Synopsis
5 Requests Per Second is a film about a US-born Japanese engineer who, after his startup collapses, escapes to Tokyo and partners with a rebellious local outsider to sell AI-driven illusions to old-school corporations.
But as their high-stakes con spirals out of control, he is forced to confront the identity he has long ignored.
Characters
Kakeru Haruyama
A morally ambiguous engineer-turned-founder, shaped by past missteps in Silicon Valley and pushed into fraud by bankruptcy upon arriving in Tokyo.
Startup Founder
Elizabeth Rohm
A sharp, no-nonsense engineer who joins as CTO at a questionable startup. She makes the move after becoming frustrated with her micromanaging boss and the lack of real challenges at her main job, even though she is known as a "celebrity engineer" in Tokyo's tech scene.
CTO
Vijay Agarwal
A brilliant but anxious engineer, childhood friend and former teammate of Kakeru in their San Francisco startup, who fled with him to Japan.
Tech Lead
Yusuf Avcı
A high school exchange student and coding prodigy, juggling part-time work to make ends meet.
Full-stack Engineer
Sota Kanzaki
A sincere Japanese master's student and gifted software engineer in formation, working part-time while he turns difficult systems into practical fixes.
Software Engineer