An ample community of cats has set up home around the Shinto shrine in Ushimado. Some local residents take care of them, others are disturbed by their mess. Kazuhiro Soda observes their co-existence with kindness, precision and occasional involvement.
ABC Childcare Center offers 24-hour childcare in Okubo, neighboring the Kabukicho nightlife district in Shinjuku. The facility has tried out numerous unique experiments including nutrition education through meals prepared with organic ingredients, treatment for kids with ADHD, and after-school care for kids after they graduate from daycare. The camera also captures the reality of 24-hour childcare centers in Hokkaido, Niigata and Okinawa.
In 1983, the director’s 24-year-old sister developed symptoms of schizophrenia. Her parents couldn’t accept it—refusing to seek treatment for their sick child, they confined her to their house, to the point of even fixing a padlock on the front door to lock her in. Her younger brother, suspicious of his parents’ actions, began filming the family in an effort to openly question them. A family conflict that lasted over twenty years.
