Kumiko Hoshizaki’s “Akane Sasu Heya” is the story of Maki, a 20-something temp who is sick of her boring job and life in general. The rather bizarre solution she comes up with is to conceive a child behind her boyfriend’s back. Makoto Nagahisa offers the much more impressionistic “Frog.” The story meanders around a bunch of unrelated characters, using experimental techniques like repeated scenes, hallucinatory visuals, blurred shots and disconnected sounds. Lastly, we have “Bouquet Garni,” a much more conventional work from director Junpei Hatano. The plot is centered on a reporter, the relative of a kidnapping victim, and a woman who is obsessed with the case.
Kana is a newcomer assigned to office worker Shinobu's department. Kana, who adores Shinobu, gradually begins to act out of character, and Shinobu begins to avoid Kana. Kana eventually disappears, and unexplainable events occur frequently in Shinobu's surroundings.
Half a Confession introduces itself as a thriller and abruptly changes gears, transforming into a tale of morality with deeper insights into its characters than we had anticipated. It begins when Soichiro Kaji (Terao), a retired detective, walks into police headquarters and confesses to the murder of his wife. We learn that the victim had prematurely developed Alzheimer's after the tragic death of their son, and in her suffering, had asked to die. The police chiefs would be far more content to take him at his word if it were not for a conspicuous hole in his story: 48-hour gap between the alleged murder and his confession. Fearing a public relations nightmare, they are eager to bury the incident and keep the press in the dark.
A girl called Zero stands in a crowded street, her occupation an assassin. As she completes her tasks one after another, Zero has been feeling uneasy lately. As her code name suggests, she has nothing to prove her existence. She overlaps herself with the vanishing landscape and begins to wander in search of the meaning of her own existence. At the same time, a young man named One is also wandering the streets, and like Zero, he is an assassin. Surrounded by a sense of emptiness, he is unable to find the value of his own existence. One day, the two of them meet as if they were led together. They sense each other, and by touching each other, they regain their existence and humanity. However, the organization feels that contact between assassins is dangerous, and decides to dispose of them. They call in a highly skilled assassin. Their battle for their own existence begins now!