At Hollywood pitch meetings, the pitchers (presenters) typically sell their movie ideas with the "meets" technique, as in, "It's a monster animation for the whole family: 'Bambi' meets 'Godzilla.' "
Takahisa Zeze's new melodrama, "Antoki no Inochi (Life Back Then)," might be described as 2009's "Yomei 1-kagetsu no Hanayome (April Bride)" meets 2010's "Raiou (The Lightening Tree)." "Life Back Then" features "The Lightening Tree" star Masaki Okada as a shy, stuttering, fiercely passionate youth and "April Bride" star Nana Eikura as a girl with a kind but wounded heart whom Okada's character befriends and comes to love.
Also, Zeze emerged from the same pinku eiga (softcore porn) background as his senpai (senior) Ryuichi Hiroki, director of both "April" and "Lightning." And all three films were produced by the TBS network, as a sort of star-crossed love trilogy.