Tenshi tsukinuke rokuchoume

Noboru (Taku Manabe) finds himself in a very difficult situation. The factory he’s been working at has gone bankrupt. He heads to the factory’s office to demand his last paycheque, but it turns out some gangster thugs are there demanding money as well. Now with the yakuza on his tail Noboru has to run for his life. He ends up hiding out in a rundown rooming house in a mysterious area of Kyoto not listed on the city maps. It’s while Noboru is living in this rooming house and working as a security guard on a construction site that he encounters a cast of unusual characters: a fellow security guard who is obsessed by fossils, an aging widow on the edge of sanity, and a beautiful alcoholic woman named Miyuki (Natsumi Seto) who is convinced that she I growing a wing on her back. Will Noboru be able to stay hidden or will his newfound infatuation with Miyuki prove more dangerous than the thugs who are hunting him?

Directed by Masafumi Yamada, Tenshi tsukinuke rokuchoume leans on a strong ensemble — Ryuzaburo Hattori, Taku Manabe, Akaji Maro — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about screen titles of 2011.