Life seems to be good for Shintoto, an up-and-coming rakugo artist who has just had his first sexual experience at a local brothel. Lucky for him, he gets to date the beautiful sex worker he meets that day, and a younger high school rakugo aficionado is also vying for his attention. But for clumsy, heart-on-his-sleeve Shintoto, life doesn’t stay rosy for long.
The movie revolves around Mitsuba, who studies traditional art of rakugo. Rakugo is a form of comical story telling, sometimes referred to as sit-down comedy. Even though Mitsuba is mediocre at best, he ends up teaching three students.
One of the hottest selling tickets in town is to see the hugely popular “rakugoka”, or comic storyteller, Danshun. Danshun himself was inspired as a little boy to become a rakugoka after seeing the legendary Danshi. He had found his calling. After his resistant parents relented to their son’s pleas, Danshun at age 17 became an apprentice of Danshi, the man dubbed a “wunderkind” and “genius” of the rakugo world. He soon realized however how hard the training was, and embarked upon a rigorous existence in which he had to deliver newspapers to earn a living. Living with hardship and joys, Danshun and his fellow apprentices would eventually rise in the rakugo world. A resplendent cast comes together to depict the rough and tumble world of a man who loved rakugo above all else and was destined to fulfill a dream.
Master Shinkome asks Shinden to find a former disciple, Shintoto, from his rakugoka (comic storytelling) family. Shinden visits ex-disciples in his search for Shintoto.
Shinjuku Ward, east side… The center of the street with the most chaos, there's Kabuki-chō, full of neon lights. When the light is stronger, the shadow is deeper. The story begins when certain bizarre murder happens one night! Suspense? Or Comedy? Drama that cannot be identified begins!
When a certain man is released from prison, he knows exactly where he's heading first. After falling in love with a traditional comic storyteller's rendition of the story called "Shinigami," he is determined to become his apprentice. The performer, Yakumo, has never taken an apprentice before, but to everyone's surprise, he accepts the eager ex-prisoner, nicknaming him "Yotaro." As Yotaro happily begins his new life, he meets others in Yakumo's life, including Yakumo's ward Konatsu. Konatsu was the daughter of a famous storyteller, and Yakumo took her in after her father's tragic death. Konatsu loved her father's storytelling, and would love to become a performer in her own right—but that path is not available for women.
A young yakuza thug apprentices with an indebted comic "rakugo" performer, whose not-so-fashionable son runs a clothes shop in the Harajuku backstreets.
Joshiraku, abbreviation of joshi rakugo, is a satirical comedy that follows the everyday life of a group of rakugoka girls. A group of girls discuss random things and usually reach an unusual or humorous conclusion that's far from the initial discussion topic.
Set during the early Showa period, Yakumo enters the world of rakugo. He forms a friendship with talented storyteller Yurakutei. Yakumo admires Yurakutei’s talent and struggles to achieve his level of performance. With the help of geisha Miyokichi, Yakumo grows up as a rakugo storyteller. Yurakutei and Miyokichi get married, but they die in a mysterious accident. Yakumo takes Konatsu, who is the child of Yurakutei and Miyokichi, and raises her. Konatsu grows up blaming Yakumo as her parents’ enemy. Konatsu and Yakumo’s disciple Yotaro chases after the truth of her parents’ death, which Yakumo hides.
In early 1965, a child violinist who was expected to be a prodigy, came up to Tokyo from Nagasaki and lived in lodgings. In the 1970s, the violinist (Suda Masaki) faced a setback during the uproar over the US-Japan security treaty. Even so, he did not cut off music. By the time he realised it, he had started singing as Grape. This is a story centred around his high school and university days surrounded by different people including friends, teachers as well as older men at his part-time job.
The 4 rakugokas frequent a café and there they observe the customers and clerk, and develop BL stories. Those stories will be acted as well as the rakugokas imagine / craft the story.
