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- Matsutaro Yasuda, a retired girl's High School Principal who has lost his wife to alcoholism and is forsaken by his daughter, moves to an old apartment in a country town. Yasuda, at his new address, meets a little five years old girl who lives next door. Sachi, the little girl, clenches on an iron fence at the apartment. All alone, she is gazing into the distance. Angel's wings made of cardboard are on her back. She is barefoot and wears a summer dress in spite of it being winter. On her leg there are scratches and bruises. Yasuda speaks to Sachi but she does not smile or say a word. When night falls, violent voices can be heard from next door to the mother and her lover echoing in Yasuda's room almost every night. Yasuda blocked out his emotions. He didn't want to hear or see anything. However, little by little something moved his emotions we can call it passion. When he looked into the little girl's eyes, which are also lacking in emotion, something seemed to overlap his wounded heart. "Have you ever seen a blue sky? Where clouds appear like cotton candy and a white bird is flying high?" "Would you like to walk with me?" Yasuda and Sachi begin their long walk... During their walk, the two meet a young boy named Wataru at a small desolate train station. Wataru seems to be easygoing. However, he is also lonely and holds an empty feeling in his heart. The passing Wataru joins the two on their journey but the trip goes in an unexpected direction when one day Sachi begins to open her heart to Yasuda and Wataru. Cardboard Angel wings begin to fly toward a real sky...
- In 1838, on the penal colony of Hachijo Island, the ex-courtesan Toyogiku, convicted of arson in the capital, holds court over a motley assembly of criminals and corrupt officials. There are neither cells nor guards, and the only rule is that everyone is on their own to survive. Toyogiku herself exploits the only currency available for her use: her own sexuality, in give-and-take bargaining reducing life to the absolute essentials - essentials fueled with simmering, unreleased passions. Hatred, desire, love, life and death, the joy and sorrow of being alive: human drama unfolds in the harshest of atmospheres on this solitary island in a distant sea. This marks the 2nd Directorial effort of Eiji Okuda, who won several awards internationally (A total of 8 awards including the 17th Paris Film Festival, Thessaloniki, AFI Film Festival 2002) for his first film 'Shoujyo - an adolescent', a small-town love story set among locals in modern-day Japan. Conversely, 'RUNIN' marks a 180 degree turn: shot in grand, epic-style, it is a period piece set on Hachijo Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Keiko Matsuzaka, a top rank actress in her native Japan and International Ballet Superstar Kazuhiro Nishijima makes his debut alongside her. Screenwriter Izuru Narushima and Director of Photography Hirokazu Ishii rejoin the director for their 2nd consecutive film collaboration. Conviction and creative vision of Eiji Okuda brought together both the old and the new generations of Japanese talent on this project.