A Sparkle of Life

Three factory workers in the countryside lead ordinary lives, marked by the melancholy of everyday life and by small, meaningful gestures. A slice-of-life film about the beauty and sadness in the most inconspicuous moments.

Shota came to Tokyo to become an actor but has a side hustle in petty crime. On a trip back to his hometown in Wakayama he meets Takara, who is being assaulted by her father just sprung from prison. Soon they pair up and hit the road to escape.

Shigeo Tokioka (Tetsu Watanabe), a lonely man who has lost his wife, sees a three-line ad for a club in the newspaper that reads, "Tea drinking friends wanted". Mana Sasaki (Rei Okamoto) along with a group of youngsters runs the club, which is actually a prostitution business specializing in arranging appointments for call girls who are over sixty-five years old. A socially-conscious ensemble drama inspired by the news of an actual 2013 prostitution club bust involving the elderly. Directed and written by Sotoyama Bunji, who made his feature film debut with Sansan.

Taro, an elementary school student, uses the fact that there are no new coronavirus cases in town as an excuse to take off his mask and play around. However, his friends are hospitalized one after another, and eventually his favorite grandmother is taken away by men in protective suits.

A collection of short films by director Bunji Sotoyama. This unique trilogy—Call My Name, Haru Urara, and Forget-me-not—is set around the concept of "a corner of light in Tokyo, 2025."

Yamano Aoi, a seventeen year old high school girl, decides to take on her mentally ill father’s sushi restaurant. Adults around her are startled by her decision and tell her it is impossible for a woman to be a sushi chef. She then reunites with her old baseball coach Shoukichi Umeda. On one snowy night, Aoi challenges Shoukichi to a baseball match. This match shines a light of hope to Aoi’s “wasabi” like life.