Preparing For the Picnic

After her parents’ divorce, ten-year-old Nagi moves with her mother to a small island in Setouchi. Traumatic visions of her alcoholic father Shimao abusing her mother trigger panic attacks. She slowly regains her ability to smile, while trying to help the islanders with their own burdens. A funny, sweet, and tender coming-of-age drama with a rich range of memorable characters.

Iwata Koichi and Kagawa Midori are second-year students at Tozaiyama High School. One day, while coming home from school, they discover a shooting star rising up in the sky. The next day, Midori sees a shining figure in school and everyone on the school grounds starts talking about a ghost. At that point, a mysterious transfer student called Yamazawa Norio suddenly arrives at the school.

Hiroko attends the memorial service of her fiancé, Itsuki Fujii, who died in a mountain-climbing incident. Although Itsuki's mother says that their old house is gone, Hiroko records the address listed under his name in his yearbook and sends him a letter. Surprisingly, she receives a reply, and discovers it came from his old classmate, a girl who also happens to be called Itsuki Fujii.

Japanese detective Hayase is caught in the midst of a truck robbery on the way to the Seoul airport. Being forced to extend his stay and help identify the robbers, Hayase gets thrown into another situation -- as Japan's Foreign Minister is kidnapped before the upcoming Asian Summit. Is 72 hours enough?

This coming-of-age story from Japan opens just after 17-year-old Sataka has gotten dumped by her boyfriend. When her mother is hospitalized with a malignant stomach ulcer, Sataka is left alone with her emotionally repressed father; whiling away the hours one day, she comes across a love letter written to her mother 24 years earlier. Deciding to track down the letter's author, Sataka eventually finds Shinichiro (Hiroyuki Sanada), an overweight slob who was abandoned by his wife years earlier and now spends his time hanging around pachinko parlors. Determined to clean him up and reintroduce him to her mother, Sataka nags Shinchiro until he finally agrees to her demands, and a gradual friendship develops between the two as Sataka drags him to the gym and a clothing store. But once Shinchiro's makeover is complete, he turns the tables on his young friend, and when the time comes for him to meet Sataka's mother, all concerned parties find themselves embarking on a new phase in their lives.

After being sent away from the man she loves, Shino wanders in Osaka, waiting for him to reach out again.

Takako's high school has a unique tradition. Every year, the school's 1000 students walk 80 kilometers in 24 hours. As this is her final year of high school, Takako decides to work up the courage to talk to classmate You, whom she has never spoken to before. Classmates who are unaware of their relationship read something more into their awkward overtures.

Masaki is about to move to the U.S. with his parents, much to the dismay of five girls who all like him in different ways. Tomboyish Takako always gives him a hard time; Haruna is a childhood friend; Alisa has fancied him since a shopping trip in nearby Shibuya; Naoko is still readjusting after a long spell in the U.K.; and Yumi ikes practicing basketball with him at night. All wonder who his "special girl" is, but Masaki isn't saying.

A released inmate is hired to solve a murder case.

Chizuru, a typical Japanese young female office worker, is socially clumsy, poor at romance and unhappy with her job. Being weary from a busy and stressful city life, she seriously desires to end her life somewhere faraway from the city and leaves for deep in the mountains, where she finds one lonely house. Then she attempts to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills in the guest house but she fails.... This is the beginning of her new life.

Asami, a junior-college student two months from graduation, lends a red umbrella one day to Mayama, a Psychology instructor. Her artlessly forward approach leaves Mayama embarrassed and confused. She has, in fact, been watching him for some time. Meanwhile Mayama’s girlfriend Izumi, unable to find her own place in his heart, has resolved to leave him. Seeing Mayama in torment, tied to his past, Asami decides to set his heart free. Set in present-day Tokyo, this story of the wandering and revival of souls beset by feelings of loss is brought quietly and gently to the screen by the outstanding talent of Nagasawa Masahiko.

27-year-old Sakumi Shimura lost the last 10 years of her memory from a car accident. Sakumi can only remember events up to when she was 17-years-old, but she accepts her fate and tries to stay positive. Nevertheless, Sakumi is bothered by the loss of her memory. She tries to remember with the help of Yoshihiko, who thinks of himself as her boyfriend and her friend from their high school days.

An omnibus recorded in a short film by five film directors with the motif of the song "Kai Band".

Compilation film featuring short works from directors Hitoshi Yasaki ("Short Cakes"), Yuki Tanada (scriptwriter "Sakuran," "Tsuki to Cherry"), Hiroyuki Nakano ("Stereo Future," "Samurai Fiction"), Masahiko Nagasawa ("Yoru no Picnic"), Masaya Kakehi ("Bijokan), and more for a total of 18 shorts. This time around the theme is "24 hours," where filming for each work must have been completed in 24 hours in order to appear in this film.

Kaori, who can find nothing in her daily life but sex with her male friend Taro, suddenly meets a middle-aged man named Kosuke. She hopes that Kosuke will quench her thirst, but is disappointed to learn that he has a woman named Naomi. Upon learning of Kaori's feelings for him, Taro...

A three-part anthology drama, Suki presents love in three eras through the eyes of actress Rena Tanaka: a factory worker sheltering a fugitive gangster in 1958 Yokohama, a teacher falling for her student's father in 1981 Enoshima, and a listless student drawn to an injured boxer in 2000 Tokyo.