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Takeo Kimura, one of Japan's most celebrated art directors, directed his first feature film at the age of age of 89 with this tale of a student filmmaker and the veteran director and teacher who becomes his mentor. Kimuro Hajime (Hiroyuki Nagato) is an aging movie maker and World War II veteran who has become dean of the film program at a prestigious university. Kimuro shares his home with his wife Emiko (Ineko Arima), who is beginning to show early symptoms of senility and is given to dwelling upon the past. Daisuke (Yoshio Inoue) is a promising young student who Kimuro has taken under his wing; Daisuke is fascinated with the look and style of the Forties and Fifties and is an amateur historian of World War II, which he sees as one of Japan's greatest tragedies. As Kimuro tries to reign in Daisuke's real but unfocused talent and offer him a perspective on his nation's past, he finds himself recalling a beautiful woman he loved and lost during the war. One day Kimuro sees a woman who could be the twin of his former love walking down the street, and he can't help but wonder if she's real, a ghost or just product of his overactive imagination. Meanwhile, Emiko is haunted by her own memories of those close to her that she lost decades ago, and after dropping out of school Daisuke falls into a deep depression and ponders taking his own life. Yumi No Manimani (aka Dreaming Awake) make its North American debut at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival.