Overview: The story centers around Mikage, a young woman who loses her parents when young. She grows up in a lonely household with her grandmother who dies when Mikage reaches adulthood. Grief-stricken, she finds solace in the kitchen. Yuichi, a friend of Mikage's deceased grandmother, invites her to live with him and his mother. Then Mikage discovers that Yuichi's mother is actually his cross-dressing father. On the other hand, Mikage realizes that the wealth of gadgetry in Yuichi's kitchen is lovingly detailed.
Overview: The screenplay is Haruhiko Arai of "Tragedy of W" and "Revolver". The man is a detective who doesn't take on anything other than background checks for marriage and looking for cats. One day, a request for a job that belongs to him comes in. It is from Masako, a married woman who suspects her husband of having an affair.
Overview: Tsukiko is in her late 30s and living alone when one night she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, 'Sensei', in a bar. He is at least thirty years her senior, retired and, she presumes, a widower. After this initial encounter, the pair continue to meet occasionally to share food and drink sake, and as the seasons pass - from spring cherry blossom to autumnal mushrooms - Tsukiko and Sensei come to develop a hesitant intimacy which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love.
Overview: An eerie statue of the Kannon shedding tears in an old Western-style house. Fifty years of the strange lives of the mothers and daughters who protect the statue of the Kannon.