On the subtropical Japanese island of Amami, traditions about nature remain eternal. During the full-moon night of traditional dances in August, 16-year-old Kaito discovers a dead body floating in the sea. His girlfriend Kyoko will attempt to help him understand this mysterious discovery. Together, Kaito and Kyoko will learn to become adults by experiencing the interwoven cycles of life, death and love.

In 1702, set against the backdrop of a long-delayed and insatiable revenge, a reserved samurai, Aoki Sozaemon, leaves his hometown in Matsumoto to come to bustling Edo in search of his father's killer. Unaccomplished as a swordsman, with his funds quickly drying up, Sozaemon must honour his clan's demand to avenge a disgraceful death, however, when he finally finds his target, he will have to make a difficult decision before a crushing dilemma. Is the way of the samurai stronger than the way of the heart?

A detective investigates a series of murders. A possible serial killer might be on a rampage, since they all are in the same vicinity and by the same method, but as the evidence points toward the detective as the prime suspect, a ghost in red follows him, and he begins to question his identity. His realization of what seems to have really happened results in something much more sinister and larger in scope, and it leaves his psyche scarred.

Mio's death leaves husband Takumi and 6-year-old son Yuji fending for themselves. Taku occasionally suffers fainting spells, is disorganized, and fears that his health hindered Mio's happiness. Yuji overheard relatives speculate that his delivery compromised her health, and he blames himself for her death. Mio left him a picture book in which she departs for "The Archive Star" but re-appears during the rainy season the following year, and he eagerly awaits her return. Taking a walk in the forest outside their house, Taku and Yuji find a woman sheltering from the rain and immediately accept her as Mio. She has no memory or sense of identity, but comes home to live with them anyway. She asks Taku how they met and fell in love, and he recounts a tale of years of missed chances starting in high school until she encouraged their marriage years later. As the rainy season nears its end, Yuji finds the "time capsule" he hid with his mother before her death. Mio's diary is inside, and its version of the romance holds the answers to the mystery.

2004 film adaptation based on the 2003 novel by Takuji Ichikawa

In Tokyo, Shigeharu Aoyama is a widower that grieves the loss of his wife and raises his son Shigehiko Aoyama alone. Seven years later, the teenage Shigehiko asks why his middle-aged father does not remarry and Shigeharu meets his friend Yasuhisa Yoshikawa, who is a film producer, and tells his intention. However, Shigeharu has difficulties to approach to available women to date and Yasuhisa decide to organize a sham audition for casting the lead actress for the fake movie. They receive several portfolios of candidates and Shigeharu becomes obsessed by the gorgeous Asami Yamazaki. Despite the advice of the experienced Yasuhisa, Shigeharu calls Asami to date and he falls for her. But who is the mysterious Asami?

A teenager called Noriko Shimabara runs away from her family in Tokoyama, to meet Kumiko, the leader of an Internet BBS, Haikyo.com. She becomes involved with Kumiko's "family circle", which grows darker after the mass suicide of 54 high school girls.

Tomoya, a production assistant for a television company in Japan, hears the news with the rest of the crew that Aoi has been killed in an air crash in Death Valley, California. He reflects upon his friendship with this feisty young woman who left the country to broaden her horizons as an aspiring director. He took the job she left, and ironically they first met when he attempted to bribe her away from her job at a record store so that he could be near her co-worker, a girl he wished to date. Although considered a nuisance at first, Aoi finds him a bit of a kindred spirit and casts him in a leading role in her college student film, "The End of the World" which she has written and will direct. Aoi takes the leading role opposite Tomoya when her leading actress Kyoko refuses to do a kissing scene. The two continue to console each other about their lack of romantic relationships and job opportunities in an outwardly platonic manner, but underneath deeper currents are running. Aoi's younger sister Kana may be physically blind, but she sees some emotional aspects of life more clearly than the normally sighted people in her life.

Takakura is a former detective. He receives a request from his ex-colleague, Nogami, to examine a missing family case that occurred six years earlier. Takakura follows Saki's memory. She is the only surviving family member from the case. Meanwhile, Takakura and his wife Yasuko recently moved into a new home. Their neighbor, Nishino, has a sick wife and a young teen daughter. One day, the daughter, Mio, tells him that the man is not her father and she doesn't know him at all.

Sugihara, born in Japan but with North Korean parents, falls in love with a Japanese girl after changing from a North Korean school to a Japanese school. His boxer dad teaches him boxing - skills used a lot.

In a small town in Japan, Kirie comes upon her boyfriend's father silently videotaping a snail. He seems unaware of her presence and she thinks no more of it. Later, the mans obsession with spirals becomes more and more bizarre, ending in his suicide in a washing machine which turn his body into a spiral. Soon other inhabitants become possesed with different forms of spirals, one student seems to be mutating into a snail, another's hair becomes strangely medusa-like. The entire town becomes possesed.

It is the '90s and the tradition of 'compensated dating' is well underway in Japan. Four high school girls are engaged in enjo kosai in order to satisfy their desire for different things. You can usually find them in Shibuya district of Tokyo where they will give you their time, and sometimes more, in exchange for money that buys pretty things.

1998 Japanese film directed by Hideaki Anno

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