Hiro is a short film about a Japanese insect collector who is forced out
of his shell by a series of strange events. As funny as it is touching, Hiro draws
inspiration from disparate sources to weave a unified tale of obsession, love, loss, and
bad guys who really like their cars.
Hiro originally premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in the fall of 2005,
and in January 2006 became the first Canadian film ever to win the Audience Award for
Best Short at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Synopsis

HIRO is a shy, awkward Japanese entomologist who spends his time and money
collecting rare insects. His obsession takes him to Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, where he has arranged to
purchase a rare beetle

Beetle

Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...

 from a local insect smuggler. Things don't go exactly as planned -
after a chance encounter with a young girl, Hiro's precious insect is stolen. Suddenly, he
finds himself thrust into a wild chase to recover his beetle and rescue the girl he has just
met from a gang of Yakuza

Yakuza

, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...

mobsters. Forced to confront a situation far beyond his
everyday experience, Hiro becomes a reluctant participant in a strange adventure he will
not soon forget.