Now and Then (2026)

A college student and her fellow activists across Japan are pushing back against the country’s harsh immigration policies, which keep asylum seekers locked up in deadly detention facilities. At the same time, more than a century after the brutal massacre of Korean civilians in the chaos following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, a new generation of young protesters is carrying forward the fight for justice—confronting a government that still refuses to acknowledge the atrocity. As a filmmaker follows these grassroots organizers, she starts to uncover the deep-rooted patterns of discrimination linking that century-old tragedy to today’s ruthless refugee system. By weaving together voices from history and the present, the streets of Tokyo begin to reveal the unresolved wounds of a nation still grappling with its imperial past.