Tandem

A young and beautiful department store saleswoman lives in the furniture section without anyone noticing.

Kanako joins a high school where she is reunited with her childhood friend, Eijun. Following the idea of Seiryo, Kanako's elder brother, they form a band. They aim to perform at the school festival, however, they are unable to get through the audition. The following year, they perform at a local music event, Yaeyama Band Tengoku, under a new band name of "Beginning" instead of "Seiryos". The band wins first place, qualifying to compete in the national event in Tokyo, but that night, Seiryo gets killed in an accident. In order to live out his dream to "make a record debut in Tokyo", the band members go to the national event and perform the song Seiryo left behind, and they become the champions.

Edith, a young orphan, is exploited as a waitress and bullied by her adoptive father. But she has a dream: she wants to become a star. One day the Orient Express, which never stops at the little station across the café she works in, is forced to pull up due to a technical incident. And out of a carriage gets ... a company of dancers, who start rehearsing before Edith's amazed eyes. She meets the director of the company, handsome dancing star Harry Belmont, who takes an interest in her beauty and in her natural talent. When she leaves her obnoxious father for Vienna, Harry is absent. She nearly gets seduced by a libidinous man but, after a narrow escape, she gets a job from Treberg, the owner of the restaurant she had dined in. Treberg finds her there, hires her as a dancer and the pair soon meets tremendous success. A star is born but, realizing that he comes second to her, he prefers to vanish. Edith, now known by stage name Marie-Ange, becomes a solo hit as a dancer and singer. In Paris, she slaps a stranger who has just offended her, unaware that the man is King Jean IV...

Standing on the edge of a rooftop, Gregory ponders the precariousness of life. He is 20 and feels like a stranger to himself. He wonders how he can live without dreams or desires. One day, he sees Liv, another college sophomore, and falls secretly and utterly in love with her. When he finally dares to declare his love, he finds himself up against a wall. Liv does not know him. Twenty-year-old Liv loses her virginity to Ilia, an older Russian army deserter. She experiences her first love and treasures every minute. But all too soon, Ilia's past creeps back into his life and unravels their union. One day, he leaves her without a word. She will have to live with the same intolerable loneliness that she unwittingly inflicted on Gregory.

A rural Afghan family struggles to survive during the last, brutal year of the Taliban and the beginning of a new war that still rages. With war and conflict threatening their existence, the family copes by finding meaning in life's tragedies.