In 1980, Ayuko is a new transfer student in Okayama from Tokyo. She doesn't have any friends and relies on her boyfriend Hideo who is a college student. Ayuko likes to draw a romance manga of herself and her boyfriend. Ayuko's classmate, Takemi, becomes a huge fan of Ayuko's manga and they become close friends. Due to an incident though, they drift apart. 30 years later, Ayuko is now a manga artist and comes back to Okayama to give a lecture at her former high school. There, Ayuko meets Takemi who is now a teacher.

Commencing well-respected Nippon director Kazuo Kuroki's sixth decade behind the camera, "A Boy's Summer in 1945" (literally "A Beautiful Summer in Kirishima") is a lyric, novelistic drama set in the countryside in the last days before Japan's surrender ending WWII. Striking a welcome retro note in its languid pacing and delicate handling of seriocomic ensemble threads, handsome production is a natural for fests. It might also prove a cornerstone for retrospectives or ancillary releases of works by a helmer ("Preparation of the Festival," "Ronin-gai") who's long been appreciated at home but has won just limited attention abroad.

A murder occurs of a promising high school baseball player. His younger brother Shinya becomes the prime suspect. Private detective Koichiro is hired by their father, Saburo Moroka. To prove Shinya's innocence, Saburo, Koichiro, and Koichiro's pet dog Masa work to uncover the real killer's identity. At the same time, there is a case at a giant drug company named Mitsutomo Pharmaceuticals. Yuki bears a grudge against the company for prior inspection methods used over newly developed drugs. Yukie then threatens the company. Company president Kouta orders Kihara to resolve the problem discreetly. The more Kihara learns of the situation, the more hesitant he becomes about how to handle the situation. Finally, these two seemingly disparate cases cross paths, and a shocking truth emerges...

A four-part anthology in the spirit of The Twilight Zone, this film starts off with a group of commuters stranded at a train station in the rain, listening to stories told by one of the group. These include tales of a group stranded in the mountains and haunted by guilt over a death they inadvertantly caused, an emotionally broken chessmaster pressed into playing a real-life game for an eccentric millionaire, a wandering medieval samurai who finds a modern-day cell phone on the ground and a person on the other end asking questions about the past, and a young couple who agree to try a computer simulation of what their future as husband and wife would be like.

Hanatani Village in the valley of Tokushima Prefecture is going to be submerged when a dam is constructed. In order to preserve the beauty of the place for future generations, the villagers decide to take photographs of all the families in the village. Kenichi, the only photographer in the village, is put in charge of the project. He calls his son Takashi, an aspiring photographer, to help him with the task. Takashi is puzzled since his father and he are not at all close, but as they visit each family in turn and Takashi sees his father working, Takashi's feelings towards his father begin to change.

When there's a transfer flight delay, a put-upon ground staff worker at a small town airport has to deal with a family that has plenty of problems of their own. Shot in a single take, "Airport" focuses on familial and romantic relationships and the secrets that often hold them together.