Because the story progresses through narration, we needed to make sure viewers wouldn’t get bored while watching. In particular, with short dramas, if viewers lose focus the piece won’t perform well, so at the script stage we asked for a larger amount of dialogue, recorded it at a fast pace, and then increased the speed by 20% in editing to pack in as much information as possible without leaving gaps. The script originally started from the idea of “you know how people used to let their minds wander in class?” and was structured around the protagonist, Kimura, pointing out his boss’s verbal slip-ups. But it was later changed so that Kimura would keep getting sidetracked from correcting the mistake and, in the end, would be unable to point it out at all. As for the wordplay and phrasing, I really have to thank the scriptwriter’s sense of style. When I read it for the first time, my honest reaction was, “As expected, that’s brilliant.” For the filming, I had always associated short dramas with an overwhelming number of cuts and a very fast tempo, but for this work we wanted to create a new style of short drama that would be entertaining through direction. So across all five episodes, we used every gimmick we could, including episodes that played with editing through text animations, and episodes that experimented with high-speed shooting and slow shutter. We developed the basic direction to a certain extent, but on the day of shooting we kept adding ideas and adjusting things on the spot. Thanks to the cast freely bringing the characters to life, many ideas came to mind, and I’m truly grateful.

One night, in the moments before falling asleep, a robot begins to tell a story to a young girl. Its voice is a little clumsy, somewhat awkward. And yet, there is kindness in its words, as they softly melt into the quiet night. A warm story spun by such a robot.