Itaburu Koi no, Yōna Mono

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when club activities were restricted, Japanese students launched an astronomical observation event called the "Star Catch Contest" via remote meetings. What began as a collaboration between students from Ibaraki, Tokyo, and Nagasaki's Goto Islands soon spread nationwide, leading to an unexpected miracle.

Yura, a young girl who struggles to fit in with her classmates, discovers an old smartphone while helping clean out a disused school building. Out of curiosity, she and her friends power it on. Soon afterward, strange videos featuring the children themselves begin appearing on their phones. At first, the clips seem like harmless jokes and are consumed much like viral internet memes. What the children do not realize, however, is that these videos are foretelling a horrifying future that awaits them.

The mother (Mari Hamada) of young children disappears into the attic without warning to see how her self-centered, boutique bathroom-selling husband will react to her “running away.” -JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film