Shimako
Chizuru (Anne Watanabe) is the new teacher at Umega High School. Since her school days, she has played violin in an orchestra. One day, she listens to an amateur orchestra play at the local cultural hall. She is touched by their performance and decides to enroll in the orchestra, but there are 2 orchestras in town. Chizuru mistakenly enrolls in the orchestra which consists of elderly people. The members there are thrilled to have a young person join their group. Chizuru is unable to tell them she made a mistake and becomes the conductor for their orchestra.
Tasuku Okano is a diligent young man who was raised by decent family. He works as a new teacher at an elementary school. Tasuko deals with his students the way his head teacher told taught him, but the situation in his classroom isn't very good. He notices that one of his students might be abused, but he tries to ignore it by reasoning that he is too busy to become involved. Tasuko though feels terrible about the situation and decides to help his abused student. Masami was raised by an abusive mother. She is now violent towards her own 3-year-old daughter Ayane. Masami can't help lashing out at her daughter since her daughter was 10-months-old. When she hangs around other mothers in the park, she tries to justify her abusive manners by thinking the other mothers treat their kids the same way.
Based on the manga series "Yume no Kayoiji" by Yasuyuki Ohno (first published January, 1987 by biweekly seinen manga magazine Young King).
Narrator
This extraordinary film presents Japanese classical scroll painting as never before. The Yamanaka Tokiwa comprises twelve scrolls painted by Matabei Iwasa some 400 years ago. Haneda redefines the art documentary and demonstrated that a film about a masterpiece can be equally masterful.
Narrator (voice)
The care facilities for the elderly in a small town in Gifu prefecture, and the comparison with the welfare in Denmark, Sweden and Australia.
Chigusa Yamamura
A rumbunctious and ribald tale of a troupe of travelling actors who alternate highlights of kabuki theatre with strip shows.