Sumie Kaneko

The Wayside Pebble is an effective drama about the hardships of a childhood spent with a brusque, cold-hearted father and a submissive mother. The year is 1910 and the place is a small Japanese village. Goichi is suffering because he wants to go to school, but his family is too poor to afford that luxury. Even when a kind friend agrees to help out, Goichi's father refuses to give in to his son's request for an education. Instead, he sends Goichi off to work as an indentured servant for a cold-hearted merchant and his family. As tragedy strikes and the suffering of the young boy increases, he begins to look for some way out of his bleak situation.

Third part in Tadashi Sawashima's Theater of Life trilogy.

Centered on a pencil-loss incident at an elementary school, this story gently and quietly portrays the beauty of children’s innocent hearts.

1963 Toei film

A yakuza is released from prison after serving a long sentence. He immediately sets about creating a new gang and attempts to pull off a huge ransom score.

Ben and his girlfriend are catapulted into a bizarre, small town funeral for his uncle, Randy Todd. At the service, Ben is thrown to the wolves when he is forced to referee between Randy's two feuding families.