Back in the Edo period, the divorce rate was actually twice as high as it is now in Japan. Women who wanted to end their marriages would run off to one particular place: Tokei-ji, a Buddhist temple in Kamakura that provided refuge & assistance to abused women. Those who stayed at Tokei-ji for two years would be able to officially divorce. As such, Tokei-ji became known as Kakekomi-dera, a temple that sheltered women. Directed by Harada Masato ( Chronicle of My Mother) & based on a novel by Inoue Hisashi, Kakekomi brings together an all-star cast to tell the different stories of Tokei-ji with a brisk & entertaining blend of drama, comedy, action & romance.
Oizumi Yo stars as doctor & aspiring writer Nakamura Nobujiro who comes to meet many of the women staying at the temple. He tries to come up with ways for the kakekomi including an iron worker (Toda Erika) tired of her no-good husb&, a merchants mistress (Mitsushima Hikari) & a female samurai (Uchiyama Rina) who was forced to marry her enemy to start new lives, but in the process he also finds himself possibly falling for them. The tranquility of the temple is also constantly disrupted by outside forces, from local officials to angry husbands, who wont leave the women be.