Spotlight

Ponko is one of the newly rich who made their fortune gambling as an elite player in a small town. In order to avoid dealing with other competitive players of the same kind, he settled a deal for himself to do time at a low security detention facility. He can still be in charge of his deal from prison with the help of his wife Rada. Yet, he bets and loses Rada to another prisoner at a game, which gives that man the right to spend a night with her, as well as to join the elite of players he is part of. Rada has feelings for Ponko's cousin but when she brings some money she has won at a game to him, she learns that he made a deal with Ponko to take care of her while he is in prison. She tries to get out of the vicious circle of crime but fails to do so. The corrupt world of blurred concepts of good and evil has engulfed them all and turned them into predators and victims of its poison.

Child abuse and maltreatment, bullying in a school setting, empowerment by extra-curricular reinforcement.

'My name is Julia. I do love Tom. I'm gonna have a baby. I don't know Viola and Mariati. I know they live around the neighborhood. Why can't I be full of vitality, full of love, the way Mariati and Viola seem to be?'

Shinjiro Watari (Mizutani), a former tap dancer, plays the lead as a dancer who is forced into retirement following an accident while on stage. He tries his hand at Directing, but struggles to make the transition. Shinjiro turns to alcohol to cope with his plight. But when the manager of a theater being closed down turns to Shinjiro to direct its final performance, he works with a group young dancers and in the process learns a few things about himself. The movie is very well done and worth the price of admission. A view into the Japanese dancing world, as well as Japanese society.