Iki blends old and new technologies to craft a film that recalls both the visuals and sounds (the cicadas' hum) of a sweltering Japanese summer. Black-and-white photographs of a Shinto shrine, a summer landscape, and an old Japanese-style house serve as the backdrop, while CGI technology introduces visual interest through an unusual little girl and her ghostly frog companion. The ghost in this narrative is more of a curiosity than a source of fear, and the use of a fish-eye lens along with other distortions suggests the oppressive summer humidity while also implying that the frog is an imaginary creation of the young protagonist.