I can’t know what the future holds, so for now, let’s just decide that something good will happen. In 2020, when behavior was restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic, it became difficult even to gather with friends, and I found myself growing used to a reality in which the things I wanted to do would not come true. Those were painful days, filled with anger that had nowhere to go. Yet because “everyone in the world” was in the same situation, the pace of society naturally slowed, and while spending quiet time confronting myself and my family, I began to think about “what has been” and “what is to come.” Perhaps that slow, strolling kind of time was itself something “good.” This film captures one night in 2020, when the Leonid meteor shower fell, as experienced by people of different generations and professions. In the unassuming scenes of everyday life, both difficult moments and good moments are captured. The romantic phenomenon layered over them becomes light, and seeing the protagonists shoulder to shoulder, it is impossible not to hope that “the future will surely bring good things.” It has become a new work that records the “present day” we are living through with perseverance, without forgetting hope. The director is Akihiro Toda, known for his skill in directing young actors and ensemble dramas, including the film Name, based on an original story by Naoki Prize-winning author Shusuke Michio, 13 Moon Girls, and We Will Wake to the Same Morning. The screenplay is by Gaku Kawasaki, who was chosen to co-write with Koki Mitani for the drama Someone’s Watching starring Shingo Katori. The young actors who serve as the protagonists of the ensemble include Kaho Maehara, who has appeared in a series of notable works such as Ah, Wilderness by director Yoshiyuki Kishi and A Girl with a Lehman’s Scale by Yujiro Harumoto; and Karen Otomo, who continues to appear in films by distinguished directors including The Bride of Rip Van Winkle by director Shunji Iwai and Let Me Eat Your Pancreas by director Sho Tsukikawa. Other cast members include Ayumu Nakajima, Yurina Yanagi, Ryo Shinoda, Megane, Soma Sanjoh, Yuuka Sasaki, Hidenobu Abera, and Tsutomu Takahashi, among many others ranging from trusted young talents to veterans. Actors with experiences closely tied to their characters delivered remarkably authentic, breathing performances.

A town where Mt. Fuji is a part of everyday life. A man who stays behind in his hometown after parting with his lover, who is moving to Tokyo. A woman whose dream of leaving this town never came true... Eight people who feel stifled by the endless loop of ordinary daily life begin to confront the happiness in the ordinary. Can they believe in a today that is just 1 mm more grown than yesterday? Set in Gotemba City, Shizuoka Prefecture, this feature-length film was produced by casting its actors through an acting workshop. Ami Tomite, known for "The Naked Director 2" and the drama "Crows Blood," also appears in the film. Shohei Uemura (Vo) of THREE1989, who wrote the theme song for the film, also takes on acting for the first time.

In a world that has been turned upside down, we still want to keep chasing our dreams. On the day when many artists lost the places where they could live and create amid the COVID-19 crisis, a film director who also found himself in difficult circumstances came up with one thing he could still do right then and there. To document the day when cinema and culture died, he listened to the voices of a wide range of people—actors, musicians, comedians, and Tokyo Shimbun reporter Masaaki Nakamura—in this gripping documentary. On April 7, 2020, the first state of emergency was declared. The closure of movie theaters, the shutdown of studios, and the cancellation of all kinds of live entertainment were decided. To at least leave a record on film of the day cinema and culture died, we boarded the first train and met in Shinjuku. We listened to the cries of film workers, actors, musicians, comedians, and people from all walks of life. The director himself contracted the novel coronavirus. And then came a meeting with a newspaper reporter. There was only one thing we wanted to ask: “After the COVID-19 crisis, what is your dream?”

Keigo Higashino, the bestselling author who has created numerous masterpiece mysteries, has achieved tremendous popularity with his “Masquerade” series (published by Shueisha), which has surpassed 4.7 million copies in cumulative sales. The first installment, Masquerade Hotel, was adapted into a live-action film in 2019 and became a huge hit, grossing 4.64 billion yen at the box office. Two years later, the “oil and water” buddy once again takes on a difficult case. Playing the unconventional detective Kosuke Nitta is Takuya Kimura, who has appeared in many blockbuster films and TV dramas and remains at the top across a wide range of fields, including music and commercials. Nitta, whom Higashino said was written with Kimura specifically in mind, is a perfect fit. Kimura × Higashino × director Suzuki has become an exquisite marriage unique to Masquerade. And playing Nitta’s partner, the overly serious hotelier Naomi Yamagishi, is the talented actress Masami Nagasawa, who has shown her range from comedy to serious roles in the Confidence Man JP series, the film MOTHER, and the musical Furimun Sisters, and who also won the Best Actress Award at the 44th Japan Academy Prize. The one-of-a-kind “buddy” is back. The setting is once again Hotel Cortez Tokyo. To catch the murderer who will appear at the New Year’s Eve countdown party, Nitta once again stands at the hotel front desk as an undercover investigator who “suspects everything.” Meanwhile, Yamagishi, who has been promoted from front clerk to concierge, strives to provide guests with the finest possible experience by “trusting the customer” as a hotel professional. Even after two years, the two remain unable to reconcile their ways of thinking. Then comes a star-studded cast of uniquely memorable performers representing Japanese cinema, playing the party guests, i.e. suspects, who appear one after another. Everyone looks suspicious, and the mystery only grows deeper.