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Four youths share a two bedroom apartment in a corner of Tokyo. A series of assault cases occur in the same district. Eighteen year old Satoru, a male prostitute, joins them as a new house mate. Their daily life slowly starts to change.

Hiroshi is an art school graduate who abandoned his dream as an artist to work as a window cleaner. When he realizes he has only three months left in his life, he meets a high school student named Mai and once again finds passion in drawing.

In Tokyo, the reckless single mother Keiko moves to a small apartment with her twelve years old son Akira Fukushima and his siblings Shigeru and Yuki. Kyoko, another sibling arrives later by train. The children have different fathers and do not have schooling, but they have a happy life with their mother. When Keiko finds a new boyfriend, she leaves the children alone, giving some money to Akira and assigning him to take care of his siblings. When the money runs out, Akira manages to find means to survive with the youngsters without power supply, gas or water at home, and with the landlord asking for the rent.

At an all female high school, a senior of the radio club becomes fascinated with the club's newest member. As graduation nears and the summer heat rises, so does the sexual tension between the girls. (Japanese with English subtitles).

In 1993 Kanao and Shoko are a Tokyo couple awaiting the arrival of their first child. Although both have studied art, Kanao works as a shoe repairman which doesn't stretch his rather laid-back style and Shoko works in a small publishing firm. Their home life is marked by some clashes between her attempts at regimentation, including scheduling their sex life on a calendar, and his flirting with other women. Kanao is offered work as a courtroom sketch artist and becomes a witness to the most sensational murder trials of Japan through the next 8 years. He must cope with the ugliness and breakdown in civility he encounters. Shoko also re-discovers her artistic side as she confronts the dark side of life when struggling with depression over the loss of a child and the dysfunctional aspects of the lives of her mother and brother.

Ikigami takes place in a dystopian society where the government has implemented the "Prosperity Law". This law dictates 1 in 1000 random citizens ages 18~24 will die for the state in a mandatory lottery. Death occurs at a preset date and time, which is when an injected nano-capsule, received at an early age, explodes. The law is meant to create appreciation for life by instilling fear in order to make people live the best possible lives.

Six women attempt to make it in current day Tokyo, living their everyday lives the best and worst they can. For them, every little moment becomes a ritual of the ordinary and the exciting, a balancing act for their dreams and hopes as the days perpetually tug on their heartstrings.

Yuko is 35 years old, single, out of work, and on medication from her psychiatrist to combat her manic depression. Living in Kamata Town, Yuko divides her time between a variety of men friends, each with his own peculiarities. Her university classmate, Homma, suffers from impotence. "K", whom she meets on the net, is a self-confessed pervert. Then, there is a young gangster, Yasuda, who is a fellow manic depressive. Her cousin, Shoichi, is also on the scene, having left his family to pursue his mistress, only to be given the cold shoulder by her, too. Yuko seems to create a different persona depending on whom she is talking to at the time. Human contact is just as important for her as for anyone else, but sometimes her condition makes it difficult for others to relate to her for as long as she would like.

Based on an autobiographical novel by Inoue Yasushi, the film chronicles the passage of fifteen years within a family struggling with abandonment, resentment and decline with old age. As the world turns, a son who has issues with his mother has to deal with his own children and role as a father as well.

Sawa Yamagishi worked as a nursing-care helper. The family of an old man asked Sawa to sleep with him, which led her to eventually lose her job and house. Now, she has nowhere to go. Sawa finds elderly people in trouble and gets involved in their lives. Meeting them, their lives change and Sawa's own wounds start to heal.

Two boys, whose parents ply their trade by the mouth of a muddy river in Osaka, become close friends. The two families' "businesses" are in fact dining and prostitution. When Nobou, the restauranteur's son, loses his pocket money during the Tenjin Festival, Kiichi, the prostitute's boy, invites him home, and he learns the truth.

The year is 1987 and Japan is just reaching the peak of its economic success. Eighteen-year old Yonosuke Yokomichi arrives in Tokyo from Nagasaki. Ordinary in every way possible, he lives in a suburb far from the excitement of the big city and commutes to a university in the center of Tokyo. During his first days at school, Yonosuke befriends Ippei Kuramochi and Yui Akutsu. Soon after, he joins the Samba club and spends his leisure time learning to dance. In the Samba club, Yonosuke meets Kato, who turns out to be gay. Together, they take a driving class where Yoko, a rich girl, shows interest in Yonosuke. But he hardly notices her advances; he is infatuated with party girl Chiharu, an older woman he met by chance. Parallel to the depiction of this year of ordinary college life, the characters are shown sixteen years later in the year 2003. However, missing from these scenes is Yonosuke, who is said to have become a cameraman after college. After learning of Yonosuke's death, Yoko receives an envelope from his mother. The photos in the envelope - with the words "For Yoko's eyes only" written on it - captured the beauty and the "miracle of chance" those untroubled days enjoyed.

Shiro is twenty-seven years old and is tormented by his father's terminal cancer diagnosis. He copes by communicating his care and love to his father. We see the father and son relationship as it took form and evolved, the difficulties, the temperaments and how the man acted as his son's coach and instructor. Shiro has information he is concealing though and must take a step in that regard as well.

Suzuko is 21 years old and lives at home. A coworker offers to share an apartment with her. After they sign the lease, Suzuko discovers that her coworker has planned to share her room with her boyfriend. However, the day she moves in, the couple have broken up, leaving her with the boyfriend as a roommate. She finds a small kitten on her balcony and brings it in. She goes to the store to buy it food. When she returns, she finds out that her depressed roommate has thrown the kitten out. Finding the dead kitten in the road, Suzuko throws all her roommates belongings out. She is arrested and criminally charged. She ends up in prison. Upon her release, she finds herself dealing with the neighborhood gossip and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to a place where no one knows her and to continue repeating the process. She discovers many things about herself, as she corresponds with her younger brother, (who is dealing with bullies) and meets new people on her travels.

A family struggling to live together even with the outrageous behaviors from each family members.

A young woman's husband apparently commits suicide without warning or reason, leaving behind his wife and infant. Yumiko remarries and moves from Osaka to a small fishing village, yet continues to search for meaning in a lonely world.

The traumatized survivors of a murderous bus hijacking come together and take a road trip to attempt to overcome their damaged selves. Meanwhile a serial killer is on the loose.

After the collapse of their relationship, Kiwako abducts the 6-month old child of a man she was having an affair with. Raising the child as her own, it is four years before the authorities catch up with her and the young child.