They talk, revealing themselves as they also tease the story’s themes, fortune and fantasy included. They chat, confess, overshare, open up and lash out. Hamaguchi shows how each situation is redeemed, or at any rate altered, by a kind of miracle.

For example, in the first, Meiko has the magic power to stop and rewind time so that she can play out a certain situation, or conversation, differently.

This trio of stories is elegant and amusing, with a delicacy of touch and real imaginative warmth.