Shell and Joint

Nitobe and Sakamoto are childhood friends who now work at the front desk of a capsule hotel. Nitobe has a particular fondness for philosophy and crustaceans. Sakamoto, meanwhile, is fixated on suicide. The capsule hotel draws a variety of guests, including a Finnish mother who has lost her child, a fugitive woman, and a researcher studying Daphnia. None of their lives ever intersect. They exist, but never cross, like cells in a capsule hotel. The themes of life and death are explored through a fragmentary view of the characters’ lives.

• Isamu HirabayashiScreenplay
• Isamu HirabayashiDirector
• Takashi WatanabeOriginal Music Composer

• Mariko TsutsuiYoko Sakamoto
• Keisuke HoribeNitobe
• Aiko SatoCast
• Hiromi KitagawaCast
• Atsuko SudoCast
• Koharu KusumiCast
• Kanako HigashiSakura Sakurada
• Tatsuya GasyuinCast
• Takuya FujisakiCast
• Ayano KudoCast
• Naoto NojimaKen Ishigai
• Karia NomotoCast