Twilight Out of Focus

Second-year students Mao Tsuchiya and Hisashi Ootomo return to sharing a dorm room after a shaky beginning, settling into an uneasy but workable peace. To keep things from falling apart, they agree on three ground rules: Mao won’t reveal that Ootomo is gay and has a boyfriend, Ootomo won’t develop feelings for Mao, and both will stay out of each other’s business when one of them needs privacy.

That balance starts to crack when the school’s film club launches its new project—a boys’ love short about a class president and a delinquent, with Ootomo seen as the ideal choice for the latter role. As the photographer responsible for framing every scene, Mao finds himself directing the film’s most intimate moments up close, and the emotions he tries to ignore begin to bleed into both the production and his life in the dorm.