Known for Acting
A story of one man and four women. Tomoaki Chiba has been enjoying the single life since he divorced his childhood friend Chie some years ago. He's now dating a young girl named Ayano as well as an older woman, Makiko. One day his elder cousin Aiko returns after a long absence. She is the very first and last love for Tomoaki... This tragicomic romance depicts an eccentric but earnest love.
Kenji, abandoned by his mother, scrapes out a meager existence doing odd jobs including driving bar hostesses and their customers home. Besides this he takes care of the sister of an old friend in jail and a young illegal immigrant. Eventually his life reaches a turning point.
A young woman arrives in Paris where she finds a job as a waitress in bar next on Avenue Montaigne that caters to the surrounding theaters and the wealthy inhabitants of the area. She will meet a pianist, a famous actress and a great art collector, and become acquainted with the "luxurious" world her grandmother has told her about since her childhood.
Carmen, a bonobo female, flees from the research center in linguistics where she is being kept. She takes refuge at a young couple's place, Mercier and his pregnant wife Myriam. Mercier, beginning at a new job, is reluctant to welcome the ape. But Myriam makes friend with her.
Amélie, a young Belgian woman, having spent her childhood in Japan, decides to return to live there and tries to integrate in the Japanese society. She is determined to be a "real Japanese" before her year contract runs out, though it precisely this determination that is incompatable with Japanese humility. Though she is hired for a choice position as a translator at an import/export firm, her inability to understand Japanese cultural norms results in increasingly humiliating demotions. Though Amelie secretly adulates her, her immediate supervisor takes sadistic pleasure in belittling her all along. She finally manages to break Amelie's will by making her the bathroom attendant, and is delighted when Amelie tells her the she will not renew her contract. Amelie realizes that she is finally a real Japanese when she enters the company president's office "with fear and trembling," which could only be possible because her determination was broken by Miss Fubuki's systematic torture.
Asami and Rina are two sisters who are both professional shogi players in the same B League. Both are also unsatisfied with their partners — Asami is in a slump and is danger of slipping into the C League and she blames her husband Kazuya, and Rina is tired of her boyfriend Hiroki, an unsuccessful musician.
Mitsuko has a prestigious job as an editor at a publishing company, while her husband Tomatsu works as a freelance photographer, but he spends all of his time taking care of housework. One day, Mitsuko suspects Tomatsu is having an affair with Mayu, a model, and immediately throws him out. With no place to go, he moves in with Mayu, disrupting her affair with Nakazaki, who happens to work with Mitsuko.
Ikuko is a mature, reserved Kyoto woman married for many years to a respectable, now-middle-aged man. The only problem in their relationship has been that her husband is dissatisfied with her lack of passion during lovemaking. All this changes after they meet the young Mr. Kimura
A coming-of-age drama depicting the despair and madness of young people living in the city. 25-year-old Mamoru leads a normal life as a part-time worker, but when his senior commits suicide, her mental state begins to change.
Upon getting thrown out of his girlfriend Fujiko's apartment, Hiromi decides to head for the ocean. En route, he crosses paths with Kaito, an elite employee of a large multinational trading company in Tokyo who is running away from his problems at work after losing a key client. The two stumble into a quiet B&B on the beach run by the aging surfer Masaru and his high-school-aged granddaughter Makoto. Hiromi immediately applies to work there for the summer, and Kaito is forced to join him after he loses his wallet. The two share a room, with Hiromi trying to make friends, and Kaito at first resisting, unimpressed by Hiromi's devil-may-care attitude. Slowly over the ensuing episodes, Kaito becomes more and more at home in this sleepy rural town, and begins to wonder if he should give up his pursuit of success in the big city, and try to relax, and enjoy himself more. When he returns to Tokyo to finish his work, Hiromi and Makoto come to lure him back, but when he returns to the B&B, his boss and girlfriend Sakura likewise come looking for him.
Yasuo is a gangster just released from jail. Believing his boss double-crossed him, enraged Yasuo is on his way to find the boss. But before setting out for the dangerous trip, Yasuo asks Kenji to take care of his mentally challenged sister, Yuri, and a mysterious black bag.
Masayuki meets Nanami, who is on a journey with a refrigerator named Ullie. Nanami's Iranian friend Amir is helping her haul the refrigerator which contains Nanami's dead boyfriend. Masayuki joins the journey.
