Hokkaido Television Broadcasting

Akio Kanzaki’s job as head of human resources is wearing his nerves thinner and thinner. To make matters worse, he’s on the brink of divorce with his wife, and his relationship with his college-student daughter isn’t exactly smooth sailing. One day, he decides to drop in to Tokyo’s old-timey district to visit his mother Fukue. However, things seem a little off. His mother used to be always working with an apron on, but now she’s covered in stylish clothes, looking livelier than ever, and even in love! Akio becomes perplexed, feeling out of place in his own mother’s home, but after encountering kind, warm—and almost nosey—neighbors and a side of his mother he’d never seen before, Akio gradually starts to discover something he had lost sight of.

A famous chef who is tasked with tracking down a 70-year-old missing recipe.

Luca lost her family in the Great East Japan Earthquake causing her not to be able to speak. However, her singing voice shakes the hearts of those who listen to her. It is a hymn of compassion played by Luca and the people.

A husband and wife have been married for 50 years. For her birthday, the husband asks the wife what she wants for her birthday present. She replies that she wants a divorce. The wife's divorce announcement sends the entire family into chaos.

Residents in a town have a hard time due to the land tax and forced labor. 9 people, including Juzaburo Kokutaya (Sadao Abe), worry about the future of their town. They then set up a plan to save the town. The plan is to lend large amounts of money to han (historical term for the estate of a warrior) and distribute the interest annually to the residents, but if they're caught they will lose their lives.

Nobuko (Sayuri Yoshinaga) works in Nagasaki, Japan as a midwife. Her son died 3 years earlier from the atomic bomb. On August 9, 1948, her son appears in front of her again. Since that time, Koji (Kazunari Ninomiya) appears in front of her and they reminiscence about pleasant times. These happy, but bizarre moments seem eternal.

Following the brutal rape and murder of his teenage daughter, a single father seeks revenge against the responsible youths. His pursuit for justice becomes a deadly cat-and-mouse game with both the perpetrators and the police.

The film follows the relationship between a mother and her son. In 1945, the mother played by Sayuri Yoshinaga fled with her two sons from the Russians to Hokkaido. In 1972, her son played by Masato Sakai returns to Japan after finding success in the U.S.

Noriko lost her mother Yoshie when she was only 10-years-old. Yoshie knew she would not be able to live long enough to see her children grow up and wrote birthday cards to her children in the future. Agonizing over relationships with friends, love and marriage, Noriko grows up with hints and thoughts hidden on birthday cards which are sent from her mother every year.