Ittoku Kishibe

The super unconventional lawyer is back! Our new friends are comic book girls! And the biggest enemy of all! The strongest lawyer who manipulates the prosecution behind the scenes sets out to prove the devil... Take on a case that is 100% impossible to prove!

Kanako is about to open a French restaurant, for the sole purpose of making herself happy with good food and wine. She recruits Iga, a waiter who is undervalued at his current restaurant. After Kanako declares, “I’m convinced that you will become a great waiter,” he decides to work for her. However, he quickly finds out that not only is the restaurant poorly located – it’s in the middle of the cemetery, far away from downtown and residential areas – but none of the other staff, such as former hairdresser Kawai, have ever worked at a French restaurant.

Shuichi is engaged to Sanae and they will marry soon. One day, Shuichi is driving a car and his friend Teru sits as a passenger. He is speeding because he is late for a meeting about his upcoming wedding ceremony. On the way there, he hits a woman and flees. The woman dies later and her parents Hikaru and Chizuko Tokiyama are grief stricken. Veteran detective Kozaburo Yanagi and rookie detective Shun Maeda investigate the hit-and-run case.

The film follows the relationship between a mother and her son. In 1945, the mother played by Sayuri Yoshinaga fled with her two sons from the Russians to Hokkaido. In 1972, her son played by Masato Sakai returns to Japan after finding success in the U.S.

A woman was killed by a truck wheel, which flew off while the vehicle was in motion. As the freight company which owns the truck becomes the target of the public and the media’s wrath, Tokuro Akamatsu, the president of the freight company, realizes that a structural defect within the truck itself may have been to blame. A conspiracy of the wheel manufacturer's attempts to cover up a defective product is uncovered.

Suzuki Koichi, a 30-something hikikomori shut-in, allows his mother to dotingly tend to his needs. When she discovers that Koichi has killed himself, the shock is so great she loses consciousness and her memory of that day.

A huge Japan newspaper company decides to sell itself due to failing sales. An eager buyer for the acquisition is a domineering Japanese man like Donald Trump who heads a foreign company. A dynamic finance drama that questions the role of the media of the 21st century.

The main character, Hanbei Hinata, who plays Mizutani, is a direct hatamoto guardian who guards Edo Castle. While working honestly on that mission, he became disgusted by a colleague who only thought about his career advancement, and soon he abandoned all his desires and began to think about a retired life

Shinjiro Watari (Mizutani), a former tap dancer, plays the lead as a dancer who is forced into retirement following an accident while on stage. He tries his hand at Directing, but struggles to make the transition. Shinjiro turns to alcohol to cope with his plight. But when the manager of a theater being closed down turns to Shinjiro to direct its final performance, he works with a group young dancers and in the process learns a few things about himself. The movie is very well done and worth the price of admission. A view into the Japanese dancing world, as well as Japanese society.

A "Doctor-X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon" spinoff starring Masanobu Katsumura as surgeon Hideki Kaji, the "wizard of laparoscopy."

Journalist Maebata Shigeko, young Tsukada Shinichi and elderly Arima Yoshio all suffer from and become involved in a serial kidnap and murder case. Shinichi first discovers a cut arm and handbag from the murder case. Elderly Yoshio's granddaughter is a murder victim. Based on the novel "Mohouhan" by Miyuki Miyabe.

Hiroto Miyama is an unconventional young lawyer who dances to his own tune and gets a little obsessive. For one thing, he’s only interested in criminal cases, and he will never give up in his pursuit of the truth even if offers only a 0.1% chance of being discovered. Japan’s 99.9% criminal case conviction rate leads the world, attesting to a “highly reliable” judicial system. In other words, once a crime suspect is indicted, prosecutor arguments tend to be accepted hook, line and sinker. In the face of those 99.9% odds, there’s no money in being a defense lawyer specializing in criminal cases, but for Miyama, that’s where the interest and kernels of truth lie. From unexpected places, the mold-breaking Miyama stakes his reputation on a prayer of a chance as he clashes with hotshot lawyers who’ll go to any lengths to win in this gloriously fun, legal mystery.

Botchan (Kazunari Ninomiya) has sense of strong justice and does not lie. He is offered a teaching job at a middle in a small village far away from his hometown of Tokyo. Botchan accepts the position and begins to work as a math teacher. The assistant principle there wields absolute power. Botchan has a hard time dealing with his fellow teachers and the students.

Kojiro Himuro is a champion figure skater taking part in an upcoming world competition. Yet, he is suffering from a complicated CTEPH (chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension). Kantaro Kurosu is the director of the Cross Medical Center. He asks Michiko Daimon to perform surgery on Kojiro, but, right before his surgery, she is deprived of “the most important weapon as a surgeon.”

Whether it's someone mixing burnables and recyclables or noise from a neighbor's domestic spat, there's always something occupying the residents of a housing project in the suburbs of Osaka. However Hinako (Naomi Fujiyama) and Seiji (Ittoku Kishibe) couldn't care less. Having moved in just six months ago after the closure of their herbal medicine shop, the old couple is reluctantly putting their life back together. But when Seiji disappears, the apartment rumor mill churns: divorce, murder, dismemberment? As the story spins out of control, and a mysterious man with a parasol puts in a tall order of natural remedies, the truth turns out to be even more fantastic than gossip. Ranging from incisive comedy of errors to absurdist adventure to moving late life romance, "The Projects" is one of the biggest surprises of the year.

A biopic of seminal 20th century artist Leonard Foujita, a contemporary of Picasso and Modigliani, who was famous for mixing up European and Japanese styles.

An elderly woman sets out to see in person a painting by a famous artist.She believes she was the inspiration for the painting.

Set within the fictional city of Mahoro, Keisuke Tada runs a "benriya" - a general problem solver for hire. His assistant is his former high school classmate Haruhiko Gyoten. A big crisis then occurs for them.

When I was 17-years-old, Maria was a college student and worked as a private tutor. Her student was me. She left a last message to me, "when you graduate from college and become an adult, can you become my lover?," and then she disappeared. 10 years later, I meet her again. She is now a suspect in a serial murder case and I am a lawyer.

With the strong yen, global financial crisis and competition from developing nations, the Japanese manufacturing industry is in a precarious situation. A large electronics maker is on the brink of bankruptcy and can support itself for only 3 more months. Three men at the company, who work in sales, finance and production respectively, secretly form a reconstruction team and they work feverishly to revive the company.

Natsumi (Kie Kitano) moves to Tokyo to enter a fine arts university. In Tokyo, Natsumi meets Ryosuke and they soon become a couple. Ryosuke is a good person, but he doesn't have a job. Every day he just loafs around. To pay for her living expenses, Natsumi begins work at bar. Natsumi and Ryosuke become estranged from each other. They decide to break up. Natsumi's book is finally published.

A professional scammer is hired by a wealthy young businessman to find a hidden treasure looted from the Bank of Japan and supposedly stashed away by a group of men after WWII in various locations around the globe. Eventually an assassin is put on their trail.

Told from the viewpoint of the father Morio (Yutaka Mizutani), "A Boy Called H" follows a young boy named Hajime Senoh, nicknamed "H". His father, Morio runs a tailor shop. With the onset of World War II, their family must endure difficult times. Nevertheless, H is filled with curiosity and a sense of justice. Based on the autobiographical novel "Shonen H" by Kappa Senoh (published by Kodansha, July 9, 1999).

Mio Kurasaka was a bright musical star on Broadway, but setbacks forced her to return to her hometown of Yume City in Japan. Back in her hometown, Mio is asked to coach a band of amatuer housewives in the town music hall which is under threat of being torn down. Can Mio return the music hall to it's former glory and stop it's destruction?

Daimon Michiko is a 37-year-old freelance surgeon who is part of a questionable “doctor placement service” that has her wander from hospital to hospital. The harsh environment at the hospitals led many doctors to retire from their positions, forcing hospitals to make use of said program to fill the empty spots at least temporary. However, Michiko doesn’t look like a doctor at all with her flashy clothes and eccentric attitude. In the first episode she raises objections to a certain operation which is planned to be done by the head of a hospital who hasn’t performed an operation for a very long time. This causes Michiko to incur odium at the hospital, however, everyone becomes frozen when Michiko points out the outdated skills of the director. She also holds a scrupulous compliance when it comes to her working hours, never does any unnecessary chores that don’t require a medical license, and couldn’t care less about the power struggles within the hospitals. Nobody knows how she acquired such a top-level skill that allows her to claim exorbitant sums as reward, but her private life is an even greater mystery to everyone around her. Tanaka plays a rookie surgeon, Uchida an anesthetist, Kishibe the head of the placement service, and Ito the head of the surgical department of this institution.

In Mahoro, the fictional suburb of Tokyo, Tada works as a general problem solver for hire. One day, former classmate Gyoten appears unannounced. Both men are over 30 years old and divorced. With no explanation, Gyoten suddenly asks to spend the night at Tada's home. Eventually, Tada accepts Gyoten as his assistant and together they become involved in various cases concerning an assortment of people from different walks of life.

One day, five kindergarten children suddenly disappear from a kindergarten in Tokyo, sending their teachers and parents into a panic. The five of them are connecting on trains and headed to an unfamiliar place for some purpose. Before their journey, they had made a promise to each other “not to cry no matter what happens”

"Partners: The Movie II" is the second of the movies based on the superpopular Japanese show "Aibou". In this one, the kidnapping of some chiefs of police by a rogue ex-policeman is just the beginning for a much much bigger story that it seems at first sight.

Based on the true story of former professional boxer Iwao Hakamada who has spent over 40 years incarcerated on death row. Iwao Hakamada was arrested for the June 10, 1966 murder of a family in Shizuoka . Iwao Hakamada has always insisted on his innocence and many others also believe Iwao Hakamada has been falsely accused ...

A talented but troubled Edo Period swordsman, Kanemi Sanzawmon. Three years earlier, Kanemi killed a woman, Renko, the corrupt mistress of the powerful daimyo Tabu Ukyou. Unexpectedly, Kanemi received a lenient sentence for his crime and is allowed to return to his clan after only one year of imprisonment. Following his return, Kanemi is faced with the death of his wife, Mutsue. Thereafter, Kanemi lives with and cares for his wife's niece, Satoo, who has secret affections for Kanemi and expresses them by helping change his bleak outlook on life. Meanwhile, Kanemi's develops his unique "bird-catching" sword technique which he will soon put to test in battle for the first time against the fearsome swordsman, Hayatonosho Obiya.

Komaki is a thirty-something woman that has had it with her perpetually unemployed aspiring writer husband. Following the divorce, she moves back to her Tokyo-area hometown of Kyojima along with her young daughter, Non-chan. However, she has a difficult time making ends meet in big city Tokyo. Her solution? Take a chance and try opening her very own bento (lunch box) shop.

Iki Tadashi is a military leader named who was captured by the Soviets during World War II. Treated as a war criminal, he was sentenced to many years of labor in a harsh Siberian detention camp. After 11 years of imprisonment, he is released. He returns to Japan and begins readjusting to life as a civilian, rejecting an offer from his former colleague to work on a defense project. Tadashi has decided to never involve himself in war again, much to the joy of his family. Instead, he attempts to set off on a new path working at a major trading company. --Tokyograph

Asahiyama Zoo in Hokkaido, is the northernmost zoo in Japan. The unpopular zoo welcomes a new zoo keeper, young Yoshida (Yasuhi Nakamura), who has more affection for insects than people after years of being bullied at school when he was young. Yoshida soon realizes that Asahiyama Zoo is facing a financial crisis and the zoo director Takizawa (Toshiyuki Nishida) has been doing everything in his power to save the zoo from closing down. Moved by Takizawa's passion, Yoshida and other zoo keepers came to share the zoo director's belief that one's dreams can come true, and together they tackle this seemingly impossible task of revitalizing Asahiyama. A breakthrough arrives in the form of “Behavioral Exhibition,†a method that is pioneered by Ashiyama's zoo keepers and which eventually makes the zoo renowned throughout the world.

One day, a middle-aged man, Fujimoto Makoto, is standing on a train platform, about to jump in front of a train. Nakashiro Kana and Tasaki Shota both happen to be on the same platform, and sensing what is about to happen, they quickly pull him back to safety. There's a reason why Kana and Shota realized Makoto's intentions, they both have the kind of emotional scars that can't be put into words. Even after so much pain, through a series of e-mails, they've become attracted to one another and slowly learn to open up their hearts once again.

The twin girls Tajima Megumi and Ichijo Nozomi was separated at birth after their parents had divorced. Years later they meet each other. Both of them have a career within the entertainment industry. Megumi who lives in Matsue, Shimane sings in the band Shijimijiru, and Nozomi is a maiko, an apprentice geisha in Kyoto.

Co-pilot Kazuhiro (Tanabe Seiichi) is up for promotion, but before he can get his captain's wings he has to get through a flight evaluation, and things aren't exactly going his way. He just crashed and burned on a simulated flight test, and his friendly examiner has been replaced with the tough-as-nails Harada (Tokito Saburo). On the same plane is cabin attendant Etsuko (Ayase Haruka) who's flying her first international flight and trying hard to not mess up. Elsewhere in the Happy Flight universe, staff are bustling back and forth with various problems and gripes - all to make this ordinary yet fateful flight a safe and happy one.

In this direct continuation of the earlier special, Godai tries to figure out what to do with his life after college while competing with Kyoko's impossibly perfect tennis coach for her affection.

"GS Wonderland" is about the 1960's Group Sounds bands - A Japanese pop movement inspired by the Beatles and other mid-1960's Brit Pop. Three young men set out to start their own band "The Diamonds" when they are signed to a recording contract during their very first rehearsal. Things turn for the unexpected when their agent brings Mick (Chiaki Kuriyama) into the group as their keyboardist.

A film about family life in Osaka. Following the death of their father, three boys struggle to find their own identity with the help of their outgoing mother and weak-willed uncle.

A former TV presenter is murdered. On the same day, two police officers from the Metropolitan police Special Mission Task Force, Sugishita Ukyo (Yutaka Mizutani) and Kameyama Kaoru (Yasufumi Terawaki), are guarding a female Diet member, Katayama Hinako (Yoshino Kimura). The pair identifies explosives and saves her life. From the clues left at the scene, Sugishita builds up his case and finds a connection between the murder of the TV presenter and the attempted murder of the Diet member. During a painstaking investigation, the savage murder case of a young overseas volunteer five years earlier emerges in the background, and the pair prevents indiscriminate murder at the Tokyo Big City Marathon event by suppressing the perpetrator.

Keiko who leads a lonely life as a fortune teller on the streets meets Goro, a leader of the con-artists. One day, Goro witnesses a group of men kidnapping a middle-aged man in the parking garage. Goro records the man on his cell phone without knowing he could be in big trouble.

The film continues from Hero SP, five years after Kuryu Kohei was transferred to Shinigaki Island. Kuryu Kohei goes back to Tokyo Branch DA, where everything seems doesn't changed at all.

It is the second work of the Oita trilogy of Obayashi . Following " Nigori Snow ", Ise Masazo draws a song written by composers and songwriter "Farewell of 22 years old " as a motif and draws a story of love that spans two generations of mother and daughter.

Based on a hit manga by Takahashi Rumiko, this is a romantic comedy about the relationship of Otonashi Kyoko, the beautiful widow and manager of a boarding house and Godai Yusaku, a poor student tenant.

Young women in a small Japanese town look to revive their home's declining fortunes by building a Hawaiian village tourist attraction.

The series takes place in 1962 Osaka. Hanaoka Machiko, 37, is single and works at a hardware store in Osaka City while doing literary work. One day, she falls ill due to overwork and falls in love with Tokunaga Kenjiro, the doctor who examines her. Kenjiro and Machiko marry. But Kenjiro, who lost his first wife to illness, lives not just with his five children, but his brother, sister, and parents. In a comical and heart-warming way, the drama depicts Machiko's struggle with the new family while pursuing her career as a novelist.

Everything seems normal until the Oriental Air 402 plane is swallowed into some kind of energy and disappears. Ten years after having everyone think the plane had mysteriously crashed and everyone died, in 2006, it reappears as if nothing had happened. Now the passengers of 402 apparently can experience how life is 10 years after the day they boarded that plane...

Ryutaro Asada was the chief surgeon of Team Medical Dragon, a globally active emergency medical care team that worked in refugee camps. After his return to Japan, this amazingly talented surgeon starts work at a university hospital, where he uncovers one case of corruption after another and takes on a lot of powerful contenders in this heroic drama. The struggles between the hospital and the patients, the infighting among the hospital staff, and the patients who get involved in those struggles are all depicted in a realistic manner in a drama that has an overwhelming feeling of speed. Here’s a human drama depicting a thrilling battle between life and death, a totally new, outstanding form of entertainment.

Ruri, having been abandoned by her mother to a foster care facility, lives a life of reckless abandonment. When Nakama Yuzo, a kind man but for a trigger-happy temper, runs into Ruri he realizes that perhaps she's the child he's been looking for. Yuzo lives in Hatomijima, a small insland in Okinawa where the population is 49 and the average age group is 61. There are no children. The island has only one school - a primary school. If a child is not enrolled in the school, it will be closed. As a result, society will abandon the island and in a few years, it will cease to have any inhabitants. To save their island, the locals decide to bring in a foster child. Ruri is their candidate, and with her she brings the hope of the island's survival.

Minako (TANAKA Yuko), begins her day running up and down the hills of her hometown delivering milk door to door. When that's done, she heads to her day job as a supermarket cashier. Minako is 50 and single. In one of the houses to which she delivers milk is a man with whom she has secretly been in love since high school. The man, Keita (KISHIBE Ittoku), lives with his wife Yoko, who is terminally ill. Caring for her at home, he works in the children's affairs section of the local municipal office. Though he insists that he wants nothing more than an "ordinary" existence, his life is in turmoil below the surface. The director uses a variety of narrative devises to portray the loneliness, isolation, and hope of these people who have seemingly allowed their goals and dreams to slip away, whilst keeping them agonizingly close to hand.

The Isokaze, an Aegis-class escort vessel, sets sail on a routine training exercise, playing host to a platoon from the Fleet Training Group. No sooner is the Isokaze on open water, however, then the FTG reveal themselves to be terrorist stowaways who kill the ship's captain, send the rest of the crew overboard and take control of the vessel. The ship is carrying a secret biological weapon which the terrorists are now threatening to use to level Tokyo! Only a stowaway NCO, Sengoko (played by Sanada Hiroyuki from Ring and Twilight Samurai) is in a position to stop them - but does he really have what it takes to save the day? Playing like a cross between a sea-faring version of Top Gun and Die Hard, director Sakamoto Junji shows that it's not just Hollywood that can produce thrill-a-minute action spectaculars.

Three high school girls living out in the country build stories out from their local environment, mountainous and bordered by an unkempt buried forest.

Hibi tells about mother who does pottery and lives rather simple life, growing her children up. She does remarkable job in pottery, finding a new way to make natural pottery in her own tunnel kiln. Then, her son gets leukemia. And entire family has to fight hard to find a donor who has matching bone marrow.

A Japanese film by Hideyuki Hirayama, Lady Joker is a detective thriller with elements of social commentary on Japanese society that is based on the 1997 bestselling novel by Kaoru Takamura.

Hoping to catch a girl's attention, high school students Ken (Tsumabuki Satoshi) and Adama (Ando Masanobu) cook up an ambitious plan. They plan a festival that combines film, theater, and rock music, and develop their project into a school road block. This plan however catches the attention of television stations and newspapers, and soon even the cops became involved in this teenage adventure.

A man continually trying and failing to get his wife to stay dead; a self-absorbed ad agency creative director who comes up with one unworkably inane idea after another; a British hitman who only wants to know everyone's function in life; and an unfortunate office worker and father whose brain is left scrambled after a stage hypnotist is murdered in mid-performance.

Panic occurs when the Governor of Tokyo proposes to attract a nuclear power plant to Tokyo.

Loved Gun is a story about a hitman named Hayamada (Masatoshi Nagase) who carries a distinctive red gun. As the film progresses we discover the reason for his work, and how he came to be alone. His aim right now is to reach a desitination, but he’s late. Along the way, having injured himself in a vehicular accident, he runs into Miyuki (Aoi Miyazaki), who as also become alone due to tragic events within her family. As Hamayada collapses from his injuries Miyuki takes him to a hospital.

A James Brown fanatic gangster decided to disband his own gang and see his long lost daughter before entering prison. Hoping to change his mind, his underlings planned to kidnap James Brown to convince him to perform privately for their boss.

A young Japanese boy's life is changed when his sister returns to the small island, full of eccentric characters, where he lives.

Elderly ladies rise to the challenge of staging a play and struggle to launch a theater company. Based on the actual amateur theater company "Theatrical Company Hono" in Fujieda City, Shizuoka Prefecture, where the presiding officers and performers are composed of elderly women. They have been performing stage plays about issues related to the elderly for a long time.

In a world where vendettas are officially sanctioned, the people sometimes needed help in carrying out their vengeance. Sanada Hiroyuki stars as Sukeroku the Helper, a ‘cool and rambling yakuza’ that has made a business out of helping victims carry out their revenge. When he returns to his hometown to pay a visit to his mother’s grave he meets a deadly ronin who carries a secret which eventually leads him into a vendetta of his own.

Tatsuo and Ikuo have been raised by hard-working parents who run a funeral home. For relief, they practice games of manzai, a Japanese comic vaudeville. Tatsuo grows up to be a handsome chick magnet, while Ikuo is nerdy and unappealing. He spies on his brother to get material for their reality porn show. The show is bleeped heavily, and their bleep language becomes trendy and makes them stars.

Detective Ukyo Sugishita confronts crime on the basis of his own convictions. He has a partner that works for him in the Special Task Unit. For the first 7 seasons, Ukyo’s first partner is Kaoru Kameyama. He is a good-natured, hot-tempered, straightforward and somewhat scattered detective. Beginning in Season 8, Takeru Kanbe replaces Kameyama. Contrary to his predecessor, Takeru is a lanky, cool, conceited and confident detective. From Season 11 to Season 13, Ukyo’s partner is a young detective Toru Kai. Toru is a son of Deputy Director-General of The National Police Agency. But he became a detective by his own effort. And starting with Season 14, Ukyo’s current partner is Wataru Kaburagi, an elite bureaucrat who came to the Metropolitan Police Department on temporary assignment. As the first partner without any career of a police officer, he will face challenging cases together with Ukyo.

Inako Natsui is a quiet, modern girl working in a laboratory and living a closed and somewhat monotonous life in a small town. From time to time she goes to nearby to visit her lonely mother Wakayama who has been a widow for the past seventeen years. The girl's relatives, particularly Aunt Sadako and Uncle Shuhei, the local mayor's deputy, plan to introduce her to a suitable young man, but Inako has no real desire to get married. She is more interested in the hot mineral springs from where she takes her laboratory specimens. This all changes when she meets Mr Tamamiza, a young divorced man who's been left with a little boy. Her relatives are decidedly against the match. The girl falls in love with the man without realizing that she will encounter a painful conflict between her family and providence, as unexpectedly as the spring which gushes out from the geological fold, driven to the surface by mysterious subterranean forces.

Benkei, a master fighter and killer, vows never to take another life after his conversion to Buddhism. His faith in pacifism, however, is shaken and ultimately broken by the attacks from a trio of fighters known only as "the demons". Taking up his sword once more, he sets out to end their murderous terror.

While the film is a remake of the original Battles Without Honor and Humanity series, it has no direct similarities. Set in Osaka, it focuses on former childhood friends Kadoya Kaneo and Tochino Masatatsu as their lives cross paths again. Kaneo is now a yakuza member, while Masatatsu is a nightclub owner with a distaste for crime gangs. When a yakuza boss dies, a struggle for his position takes place between Kaneo's boss Awano and the young Nakahira. Nakahira's men try to extort money from Masatatsu, bringing him in between a yakuza battle.

'Face' is a fascinating and difficult to categorize movie. Naomi Fujiyama gives an impressive performance (her movie debut) as the frumpy, clumsy and socially retarded Masako who one day strangles the pretty sister who loves to torment her. Masako flees from her home and then goes on a journey, both physically and emotionally, which ranges from everything from rape, earthquakes, learning to ride a bicycle, and working in a karaoke bar.

A psychic housewife and her husband become burdened with a kidnapped girl who escaped her assailant. Junko will not let her husband call the hospital or the police for purely selfish reasons. The girl dies while still in their house and her ghost begins to haunt the couple.

Director Jun Ichikawa spins this affectionate portrait of the people who populate Shimokitazawa, a bohemian corner of Tokyo filled with small theater companies and smoky coffeehouses.

Screen icon Sayuri Yoshinaga stars in this historical melodrama about geishas in the southern city of Nagasaki set during the 1920s. Though she was sold to a geisha house at a young age, Aihara (Yoshinaga) has since become a master samisen player and woman of great elegance. Though not especially rich, she doles out money to street kids, in particular, a pretty young flower vendor named Oyuki, who becomes Aihara's godchild of sorts. Yet when a geisha (Reiko Takashima) from a rival red-light district insults Aihara and her brethren, she fights back. Soon an all-out geisha war looms. Dapper businessman and amateur scholar Tojiro Koga (Tetsuya Watari) appears on the scene and defuses tempers -- suggesting that difference be settled through a competition of artistic abilities. Smitten with her talent and mature beauty, Koga invites Aihara to record Nagasaki folk songs before they disappear forever

Matsuzaki, who gets critically injured after a sketchy deal, is taken by his girlfriend to a church where it is rumored that miracles happen. There, they find strange twins named Pinoko. With Pinoko's guidance, Matsuzaki is saved by a genius surgeon, BJ, in exchange for exorbitant fees. However, Matsuzaki is captured by the police. Meanwhile, Reiko, a female detective who pursues Matsuzaki and other organizations, tries to solve a mystery by conducting an independent investigation. It turns out Matsuzaki was found dead.

A virginal boy travels with three hookers to a small island to collect his estranged father's washed up and sun-bleached bones.

Koji, a jazz musician, takes a cigarette break in between sets at a Tokyo nightclub. He witnesses a murder and runs into a girl, Linda, who is being pursued by the killers. For the next two hours, Koji and Linda are running from both the hitmen and the police. Mistakenly identified as prime suspects, they have to solve the crime but time is running out: Koji has to be back to perform in his club by midnight, as a very special guest will be attending.

Togashi, an enthusiastic marathon runner and his wife are occupied with their daughter Mayumi's grade school entrance examinations, but he becomes jobless when his company folds. To regain his confidence Togashi decides to join the marathon that is taking place on the very day of his daughter's examination and the all important interview.

Depicts the life of Nagaharu Yodogawa.

The psychiatric evaluation of a young actor arrested for a brutal double murder concludes he may be unfit for trial. Further investigation, however, reveals the crime was a well-planned statement against the section of Japan's criminal code granting diminished responsibility to the mentally impaired.

In dreamlike mountain scenery, Toshiko makes a daring escape from her sexually warped Uncle Sonezaki. Fortunately, she met Samehada as she runs for her life, which is also escaping from some slayers. What follows is a wild chase that leads the audience into a comically violent world.

The brilliant detective Kogoro Akechi has shied away disillusioned. A puzzling murder involving falsification of erotic art makes him, however, to return to work. Two tales of horror author Edogawa Rampo faced each other in this murder mystery.

A droll and formalistic comic drama about the various relationships among, and odd obsessions of, the residents of a Tokyo apartment block.

While working in the leisurely atmosphere at a food company's factory, Futaro is asked to return to their corporate headquarters by his good friend. Unfortunately, he finds himself assistant to Izumi, a highly demanding expert on Italian food culture. Futaro gets off to a rocky start with his new female boss, and always seems to be saying or doing the wrong thing. He also doesn't seem to be particularly suited to his new position on the Italian Restaurant Project, considering he doesn't even like tomatoes! But Futaro may still have a few tricks left up his sleeve that he can use to win over Izumi and find success in his new job.

Takashi and four of his classmates, fourth-grade students, cannot succeed in doing a back pullover around a horizontal bar. Their gym teacher warns them: they have one week to succeed; if they resign now, then, tomorrow, facing life difficulties, they will always run away and become bums. Furthermore, all five must succeed, if one of them cannot do it, then all of them fail. Takashi is really worried and wonders if he won’t be always the loser who couldn’t succeed in the back pullover bar exercise.

a 3-part TV drama series featuring Reiko Takashima

The main hero of this film is the spirit of the once very popular wooden statuette called Billiken. It's a small god with a pointed head, a fat belly and a characteristic smile. When the casket in which the statuette was found is broken, the spirit of Billiken is free. After that he tries to fulfill the wishes of all those who had prayed to him, but it doesn't always works.

A band of samurai warriors places a curse on a family fortune thus frustrating the heir 4 centuries later. Despite the Asian setting, it has a sort of strong sense of the gothic that brings to mind the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Ever since an accident in the mountains outside town, Takuji's slept in a coma; his neighbors care for him as new events occur every day.

Assistant police inspector Aida is assigned to investigate the murder of a former gang member. When a justice ministry official is killed days later in a similar manner, he begins to suspect that something bigger is going on...

Edogawa Rampo is a writer whose latest work is censored by the government, deemed too disturbing and injurious to the public to be allowed to be published. However, after burning his drafts, his publisher shows him a newspaper with an account of events just like his forbidden story. As the film progresses, fantasy and reality intermingle in a tale that draws heavily on influences from Poe and Stoker's Dracula. The film's strongly Expressionistic direction skillfully combines a variety of media (animation, computer-generated imagery, grainy black-and-white fast film stock, color negatives) for artistic effect.

A Japanese comedy film directed by Yôichi Sai.

A middle-aged journalist looking to make her big break. After working the same beat on the "women's page", Yumiko gets promoted to editorials.

No overview found.

Kazuo encounters a religious group travelling around Japan performing "miracles". He discovers they are fakes, but is intrigued by the showmanship of the group, and becomes involved with them. The group is split into two, some members concentrating on spiritual teachings, and the others using the facade of religion to make money. The business faction dismiss the old spiritual master and choose Kazuo to lead their group.

... A quiet, contemplative piece with a sense of hope in its closing remarks, you seldom see the facial expressions of the characters up close, as the camera mimics the usual distance one would most times keep from the other patients (at least for me, for reasons unknown), in curious to know more, but yet want to maintain that emotional detachment. -- Stefan S. (A Nutshell Review)

Kantarou Kobayashi is an ordinary businessman who has multiple troubles on hand. He's been having an affair with a woman working in the same company, but she does lots of eccentric things. His wife has no interrest in anything but her plan to build a new apartment where their old house is. His son suffers skin eruptions. His mother appears to have senile dementia.

Businessmen competing for international building contracts in this globe-trotting comedy-adventure.

The indolent son of an oil vendor becomes a regular customer of a prostitute, racks up a mountain of debt, and is disowned by his parents.

It is 1965. High-school student Takeyoshi Fujiwara Yasufumi Hayashi) hears "Pipeline" by the Ventures, and is mesmerized by their unique sound. With three friends, he forms a band called "The Rocking Horsemen." A warm and comic glimpse into high-school and small-town life in Japan in the 60's.

Fifth movie in the Hissatsu (Sure Death!) Series. At the behest of a corrupt bureaucrat, a mysterious band of murderers wage a bloody battle against three deadly assassins.

A young asthmatic man learns he has magical powers.

The patriarch of a bickering family announces his retirement, stirring competition about who will succeed him as a leading practitioner of Noh theater, his granddaughter or grandson.

A wealthy matriarch is kidnapped by a gang of three. She is insulted by the amount of money they propose to demand as ransom, and a strange interchange of roles takes place.

Miho and Toshio, putting their children and household at stake, duel for control in their degrading, middle-aged marriage.

Karin has lived alone in a secluded mountain village with her consumptive mother since her father died. Her worried grandfather advises her to send her mother to a sanatorium and be adopted by him, although she refuses to accept. On the Buddhist All Soul’s Day Festival in August, a messenger from her grandfather pays a sudden visit to her house.

Comedy film.

After a series of chance meetings, a shiftless motorbike enthusiast, Ko, begins a romance with a carefree girl, Miyo, after teaching her to ride. When Miyo proves herself a biker prodigy, Ko begins to fear that she is destined to crash.

Third movie in the Hissatsu (Sure Death!) Series. Chasing the killer of a lawman, a group of assassins fall foul of a group of blackmarket financiers who dispatch their own hitmen to dispose of them.

A lonely high schooler suddenly meets the love of his life out of thin air. Is she a real person or a figment of his imagination?

Grandfather Fuyukichi Takano, a former university professor, gets fired from his museum job when he is affected by Alzheimer's disease, but his affliction serves to deepen family ties. Japan's submission to the 58th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

On the night of August 19, 1980, a bus was set on fire by the vagrant Hirofumi Maruyama at the Shinjuku West Exit Bus Terminal. In the burning flames, Mitsuko, who was exhausted by her affair, suddenly thought of suicide. As a result, she escaped too late from the bus and suffered a serious injury. From there, she was hospitalized for a long time. As she gradually recovered, the wife of her affair partner, Soroku Sugihara, died of cancer. Soroku proposed to Mitsuko again, and they lived together. Due to Soroku's mounting debt, they decided to flee to Tojinbo. With the desperate persuasion of her acquaintances, Mitsuko regained her desire to "live again."

The 33rd NHK Asadora. Starring Eisaku Shindou as a man who loves manzai (a traditional style of stand-up comedy in Japanese culture). Average rating of 40.2% Based on the life of a famous two-man comedy act writer, Akita Minoru, who loved comedy more than anything. His life itself was full of wit and humor, love and friendship.

At the beginning of the film the father-in-law of the protagonist dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. The remainder of the film is episodic, moving from one incident to another over the course of the three-day funeral, which is held (as is customary) in the home. These incidents contrast old ways and new ways, young and old, ritual ceremony and true feelings, often comically, but sometimes with real poignancy.

Deaths in Tokimeki tells the disturbing, compulsive story of a hit-man waiting to carry out a job: the assassination of the leader of a religious cult, masterminded by the leader's own deputy. But it is a story that is told in blocks, like the phrases in a child's computer game, and what counts most is not the narrative but the spaces between the blocks-the gaps that are filled with undefined menaces as potent as anything in Lovecraft.

This sensuously beautiful film chronicles the activities of four sisters who gather in Kyoto every year to view the cherry blossoms. It paints a vivid portrait of the pre-war lifestyle of the wealthy Makioka family from Osaka, and draws a parallel between their activities and the seasonal variations in Japan.

Roman Porno from 1983.

Yoshiyama Kazuko is in the 3rd grade of junior high. One day, she's cleaning in the laboratory, she notices of the smell of lavender, and fainted. Since then, she acquires a mysterious power to travel time.

After Emiko, a bookstore owner, is driven to suicide by loan sharks, her orphaned son Eisuke decides to take his revenge on them. As Eisuke has no relatives, he is taken in by Keiko, who keeps an eye out for him due to his unusual behavior. One day, Eisuke breaks into the loan company with an improvised gun. In the moment, Keiko ends up becoming Eisuke's accomplice and helps him succeed in the robbery. However, the two are surprised when they hear something on the TV news that differs from the truth.

Can a woman love two men at the same time? Set against the backdrop of Kyoto's rich history, this story depicts a woman's difficult choice for love. Ayako, played by Yukiyo Toake, is an international conference coordinator. Torn between her childhood sweetheart (played by Kenji Sawada) and her English professor (played by Noboru Nakaya), Ayako will seek answers to love, marriage, and choice.

The Tigers are much too busy to have a holiday; but one day a mysterious man appears in their dressing room and offers them a trip to anywhere in the world. But he tells them they must come back in 24 hours or else he'll own their hearts. The mysterious man is the devil.

Group sounds abound in this comedy with music starring The Tigers.

An alien spaceship crashes on Earth due to the powerful musical energy emanating from Group Sounds band The Tigers. The Tigers have to protect an alien princess who escaped from the ship and became obsessed with their lead singer Julie. Can they save the day by performing their megahit songs like "Mona Lisa's Smile" and "Seaside Bound"?