Akako, a shape-shifting goldfish in the form of a coquettish nymphet clad in diaphanous red dresses, naively plays the role of erotic muse and adoring pet for an aging writer seeking greatness. Things quickly get complicated for the odd couple, however, when the writer's deceased former student/lover enters the picture as a ghost and helps Akako realize her own desires, activating her agency and frustrating the one-sided male fantasy the writer is so keen to continue.
Fumi Nikaido
Akako Akai
Ren Osugi
Old Writer
Yoko Maki
Yuriko Tamura
Kengo Kora
Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Hanae Kan
Maruko Maruta
Masatoshi Nagase
Goldfish Seller
Kiyohiko Shibukawa
Bartender
Koichi Ueda
Doctor
Seiko Iwaido
Woman
Akako, a shape-shifting goldfish in the form of a coquettish nymphet clad in diaphanous red dresses, naively plays the role of erotic muse and adoring pet for an aging writer seeking greatness. Things quickly get complicated for the odd couple, however, when the writer's deceased former student/lover enters the picture as a ghost and helps Akako realize her own desires, activating her agency and frustrating the one-sided male fantasy the writer is so keen to continue.
The year is 1955, and a great flood is coming to Northfork, Montana. A new hydroelectric dam is about to be installed in the mountains above the town, ready to submerge the valley in the name of progress. It is the responsibility of a six-man Evacuation Committee to relocate the townsfolk to higher ground. Most have duly departed, but a few stubborn stragglers remain – among them a priest caring for a sickly orphan, a boy whose fevered visions are leading him to believe he is a member of a roaming band of lost angels desperately searching for a way home.
A director faces creative block while working on his latest film – a reimagination of his adolescence growing up in a mountain village in rural Japan.
A bureaucrat interviews five souls to decide which of them will be given a life on Earth. But he soon faces an existential challenge of his own.
On Christmas Eve, a fighter pilot on his way home becomes lost while flying over water and needs a miracle to land safely.
Mr. K, a traveling magician, finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare when he can’t find the exit of his hotel. His attempts to get out only pull him deeper, entangling him further with the hotel and its curious inhabitants.
A postman learns that he doesn't have much time left to live due to a terminal illness. A devil then appears in front of him and offers to extend his life if he picks something in the world that will disappear. The man thinks about his relationships with ex-friends, ex-lovers, relatives and colleagues who will be sincerely sad when he dies.
A series of uncanny déjà vu events force a man to re-examine his tragic past, memory, instinct, and future.
After an affair with a queen leads to his demise, an eager traveler encounters a mystical bird with the power to give him another life.
As a young boy, Xu-Xian is forced to free his pet, a small snake. Unbeknownst to him, the snake is actually a young snake goddess named Bai-Niang and she is in love with him. Many years later, when they are both adults, the princess is magically transformed into a human and sets out to find her love. But the local wizard believes her to be a vampire, and banishes Xu-Xian from the village in order to save him. Xu-Xian's pet pandas Panda and Mimi set out to save him and bring him, in the process becoming leaders of an animal gang.
A homicide detective goes undercover as a patient to investigate a psychotherapist he believes is linked to a strange double murder. As his therapy sessions continue the line between fantasy and reality begins to blur.