Year Without a Summer

OMNIBUS PROJECT LONGING FOR THE PEACEFUL REUNIFICATION OF KOREA

Kimura, a drunk and a gambler, has no affection for his daughter Kiku-San, who falls in love with Dick Tower, an American college friend of her brother Okuma. After Suzuki, a geisha house proprietor, meets Kiku-San, he runs up Kimura's bill to such an exorbitant amount, that Kimura readily agrees to give him Kiku-San as payment. Seeing her peril, Tower and his friend Thompson rescue Kiku-San after fighting Suzuki and his patrons. Tower takes her to his home, and because this compromises her, they marry. Kiku-San and Tower are happy until his friends at the American Club snub them. Even Thompson encourages Tower to divorce her. After Tower meets Margaret, a wealthy American widow, he tires of being ostracized, and becomes cold to Kiku-San. Her sadness, conveyed to Okuma, causes him to threaten to kill Tower unless she refuses to go with him to America for Christmas. She does refuse, and Tower sails with Margaret, happy with the belief that Kiku-San wanted the separation, while Kiku-San sits in sorrow among cherry blossom trees.

The movie follows Ricky, who witnesses his mother and sister die at the age of 3, and, at 11, is sent to reform school. The film begins when a 20-year-old Ricky returns home. Being incarcerated has made him very humble. Ricky begins to search for ways to be a better person and be positive fixture in society. Ricky gets a job, finds love, and, as his 21st birthday approaches, things seem to be looking up. But as the title suggests, not all goes according to plan.

A novelist Rihito Shiraishi meets Saki Honda, a somewhat eccentric woman, and he is attracted to her. Triggered by Saki's suicidal attempt and reading her diary, Shiraishi recognizes that their encounter was not a coincidence. United by an airplane accident, they start to face their true selves eventually, influencing one another.