The only movie theater on the Onomichi seafront is about to close its doors. Its last night of screenings will be an all-night marathon of Japanese war films. When lightning strikes the theater, three young men in the audience find themselves thrown back in time into the world inside the screen.

This extraordinarily inventive and heartfelt final opus by Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (Hausu) is a truly overwhelming experience. A three-hour time-traveling, genre-hopping anti-war masterpiece, this madcap yet deeply earnest film is a love letter to the art of cinema and its capacity to change the world.