Welcome to Season 7! As we are now a quarter of the way through the 21st century, like Bill Murray in Tootsie, Paul and Corey are asking, “What happened?” This season we are looking at the trends, genres, styles, and more that make up cinema of the past 25 years.

In today’s episode, we leave the hustle and bustle of the old US of A and relax in a little village two hours outside of Tokyo. The film is the follow-up to the Academy Award-winning Drive My Car - Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Evil Does Not Exist (2023).

Equally beautiful, stark, and subtle in its storytelling, as well as performances, the film is a meditation on how the logic of capitalism respects neither the environment nor people (not so coincidentally the sources of its value). And within that system, how do all of us find a sense of meaning and peace?