An American journalist travels through 19th-century Japan to find the prostitute he fell in love with but instead learns of the physical and existential horror that befell her after he left.
The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped by the lord. Her husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to rescue her.
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.
Studio Gin'ei film yapımcısı Gen'ya Tachibana, gençlik yıllarının ünlü film yıldızı Chiyoko Fujiwara'nın hayatını belgesel haline getirmeye karar verir. Chiyoko 1930'dan 1960'a kadar çalıştığı stüdyonun baş kadın oyuncusu olmuştur. Ama kariyerinin zirvesinde oyunculuğu bırakıp inzivaya çekilmiştir. Tachibana ve ekibindeki insanlar Chiyoko hayatını anlatırken kendilerini eşsiz hatıraların saklandığı bir zaman tünelinde bulurlar.
Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating", where older men pay young girls for dates. Hiromi plunges deeper into this world to raise money for an expensive ring.