The amiable rakugo storyteller Shofukutei Tsurube gets to show some grit in this earnest effort by Hideyuki Hirayama, filmed at a real-life psychiatric hospital in Nagano Prefecture. He plays Hidemaru "Hide" Kajiki, a triple murderer given an honorable discharge from death row — and left in a wheelchair — after his execution fails to have the desired effect.
Not having anywhere better to send him, the authorities place Hide in an institution, where he spends most of his time crafting bowls and vases in the on-site pottery workshop. He gets along well with most of the residents, not least Chuya "Chu" Tsukamoto (Go Ayano), a diffident young man who had himself committed after he started hearing voices.
The pair appear to be the most well-adjusted people there, living alongside patients with more obvious disorders played by character actors including Hana Kino, Kiyohiko Shibukawa and Ryusuke Komakine. Chu is sufficiently compos mentis to be allowed out on shopping trips to the local town, though when his family arrives with bad news about his ailing mother, he takes a turn for the worse.