Safecast is a non-profit organization and a global network dedicated to the effort of collecting and sharing radiation measurements. Immediately after the March 2011 disaster in Japan, a group of concerned citizens, who became the founders of Safecast, gathered in their desperate need for accurate information about radiation levels in Fukushima and other areas affected by the Dai-ichi nuclear meltdowns. Safecast developed a reliable Geiger counter that records radiation levels every 5 seconds and instantly posts the data on the Internet. The device’s open-source technology is made available free of charge to anyone who is interested. The endeavor is an exemplary model of citizen science making a positive contribution to society.
By the coastal belts of Bangladesh, in a small village named ‘Sutarkhali’, RAKHI (27) lives with her man SOUMEN (32) and their son RAHUL (6). Fighting against all the odds of the woods, along with around a 100 families, they cultivate the land for generations. On May 25, 2009 when RAHUL is only 4 years old, a tidal surge hits the coastal belts of Bangladesh. For RAKHI, SOUMEN and RAHUL life is not the same anymore. 'Are You Listening!' is about RAKHI’s hope to ensure a dignified future for her son RAHUL. It's about her jobless husband SOUMEN's frustration for failing to provide for his family and about a community’s struggle to get back the land they have lost. Seasons change topography, even relations… Yet after the rain... They go out with spades and shovels to reclaim the life again, Are You Listening!
Woo-suk Yun has spent her life in a fishing village along the Suncheon Bay in South Korea. Married to an alcoholic man, she has no time for rest. She has to work twice as hard as the others to make a living by working in the fields, fishing and selling her catch. However when her husband passes away she’s crying for the first time in 70 years. Beyond the beauty of the landscapes, Hongki Lee depicts the life of a woman who, going through a hard fate, accomplishes herself due to her work.
David Lai is a music prodigy. At age three, he taught himself to play the key board. At age 13, David was one of only 16 students admitted to the best music school in China. He has played piano with the world famous pianist Lang Lang at China’s National Opera house and taught himself to speak English as a native English speaker. But Daivd is blind and his family is poor. “Glimpse of Greatness” documents how David and his family overcome difficulties and continue pursing his dream of becoming a world class pianist.
More than four years have passed since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the coastal communities of Japan’s Tohoku region. Survivors are learning how to laugh again as they continue their long journey on the road to recovery. The film looks into the power of laughter as a way to heal psychological wounds, build community, and overcome tragedy.
The Ama are women free divers who collect shellfish from the ocean bed. They dive without tanks, holding their breath for long periods of time. This method of sustainable fishing has been a fiercely guarded tradition among coastal communities for centuries. But in a modern and fast aging society, youth are leaving their hometowns in search of better education and livelihoods. The film follows three generations of Ama in one family, exposes the challenges of the trade, and highlights the sacrifices one young woman is making in her effort to keep the tradition alive.
After living in Osaka for many years, Ayano Tsukimi decided to retire and live the rest of her life in her hometown of Nagoro. Since she returned several years ago, the village’s population has declined. To fill the void, Ayano spends her time making life-size dolls in the likeness of the villagers who’ve passed away. Today, 350 such dolls dot the landscape, repopulating a once-thriving community that has now fallen silent. The eerie display of dolls has given the village a renewed reputation, which attracts scores of tourists year round. The film gives us a unique insight into one of Japan’s most serious social issues, an fast aging population.
In the city of Sumida (Tokyo) where traditional cultural norms are the rule, Noemi Inoue has set out to change the city’s political landscape. She’s become the first non-Japanese woman in Japan to be elected to political office. Born in Bolivia, she pursued a high profile career at the Banco Central de Bolivia before landing a prestigious position at the United Nations in New York. That’s where she met her Japanese husband and eventually moved to Japan. She was elected to Sumida City Council on a platform of rejuvenating the city through tourism in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Animator and filmmaker, Nawruz, an immigrant from southern Philippines, has struggled to find a better life in old housing project, BLISS, for a decade. In 2015, even if he wants to stay in Manila, he feels it's time go back to his hometown. Before he leaves, he will make last-ditch efforts to stay in the big city? Can he find a good place for his love and future?.
Fumi and Kazu are life partners, both at work and at home. Together, they run Japan’s first and only law firm set up by an openly gay couple. As legal advisors, they fight for the rights of minorities, as well as people with low-income or those with no nationality. The film gives us a candid glimpse into the couple’s professional and personal lives as they struggle to help others who have been marginalized by society.
In anticipation of the looming labor shortage exacerbated by a construction boom ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Japanese government has designed a plan to relax immigration laws and allow skilled laborers from overseas into the country to meet the demand. While the country faces a declining birthrate and an aging population, the film follows a construction company executive and a foreign worker who are both finding opportunities.
Bugs are highly nutritious and can help fight world hunger. Some enthusiasts in Japan are trying to create a new trend out of an old tradition: bug cuisine. They hope their efforts will help revitalize a battered regional economy, as well as sustain astronauts on their future missions to Mars. These Japanese cuisine pioneers put their creativity to work in convincing people that bugs can not only be tasty but also environmentally friendly and a sustainable food source.
Once the thriving capital of Imperial China, the city of Datong now lies in near ruins, but Mayor Geng Yanbo plans to change all that, announcing a bold, new plan to return Datong to its former glory. Such declarations, however, come at a devastatingly high cost. Thousands of homes are to be bulldozed, and a half-million of its residents will be relocated under his watch. The Chinese Mayor captures, with remarkable access, a man and, by extension, a country leaping frantically into an increasingly unstable future.
"The Priestess Walks Alone" is about Anu, a Taiwanese woman. Anu is a mother, a grandmother, a lesbian and a friend to many. But to her daughter Hui-chen Huang, who filmed the story, Anu is mostly an enigma and a stranger. Anu's life is intrinsically tied to Hui-chen, but Hui-chen spent a good part of her life hating Anu for not providing her with a normal childhood. Now, Hui-chen needs to forgive her mom, and find out who Anu is.
Chinese tourists are going wild on a shopping spree in Japan. Department stores and electronics retail shops are growing up their sales and contributing to Japan’s economic growth. To enhance this trend, Japan changed the Immigration Control Act this January. Now foreigners visiting by ships can easily enter Japan without a visa. We follow a Japanese retail store manager and a group of Chinese tourists to depict this explosive shopping spree, now called "Bakugai".
Tokyo is a densely populated urban area full of high buildings and crowded shopping centers. And the city’s inhabitants have more and more craving for nature. This is why rooftop gardening is becoming increasingly trendy in Tokyo. Some are ordinary gardens, others are community gardens that offer an opportunity for Tokyo inhabitants to grab some soil and feel that they are living in harmony with nature.
Dr. Konta's passion is to help people, who are all too often sent away to die in hospitals or nursing homes away from their friends, families and familiar settings. Through her home hospice care services, patients are given the support needed to return to their homes to die with peace and dignity surrounded by their families and loved ones. Interviews with Dr. Konta are interspersed with scenes of interactions among herself, her patients, their caregivers and families.
Hong Kong is home to more than 190,000 Filipino domestic helpers. A working couple hire one to prepare meals and take their child to school. Another house helper looks after an old man who lives alone. For these and many other reasons, Filipino house helpers are in demand in Hong Kong. On Sundays, the house helpers congregate in a square in Hong Kong Island's Central District. Here, they reminisce about their families back home. A beauty contest is held each June to celebrate Philippine Independence Day. The ladies dress up in their finest as they try to take the crown and live their most precious dream - to be free.
Mogok in Myanmar, a valley surrounded by mountains, is a worldwide well-known as "Ruby Land", Gems Land where only limited foreigners can enter. What's like the gems trading in Mogok where its country has been locked for long time? There's 3,000 mining businesses legally whereas plenty of illegal mining business. People are waiting with hope for the new government policy. "Ruby Land" captures different perceptions of different characters and their related mining business views in this transition period.
Every 2nd Thursday of November, the entire country of South Korea is put to the test. That day, half a million senior high school students and exam repeaters take part in the National University Exam. But the exam isn't a regular school test. The test will be a pathway to obtaining a spot at a prestigious university and landing a job at a top-ranked corporation. "We Repeat" tells the story of 2 exam repeaters, Hyunha and Minjun, to prepare the exam one more year. 10 months before the exam takes place, they live a life of strict routine. On an average day Hyunha gets up as early as 6 a.m. to study and arrives home well after midnight. Minjun enters a private remote boarding school and follows a spartan study schedule.
A highway is waiting to go through a quiet village in Hunan, a province in central China where Mao was from. Due to the high cost of construction, construction companies and migrant workers who live on road work rush to here like the tide. In the following four years, they root in this strange place for interests, paying sweat and blood, even their lives. With their arrival, local village and peasants are forced to change their lives. Many hidden interest lines and hidden rules about road construction of the nation are unveiled, together with the shocking truth and emerging secrets.
‘The Last Factory’ is the story of a textile district in its twilight years, the only soviet style industrial area remained in the western region of China. It follows the lives of a textile worker’s family, the Xiang, whose struggling to adapt in the midst of a rapid redevelopment. As the factory searches for a new path in China’s economical transition, the last generation of workers hope to keep their family in harmony through traditional values.
Speak of Singapore and the image of a clean, corruption-free country springs to mind. But Singapore before the 1980s was a very different place. Among its more sensational tourist hangouts was Bugis Street, which became internationally known for its notorious nightlife. The highlight was its population of male-to-female transgender sex workers. However, in the 1980s, the Government moved in and the girls had to move out. They lost a community they could rely on and a place they could call home. Today, the transgender population struggles to survive in modern Singapore. REVEALING THE INVISIBLE explores the challenges they face to gain acceptance in a fast-changing world.
Hunger drove him to cross the border - a move of desperation which cost him his father and his fingers. A new settler in the unfamiliar South, Byeok Song is known as a former propaganda artist daring to dress "the brilliant and beloved General" in skirts, Byeok Song rose to international acclaim through his depiction of the desolate lives of "the people" in which he expresses his anger towards the regime. Yet, to most people South of the border, he still carries the label of a "commie propagandist." What does peace look like for the artist who served both countries? Traveling to the DMZ and coming face to face with fellow defectors, Song embarks on a long journey to paint a new propaganda work of art depicting the nation's division and peace.
What do a working single woman, a retired couple, a company formed by ex-Sony engineers and a Buddhist priest all have in common? The AIBO robot dog, produced by Sony from 1999 to 2006. Sony discontinued support for the AIBO in 2013. Three years later, AIBO owners all around Japan, still love their AIBO and want to live out the rest of their days with them. This is a touching story about a group of very diverse people who are interconnected by robot dogs and working hard to keep them alive.
Shinduja is a young girl living in a slum area of Pune, India. She is a top student of Banana Children’s Choir run by a Korean singer, Jae-Chang Kim. Shinduja's parents are fish venders and see no future for their daughter's interest in music, but Kim hopes to open them up by involving all parents in a joint concert together. Shinduja urges her parents to go, but her parents often miss the practice due to work. With the concert date approaching, Kim is worried about the performance quality while Shinduja is afraid her parents cannot show up. Finally on the day of the concert, Shinduja’s father closes his fish cart and the whole family performs together on stage.
In Japan, there are many abandoned places. These relics of the recent past are called Haikyos in Japanese. Currently 8 million homes lie empty in the Japanese archipelago due to rural exodus, population aging, transition of life style, the natural disasters... We follow haikyo explorers to an abandoned school in the mountains of Kanto region, meet the owner of an abandoned amusement park in Tohoku region and visit a former coal mining village in Nagasaki which has been gaining an attention as an industrial heritage. We will visit different haikyos to see the evolution of the Japanese society.
Would you risk your life to flip a switch? In Kanpur, India, putting oneself in harm’s way to deliver electrical power is all too common. Powerless sheds light on the opposing corners of this political ring, from an electrical Robin Hood tapping wires for neighbors to the myopic utility company whose failure to understand economics forces it deeper into financial disarray. This vibrant exposé gives a whole new meaning to the words “power struggle.”
This film unveils a hidden history which starts in the Dutch East Indies under Japanese occupation during WW2. The protagonists were born of Eurasian mothers and Japanese fathers as children of the enemy. They moved to the Netherlands with their mothers while their fathers went back to Japan after the war. The absence of their fathers becomes a missing piece in their lives, and the ensuing search stretches across continents. One of the protagonists, Nippy Noya, is the percussionist in a Netherlands-based rock band called Massada. In his career, he also recorded with artists such as John McLaughlin and toured with Billy Cobham and Chaka Khan. The film starts with his soulful drum playing in the ruins of the former Jewish transit camp, Westerbork. On his journey, he discovers the secret of his musical gift, just as the other protagonists each experience their own emotional rebirth. The theatrical version of 'Children's Tears - Searching for Japanese Fathers (49 min.) was released on the 70th anniversary of the end of the war in Tokyo and Osaka. The film has toured the theaters in Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Kobe. The film won the 33rd Japanese Film Renaissance Award (Japan), International Movie Award 2014 (Indonesia), and was officially selected by DOC Feed 2016 (The Netherlands). The theatrical version continues to be screened.
The Japanese government’s increasing alignment with US military actions in the Islamic world has been impacting this nation’s relationship with the Islamic world. At the same time, there are now dozens of mosques across Japan, and many estimates now put the number of resident Muslims in Japan above one hundred thousand. Against the backdrop of the troubling overseas events, BRIDGING MUSLIMS AND JAPANESE examines how resident Muslims are coping with suspicions and responding with confidence-building activities within their local communities and beyond.
Yuko Nakazawa is the founder and CEO of consumer-tech firm UPQ. She represents a new generation of entrepreneurs who are coming up with new business models. Yuko started off in product development at Casio, designing smartphones and compact cameras. Then, she launched her own company based on the concept of “Made in Japan" with manufacturing done abroad. Yuko's success lies in her ability to respond quickly to the consumer’s needs, producing unique quality-crafted items within a three-month period. We follow Yuko in her daily activities and see creativity in motion as she sets a new pace for consumer business.
Dialita is a choir group that is singing songs that have been silenced for more than 50 years. Members of the choir are survivors, family members, and supporters of those who have been prosecuted during Indonesia's purge against communism starting in 1965. This campaign has imprisoned, tortured, and killed hundred of thousands people who are associated with communism. This year, the choir group is recording and launching an album with young musicians with an aim to get young audience to recognize a dark part of Indonesian history, and to raise from fear and silence.
Gatekeeper is a documentary film following Yukio Shige, a retired police detective, who patrols Tojinbo Cliffs, a notorious destination for suicides in Japan. Shige talks individuals away from the treacherous cliff-sides and brings them back to his unassuming café, where he and his team of volunteers work tirelessly to help suicide attempters recuperate and find their way in a society that stigmatizes mental illness and depression. Shige has spent the last 10 years on a selfless mission to stop potential jumpers from leaping to their deaths. Still, he faces deep odds: Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the developed world; almost double that of Canada. An average of 70 people kill themselves every day. The national suicide in 2014 totaled nearly 25,000 people. These high numbers can be attributed in part to the country’s long history of romanticizing suicide. The historical practice of the Samurais seppuku, a ritual suicide by disembowelment, was celebrated as an honorable gesture of sacrifice and loyalty. This perception, that suicide is honorable, purifying and loyal, persists in contemporary Japanese society. Yukio Shige sees it differently. He recognizes that the cultural mythology attributed to suicide glazes over core universal contributors: economic strife, debt, unemployment, sexual abuse, and mental illness. Shine was driven by his frustration with government inaction to found his own non-profit organization. Similar to other governments around the world, especially in Asia, there continues to be minimal support given to suicide prevention and mental health awareness in Japan. An intimate, observational film, Gatekeeper explores one person’s passion to change society’s misconceptions of suicide. Driven by a deep guilt and an obsession to save lives, Yukio Shige’s story also takes us into a layered exploration of modern Japanese society.
Feeling unfulfilled with life in the city, Itaru Watanabe quit his safe corporate job to follow his dream of opening a bakery in rural Japan. Risking it all, Itaru moves with his family to Chizu, in one of the most depopulated areas of Japan. The ageing town is desperate for new blood and welcomes the family. But life in the countryside is difficult, and success is elusive. He writes a book that becomes a hit with young urbanites that dream of a better life beyond the corporate rat race and start flocking to his bakery. Will Itaru find success in Chizu and help revitalize the battered economy of Japan's countryside?
Until 1989, the village of Dafen in the city of Shenzhen, China was little more than a hamlet. It now has a population of 10,000, including hundreds of peasants-turned oil painters. In the many studios, and even in the alleyways, Dafen’s painters turn out thousands of replicas of world-famous Western paintings. Nobody thinks anything of an order for 200 Van Goghs. To meet their deadlines, painters sleep on the floor between clotheslines strung with masterpieces. In 2015, the turnover in painting sales was over $65 million. Directors Haibo and Kiki Tianqi Yu followed one of the painters, Xiaoyong Zhao. He and his family have painted around 100,000 Van Goghs. After all these years, Zhao feels a deep affinity with Van Gogh. He traveled to Europe to see the original works at the Van Gogh Museum, and to visit one of his best clients, an Amsterdam art dealer. This debut film is a fascinating, at times picturesque portrait of a village where artists pursue their dreams, but also have them shattered.
The film follows Nasima, the first female surfer of Bangladesh, after her husband kicks her out of the same house that she built by selling her surf board. The film explores the dilemma between her love for surfing and her husband. Bangladeshi National Surfing competition becomes the big stage for her to return to the sport which she championed before.
As the number of foreign travelers and residents in Japan increases, the medical system is adapting to care for them. Dr. Yuko Takeda of Juntendo Medical University in Tokyo is preparing some of Japan's young medical students for a career during which they will most likely be seeing foreign patients in addition to Japanese ones. We follow some of these future doctors who come from a traditionally homogenous society as they navigate issues of culture, religion and sexual orientation...in English.
ShareTwitterFacebookGoogle+ *You will leave the NHK website. Guitarist Kim Jihee (21) has an intellectual disability. Intellectual disability manifests itself as a lack of learning ability and social skills. Being around classmates who do not understand her, Jihee has so far spent dark, lonely days with not even one friend. But as Jihee learned to play the guitar, she started to change. Now, she has grown into a guitarist performing on numerous stages. The guitar, as Jihee’s best friend, has allowed her to get in touch with the world. However, she is still unskilled in communicating with others. The sound of her voice and guitar are not strong enough to fully reach the audience. Nevertheless, people give Jihee a big applause because of the fact that she has a disability. Jihee aspires to become a better musician. But as she gets close to a wall—the absence of creativity—she encounters limitations as a musician, too early on. There is, however, no limit to her efforts to flourish as a musician. In the meantime, Jihee is entering the society, a step at a time.
The 2011 “kanji of the year” was Kizuna (絆). It reflects the spirit in which Japanese helped each other after the disasters. The direct translation in English - "bonds" - gives the impression that ties to others can be restrictive, an imposition on one's freedom, at least to Westerners who cherish individualism. The fact is we are almost all connected to others. I, the director, feel we have much to learn from the ways Japanese interact and think about others. That is the premise of my search for the meaning of Kizuna.
MD Raya was village chief of Waiha for 32 years, exactly as long as Soeharto, Indonesia's notorious dictator. But he is not only famous for that. He is also famous for having 12 wives. Used to living an excessive life for many years, now he has to change. Since he had to stop being village chief because of old age, his wealth decreases...excessively. How does he survive his old age?
Japan is a graying society. More than a quarter of the population is over 65 and life expectancy for women is a whopping 86. Yoshie Senda is a dedicated 80-year-old on a mission. For the past 16 years, she has been rebuilding ties within her community in a collective effort to tackle elderly isolation in Tokyo’s Adachi ward. Located in northeastern Tokyo, the ward has one of the highest concentrations of elderly people in the metropolis. While trying her best to embrace her golden years, Yoshie spends much of her time visiting her peers and creating a space where they can have fun and share their memories
After drifting as a migrant worker in the city for a year, Maofu returns to his family bee farm in rural Northern China. Maofu brings along big ideas for marketing and honey sales. However, his father Lao Yu emphasizes a heart felt connection with the bees which comes from generations of traditional beekeeping. Now in his declining years, Lao Yu witnesses the environmental degradation and pollution that has also depleted his bee colonies. He’s struggling with his own self-worth and values, and mixed emotions of whether his son should even stay in this traditional area of work and trade. In the end, he makes the ultimate sacrifice cutting down a family tree, to build the new bee boxes while securing a portion of it for his own coffin. The animals on the farm echo the emotional intensities of father and son, sometimes providing an unexpected comic relief.
Japanese people are rather fond of sharing important life events together, such as in "shukatsu" (job hunting), "konkatsu" (dating), and "shukatsu" (funeral preparations.) In a rapidly aging society, more Japanese are seeking alternative burial styles, like being entered under a tree or scattering their ashes in the ocean. Design Your Own Ending explores the changing attitudes towards death in modern Japanese society.
Sophoeun left her countryside home at the age of 16 for a factory work in Phnom Penh city to support her parents and 12 siblings. With the country’s cheap labor cost, Cambodia has become a new manufacturing location for internationally recognized clothing brands, but tension started to rise between the workers and the government due to harsh working condition as well as the rising living cost. This resulted in a violent confrontation and Sophoeun’s husband was seriously injured by police gunfire. Sophoeun now faces the dilemma between finding money to save her husband, and seeing her 16 years old sister leaving school for work. Wages of Life examines the cycle that Cambodian workers face in today’s globalized world.
Deep Flowers portrays floral artist Azuma Makoto, whose unusual and impressive flower arrangements challenge our understanding of flowers in our environment. His radical botanical sculptures, sometimes made with thousands of flowers, have been set aflame in caves and frozen into massive blocks of ice. In 2014, he launched a bonsai pine and a bouquet into space. Deep Flowers unfolds in his Tokyo studio, where he crafts his daily creations. The story also takes us to Hokkaido for a performance installation of a 5-meter pine, and to Ota Market, the country’s largest flower market.
China’s rapid modernization has left many Chinese parents questioning what toll this massive societal upheaval takes on their children. What is lost in the increasing emphasis on excelling academically so as to compete for high-paying jobs? Do Chinese schools teach children be good students instead of good people? Today, thousands of parents across the country have joined a growing Confucian revivalist movement, sending their children to special schools to learn ancient teachings in the hopes that children will learn to put their character and relationships before their test scores. Hanyu is the mother of 13 year-old Keke, a typical teenager who directs most of his attention to a computer or phone screen. Worried about her son’s future, Hanyu sends Keke to a tradition Confucian summer camp. There, he learns about etiquette, morality, harmony, and the art of self-reflection. At camp, Keke memorizes Confucian verses, but will he take those lessons to heart once Summer is over? Hanyu and Keke’s journey will test whether an older style of education can meet the grueling demands of a new China.
“OUT OF BREATH” follows a small group of international volunteers who travel to North Korea every six months. They work side by side with North Korean doctors to fight the spread of a deadly infectious disease called multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Each visit, the volunteers deliver medicine and check progress, but the heavy lift of treating and caring for the patients is left to the North Korean medical staff. Working together under difficult conditions, the volunteers and North Koreans have forged unexpected bonds and achieved something incredible – one of the highest MDR-TB cure rates in the world.
'Two Flags' chronicles the life and politics of a quaint French town called Pondicherry in South India. As the 6000 Tamil French people belonging to the Tamil ethnic community, gear up for the French Presidential elections of 2017, the film explores the idea of state, citizenship and home in the post colonial era. ‘Two Flags’ seeks to unfurl, in all its complexity, the intrinsic duality that defines a unique community, through a visual and aural exploration of its routines. The Tamil French community does not necessarily share the same religion, language, customs, history, or indeed ethnicity of their country of citizenship: France. Although entitled to all the benefits of French citizenship, they reside in India, over which France (their government) possesses no sovereignty. In India they are resident aliens. Although they may migrate to France freely, cultural and familial attachments keep them in India. They are outsiders in both India and France.
In 2006, Myongho crossed the border with his family with nothing from North Korea. In South, he becomes a deep-sea diver at the border village between South and North Korea. He wears 60 kg diving suit, only relying on a single oxygen line from the boat, and fishes 30 meters down underwater. If the line goes wrong, he could die in any minute. Myongho once crossed the most dangerous borderline, now he constantly crosses the line between life and death. This film will be the portrait of a courageous man who fights with the life for his family.
Plastic China’s main character Yi-Jie is an unschooled 11-year-old girl whose family works and lives in a typical plastic waste household-recycling workshop. As much as her life is poor and distorted, she’s a truly global child who learns the outside world from the waste workshop that her family lives in and works in - also known as the “United Nations of Plastic Wastes.” She lives her happiness and sorrows amongst the waste,, as well. Small packs of discarded instant black powder tells her the bitter taste of “coffee”; the English children’s learning cards teach her words like “summer” and “father’s day”; and brokenBarbie dolls are her best friends to talk to. This is her world. Plastic China explores how this work of recycling plastic waste with their bare hands takes a toll not only on their health, but also their own dilemma of poverty, disease, pollution and death. All of this to eek out a daily living.
Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population. It’s also home to Masriyah Amva, the head teacher of an Islamic boarding school. She fights male skepticism about women playing a leading role in society. Her weapon is her interpretation of the Koran. RISING FROM SHADOWS’ director, Norhayati Kaprawi, is a Muslim woman from Malaysia who has a deep admiration for neighboring Indonesia’s tolerant version of Islam. As she follows Masriyah closely throughout her day-to-day life, Kaprawi explores how Islamic societies should approach women’s rights.
Having been forced to consume inferior and unpalatable grain for centuries, some downtrodden and marginalized women in Central India have, over generations, evolved a unique bread recipe. The bread is called Randani Roti. The robust flavor of this bread has won high acclaims. They now bake this bread through a women-led business that contributes to their economic prosperity. However, wealthy local merchants are trying to gain a foothold into their business. But the women are steadily and successfully resisting them. How long can they keep up the fight?
Being the oldest daughter, at 14, Lao Kang had to quit school in order to take care of her parents, and for her siblings to stay in school. She kept asking :”Why me?” She knew that she would never have a chance to go back to school. Until one day, she was introduced to rugby. She saw the opportunity to get out of her current situation and go back to school.
A farmer from rural China with cerebral palsy is not a likely candidate for fame. But when Yu Xiuhua's poetry went viral online, she was suddenly touted for great success. Brutally visceral, her poetry is born from grappling with disability, a loveless marriage, and her relationship with China's eroding pastoral interior. This sympathetic doc lays bare the disjunction at the heart of Yu's life between physical circumstance and inner expression.
In South Korea education success is highly valued, I’ve studied hard with one belief - it will promise my future. I was always an honour student in my school life, even certified as a gifted child in science by the government. But in the final year of the university, I became having a zero confidence and feeling betrayed by the education system which makes me lost. At the same time, my little sister enters into an elementary school. Observing her life filled with extra classes and homework every day, I see my past. With looking back my time there, I try to figure out what I’ve missed and how I will have my own life after all that
"Deadline" talks about the way to school of three pairs of students in Phan Rang, Phan Thiet and Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam. Each student has their own situation, facing different "deadline" and different living burdens. However, they all have one thing in common: their passion for learning and the desire to go to school. The original version is a part of a series of "Way to school" produced by VTV7 - Vietnam Educational Television
The Kurds are called, “the world’s largest ethnic group without their own country.” Approximately, 30 million Kurds are living in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. In 2014, ISIL militants attacked Kurdish cities. The Kurds rose up to defend their homes. They drove back the militants, and suffered many casualties. But the cities were reduced to rubble. In towns laid waste by ISIL, Kurdish boys and girls are making their own films. Iranian director, Bahman Ghobadi and his colleagues taught the children how to make a film. Ghobadi is also a Kurd. Two years prior, he opened a film school in a refugee camp for Kurdish children who escaped from their own hometowns. Eight of the kids’ short films made it to the Berlin Film Festival and drew the world's attention. In 2017, Ghobadi has opened a film school again. Kurdish Children’s pain and hope for the future have been woven together...to create two short films
ShareTwitterFacebookGoogle+ *You will leave the NHK website. Deep Flowers II features floral artist Azuma Makoto, and is the sequel to Deep Flowers broadcast in June 2017 on NHK World. This time, we witness the artist at work during the making of two of his most radical exhibits. In the deserts of southwestern United States, Makoto showcases a floral arrangement sent aloft 30,000 meters into the stratosphere. A few months later off the coast of Japan, he plunges a bonsai and a bouquet together into the deepest ocean on Earth. Through these installations, the artist expresses the idea that the ephemeral beauty of flowers is as powerful as the lasting harshness of the environment. These projects were rife with technical challenges and took months to achieve. We also follow Makoto to India with his Kibou project, in which he randomly hands out free floral bouquets to people on the streets in exchange for nothing more than a smile.
Currently, Myanmar is undergoing some form of democratisation, however, it is not a linear process in terms of time. As the war between the government and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) is still going, the corporations are forced to halt their operation in the jade mines. Time seems to have frozen in this war zone while waves of poor workers flock to the area. Carrying simple digging tools, they arrive in this paradise, dreaming of getting rich overnight; none of them has ever woken from that dream. The director, Midi Z, is the protagonist’s youngest brother. Midi had pictured this place in his head since he was little but never had the chance to see it for himself. Now he is trying to portray his brother in this documentary as he questions his brother why he became a drug addict and abandoned his family. Furthermore, at the time when Aung San Suu Kyi has once again brought hope to the Burmese, it is a film that depicts how people struggle for survival in the darkest corners of this probably the poorest country in Asia.
As the public use of surgical masks becomes widespread in Japan, people have started using them as fashion items, to enhance their beauty, to hide ungroomed faces and conceal identities. Now an increasing number of youngsters are becoming dependent on wearing these masks to cope with the anxiety they feel when interacting with people. While initially comforting, mask dependency further alienates them from society and worsens their mental problems.
Hailed from a poor family, blind boy Kanai Chakraborty chooses the daring life of a swimmer than becoming a singer and begging for living. But his success in the sport couldn’t ensure him a job. Even at the age of 40, he has to continue swimming to retain a respectable identity. He participates in the world’s longest swimming competition and tames mighty river Ganges covering 81 KM! His success brings in temporary glory but Kanai continues stumbling off the water while sailing smooth on it! But his uncanny knack for chasing uncertainty remains constant and he falls in love with a married woman! While regarded as a ‘burden’ in the family already, Kanai risks of being a fallen hero in the community. The film chronicles the roller coaster journey of Kanai who constantly negotiates with destitution, desire and destiny while chasing his dream of a dignified life.
ShareTwitterFacebookGoogle+ *You will leave the NHK website. On January 17th 2016 a Dalit, Phd research scholar, and activist Rohith Vemula unable to bear the persecution from a partisan University administration and dominant caste Hindu supremacists hung himself in one of the most prestigious universities in India. His suicide note, which argued against the “value of a man being reduced to his immediate identity” galvanized student politics in India. Over the last year thousands of students all over the country have broken the silence around their experiences of caste discrimination in Universities and have started a powerful anti-caste movement. The film attempts to track this historic movement that is changing the conversation on caste in India.
The homeless in Japan are almost invisible. It’s not that homelessness doesn’t exist, but that they aren’t ‟in your face”, the way one would expect in other societies. The homeless are also dwindling in number, as they age along with the general population and are accepted by Social Welfare programs. For various reasons, some fall through the ‟safety net”. With the advent of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, these urban poor are under pressure to disappear. What does the future hold for them?
In spite of living on the edge of the world and getting trapped in an extra-ordinary situation, Kofur, an ordinary migrant laborer, longs so deep for an identity and human dignity he has been deprived of since the very moment of his birth. In a very intimate and captivating way, the film uncovers the hitherto untold story of the incredible man and his family, who were born as no-citizens in one of the world’s last stateless lands stuck in limbo on the borderland between India and Bangladesh for decades, and denied the most fundamental right to belong to any country, state or nation.
A village in the hills of Northeast India on the Indo-Myanmar border, Tora. People here have been living their lives following the rhythms of the agricultural seasons, their evenings spent in darkness and semi-darkness punctuated by small solar lamps. When the Electricity Department announces that the village might get electrified, there is a mixed response from the people as they have been let down too many times in the past. Can they dare to believe that this time around the promise made to them will be kept? The film gently traverses through Tora sharing glimpses of life and encouraging the viewer to wonder about what will be gained with the coming of electricity and what might be lost even as the village waits.
A wealthy family, once a real estate dealer in South Korea, lost everything with the Asian financial crisis in 1997. From the economically and emotionally dysfunctional family, their only child started to be ashamed of her parents. She distanced herself from them, eventually losing touch completely. Years later, she decided to return to her parents with a camera to find out if they could be a family again. But she is immediately engulfed into her parents’ financial problems; the landlord told them to move out from their apartment while they are still obsessed with the real estate and waiting for a jackpot to fix their problems. Can the apple fall far from the tree and can she fix the course of their family?
“Barber in Paradise” is a story about a Hindu man’s struggle to earn his place in a society where he always been treated as an outsider. Pradeep Kumar Shil and his family are the only Hindu inhabitants among five thousand Muslims on the Island of Saint Martin’s off the coast of Bangladesh. His ancestors, barbers by profession, were one of first families to make the island their home. As time passed, their home was taken away from them by Muslim landowners. After his Father passed away, he took over the family business and runs his own barber shop now. He has given up his fight to get his ancestral land back, but has started a new journey as he is trying to buy a new piece of land on the Island to make it his home again. His business is not doing that good, but he has only two months to clear a payment of 1,600 US Dollars and register the land to his own name.
In the old Indian city of Kolkata, one game can be found in almost every corner – Football! The otherwise laidback leisurely city erupts in a fanfare of passion when it comes to football! And it is this that connects it with a land thousands of miles away – distant Africa. Every year hundreds of African youths come to Kolkata in search of livelihood and glory, fighting it out in its innumerable football fields, from the very popular local “khep” tournaments to the big league matches. These Africans have football in their blood, but their native lands are often torn with conflicts and economic crisis; and behind them are large needy families. So they come to Kolkata, leaving all that they loved behind and focusing solely on football. Here, a young African footballer is a Super Hero – prized for aggression and strength. Local agents fight to have them. But then, one must keep scoring goals. One bad match, and phone calls may stop. Or perhaps, one small injury by a nasty foul and the career can be finished. Kromah is one such African youth, come to this city from Liberia. He comes to live with his fellow Liberians, who live together as one small community in Kolkata. With his family’s needs always nagging at his heart, Kromah knows he has to stay ahead, keep the money coming, go on being the super hero. And the struggle begins… Kromah finds a support in an Indian girl – Puja – who comes to live with him in their Liberian household and makes it her family. She knows Kromah will not be with her forever, but then, for whatever time there is, they carry on… It is a journey of passion, rediscovery, compulsions of one’s love for family and the fight to an identity often at best rather uncertain. But then, maybe sometimes… football triumphs!
China’s one-child policy has taken a toll on thousands of households and millions of individuals since its implementation in 1979. Amplified by gender bias and poverty, penalties imposed by the policy were reason enough for families to give up their daughters in hope of having sons, leaving thousands of baby girls without homes. Now, these abandoned daughters are searching for their long-lost parents, over decades and across provinces. Yangtze Daughters tells the story of one lost daughter’s impassioned search for her birth family, and the human cost of the one-child policy that has lasted for generations.
A beautiful Thami village located in Nepal Himalaya near Tibet was razed by the devastating earthquake of 2015. A local slate mine, the inhabitants’ primary source of income, disappeared along with it. The hopeless villagers seemed to lose their vitality, but then Kanchi, a 14-year-old village “diva” became a generator of “Hope for the Future.” Her new Thami songs using traditional melodies have brought all the villagers together for reconstruction and they plan to present her song to the “god of the mine” for luck when it re-opens.
Sushi is a Japanese culinary tradition from the samurai era. It’s an art form that takes years to perfect. The revered job of Itamae (sushi chef) has proven to be one of the most difficult titles for a woman to attain. People believed that women were incapable of meeting the requirements demanded by the “boys’ club” mentality of the sushi world. Challenging the view that proper sushi can only be made by men are two women who are throwing their fears and trepidations to the wind and following their passion to “Do Sushi Too.”
Sheru is a street kid from the Delhi underground who became fascinated by photography through a children’s workshop. Whatever he can earn he saves in the Children’s Development Khazana (CDK), a bank managed and run by street kids that also helps them acquire life skills. Sheru wants to return to his estranged, sex-worker mother but more than anything, he wants to buy a camera and become a street photographer. He could easily grumble about his lot in life but he chooses to smile instead, and to make others smile.
Indonesians have a tradition of keeping birds in cages and enormous bird markets. Popular birds are those with a repertoire of beautiful songs, adding new momentum to the business both of trapping birds in the wild and training them to sing beautifully. One teenager is counting on the bird boom to build his future: sixteen-year-old Agok. This episode depicts Agok’s personal growth as he struggles to build a life for himself in the industry.
As much as a third of the world's food supply goes to waste each year. Japan alone accounts for 18 million tons of discarded food annually, of which 6 to 8 million tons is still edible. Food waste occurs at different stages of the supply chain. Sometimes, fresh produce doesn’t conform to aesthetic and freshness standards. Other times, business practices put pressure on providers to overproduce. The issue involves stakeholders at all levels. Everyone, including consumers, has a responsibility in helping to reduce food loss. This documentary follows those looking for solutions.
China doesn’t have a lot of room anymore for peddlers like Su. He set up a ramshackle restaurant next to a construction site on 24th street in Hangzhou, but of course he neglected to obtain a permit. Unsurprisingly, the authorities send him and the other illegal dwellers away. Unfazed, Su and his girlfriend Qin find another place for their restaurant, only to be sent away again. Su then decides to go back home to the countryside, where his wife and children, along with Qin’s family, still live. After being away for 30 years, the couple isn’t exactly welcomed back with open arms. Filmmaker Zhiqi Pan usually observes Su and Qin’s adventures without comment, but does step in on occasion, such as when the unscrupulous Su is trying to cheat people. With its colorful main character, 24th Street offers an original twist to the story of modernizing China—and those on the fringe who can’t keep up.
Is it a spiritual win or failure for a man who has lived a life as a lama for 26 years, to choose to live a secular life, to become a merchant or to have a relationship? Sonam was born with a romantic personality, spiritually-led to dedicate to Tibetan Buddhism. He entered Serthar Buddhist Academy, the biggest Buddhist Academy in the world at the age of six, and vowed there to be a monk for life. In the Academy, Sonam has created many beautiful poems about life and death, spirituality and the Buddhist practice. The poems are also his venue to express desires and freedom he’s now allowed to have. As China changes rapidly, his brief encounters with the profit-driven mainstream society have planted seeds of disturbance in his life. And he also struggles with a temptation for romance as his childhood sweetheart persists to express love to him. Sonam quits his religious life and gets together with a girl who has waited for him for 17 years. Seemingly relieved to embrace the affection, Sonam has to face the pressure from the community towards his secularization and devastation he’s caused on the family. In order to sustain a new life with his now fiance, Sonam now becomes a businessman who runs a printing and translation shop with a staff of Tibetan lamas. As a Lama and poet, Sonam has made all the queries that have not found a solution; now a worldly man and merchant, the situation can only complicate.
Anup Jagdale is probably the only one struggling to not just survive the business inherited from his father but also to keep alive the unusual tradition of touring cinema. Anup always wanted to pursue a 9 to 5 job for a secured future but circumstances led him to join the business of touring cinema after his father met an accident and paralysis made him bedridden. Anup Touring Talkies, a 53-year- old legacy drives across the remotest corners of Maharashtra (India) in its multicolored 73-year- old truck lugged with an 87-year- old cinema projector along with over-a-century old heritage – The INDIAN CINEMA. It is said there were thousands of them in the 1970s. But, with the advent of new means of entertainment, their numbers reduced from thousands to hundreds, hundreds to ten and finally ending up with the only one that is tirelessly carrying its old scratched reels down to the rural spaces. Despite all, the arrival of Talkies in villages is a major event, a sort of　enchanted interlude in the inhabitants’ life, who often live isolated. But for how long will Anup fight and sustain this journey where not only the ways of entertainment but demands of the audiences are changing rapidly. Will it be the end of the touring cinema?
85 years old and never married, Shizu has spent the past 3 decades living in one “Danchi” - the Japanese word for public housing - and filling it with the lifetime of souvenirs that have always kept her company. When the danchi is scheduled for demolition, Shizu and neighbors must say goodbye to their homes, and move into newer danchi that are too small to hold all of Shizu’s momentos. This intimate documentary captures Shizu’s sense of humor, and profound nostalgia, as she sorts through relics of her past, and chooses which memories she must fit into her new home, and which ones she can let go of.
ShareTwitterFacebookGoogle+ *You will leave the NHK website. Minu had worked in Korea for 18 years as an undocumented worker. He formed a migrant workers' band and performed actively until he was deported. Back in his homeland Nepal, Minu established himself as a social entrepreneur, but he misses Korea. Minu gets an opportunity to visit Korea in seven years, only to be turned down at the airport. Upon hearing this, his band members decide to visit Minu in Nepal, and they put together a reunion concert.
Some people in Japan are trying to find happiness through surrogacy services. One agency rents out “significant others.” A retired man hires a rental wife and children in order to relieve his loneliness. A young man hires a girlfriend, so he can practice going on dates. People can be hired to play a variety of roles, and demand is on the rise. There are others who try to create happy memories through another form of surrogacy. They send their stuffed animals on trips organized by a special travel agency. To help maintain their long-distance relationship, a young man and his girlfriend send their white teddy bears on trips together. A middle-aged woman sends off her panda in memory of her late grandmother. The owners enjoy the trip through instant posts on social media and make new friends. We observe how digital technology is changing people’s relationships and even family traditions in Japan. Some people are not only virtually connecting with strangers but are also creating precious memories with them.
In a remote village in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, Gyembo (16) and Tashi (15) aimlessly roam while their father meticulously polishes the ancient relics inside the altar of their family monastery. This family has been taking care of the monastery from one generation to the next for thousands of years. Following tradition, the father wants his son Gyembo to carry on the family heritage but he has other desires just like his transgender sister. The film through bittersweet micro-situations takes us inside a Bhutanese family where the contrasting dreams of two generations are caught in a time clash.
The Duck Master is a story of Somnuek, a 74 years old rice farmer in Thailand who stands strong to his belief in farming without using chemical. He raises and trains ducks as his assistants in rice farming. He was deemed as weird and crazy by others when they see him trying to train 3,000 ducks using just a whistle sound. In The Duck Master, viewers will see how the master trains his ducks and learn about the benefits of using ducks as rice protectors at the same time.
ShareTwitterFacebookGoogle+ *You will leave the NHK website. Afshin a 12 year old boy from the hillside of Kabul is determined to go to school. His father who is an illiterate military man can not find job in Kabul due to some security issues and has to leave the country. This gives Afshin even more motivation to continue his study but studying in Kabul is not easy as schools get continuously bombed by the suicide bomber from extremist groups.
After an earthquake razed a Chinese city to the ground in 2008, more than 6000 families try to replace the children they lost in order to move on with their lives. “A Second Child” follows one of these families haunted by their painful past as they build towards a brighter tomorrow.
Eaindra, 16-year-old Buddhist nun from Naga Land considered among the most uneducated and backward in Myanmar, who currently studies in Yangon, has a desire to go to university of medicine and become the first ever Buddhist nun doctor in the country.
NOOR HUDA - helps returning and released extremists to reintegrate into society in Indonesia. Huda has an interesting past. As a teenager in school, he was radicalized and recruited by an extremist group. After graduation, his schoolmates went to Pakistan for military training. Huda, on the other hand, goes to work for the Washington Post. In 2002, he is sent to cover the Bali Bombings. There, he makes the shocking discovery – one of the Bali bombers was his roommate from school. This drives Huda on a lifelong quest to figure out, what turns ordinary people into extremists and how we can counter it.
ShareTwitterFacebook *You will leave the NHK website. This documentary follows a year in the lives of an entertaining principal who encourages students to discover their dreams and students who don’t have dreams yet.Seung-ho, calls himself a singer/entertainer, is the principal of a very specialized high school in Seoul, South Korea. This school has only 1- year students who come from Tuesday to Friday. On Mondays, they go to their original high schools. Students who do not want to go to university and don’t know what to do for their future, they come to this high school and try to learn a new thing for 1 year before they embark to the real world as an adult. As a singer Seung-ho released 7 albums. So, he uses music as the tool to connecting with students. For Seung-ho as a principal, playing together with the students is just another important subject alongside Maths, English, etc. Seung-ho often says that he has a secret know-how that can make his students dramatically changed in only 12 months. Would this be possible? We have been following Seungho and his students’ changes during a year.
Ephrem Haile is from Ethiopia and has applied for refugee status in Japan. He lives in Tokyo with his Ethiopian wife and six-year-old daughter and has a job. For now, his family is safe, but their newfound stability is fragile. Japan’s asylum policy recently got stricter, and seekers like Ephrem are growing uneasy about their future. To make matters worse, Japanese law has not recognized Ephrem as the legitimate husband of his wife and the legal father of his daughter for lack of documents from his home country. He feels threatened and Japanese bureaucracy is taking its toll on his health. Ephrem strives to prove his family ties with help from the local community.
An intimate look into the story of Armenia’s beloved, record holding weightlifter, who is the pride of the nation until his gender nonconformity became known. Mel faces incredible opposition and public outcry and his gender costs him his fame, his fortune, his family, and even his homeland.
Life as a herder is hard and solitary, but the 82-year-old Iranian, Firouzeh loves the ever-changing nature, the hard life, and her faithful cows. She hikes across the rugged landscape, lugs bundles of wood, and still nimbly climbs trees. This story follows this strong-minded woman in her work across the seasons as she tells the story of her life, with work and fate as the dominant themes. When she was a young girl, a marriage was arranged for her with an older man, with whom she had 11 children. But not one of them comes to visit her now. Spending the winter in the low-lying village, she makes fervent efforts to get closer to her kids. Nevertheless, she looks forward to the prospect of spending another summer in the mountains with her cows, ignoring well-meaning advice that she should simply retire.
While the internet and social networks have facilitated new encounters for men and women in Tibet, it has also increased the divorce rate for many nomadic families. Sadly, Tibetan customs encourage parents to leave their children behind in order to join a new family. After living in an orphanage for several years, 13-year-old Metok Karpo decides to embark on a journey to visit the father she never got the chance to know.
Zhang, Ke-Han is a 28 years old Taiwanese young man who loves acting very much. His full-time job is an extra actor for TV, movie or student production film. His daily working routine is hunting for any possibility to audition online, making his resume, and submit to different production offices. Just like other actors, sometimes he will get an audition call but sometimes not. He has a whole wardrobe of costume and props for auditions, but actually, he only earns 20 USD a day from this job and still living with his mother. If someone asks him how far he will go? He will answer, "I will keep doing this forever!"
As the biggest Muslim society in the world, Indonesia hosts over 25,000 Islamic boarding schools, housing more than 4 million students. This film is set in one of the largest traditional Islamic boarding schools in Cirebon, West Java, Indonesia, called Pondok Kebon Jambu -- one of the very few which runs by a woman. Indonesia experiences changes in recent years -- more people would criticize others based on shallow understandings of the Islam. A young teacher, Diding, is determined to teach proper and profound understanding of Islam that values "harmony and co-existence." Dika, a senior student who is responsible for the well-being of his roommates, gives lessons on Islamic teachings to little kids as a part of his internship. Bibah is an art teacher who has lived in the school for 7 years. Her parents disapprove of her interest in music, but the school values her talents and supports her choice to improve her skills and to continue her education further. Through intimate moments with these captivating young people, the film cuts through cultural and religious barriers, and offers an opportunity for the audience to get acquainted with Islamic teachings and the world of Islam in changing society.
"THE PASSPORT" tells the story of a migrant worker's wife who got HIV positive by her husband, but struggles to fulfill her dream. Trying to empower herself against the existing patriarchal society, has been a symbolic protest to violence against women and children. "THE PASSPORT" is a real scenario of current Bangladesh with a lot of migrant workers and their victim wife and children having HIV positive transmitted by their spouses. Bangladesh is a major source of migrant workers. The villages of this country are the major suppliers of migrant workers to the world. Babupur, Chatkhil, Noakhali is such a remote village where most of the people are migrant workers in the Arab Gulf region; and the rest are mostly illiterate and orthodox Muslims.
"Dancesport" has been big in the island of Cebu, the Philippines since the year 2000, and especially for kids from unprivileged families, becoming dancesport athletes means opening doors to their future. This episode features 2 kids training to win at world-class dance competitions, sharing tears and laughter while learning about survival, defeat, and victory.
Mindanao, the southernmost island in the Philippines, has long faced armed conflicts from various rebel factions. Violent encounters between the government troops and rebels have recently intensified, and this led to the declaration of military rule in the region. Thousands of Lumads, the indigenous peoples in the region, have evacuated their ancestral lands. Soldiers have occupied schools and used them as camps, forcing students and children out of the area. To flee from the violence, some of them evacuated to Manila, the capital city of the Philippines.
This film is about the psychological journey of a filmmaker and her mother in Bangladeshi Muslim society. The daughter tries to find out the reasons why her once joyful and outgoing mother has suddenly turned very conservative. At first, she thought Mom had changed because of the Hajj, the biggest Muslim pilgrimage. After the Hajj, Mom transformed into a very religious lady and cocooned herself within the 4 walls of the house. She no longer approves of her daughter's filmmaking profession. On the top of that, she wants to take her daughter on the Hajj along with her so that she can understand her mother's beliefs. Before going on the Hajj, the daughter starts filming her mom to better understand her. Slowly, through this filmmaking process, the daughter realizes that her mom was very lonely in her world. She's still writing poems in private, which she once did when she was young. She sought freedom through her poetry, but she never published it or shared it with anyone, not even with her husband. To fulfill the void in her life she finally submits herself to God.
Li Chunyuan is an idealistic, lower-level Chinese government official who is determined to get a grip on local air pollution. He is in charge of air pollution in the Langfang Environmental Protection Bureau. Langfang used to be one of the most polluted cities in China. Li uses quick methods to clean up the air and reduce smog, but, little by little, loses control. We follow his journey.
Uyashinai, once a thriving rice-farming village, is on the brink of extinction. The young have fled to cities with no sight of return and the village elders are left to protect their ancestral land. But this could all be able to change because Uyashinai has caught the attention of Japan's most popular sake maker, Yusuke. Yusuke wants to grow his own sake rice in Uyashinai. This is an unexpected opportunity for the villagers to revive their fields and pass on their ancestral land. But, not all are on board Yusuke's radical plans. Yusuke doesn't want to grow just ordinary sake rice; it must be organic. Yusuke deploys his Master Brewer, Koseki, to grow the village's first harvest of organic rice in 70 years. However, Koseki is a sake brewer and has no experience of farming. He hasn't even ever planted a flower. Will Koseki be able to successfully grow organic rice, and most importantly change the hearts and minds of the village? This story follows how this forgotten village and Japan's finest sake brewery as they come together to achieve the first steps of their dreams; to make the most authentic cup of sake and save their ancestral land from disappearing forever.
