Kouki Hayashi

Four-year-old Yang Yang lives with his single mother in Osaka. He has not seen his father, whom his Taiwanese mother met while studying in Japan, for months. A picture falls into his hands that shows the three smiling happily in front of a fireworks display. The painted picture brings back memories of the happy days as a family. The film sensitively accompanies the emotional world of the individual family members and accompanies worries and moments of happiness with which one can identify across national borders.

Open details →

Fired by the company she works at, and desperate for a new job, accountant Yoshimura Kaoru finds herself taking a job at Paradise Gym - a boxing gym. Through a series of events she ends up becoming the trainer of an old boxer Sawada Ryohei, trying to make something of himself after quitting his well paying job. Although she hates the sport, she finds herself attached to this rude, obnoxious man and they journey forth together to find where it is they both belong.

Open details →