Twelve Months is the story of an orphaned girl named Anya. When a spoiled princess, who is also orphaned, sees a picture of a Galanthus, she immediately wants one. However, the Galanthus only blooms in spring, in the month of April. It is New Year's Eve and there was no way that such a flower can be found in the middle of the winter. The princess offers a basket of gold to anyone who can bring her a bag of Galanthus.

[Official Website ](http://www.otake-shinobu.com/)

Shinobu Otake is a Japanese actress. She has won three Japanese Academy Awards: the 2000 Best Actress award for Railroad Man, and the 1979 awards for both Best Actress (The Incident) and Best Supporting Actress (Seishoku no ishibumi). She also won the award for best actress at the 12th Hochi Film Award for Eien no 1/2. At the 25th Moscow International Film Festival she won the award for Best Actress for her role in Owl. She has received a total of 12 nominations.

She was the favoured lead actress of director Kaneto Shindo after his previous lead actress, Nobuko Otowa, died in 1994, and featured in several of his films from A Last Note in 1995 to Postcard in 2011.