Yudo

The interest in yudo — an artform that has been around for 400 years — is dwindling, and the state of it has trapped the last master of the craft (Kubota Masataka) in a deep despair. But just as he decides to end his life, a crook (Ikuta Toma) looking for a quick hideout (and potentially another place to rob!) saves him. To explain his presence, the swindler takes on the pretense of a yudo noob who is extraordinarily moved by it. Unable to back out, he reluctantly follows the mopey master down a trail that hooks them into making a movie about yudo — but, between the two of them, it’s for very different reasons.

Miura Shiro (Ikuta Toma) makes an unexpected return to Marukin Onsen, the bathhouse left behind by his late father that his younger brother, Goro (Hamada Gaku), currently manages. With his background as an architect, Shiro drops surprising news that he wants to close shop and convert the old building into housing—which Goro naturally opposes. Things don’t go as planned for either of the brothers, however, when a boiler-room incident lands Goro in the hospital, and Marukin employee Izumi (Hashimoto Kanna) prompts Shiro to reluctantly stand in. Unable to avoid the usual customers—from couples to parents and their children—he is confronted by an introspective look at himself along the way.