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(35mm/color/127min total/Dolby SR/American Vista)
Directed by Masato Ishioka ＆ Naoto Kumazawa
Story
Part 1: Birthday
(Starring: Takami Yoshimoto/Director: Naoto Kumazawa/
Writers: Yoko Urayama & Naoto Kumazawa)
“My father disappeared on my seventh birthday. Since then, there has
been no reason to celebrate my birthday.”
Mari Kitajima (34) has been working at an Internet firm for 12 years.
She gets the job done without compromise, but her much younger
colleagues ridicule not only her old-fashioned sense at work,
but also the fact that Mari is still single at her age. She actually has
not dated with a man for many years now. She can’t help but to feel
that a mature woman is no use to anyone. She starts to experience
frequent dizzy spells, not knowing what is wrong with her.
One day on her way home, she meets with a mysterious hairdresser.
He then transforms weary looking Mari into a beautiful woman at
his salon. “You’re so charming” says he and continues, saying
he has work for her picking up guys in expensive hotels.
Mari stares at herself in the mirror and almost by a spur moment
of the decision she nods to him. Mari looks for men to pick up in
the hotel and begins searching for ones who resemble her father….
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Part 2: Girl’s Life
(Starring: Aimi Nakamura/Director: Masato Ishioka/
Writers: Hisako Kurosawa ＆ Masato Ishioka)
“I’ve been wounded but I’ll get through it, although no one will
probably ever understand…”
College student Miyuki has been working part-time in a massage
parlor for three months. The reason? Probably because her
boyfriend Tomoya dumped her and started going out with a girl
called Rika from the same university. Or it may be something
to do with protecting herself, trying to maintain a shaky balance
in her life? Then one day, Tomoya turns up at the massage parlor.
He apologizes for the past.
“Is it my fault that you’re working here?” he asks. Miyuki,
her repressed emotions overflowing, screams, “No!”
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Part 3: Nigh Lovers
(Starring: Kimika Yoshino and Aya Seki/Directors: Masato Ishioka
and Naoto Kumazawa/Writer: Masato Ishioka)
“As the war in Iraq rages on, two women wander about searching for
a place of their own in the dark night of Tokyo.”
Office worker Nao (24) is shocked by the sudden disappearance of her
boyfriend, Yuji. At a loss, she wanders the evening streets on the
unlikely chance that she will run into Yuji. She is trembling from
the fear that he dumped her. Her anxiety grows to the point that
she begins to think herself as a woman with no value. Yet she still
desperately looks for Yuji and by chance she gets to know through
Internet a woman of the same name with Nao. This “NAO”(24)
appears to be tied romantically to a number of men,
under different names. “NAO” is actually a professional “lover”
and writes diary on her home page about her life with many men.
As Nao reads the diary, she begins to notice a sexual side of herself
she doesn’t want to acknowledge, the side that was supposed
to only yearn for Yuji…
Staff
Producers: Yue Hayashi, Kiyo JOO,Tomohiro Kobayashi,
Hiromichi Suzuki/Line Producer: Hirohisa Mukuju/
Cinamtographer: Atsuhiro Nabeshima/Lighting: Yusuke Fukuda/
Sound Recording: Yasushi Eguchi/Art Director: Tetsuji Tatsuta/
Costume: Minori Niizaki/Hair and Make-up: Misuzu Manabe/
Music: Joji Endo
(C)2004 Tokyo Noir Production Committee[:]