Taniguchi Ran
12 years ago, Hideto crippled his younger brother Masato in an accident in the woods. Hideto had avoided Masato ever since, but meets a physically healed but emotionally wounded Masato when he visits home one day. This Masato gets him to face the accident. Hideto then goes to meet the real Masato.
In a distant future, humans make the switch to android life. They abolish 'flaws' such as complicated human needs and traits such as the ability to possess and express emotion. However, a system glitch causes 'desire' to resurface in some, including Kai (Rinko Kikuchi; Pacific Rim, Babel), an android shoe-maker. Kai begins to feel an obsession with her craft, like what human beings used to have. One day, an android customer orders Kai to create a special pair of heels. Shut in the atelier, Kai remakes the shoes over and over again until it's perfect. When the customer returns, Kai finds out that one shoe doesn't quite fit. But just as Kai promised to put more work into the pair of shoes, another customer comes to demand her own special pair too.
Toru, a high schooler, decides to leave his grandmother's home in the mountains and moves in with his aunt. There he meets three sisters at his welcome party. On his way to his new home, he is struck by one of the sisters' beauty. A boy who spent his life quietly like a plant starts to take action on his own.
On an island in the Seto Inland Sea, the Teshima Art Museum integrates the serene seaside environment with an architectural structure by Ryue Nishizawa and the artwork "Matrix" by Rei Naito. The remote museum's single installation suspends light, air and droplets of underground water in constant play, defining a unique, meditative space barred from filming. An innovative portrait in which the mysterious artist refuses to appear onscreen, Yuko Nakamura's documentary explores five women's interactions with the dynamic space of "Matrix" in unprecedented access to the site while delving into Naito's body of work, beginning with her projects in Hiroshima. Foregrounding a deep connection with tangible and intangible elements of human experience and generations of Japanese women, Nakamura's film takes full advantage of the cinematic medium to confront Naito's artworks and the existential themes they evoke. -JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film
December 30th, 2017. Two years before the Tokyo Olympics, due to a revision of the Constitution, a National Defense Force is created in Japan and it starts military operations. In an incineration plant, a dog goes lost, but when Tani goes looking for him, she finds nothing. In the plant, Yanais takes down the Christmas decorations and replaces them with the ones for New Year. Gou, addicted to survival games, comes to the plant during the night and starts playing video games with Ken, even if it is his day off. In the meantime, Adachi is just watching their game to kill time. However, all these men share similar problems: pregnancy, adultery, family issues and a friend who died in the war. Meanwhile, Tani, who is troubled with her immoral relationship with Adachi, begins to feel that her father, who was the plant’s manager and is supposed to be dead, seems to be around somehow.
