Zokki is available in the FLC Virtual Cinema beginning August 16. Get tickets here.

Reveling in the random moments that make life so ineffable, this off-kilter comedy reminds us that there are no superheroes and no heart-stopping climaxes in the real world—just oddballs and misfits trying to make friends, make a living, and make do. Three of Japan’s most talented and prolific actor-directors (including NYAFF 2011 Rising Star Asia awardee Takayuki Yamada) have joined forces to adapt Hiroyuki Ohashi’s cult manga series about characters in “an obscure corner” of the world. The film’s five loosely connected storylines concern the secrets and lies, the fears and tears, and the puerile potty jokes that punctuate their daily (and in one eerie case, nightly) encounters. Marked by gentle humor, this bundle of refreshingly unique tales (whose title literally references the way paperbacks are bundled for sale in used bookshops) is strangely amusing and ultimately moving.