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Mizuho is a promising rhythmic gymnast, but she is diagnosed with a spinal cord disease and becomes paralyzed from the waist down. She is devastated. With the help of music, Mizuho works toward a new dream.

Yu Zhenxin is a robot, secretly and specially designed in specialising in serving the needs of slightly older unmarried women, intern doctor Lin Mengnan accidentally chanced upon and is being served by Yu Zhenxin, who treats her especially well, making Mengnan feel pampered and in bliss.

The story takes place during the Muromachi period of Ancient Japan, in the midst of the Onin War. The main character in the series is Tomiko Hino, a historical figure with a bad reputation because of her actions to rebuild Kyoto after the Onin War.

There are possibly two immediate statements that can be made about Filipino director Lav Diaz' film Batang West Side, which recently screened in competition at the 15th Singapore International Film Festival, and went on to win Best Film at the festival's Silver Screen Awards. Firstly, its five-hour duration demonstrates an intriguing exercise in a new aesthetics for cinema in our region, and not merely in the Philippines. Secondly, the film is a subtle intersection of personal memory and history. The narrative seems to suggest that for a nation to confront how it has been complicit in creating its history, its people need to confront their collective past. If this is in many ways at the core of Diaz' film, then it presents urgent questions to both Filipinos and those of us who live elsewhere in Southeast Asia. It certainly begins to ask us how we perceive our collective identity and what we know of our history.