An unexpected love triangle, a seduction trap, and a random encounter are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.
Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director, still unable, after two years, to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, accepts to direct Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, appointed to drive his car. In between rides, secrets from the...
Asako lives in Osaka. She falls in love with Baku, a free-spirit. One day, Baku suddenly disappears. Two years later, Asako now lives in Tokyo and meets Ryohei. He looks just like Baku, but has a completely different personality.
Takumi and his daughter Hana live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. One day, the village inhabitants become aware of a plan to build a camping site near Takumi's house offering city residents a comfortable "escape" to nature.
It’s 1940, and the population of Japan is divided over its entry into World War II. Satoko, the wife of a fabric merchant, is devoted to her husband but is beginning to suspect he’s up to something. Soon she allows herself to be drawn into a game in which she enigmatically conceals her...
Four women in their thirties reevaluate their relationships, both shared and private, after a startling revelation concerning one's marriage forces each of them to ask one of life's biggest questions: "Am I who I want to be?"
After his parents die, a teenager goes to live with his older brother. As his loneliness grows, he becomes engrossed in practicing modern dance with his classmate.
Hamaguchi wrote and directed this film as a graduation project for the students at ENBU Seminar (film and theater school in Tokyo) when he taught there. It is a three-part film: The first part is a documentary-style production of a play; Then the actual full stage production of the play; and the...
Yuzo and Mitsuki live together in Yuzo's small apartment, their constant companionship tender and indifferent in turn. Then Yuzo receives a call from Satsuki, a documentarian resolved to make a film about a now-distant family tragedy, and the three meet, to search for some way to account for their...
A young couple's announcement of their engagement to their friends is followed by a series of interactions and conflicts that forces everyone to reflect on their lives.
We follow Takumi and his daughter who lead a modest life in the village in the middle of nature. One day Takumi receives word that there are plans to build a glamping site near his home. The discovery that wastewater will be piped into the village’s water source not only causes unrest among the...
The third part of a trilogy focusing on the Tohoku region that is comprised of dialogues with victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Ideas on how to share experiences of the disaster with future generations, a challenge touched upon in the previous films The Sound of Waves and Voices from the...
A maiden work by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and the origin to his later masterpieces “Passion” (2008), the 255 minute long “Intimacies” (2012), and the 317 minute long “Happy Hour” (2015). The unusual, usual life and the ever wandering souls of 5 young men and women, captured on 8mm film.
Some youths interact at a bar, a horse race and a bowling alley. A girl who has been visiting from out of town ,on her train ride back, reads aloud a list of vocabulary definitions from a dictionary.
A companion piece to Voices from the Waves Shinchimachi that forms half of the second installment in a documentary trilogy on the Tohoku region, co-directed by Sakai Ko and Hamaguchi Ryusuke. Through numerous interviews, they concentrate on the experiences and emotions of people, not as victims but...
