Sequel to Dare To Stop Us, which depicted the youth of those who gathered at Wakamatsu Production, led by director Wakamatsu Koji. Helmed by Inoue Junichi, who penned the screenplay for the first film and is a former member of Wakamatsu Production. In the 1980s the rise of video led to declines in movie theater attendance. Bucking this trend, Wakamatsu (Iura Arata) establishes the Cinema Skhole independent movie theater and appoints Kimata Junji (Higashide Masahiro), who was working locally as a video camera salesman, as the theater manager.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when movie theaters were in crisis, many filmmakers, screenwriters, and actors in Japan stood up to support art-house cinemas. Through crowdfunding, over 300 million yen as raised. Yet at that time, I heard voices saying, “If you are a filmmaker, creating a hit film—not just temporary support—is what will sustainably support art-house cinemas.” I have long wanted to respond to that critique. I wanted to make art-house films, screen them in art-house theaters, and fill those theaters with audiences. That has become my dream. Around that time, I learned that my mentor, director Koji Wakamatsu, had founded an art-house cinema called Cinema Skole in Nagoya, a regional city, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. This was back when the concept of “art-house” was still new in Japan. Back then, no one could have imagined that a filmmaker would even own a cinema. Video was becoming popular, making movies easily accessible at home, and in a country with little cultural support, running an art-house was extremely challenging. I wanted to capture how art-house cinemas were founded and kept alive despite these struggles. Art-house cinemas are places that connect people to movies, and people to each other. It was in such an art-house that I met director Wakamatsu and began my journey in filmmaking. A journey filled with failures and setbacks. Yet I could never give up on making films. This resilience mirrors that of art-house cinemas, which continue to screen films despite repeated financial crises. This film is a coming-of-age ensemble about art-house cinemas and the young people whose lives were “hijacked” by cinema. In that sense, this story is not only mine—it is also yours. Can it reach across borders?