A Brief Message from the Heart
A young woman tries to reconcile with her mother, who left their family for another man.
Shinichirô Sawai
Director
Also Directed by Shinichirô Sawai
A dying pianist composes one final song for his childhood friend.
University student Akira meets the lovely 14-year-old Yumi, whom he had tutored years ago. Her mother is told by her doctor that the schoolgirl has leukaemia and has only 6 months to live.
Travel into Japan's nuttiest apartment house and meet its volatile inhabitants: Kyoko, the beautiful and mysterious new apartment manager; Yusaku, the exam-addled college student; Mrs. Ichinose, the drunken gossip; Kentaro, her bratty son; Akemi, the boozy bar hostess; and the mooching and peeping Mr. Yotsuya.
A university student Hitomi falls in love with a middle-aged man Okawa, who was the lover of her deceased mother. Hitomi's feelings shift back and forth as she is not sure whether it is true love or just a realization of her mother's romantic dream...
A young girl is striving for stardom. In order to get a lead role in a new production, she agrees to stand-in for a famous star whose rich patron died in her arms one night. The real-life drama gradually comes to mirror the story of the play being performed by her.
Takanosuke Ushio and Tae Horikawa are unable to forget each other, even though they met and fell in love 20 years ago. They had promised each other that they would build a retreat in Shiguretei, but Ushio was hospitalized after a stroke a few days later, and when his wife, Takako, rushed to the hospital, she discovered their love affair, which in reality had not gone beyond kissing. Now, 20 years later, against the advice of her ikebana mentor, Tae rushes to meet Ushio at Shiguretei, only to see him clutching his chest in pain. Eventually, the design and plans for the dream retreat are seen by Tae, but she has to visit Kyoto alone... or maybe she's heading for somewhere else.
Maiko is a 17 year old aspiring picture book writer who was abandoned by her widowed father at the age of 3 and has lived in a foster home ever since. She meets Lisa, also 17, and the two quickly form a bond of understanding as they help each other work out their problems. Lisa holds a grudge against her mother for paying more attention to the men she brings home than her own daughter and Maiko begins to doubt her artistic dream will ever come to fruition after a book editor judges her writing ability harshly.
