Sumie Sasaki

A man wanders into a seemingly deserted town with his young son in search of work. But after a bit of bad luck, he joins the town's population of lost souls. (imdb)

The main character blames himself for the deaths of his two sons in a boating accident and leaves his wife and parents behind. He takes on a mistress, to the shame of his family, and he pops stimulants to keep up with his work schedule as a truck driver. Growing increasingly irritable and irrational, he goes through various conflicts with his brother, his colleagues, his boss, and his wife. (mubi.com)

A disillusioned Natsume arrives at Coin de Rue, a popular Tokyo pastry shop, begging for work. Aiming to become a high-calibre pastry chef, she is determined to overcome her past as well as the challenges ahead. Pastry critic Tomura is a frequent visitor. Moved by Natsume's persistence, he slowly begins to confront his own painful past - aided, of course, by mouthfuls of tasty pastries in between. (japanesefilmfestival.net)

After leaving high school, Michio Yamada (Norio Nagayama in the real life incidents) becomes involved in the shudan shushoku, a post-war Japanese government work program which involves taking almost an entire high school graduating class from the countryside to Tokyo to work for a fruit company. Some terrible things happened to his family in the past and that explains why Michio came later to have perpetrated so many killings. (imdb)

When Ryo arrives in Tokyo from the Aomori Prefecture he finds employment cleaning windows of high-rises. Pre-teen girl Kagari lives inside one of the buildings. Ryo and Kagari lock gazes for a moment. It is a moment when one can help the other, but also a moment when two persons who usually cannot communicate do. (imdb)