From Five to Nine

At twenty-eight, Junko Sakuraba’s (Satomi Ishihara) greatest dream is to live and work in New York City. Unfortunately, working as an English language school teacher isn’t getting her any closer to her dreams. As disappointed as she is at being so far from making her greatest dream come true, Junko is even more disappointed in the fact that she’s soon turning twenty-nine and still has never had a boyfriend.  With a funeral service to attend, Junko has little time for thoughts about dreams or men. But things take an unexpected turn when she notices a handsome monk praying at the temple. Well aware of the fact that a funeral isn’t the best time to find a guy, Junko tries to ignore him but fate decides to make things difficult. With her legs numb from kneeling so long, Junko’s attempt to stand ends in disaster when she accidentally knocks a bowl of ash from the altar on the handsome monk’s head. Mortified, Junko tries to convince herself it’s okay because she will never see him again. But fate, it would seem, has one more trick to play. Tricked into a matchmaking session by her family, Junko arrives only to find that the other party is none other than the handsome monk, Takane Hoshikawa (Tomohisa Yamashita). Will this second meeting go better than the first or have the two been doomed from the start? Adapted from the manga series of the same name by Miki Aihara, 5→9 From Five to Nine is a romantic comedy drama directed by Shin Hirano, Hideyuki Aizawa, and Masaki Tanimura.