18-year-old Hikaru has just graduated from high school and she has travelled alone from Niigata to Tokyo to meet the father she has never known without telling her mother. Her parents originally met in Shinjuku but after parting, her mother Mayumi left the city and gave birth to and raised Hikaru alone while her father Naohide stayed put and became a scriptwriter of a hit TV romance drama. Despite being able to imagine and write moving works of fiction, the reality of having an illegitimate child leaves him bewildered and, out of guilt, he tries to get involved in Hikaru’s life again while balancing responsibilities to his current girlfriend and avoiding upsetting Mayumi.
Young novelist Haruhiko, along with his girlfriend Ririko, are having lunch with his cousin Yoko as she talks about an important night from three years ago. We cut to: Jiro visits a bar run by Akira and Yoko and reunites after a long absence. Akira and Jiro are best friends since college. Yoko and Akira are now married, but Yoko had a relationship with Jiro in her past. The three friends are excited to be reunited, but at the same time, there is a sense of tension. Yoko and Jiro disappeared while Akira was in the bathroom. Two people burning up under the overpass. Akira catches them in the act... Haruhiko begins writing a novel based on these three people. Ririko tries to stop Haruhiko from sinking into Yoko excessively, but the world of novels has an unexpected ending...
Theatre 1 (Observational Film Series #3) is a feature length documentary, which closely depicts the world of Oriza Hirata, Japan's leading playwright and director, and his theatrical company, Seinendan. By depicting them, the film leads the audience to revisit fundamental but timely questions: What is theatre? Why do human beings act?
