Manatsu no Merry Christmas

Matthew, a rich nationalist Jew and a contemporary of Jesus, regards the latter as an obstacle in this struggle to free their people from the Roman yoke by means of revolt. He incites the people against Jesus and prevents his own wife, a true Christian in her heart, from offering the Redeemer a drink of water at his crucifixion on Golgotha. For this act Matthew is condemned to wander eternally on the earth with every rest denied to him, even that of the grave. We go forward to Paris in 1940. Matthew, miraculously still alive, is now the young banker Matthew Blumenthal. Rich and powerful, it would be easy to escape from Nazi persecution, but he chooses not to do so. He wishes to share the lot of his fellow Jews and, with many others, is despatched to Germany and detained in a concentration camp where everyone is brutally ill-treated. Being young, robust and full of energy, he does not resign himself to the situation, but succeeds in organizing a rebellion and flees with several comrades. He manages to reach safety, but when he learns that a hundred hostages will be killed if he does not return to captivity, he surrenders voluntarily and undergoes martyrdom, whereupon the curse of the Wandering Jew is finally lifted.

There is a degree of realism when a professional in the field writes about his vocation and such is the case here. Adopted from a novel written by a doctor and set in Nagano, doctor Kuriharai is overwhelmed by the number and variety of patients he has to see due to a shortage of physicians where he practices. He aspires to work somewhere more convenient, specialize and see more of his wife, but faces a dilemma many other doctors experience. What will happen to his patients should he move on?

After saving herself for marriage, a 40-year-old Christian woman finally meets her soul mate. But her hopes sour when she discovers that this candidate carries extra baggage: a drunk wife and shady dealings with criminal elements. With no other takers on the horizon, she begins to doubt her faith. But good things come to those who wait and a new reformed man returns to her life.

In Paris in the 1880s, the beautiful opera singer, Christine, is captured and held against her will by the infamous "phantom of the opera".

London gentleman David spends a day and all his cash to bring his one-night stand a presentation folder at her office in Liverpool, only to be rather rudely ignored a minute later. After a night on the streets, he meets diner waitress Tina, who takes pity on him. David wins spending money at the race tracks and decides to spend it on a playful tour of the city guided by Tina, which is mainly an excuse to get close romantically and learn about each-other.