Shiota is a Japanese director and screenwriter. He made films such as Gekko no sasayaki (Moonlight Whispers, 1999), Dokomademo ikô (Don\'t Look Back, 1999), Gipusu (Gips, 2001), Gaichu (Harmful Insect, 2001) and Yomigaeri (2002).
Ten-year-old Akira (Yusaku Suzuki) and Koichi (Shingo Mizuno) are best friends from school in a Tokyo suburb. In the second half of the year, they change classes and slowly their relationship changes. Akira meets Shuna (Yuya Suzuki), a lonely boy who is a crafty maker of plastic models. Koichi becomes closer with the problematic Samajimo who is a petty thief.
This is an intimate film by Akihiko Shiote about an unsentimental friendship and growing up. Influences by Susumu Hani and Francoisa Tr...
The story is inspired by the actual event of a sarine attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995 and depicts the consequences on children of the members of the cult who carried out the attack. Twelve-year-old Koichi was abandoned by his mother, a member of the cult who is currently on the run. He is separated from his sister, who lives with their grandmother, and placed in foster care. He is determined to find his sister and goes to Tokyo.
