Hiroki Kawano

Our Brief Eternity

In Tokyo, the new type of virus called Emanon has spread out. Once people infected by the virus, they lose their most important person's memory. Teru, a guy who spends his life lazily, met his previous girlfriend Mio. But she has infected by the virus and forgot about him. Because of the virus, the world has plunged into confusion and it's been growing as a global pandemic. In the meantime, Teru and Mio restarted their relationship but he also infected and lost the memory about Mio. Tokyo fall into a turmoil and shattered. Teru and Mio ended up in the countryside where they've been before.

Tokyo Lullaby

Hamanaka Koichi returns to his wife Hisako and family in a sadder, run-down section of eastern Tokyo after having run away from home years before. He gives no explanation of his absence and his family asks no questions. It is only through the questions that a young writer named Asakura, who is secretly in love with Hisako, poses of local shop owners, that we learn that Hamanaka's disappearance may be related to the fact that the woman everyone thought he would marry, Tami - who runs the cafe across the street from the Hamanaka electric store - had ended up tying the knot with another man who died soon thereafter.

Ryōuchi genshuku

Shinohara-san, is it all right if I don't study? In a dormitory of a preparatory school before the winter course. Ishikuro is told about a rumour by Shinohara, his roommate who is like a prisoner in the dormitory. He is told that Tachibana, who lives next door, has recently seen his grades soar because of the drugs he is taking. Ishiguro is sceptical, but Shinohara invites him to sneak into Tachibana's room to see if it is true. They find a bottle of the drug on his desk. Is the time spent for a single purpose long or short? The film captures the long and short days of a group of ronin students who have grown tired of the pressure of life, including Shinohara, who lives aloofly, saying that "the only way to escape the weight of time that has passed is to lighten oneself up," with the light and withering touch of a famous essay.