as a family, but they end up arguing as they discuss their future plans. In contrast, Koichi wants to respect his daughter’s wishes. Tamaki tries to one-sidedly express her own feelings and finally kicks Koichi out of the house. Just at the awkward mother-daughter relationship, Sakura receives a call that Tamaki has collapsed at work! Sakura anonymously posts her feelings that she can’t tell anyone on social media and seeks solace in a stray cat she meets by chance.

A young man is sent from Japan to Taiwan in order to get his disenfranchised brother to sign away his inheritance rights.