A director and screenwriter dig up a 15-year-old family massacre—turns out, they're not just researching the past, they're hiding in it.
54 minSeason 1 • Episode 4
LatestHasebe Kaori is a rookie movie director. She consults with new screenwriter Kai Chihiro about her movie's screenplay. The script is based on the Sasazukacho Family Murder Case that occurred 15 years ago. That murder case involved a hikikomori man who murdered his younger sister at their home and then set their home on fire. The fire also killed his parents. The town where the murder took place is also the hometown of Kai Chihiro. Both Hasebe Kaori and Kai Chihiro have secrets related to the family murder case. While Hasebe Kaori and Kai Chihiro look into this murder case for their movie, a shocking truth is uncovered.
Writing
Screenplay-within-screenplay structure that weaponizes ambiguity.
Acting
Kitagawa and Yoshioka's brittle, guarded chemistry.
Direction
Shinozaki and Uchida blur fiction and memory until you can't tell which bleeds.
Creators
Eriko Shinozaki, Eiji Uchida
Keiko Kitagawa
Hasebe Kaori
Riho Yoshioka
Kai Mahiro
Hitomi Kuroki
Ohata Rinko
Ryoma Takeuchi
Tateishi Rikito
Shiori Kubo
Tateishi Sara
Sei Matobu
Hasebe Mari
Mitsuomi Takahashi
Kamiike Masataka
Ichirôta Miyakawa
Kai Ryohei
Manabu Hamada
Sasaki Shingo
Ren Komai
Kai Chiho
Atom Shukugawa
Hasebe Yuki
Takashi Kobayashi
Yamagami Michiya
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The hikikomori phenomenon here isn't exoticized—it's treated as both social failure and private prison, specific to Japan's 2000s economic stagnation.
Eiji Uchida's co-direction brings his signature 'evil women' complexity from 'Lowlife Love'—here, the women aren't evil, just irrevocably entangled.
JP
