Ken Mitsuishi

The president of an IT company is found dead. The cause of death is believed to be an overdose of medication for a chronic illness, but the possibility of murder emerges since potassium and other substances were found in the body. Ogawa, unfamiliar with the investigation, asks for help from Okawa, a former detective who now works for the police department. The "large-and-small duo", who are uneven in appearance and personality, take on the challenge of getting to the bottom of a difficult case.

Ichinoi, a 75-year-old woman living a peaceful life, unwittingly buys a Boy's Love manga one day…and is fascinated by what she finds inside. When she returns to the bookstore to buy the next volume, the high school girl working there–Urara, a seasoned BL fan–notices a budding fangirl when she sees one. When Urara offers to help Ichinoi explore this whole new world of fiction, the two dive into BL fandom together, and form an unlikely friendship along the way.

Asahi is a 23-year-old boy who attracts everyone around him with his innocent smile, words and talent. Chatani Kashiko is a 35-year-old working for a small advertising agency and is someone who has low self-esteem. Meanwhile, Sato Wataru is an expressive woman and works as a backstage actress in a small theatre company run by her boyfriend, who sometimes uses her as a ghostwriter. Kashiko and Wataru used to be best friends in high school and unexpectedly reunite through Asahi.

The story takes place in a certain high school. Masaki Nitta arrives as a new music teacher, but the school is greatly disturbed by the disappearance of the previous teacher. While playing the piano in the music room the night before work, Masaki meets Sae Izumi, a student who is running away from one issue. Sae is a student in the class in which he is an assistant teacher. The two of them, gradually develop a bond through the disappearance.

Miyabe Arata, owner of the Roppongi Nidaime Miyabe bar, fights against those who have absolute power. His goal is to take revenge on Nagaya Holdings, a giant in the Japanese food industry. The owner of the holding companies, as well as his son, had a destructive influence on Miyabe Arata's life in the past.

This work is a 12-year story of Mana, a woman who cannot accept the death of her best friend, staring at her as she tries to step forward while having deep sorrow.

Tenko runs a pension alone. The pension is located in a forest in Nagano, that is full of the Japanese larch tree. She interacts with her guests, who come from all walks of life.

Hajime Aoyama runs the mobile coffee shop Tako Coffee. Riding in his coffee truck, he goes from street to street. Along the way, he comforts those with wounded hearts and minds. Hajime Aoyama appears carefree, but he has a secret.

Sanada Rio is the president of "Sanada Wellness" and an up-and-coming businesswoman who is selected as one of the "100 people in their 30s who will change the world". When she is reunited with her former love interest Miyazaki Daiki, who is now a detective, after 15 years as an important witness to a murder case. In Gifu Prefecture in 2006, Rio is a third year high school student who wants to go to the University of Tokyo. She took good care of her younger brother in lieu of their busy father. Before Daiki could confess to her, an incident occurs at the dormitory.

Spinoff WEB drama for "Kotaro Lives By Himself".

Movie theater Asahiza has existed for almost a 100 years in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture. Unlike other theaters, Asahiza plays old films and doesn't get a lot of customers. The manger of Asahiza, Yasuzo Morita, finally decides to close down the theater. When he is about to burn the old 35 mm films, a young woman named Rika Motegi suddenly appears and tries to stop him. Rika Motegi came to Minamisoma from Tokyo to save Asahiza.

Kureno Masora is a young doctor who was working happily at a large hospital in Tokyo. However, she found out that she has an illness and decided to continue working as a doctor, while hiding her illness at a clinic located in a small village called "Niji no Mura". Therefore, Masora gets to meet the interesting villagers and gradually learns about facing life enthusiastically.

Kamijo Ren is the director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Liaison Division. His father is a former police officer. An incident in Ren’s childhood triggered his thirst for power and he has his sights set on heading the police force by becoming its Superintendent General someday. Ren believes topping the faction that he belongs to is the shortcut to fulfilling his aspiration. He is driven by ambition and has no qualms carrying out work, no matter how dirty it is. His childhood friend Mizuki Sawa, a senior detective in the First Investigation Division, often opposes his stance and mindset as a detective but is the only one who knows about his past.

A love story woven by a loveless mistrust girl, Kaede Tamaki who works for a small video production company, and a mysterious young man Seishiro who is attracted to her.

Kimichika Kazama is an instructor at a police academy. He is keenly observant and watches over his students. He is calm as an instructor and has charisma, but strict. Students with various backgrounds attend the police academy with their own reasons of becoming police officers. They feel pressure having to follow the strict rules and have anxiety about getting kicked out of the academy. How many students will graduate among the 90 students? What is the real purpose of Kimichika Kazama giving hardship to the students?

A man who investigates a case that became aging with a “hobby”, Shuichiro Kiriyama (Odagiri Joe) -One day after the legendary man was dispatched to the FBI, he suddenly entered the aging management section of the Sobu police station Came back. Moreover, Kiriyama became interested in the “Urashima Gas Station Fire Case” that occurred 24 years ago. In this incident, a gas station in a lonely port town, Urashima Town, burned down, and then a big explosion occurred, and a severely burned dead body was found in the burnt mark. The police decided at the time that the corpse was holding the buttons and physique of the uniform, and the victim decided with former high school student Koji Sawamura and investigated the possibility of accident, murder, suicide, but the truth was dark It remains covered. At least nine years ago, the murder was aged just a day before it was abolished.

Toko Ikuta (Kasumi Arimura) lost her parents in a car accident at the age of 3. Afterwards, her uncle, who ran a barbershop in Morioka, raised her and she had a happy childhood. Toko Ikuta was active as a local idol and she dreamed of becoming an actress. At the age of 19, she is set to take an audition in Tokyo. The day before her audition, on March 11, 2011, the great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami hits Japan. In the autumn of 2011, Toko Ikuta works at a cafe. She goes with her Korean co-worker Han Yoo-Ri (Kang Ji-Young) to do volunteer work in Kesennuma as the area recovers from the devastating tsunami. There, Toko Ikuta meets Kiyotaka Shimizu (Kentaro Sakaguchi) who is a university student from Tokyo and a member of a student volunteer group. While spending time together in Kesennuma, Toko Ikuta and Kiyotaka Shimizu develop feelings for each other.

Hiromi (Yui Sakuma) is a 26-year-old single woman. She is popular with guys. Her hobby and specialty is getting men to like her using smalltalk and a shy persona. If a guy confesses his feelings for her, Hiromi leaves them. Hiromi's share house mate Akira (Nijiro Murakami) and her friend Aya (Suzuka Ohgo) blame Hiromi, calling her “Kakure Bitch” (a type of women who uses innocence to flirt with men). Hiromi does not care. One day, she takes an interest in Tsuyoshi (Yuta Koseki), who works in the same office. She becomes to like him sincerely.

Shibui Naoto is a 52-year old single designer with a private office. He spends his daily life with style.

During turbulent economic times in Japan, Masahiko Washizu (Go Ayano) appears. He leads a foreign investment fund and he is criticized for being a vulture. Masahiko Washizu challenges to buy a bank with insolvent bonds and a company that is experiencing financial depression.

Moments of cherished friendship and somewhat painful memories of love

Tetsu Himokura is a parasitologist. He enjoys researching the lives of parasites at his home laboratory and he barely leaves his home. He also has assistant Haruma Takaie to help him. Tetsu Himokura's right hand is a robotic prosthetic hand. He is very smart, but blunt to others.

A young couple is devastated when their son is killed by a falling tree during a windstorm. As the distraught father begins to look for answers into his son’s death, what appears to be a tragic accident turns out to have been the result of multiple blunders by multiple people.

Mio is 20 years old Japanese girl. Having lost her parents early, she and her grandmother run a traditional Japanese inn in Nagano. However, her grandmother gets sick. Mio comes to Tokyo and lives with her father’s best friend, Kyosuke. He runs a traditional public bath. She begins to help with his work, but it is scheduled that the public bath would be demolished on redevelopment.

The series follow the story of a high school boy who lives in Tokyo, and his childhood friend, Hakatano Donko-chan, who is from Hakata and really talks in Hakata dialect! People around her sometimes get confused because of it, but her dialect makes them smile!

An ex-journalist Masuda whose article caused a scandalous fatality now works at a small factory. He learns that his colleague Suzuki is a former convict who killed some children back in middle school. Trying to get back his old job, Masuda secretly starts to write a piece on Suzuki while befriending him. The more he learns about his colleague, however, the more Masuda remembers his younger self, a boy who triggered his classmate's suicide.

Itsuki Shinonome is sent to the internet media department from a major newspaper. Chief Editor Kanji Usami assigns her a story involving green caterpillars being found in instant food. A man who posted about the caterpillars in his instant food on social media appears in front of her. A fight between companies eventually draws in Itsuki Shinonome.

Detective Tomo Yashiro is ordered to transfer to the Sixth Special Investigations Unit. it is in charge of deciphering documents of unsolved cases she begins work in her new post along with a senior detective Risa Narum who is called the expert of document deciphering for her unusual ability to predict the personality and thoughts of a writer from writings

Otaro Dojima works as a popular host. Because of a past incident, he believes that love makes people unhappy. He now only pursues money and power. A mysterious woman appears in front of Otaro Dojima. The mysterious woman has a pale face with red lips. She kisses him and he dies, but the next moment he regains consciousness. He realizes he is now 7 days in the past. The mysterious woman also follows him. Due to her kiss, Otaro Dojima dies and goes back to the past over and over again.

Kuki Fumihiro is a son from a wealthy zaibatsu (conglomerate) family. His father raises him to become pure evil. Kuki kills his father to protect his adopted sister Kaori. Afterward, Kuki disappears. He undergoes plastic surgery and takes the identity of Koichi Shintani. He watches Kaori and faces the great evil that exists within the Kuki family.

In 1974, Morikazu is 94-years-old and his wife Hideko is 76-years-old. They live at a house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The garden at their home is full of trees, plants and insects. Morikazu paints pictures of the creatures in his garden and also observes them. This has been his daily routine for more than 30 years. Morikazu and Hideko entertain visitors every day including a photographer and the couple living next door.

High school student Naoki Tomura grew up in a remote area in Hokkaido. He meets piano tuner Soichiro Itadori in school and eventually decides to work at Itadori’s musical instrument store. Tomura gradually grows as a piano tuner through his interactions with the other tuners and musician clients

Koichi Miyazawa runs a small, but longstanding company which makes tabi (traditional Japanese socks). He is the CEO of the fourth generation company with about 20 employees. Due to a decrease of demand for tabi, the company is struggling to keep afloat. Koichi Miyazawa thinks about launching a new product line. The new product is running shoes. For the company's surival, Koichi Miyazawa begins to develop running shoes using their accumulated knowledge for making tabi.

Based on the novel "Kanojo no Jinsei wa Machigai ja Nai" (literal translation: Her life is not at fault) by Director Hiroki, it is a powerful story of survivors, who are all trying to find their own silver linings in life.

Tsuchida works at a host club in secret to support her live-in boyfriend Seiichi, in order to fulfill his dream of becoming a musician. Seiichi is unemployed and falls into a slump, unable to write any songs. However, when Seiichi learns that Tsuchida became a mistress of a customer at the host club and that it was how she is earning their living expenses, he changes his mind and decides to find a job. Meanwhile,Tsuchida had an accidental reunion with Hagio, an old lover who she has been unable to forget.

Set in the year 1969 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Kyoko Noma is a loving female high school student who takes part in campus protests. One day, she meets university student Wataru Domoto in the tea cafe Mubansou ("A Cappella"). Kyoko falls in love with him, but they get involved in an incident that leads to a shocking ending.

When people finish their day and hurry home, his day starts. His diner is open from midnight to seven in the morning. Pork, miso soup combo, beer, sake and shochu is all that he has on his menu. Nevertheless, he makes whatever his customers request as long as he has the ingredients for it.

Kiyotaka Sato (Shuhei Nomura) is a university student. He is sociable, but he looks like he doesn't have interest in those around him. During his summer vacation, Kiyotaka Sato plans to get his driver's license to impress schoolmate Matsuda (Yukino Kishii). At this time, a yakuza boss (Ken Mitsuishi) orders Todoroki (Kento Kaku) to get his driver’s license. Todoroki doesn't show his feelings outwardly. Later, Todoroki drives a car without a driver’s license and he hits Kiyotaka Sato. To cover up the accident, Kiyotaka Sato is placed in a car and taken to away. He arrives at an unofficial driving school. The driving school is run by the Uehara family. There, Kiyotaka Sato and Todoroki learn that they graduated from the same high school. They spend their summer at the driving school.

Natsumi wants to become a photographer. She takes a bike which her late father left behind and goes to a forest to find a firefly she saw with her father. In the forest, Natsumi meets old mother Yasu and old son Jizo. They run a general store. Natsumi learns how to live in nature from them. She has happy summer days there. One day, Jizo tells her that he became estranged from his son in the past.

Chizuru (Anne Watanabe) is the new teacher at Umega High School. Since her school days, she has played violin in an orchestra. One day, she listens to an amateur orchestra play at the local cultural hall. She is touched by their performance and decides to enroll in the orchestra, but there are 2 orchestras in town. Chizuru mistakenly enrolls in the orchestra which consists of elderly people. The members there are thrilled to have a young person join their group. Chizuru is unable to tell them she made a mistake and becomes the conductor for their orchestra.

In 1987, frustrated junior high student Takashi hates his uncool father hanging around their suburban home all the time, and is pestered by the area’s wannabe gangsters. But he’s interested in the girl next door, the bounteously-breasted Megumi. One day, Takashi hears a rumor that porn actress Kyoko Yokushimaru is coming to town for an autograph session at the only video store in town where Takashi and his judo friends always hang out. Their ridiculous but serious adventure begins. What will Takashi find after all the surprises and chaos? Recalling youth classics like Stand By Me, this is the debut feature of Shin Adachi, Japan Academy Prize-winning screenwriter of 100 Yen Love.

Takano Aki is a happy, ordinary housewife whose family (sweet husband and two kids) has moved to their dream apartment. Just as they are starting their new life, they encounter an ominous, terrifying neighbour, Sasaki Yumiko, who manipulates the dark emotions of pride, vanity and jealousy of the housewives living in the apartment building. She drives Aki into isolation within the building with unexpected methods and eventually causes the break up of her family. Meanwhile, a series of abduction cases take place. There seems to be a connection to the kidnapper and the frightening neighbor.

Yuri Ishikawa and her team try to crack unresolved cold cases in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

In a time when the main source of energy was still coal, there was a man who saw the future in oil. Young Tetsuzo Kunioka who hails from Moji, Kitakyushu, rides out into the oil business, but is faced with numerous challenges and competitors who stand in his way, including domestic suppliers and major western oil companies, or the "oil majors". But Tetsuzo never gave up, however despairing the situation was. He always found a way and paved a new road with his unconventional ideas, eccentric actions, and most of all, his caring heart toward his own men. That style of Tetsuzo's was not something that would ever change, even when the tides were against him in a war-lost Japan.

Hana (Satomi Kobayashi), Toki (Mikako Ichikawa) and Toki’s daughter Toshi (Haruka Sasaki) begin to live in the countryside. Hana’s nephew Akira (Seiya Ito), who just graduated from middle school, also lives with them. Doing farm work everyday, Hana and Toki get used to life in the countryside with help from couple Gen (Ken Mitsuishi) and Shiori (Hitomi Takahashi). One day, Toshi and Akira decide to raise a cat to catch rats. A cat named Tom then begins to live with them.

Ieji Hisashi, a salaryman who works for a securities company, has a fuzzy memory of the recent five years because of an accident at his job posting. His wife of five years, Megumi and their 4-year-old son seem to wear masks. He can neither tell their facial expressions nor their emotions. He also struggles about his love for them. On the other hand, Ieji feels an attachment to his ex-wife, whom he divorced five years ago, and their daughter. What sort of days did he have in those five years which are a blank to him? Ieji sets out on a journey to find his past self with a mysterious bunch of 10 keys that he has. He becomes aware that he was a cold, career-minded man before the accident, and the persona that is gradually revealed is beyond the imagination of his present kindhearted self.

A depressed widower, a bored housewife, and a gay lawyer all intersect in this triptych of love lost.

Set in 1995. A helicopter, operated remotely, is hovering in the sky over a nuclear power plant. The power company, prefectural government and media all receive a fax. The fax contains a threat that if the nuclear power plant is not taken offline the helicopter will be dropped. 8 hours is given as the deadline. Making the situation even more dire, a young child is in the helicopter.

This mystery special consists of three thrilling stories by three notable writers.

A failed director is trying to get his next movie off the ground, while dealing with his cranky brother and his estranged wife.

An omnibus recorded in a short film by five film directors with the motif of the song "Kai Band".

"Ouroboros" is an ancient symbol that depicts a snake eating its own tail - meaning infinity. Based on a popular comic, a clumsy detective and a cool gang stand up to true evil. Ikuo and Tatsuya grew up in a children's orphanage together. When their favorite teacher, Yuiko, is murdered, a policeman wearing a gold watch covers up the incident. Ikuo and Tatsuya promise each other to avenge their teacher someday. Twenty years later, Ikuo is a detective in Shinjuku second police station investigating various cases with elite detective - Mizuki, while smart and handsome Tatsuya has become one of the top members of a gang group.

Set along a backdrop of a fictitious second world war at an international city in Asia. In Japan, Lieutenant Colonel Yuki (Yusuke Iseya) recommends the creation of spy training school "D Kikan". Meanwhile, Kato (Kazuya Kamenashi) is facing capital punishment for his refusal to follow a superior's order. Kato is then scouted by "D Kikan". He goes through a harsh training regiment and faces his first mission as a spy. In order to seize American ambassador Graham's confidential documents "Black Note." Kato infiltrates into an international city. A battle to gain possession of the "Black Note" ensues between Kato, a mysterious woman named Rin (Kyoko Fukada), the British Spy Agency, the Soviet Spy Agency and the radical army in Japan.

A man with a wife and child attempts to run off with a hostess, but he doesn’t show up at the place they agreed to meet. The hostess continues to wait fully aware he won’t come. Then a man calls out to her…. “The Dork, The Girl, and The Douchebag,” the latest film in three years by OKUDA Yosuke who made his commercial film debut with “Tokyo Playboy Club” (11), is a powerful ensemble drama intertwining a drug dealer, a yakuza, an ex-convict youth, and others. It can be said the film inherits the setting of his previous work, but the intense realism exhibited in the raw chaos far exceeds the previous film and amply points to OKUDA’s future potential. Portraying the complex male character who only lives for violence, OKUDA’s talents as an actor should also not be overlooked.

Satomi Shinobu works in the Mobile Investigation Unit of The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. The Mobile Investigation Unit conducts the initial investigation at all crime scenes. He works with Inokuma Yuki. They are a couple, but they keep their relationship a secret at work. They both hope to work at the #1 Investigation Station. One day, they meet beautiful Tachibana Kara at the site where a dead body was found. Kara appears at the other crime scenes involving grotesque murders. She shows an interest in Yuki. Satomi Shinobu thinks it's a bad sign for Yuki. To protect his girlfriend from danger, he struggles to find uncover the truth behind the serial murder cases and Kara’s identity.

In pre-WWII Vancouver, second-generation Japanese immigrants had it tough. Daily, they faced discrimination, hatred and injustice at the hands of their Caucasian counterparts. But one thing made their lives worth living: baseball. They may be the underdogs, but the Vancouver Asahi baseball team have a sense of fair play and smart tactics that set them apart from the brute force of their opponents. Under the guidance of new team captain Reggie Kasahara, can they be able to rise above all the negativity to win the tournament? This film is based on the true story of Vancouver Asahi, the Japanese-Canadian baseball team that was inducted into The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003.

University student Sugishita Nozomi, Naruse Shinji, Ando Nozomi and Nishizaki Masato end up coming upon the scene of the murder of the Noguchi couple, because of a plan they had devised. Nishizaki is arrested at the scene and is given a 10-year prison term because of his voluntary confession. 10 years later, Takano Shigeru, a former police officer who has misgivings about the verdict of this case, starts to pursue the truth. He is convinced that it all began as a result of an incident caused by Nozomi and Naruse on an island in the Seto Inland Sea in the summer 15 years. “They committed a crime at that time. It was for the sake of each N.”

A bittersweet coming-of-age film based on a novel dealing with forestry. Yuki Hirano wants to live an easy life, like working a part-time job after his high school graduation. But, after his high school graduation, Yuki hears from his homeroom teacher that he has been hired for a job. When Yuki gets home, his mother is packing his stuff. Yuki's mother and his homeroom teacher decided that Yuki will work as a forestry trainee after his graduation. Yuki will have to go Kamusari Village. Since then, Yuki begins to work as a forestry trainee and becomes assimilated with the beauty of nature and the warm-hearted people in the village.

When Jiro Sawada was a sophomore in high school he was framed for something he did not do. Afterwards, he left his hometown in a small village in Fukushima Prefecture. After the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Jiro Sawada goes back to his hometown, when nobody is able to live there, and begins to live there again. His separated family begin to reunite.

Every night, Master (Kaoru Kobayashi) is busy with customers at the restaurant he runs. He has a worried face, looking at the funerary urn which someone left at his restaurant. His customers also talk about the funerary urn.

Akiko (Satomi Kobayashi) lives with her mother, but suddenly her mother passes away. Since then she quits her editing job and takes over her mother's small restaurant. At the restaurant there's only two items on the menu: sandwich and soup.

Keisuke Kinoshita sits easily alongside Ozu, Kurosawa and Naruse as one of Japan’s most respected legends of cinema. Made to commemorate the centenary of Kinoshita’s birth, this biographical drama chronicles formative hardships and personal encounters to provide a rare glimpse into the life of one of Japan’s most acclaimed screen directors. Includes archival footage from 49 of the films he produced during his career at Shochiku.

A small clinic in Kumamoto Prefecture begins accepting anonymous drop-offs of unwanted newborn babies at a residential building. The name of the controversial new program is "Stork Nest."

A seemingly random series of bombings in a provincial city. The latest target is a public bus route. Detective Chaya chased terrorists and arrested a mysterious man with keen intelligence and physical power. The psychologist in charge of evaluating him is Dr. Mariko. After the psychiatric examination, she puts toward a hypothesis – “Is it possible he was born without emotions?”

By the year 2050 AD, a mysterious organization called Galactor has occupied half of the Earth and threatens to exterminate the human race. Around the same time, the International Science Organization had uncovered mysterious stones that bear unusual powers. It is said that one person out of approximately eight million is able to harness the power of the stones; they are known as a "Receptor". Dr. Kozaburo Nambu gathers a team of these five lucky Receptors together. Known as the "Gatchaman" team, it is their mission to defeat Galactor.

Go, Masao! describes the relationship between people and their dogs. Comedian Hideki Matsumoto and a labrador retriever named Masao are selected to appear on the travel corner segment of a TV animal program. Until Hideki Matsumoto and the labrador retriever Masao become popular, they help each other.

A single woman runs an unconventional service that rents housecats to lonely people.

Journalist Kayama Seiji who is covering the war zone, gets shocking news that Shinozuka Yoshio, the criminal serving time for the murder of a young girl 12 years ago, is actually innocent. At that time, Kayama reported on that case. Convinced that Shinozuka was the criminal, Kayama had proceeded to write the news stories, but he is proved to be wrong after the passage of 12 years. Shinozuka's lawyer, Ishihara Yoko, holds a press conference where she criticises the sloppy investigation by the police and speaks of suing for the suffering during the 12 years that Shinozuka had lost. However, Shinozuka's daughter, Miho has mixed feelings for her father who is released from prison at this late stage. The victim's older sister, Hiroko, also finds it difficult to accept this reality. The detective Asada Kunio watches the press conference with a grim look. He was the person who had put Shinozuka behind bars. Asada had sent an innocent man to jail as a criminal. Kayama had made him into a criminal and fanned public opinion. Now they have to start to face the fact that he was wrongly convicted.

A boy, Shin, and his family are forced to evacuate the island of Miyakejima, when it erupts in 2000. Shin's dog, Rock, is mistakenly left behind.

A Man With Style is a bittersweet family drama which has at its centre two fifty-something school friends – widower Junichi Miyata (Ken Mitsuishi), a blue-collar worker and Sanada (Tomorowo Taguchi). Both are rather ordinary middle-aged men, far removed from any association with ‘style.’ Junichi Miyata is the more cantankerous and frustrated of the two in Ishii’s oeuvre. His wife died of cancer ten years ago, leaving him with an overriding memory of a silly but hilariously acted children’s song of bunnies she used to sing and two children who now, aged 18 and 19, hardly engage with him and are keen to move to university in Tokyo. He is short-tempered with them and nags them endlessly to no avail.

Set after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, all 14-year-old Sumida Yuichi wants to become is a regular boy and live a decent life. His environment though repeatedly drags him into the mud. He runs his parent's rental boat business, which is located next to a nondescript lake. His mother frequently comes home with different men and soon she leaves him entirely. His father only comes around looking for money. Chazawa Keiko is a classmate of Sumida Yuichi. She harbors a severe crush on Yuichi. Keiko's home life isn't much better than Yuichi's. Her mother builds a gallows with a noose in place for Keiko to take her own life. Her mother believes her life would be better off without Keiko. Under these circumstances, Keiko pays a visit to Yuichi's home. A group of people are lingering nearby who live in makeshift tents on the property. Keiko tries to befriend Yuichi, but she is berated and even physically assaulted. She doesn't get deterred though and sticks around.

The show is based on the "Jiu" suspense novel series by Honda Tetsuya. Motoko (Kuroki) is a fierce, physically capable investigator with a strong battle instinct, while Misaki (Tabe) is more intellectual, kind-hearted, and naive. The two of them are both working to track down Jiu, the ringleader responsible for a series of brutal crimes.

In 1944, the American military lands on the shores of Saipan. Refusing to commit suicide with his superiors or be forced into camps for prisoners of war, Captain Oba Sakae leads a group of his men and other similarly minded local residents into the mountains. Even after hearing reports of the Japanese military's surrender, Oba dismisses the reports as propaganda and continues to launch guerilla attacks against the American soldiers, earning him the nickname "The Fox". Soon, even the American commander who's charged with the task of capturing Oba comes to admire his persistent enemy.

Do criteria exist for the death penalty? Yusuke Mito, a law faculty lecturer who did not become a lawyer even though he passed the bar exam, the famous lawyer Kojiro Otomo who advocates the abolition of the death penalty, and the public prosecutor Mariko Nagase studied law together. Each have their own thoughts about the death penalty. One day, Otomo’s wife is murdered by someone. Shinzo Sabae who is resentful of a lawsuit that Otomo had been in charge of, is arrested as a suspect. Otomo reverses the stance he had had until now and seeks the death penalty against Sabae. This prompts Mito to make the decision to become a lawyer and stand in the court. However, the first case Mito takes charge of is the defence of Sabae, who murdered the wife of his good friend, Otomo…

Rieko Saibara is a cartoonist and mother of a 6-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl. When she has a difficult time, she throws away her problems with laughter. Her husband Kamoshitda used to be a war camera man, but now he's addicted to alcohol. He struggles to overcome his problem, but keeps failing. Finally, they get divorced. After Kamoshida loses his family, he realizes how precious they are. He focuses on getting away from alcohol, but another disease comes to him. Even though Saibara knows that he can not make it for long, she accepts him back to her family again. Since then a happy, but short, time exists for the family of four.

Upon return from Paris, Sasakura Ryu spends some time wandering amiss, but after some time he decides to start anew by becoming a bartender. On a daily basis as a bartender, he helps solve the various problems burdening his customers, including work and love and family troubles, one cocktail at a time. Furthermore, what will happen to the romantic relationship between Ryu, who seeks the best cocktail, and Kurushima Miwa, who ispertinent to his growth as a person. Also in the drama you'll see the fateful showdown between Kuzuhara Ryuichi, referred to as Mr. Perfect, and Master Kase Goro. -- TV Asahi

Saru is a talented young locksmith who unlocks any kind of lock. He is, however, a complete fool when it comes to women. One day a girl Mayumi asks him to open a safe full of stolen money. Knowing nothing about it, Saru takes the money briefcase with Mayumi and finds himself with yakuza gangsters and also police in hot pursuit.

A senseless double murder resonates eight years later in four intertwined stories.

Blessed with several large rivers, interconnected streams and springs, Japan's ancient capital, Kyoto, anoints the land with a bountiful source of water. In this tranquil setting, three women join the flow of a small community with the subtle presence of a spring breeze. Setsuko , the proprietor of a whiskey-only bar; Takako, the owner of a coffee shop along the waterway; Hatsumi, a maker of tofu so delicious it seems to spring forth from the clear water. Under their subtle influence, other townspeople gradually begin their own streams too: Yamanoha, a local worker for a furniture workshop; Otome, the owner of a neighborhood public bath; Jin, a young man who assists him at the bath; Makoto, a wayfarer about the town. Among their daily lives, there is Poplar, a small child with a perpetually friendly smile.

War photjournalist Yasuyuki Tsukahara married popular manga artist Yuki Sonoda and had children. Because of Yasayuki's drinking problems the couple divorced. Yasuyuki is now coughing up blood, hospitalized, and violent. Even with all of these problems Yasuyuki can't give up drinking alcohol. His family gets tired. Yasuyuki is then hospitalized in an alcoholic ward. There he finds comfort living with other patients and having conversations with doctors. With the help of his family, Yasuyuki recovers mentally and physically, but his body has already paid a heavy toll.

Shimizu Yuichi (Tsumabuki Satoshi) is a shy and lonely day laborer looking for love. He aimlessly spends time corresponding with girls via telephone dating services and going on random encounters with girls looking for spending cash. His world is shattered one day when he is involved in the murder of one of his former encounters, the sweet-faced Ishibashi Yoshino (Mitsushima Hikari) who, after being jilted by playboy Masuo Keijo (Okada Masaki), berates and mocks the troubled loner.

After graduating high school, Hiromi moves from the coastal town of Niigata to Tokyo in the hopes of becoming a famous actress. Her dream seemingly comes true as a manager scouts her off the street. He recruits her as a model but it's actually to be a "nude" model. It's not exactly what Hiromi was looking for, but she can't turn down the opportunity. As her career dwindles, the manager coerces her to make the jump to AV and Hiromi gains a new identity as Mihiro.

Osawa Eriko is a beautiful career woman who has just returned from training in the U.S. and is appointed as the "boss" of this division. But despite her intelligence and capabilities, she can never understand a man's heart, so she remains unable to find a husband.

Fuutarou has always lived in poverty and hated it. Because of his past he had become obsessed with money and will do anything to obtain it.

ER doctor Tsuyoshi Matsuoka receives a patient with a virus unlike anything he's seen before. His symptoms include high fever, convulsions, vomiting of blood and multiple organ failure. Could this be a new form of influenza or is it some other variety of virus? As the situation worsens and more cases begin arriving, a medical officer from the World Health Organization named Eiko Kobayashi is dispatched to the area. At the rate the virus is spreading, the entire city’s transportation system and infrastructure would be brought to a halt within 3 months. Within 6 months it could spread to tens of millions of people--reaching a death toll far worse than any war.

Itou Kaiji is a bum who steals car emblems and slashes tires on what seems to be a regular basis. This routine changes one day when he is paid a visit by a man in a trench-coat. Once the two get talking, it seems that the visitor (Calling himself Endou) is a debt collector. The reason for his visit is an unpaid loan which kaiji had previously co-signed for a work-mate (Furuhata Takeshi). The original loan was 30000 yen and once Takeshi had disappeared, the loan then fell on Kaiji. Kaiji is then told of a way to clear the interest compounded debt (which stood at 3,850,000 yen), which involved getting on a boat with others in his position. Once on the boat the debtors would then have to gamble with loaned money, which would end with a few winning, and others getting into deeper debt and having to work to pay of their debts. After some coercing kaiji accepts a position on the boat, in order to clear himself and make a bit of money as well...

When reporter Narumi Ryoko loses her job at a first-rate publisher and ends up at a trashy tabloid called "Shukan Untouchable." She now chases celebrity scandals and sensational stories, but she hasn't lost her sense of duty or her persistence. While investigating her stories, she tends to notice details that imply some hidden truth beneath the surface, leading her to probe deeper into dangerous secrets. --Tokyograph

A brother and sister leave the big city to live with their veterinarian father when their mother is hospitalized. As they are adjusting to their new life filled with natural beauty, they adopt an abandoned puppy. When it is discovered that the puppy is actually a wolf, they choose to return the baby wolf to its mother in the forest rather than let it live a life in captivity.

The story of the relationship between a college student whose relationship with her boyfriend is going nowhere and a bisexual medical artist who makes prosthetic body parts. Haru is a college student ignored by her boyfriend yet believes she is still in love with him. One day at a café, Haru meets Riko, a medical artist (prosthetist) who creates body parts in order to disguise clients’ missing pieces, lost due to accident or disease. Both were alone, but struck up an immediate friendship and closeness. Riko doesn't care about gender when it comes to relationships, and believes that love itself is the most important thing a human can achieve. Haru struggles in her life between friendship and a deeper relationship with Riko.

Mikako is a young junior high school teacher who has just transferred to a new school. Excited to be starting a new job, she volunteers for a coach for a boys volleyball club. But, she finds out that there is almost no activity in the club… There are only 5 members, and they are all losers who haven’t even touched a volleyball and only think about girls… To give them an incentive to try hard, she promises them that she will show them her boobs if they win a game! Since then, the boys start practicing extremely hard. Feeling uneasy but happy at the same time to see their attitude changing, Mikako starts to like and trust them. She also learns from them and gets back her confidence which once she lost. Right before the day of the first game, ‘the promise’ is discovered by the school side, and it becomes a big problem…

This enticing period melodrama depicts a long-suffering woman's relationship with her brilliant but self-destructive writer husband in postwar Tokyo. Based on a semi-autobiographical 1947 novel by Osamu Dazai, the story centers less on the womanizing, heavy-drinking, suicidal hero than on the wife who loves him. Written by Palm Springs International Film Festival

A humorous wedding story fueled by a rather no-good father and son, disguised as the old and new “good guys.” The father Nobuo, and his son Tamio, are unable to mature, unable to break the parent-child roles, have no sense of responsibility, and keep holding on to the past. The pair is overwhelmed by all the colorful characters around them telling them what to do. They go to strenuous and humorous efforts to make Tamio’s wedding an event to remember.

For 60 years, the group of detectives known as "Detective Office 5" has raised the bar for detective work. The agents of Detective Office 5 are a group of stellar detectives lead by the genius code breaker Detective 507. When an unknown client enlists 507 to crack his most difficult programming code yet, the detective embarks for Shanghai where he crosses paths with a sniper, an informant, the head of the Blue-Dragon Mafia, and beautiful singer on the run, Meilan. As 507 stumbles deeper into a twisted quagmire of intrigue he discovers the sad truth behind the mystery.

Naoko meets Yusuke while staying on an island for medical treatment. Yusuke's graceful athletic figure captivates her eyes and she falls in love with him. But their relationship is soon broken after Yusuke's father dies while trying to save Naoko from drowning. The memory of Yusuke leads Naoko to the track, and six years later, they meet each other again at a Marathon competition. Naoko decides to become a manager to help Yusuke, a gifted runner, and they embark on training together to heal their sorrows from the past.

Chiba appears seven days before a person dies an unexpected death. His job is to observe the person for seven days then decide either to ‘execute’ or ‘pass over’. Today, again, in the rain, he waits. His subject, her death due in seven days, is Kazue Fujiki. She works for a manufacturing company in the complaints department. Exhausted after her day, she emerges from her office. It’s time for the Reaper to go to work.

Chief Iizuka (Kaoru Kobayashi), who works at the Cultural Center, misunderstands two chorus groups with similar names and double-books the concert hall on New Year's Eve. Although they talk to each other, neither of them gives up a step and develops into a big problem.Iizuka, who has lived his life with a "no-nonsense" attitude, finds himself in the middle of two groups and at a loss for words.

At a high school in the city of Yokohoma the baseball team trains to go to the top. There are struggles, hardships and successes and not all of it is due the star pitcher or batter and those in the centre of attention. There are rewards to being the great, but it is a long way to the top and they know it.

Hatanaka Kosaku is a talented boxer who turned pro at the age of 19, winning his debut match with a first round KO. He is talented, but he has no guts. His uncontrollable appetite is an even bigger problem. He can't put himself in the right weight class, he runs out of energy because of hunger, and he gets knocked out while his eyes are set on food at the ringside. However, Kosaku's life changed when he met Sister Angela, a novice nun in the convent near his boxing gym. She became the source of his power, and Kosaku fights only to win her heart.

"Shadow of Sand" - Set in Tokyo in the 1980's. Yukie, a young woman lives with the vision of the lover she has murdered. After his death he continues to appear in her room. Yukie maintains her usual life, trying to avoid discovery of her crime until a new lover turns up.

Kanao, a courtroom portrait artist, observes crimes, scandals and the decline of Japanese values without passing judgement. As he and his wife endure the tragedy of their first child’s death, hope slowly unfolds and their love story flickers to life once again.

A behind-the-scenes look at Sion Sono’s 2005 film Noriko’s Dinner Table.

Harried and overworked, Taeko leaves the city for a much-needed island vacation. Stepping off a propeller plane onto golden sands, she drags her giant suitcase across the beach to Hamada Inn. Owner Yuji is impressed; it's the first time in three years a guest has made it to the inn without getting lost. The next morning Taeko wakes up to the greetings of peculiar fellow vacationer Sakura who leads the townspeople in funny morning calisthenics on the beach. Thus begins Taeko's strange vacation on this strange island full of strange people. At first Taeko finds the laidback attitude and mass idleness hard to bear, but soon she too begins to see the joy in "twilighting".

Coming of age story about a boy and his mother.

Kenji, abandoned by his mother, scrapes out a meager existence doing odd jobs including driving bar hostesses and their customers home. Besides this he takes care of the sister of an old friend in jail and a young illegal immigrant. But his life reaches a turning point when he happens to meet Chiyoko, his long lost mother. She is now married to Mamiya, the owner of an express package delivery service. They also have a teenage son, Yusuke. Subdued feelings of alarm, discomfort and resentment between Chiyoko, Kenji, and his half brother Yusuke hide underneath and are seemingly caused by the inseparable blood ties that seem to wield control over everyone's destiny. Is blood that powerful? What exactly defines a mother or a father? While Kenji struggles with these questions and attempts to escape his fate, Chiyoko seems content to let these issues unfold and find a solution. Where will it ultimately lead them?

A youth drama in which a young man visiting Busan, South Korea falls in love with a Japanese woman. Debut film directed by Masaharu Take.

Adapted from the bestselling Japanese autobiography of the same title, this gentle coming-of-age drama concerns an adolescent boy, Boku - Masaya, torn between the inherited recklessness of his father Oton and the inherited responsibility, wisdom and emotional strength of his mother Okan. Following a period of intensely rebellious behavior, Boku learns that his mom has contracted cancer; suddenly, his mother comes to live with him in Tokyo the entire emotional landscape of his life is altered.

A tattoo changes a woman. A tattoo changes a man. Tattoo is everything ... Asami, a woman who breaks into an affair with a man who has a wife the name is Ninomiya, a man who leaves the house apart from his wife and is inviting a self-development seminar to live today. The two who atoned for the past and asked for salvation met by chance. Asami, who decided to carve a tattoo by her own choice, entrusts her skin to a genius skin carver, Kokari. Eventually, a splendid woman's tattoo leaps on her back, which dramatically changes herself. Tattoo greatly changes Ninomiya's way of life and captivates the sculpture that dreams of the completion of tattoos. Eventually, the fate of men and women who were tossed by tattoos began to fluctuate greatly.

Fūrin Kazan was the 46th NHK Taiga drama beginning on January 7, 2007. It was aired throughout 2007. The four characters from left to right are wind, woods, fire, and mountain. The title is a reference to the war banner used by Takeda Shingen, which in turn was taken from Sun Tzu's The Art of War. It means "Swift as the Wind, Silent as a Forest, Fierce as Fire and Immovable as a Mountain."

A young man fights for his freedom after he is accused of groping a girl on train.

The script won the 2006 TV Asahi contest for new scenario writers. The story is about the secret game between two childhood friends. In that game, Kurokawa is a princess and her friend Mizushima is her servant. They promised to keep on playing the game until someone finds about it.

There is an old love hotel in Tokyo's Shinjuku district where couples can rent a room by the hour for romantic assignations. However, few of its regular customers seem to come there for sexual encounters; the hotel has become a hangout for rootless teenagers, senior citizens looking for a place to relax, and kids that play under the watchful eye of its owner...

A child suddenly disappears in a small village and his mother desperately searches for clues.

Comedy about a woman who finds a new life after she loses her busband.

Recently graduated from high school, 17-year-old Shiro (Yagira Yuya) decides to put off college and work at a gas station instead. Shy and introspective, Shiro understands he is at a turning point of his life, but is unsure of what lies ahead. Though his parents disapprove of his decision, he has the support of his flower child grandmother (Natsuki Mari) who declares that a gas station is a romantic place for life's drifters. Surely enough, soon a new co-worker, college student Noriko (Erika Sawajiri), drifts into Shiro's life. He falls headfirst into a bittersweet first love that ushers him into the world of adulthood.

A young reporter is covering the mysterious case of a child found dead with missing internal organs.

Japanese film directed by Kunitoshi Manda.

An unknown future. A boy confesses to the murder of another in an all-boy juvenile detention facility. More an exercise in style than storytelling, the story follows two detectives trying to uncover the case. Homosexual tension and explosive violence drives the story which delivers some weird and fascinating visuals.

Takashi, an unemployed young man, is entrusted with a "catch ball shop" by a stranger he meets in the park. While accepting people's feelings through catch ball, Takashi himself remembers the important things that he had forgotten.

Four beautiful sisters are entrusted with taking care of Kinjiro, a giant salamander and national treasure. Rumors spread that Kinjiro is an impostor, so a genius x-ray technician is sent to run some tests.

This atmospheric, violent thriller revolves around a hitman called Kyoji who has just killed his lover, Seiko. She was the wife of Kyoji’s boss, Wiwat, who, when he heard about the affair, hired his rival to murder the unfaithful Seiko. Kyoji hides himself away on a cruise ship bound for Thailand. On board he meet a mysterious beauty named Noi. A passionate affair ensues. Their destinies are more interwoven than Kyoji and Noi could ever imagine. As Kyoji fights for his life and struggles to cope with mounting feelings of guilt he discovers the truth about the secretive Noi. Furious, wounded and thirsting for revenge, Kyoji might even make it home again.

Kiriyama Suichiro works at the Limitation Task Force, the place where the cases which have reached the statute of limitations are destroyed. Getting bored of his job, he decides to find a hobby, because it seems important to him to have a hobby. So he decides to puzzle out the unsolved cases on his free time, helped by his coworker Mikazuki, who seems to have a crush on him.

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.

Romeo, A.K.A. Kosuke Matsuyama (Shun Shioya), is a second-year high school student. A nice, normal, nonviolent type, he suddenly finds himself in the middle of a rampaging crowd of Korean boys, outraged by insults perpetrated by several of his idiotic class-mates on two Korean girls. He makes a narrow escape, but soon after, he and his best bud Yoshio (Keisuke Koide) are sent by their home-room teacher to invite the Korean students to a friendly soccer game as a way of restoring the peace.

"Gina K" tells the story of the daughter of a famous stripper, who reveals her family history so she can stand proud as a vocalist. On stage she's feverish, but when she comes down she's just another girl.

Asuka is an aspiring model who moves to Tokyo to pursue her career. She moves into a small apartment with a friend of a friend, Kasumi. A bizarre murder occurs in the hotel across the street. The body was mutilated and repositioned into a lurid work of art. After this, a string of murders start happening all around the two girls, as if some crazed serial killer was following them. At the scene of each crime, the perpetrator leaves a black lip print, and is subsequently dubbed "The Black Kiss.

Haruo returns to his hometown for his mother’s second marriage and happens to meet his first love Miyuki in eight years. Haruo still has feelings for her, who left her hometown the day after they made love. Miyuki is back with her daughter Chiharu, after a failed marriage. They end up making love again in eight years, but Miyuki disappears again the next day. Haruo goes to meet Chiharu like Miyuki asked him to and spends the day with her. An awkward company at first, but as time passes he feels a certain responsibility for Chiharu, thinking that she might be his own daughter. Family relationship is changing in today’s Japan, as divorce and remarriage become commonplace. The film describes quietly but sharply how family relationship affects our other relationships through psychological changes in the main character.

Five young musicians, each harboring painful memories, are assembled to entertain American soldiers at an Enlisted Men's Club. Tensions emerge between the tenor saxophonist, a disillusioned ex-soldier, and a bitter GI whose brother was killed in the war. And when the band plays the prohibited "Danny Boy" during a birthday bash for a sergeant whose son Danny had died a year ago, everyone must confront a past they'd rather forget.

In this excursion into Tokyo's dark side, a sexually repressed woman finds liberation by turning tricks at night a sex worker is taken by surprise when her ex drops by and a sex blogger finds strange kinship with a loner.

I (Ken MItsuishi), documentary video maker, saw a guy named YUDA (Kazuma Honda) in middle of Tokyo. I was curious about Yuda and begun following him around, but one day he disappeared with my video camera. A couple months later, a lady name Michi Nakamura (Yukiko Okamoto) came to my office. She had the strap of my video camera that Yuda stole from me, and said she saw the address that was on the strap, so she came here. I asked her about Yuda, and she told me that he was dead. Right after she left my office, she was hit by a car, I visited her in hospital and she begins to tell me about the mysterious story of her and Yuda.

Seikichi, makes his living fishing from a small boat off the coast of Okinawa. He and his 12-year-old grandson Akira live in a small, tree-lined village in the northern part of the island which is surrounded by a white-sand beach and plots of pine and flowering bushes. On the cliff that skirts the shore sits an open-air burial ground containing the skull of a kamikaze pilot who was shot down during the last days of World War II. When the wind blows through the bullet hole in the skull, it produces a whistling sound. The locals call it the "Crying Head."

An ordinary salary man, Junosuke, goes in search of his lover, Miharu, who disappeared one night when she handed him the key to her room, and promised to be back in five minutes. She had only gone out to buy apples at the nearby convenience store, because Junosuke has one for breakfast every morning. Slightly drunk from the cocktail he had had earlier, Junosuke falls asleep, and wakes up the next morning to find that Miharu had never returned.

Tramps Like Us is a Japanese josei manga series by Yayoi Ogawa. It is about Sumire, a young professional woman who takes in a younger man as a pet, and her attempts to keep her coworkers and conventionally perfect boyfriend from finding out about her pet. It also deals with the romantic attraction between Sumire and her pet. It was serialised by Kodansha and was released in 14 volumes between 2000 and 2005, with an additional side-story volume being released in 2002. The volumes, barring the side-story volume, were published in English and German by Tokyopop, French by Kurokawa and Italian by Star Comics. The manga was adapted to a TV drama series that aired in Japan on TBS in 2003, and a South Korean film due out in 2011.

Three short films with the theme of death in common.

Three storylines interweave in Border Line. Kurosawa (Murakami Jun) finds himself driving a taciturn young man named Matsuda (Sawaki Tetsu) halfway to Hokkaido, after accidentally knocking him off his bike; their fragile bond can last only so long. The housewife Aikawa Misa (Aso Yumi) tries desperately to hold her family together when her husband gets laid off and her son is so frightened of bullies at school that he throws up in the car; she’s reduced to taking a McJob in a convenience store. And Miyaji (Mitsuishi Ken), who collects debts for a yakuza gang, gets into trouble when his partner Kitajima puts personal need above duty.

Hiroshi Hamano, a professor at a medical university, is found dead. Going by the results of the autopsy, it appears he committed suicide by jumping off a roof, but going by eyewitness testimony and physical evidence at the scene, Detective Kamei suspects murder. A ticket for a train trip around Japan is found in the professor's pocket. However, nobody then could have known the shocking truth hidden behind the tour the dead man was supposed to attend...

Hana is a nineteen-year old expectant mother. She travels with her grandmother's ashes to her grandmother's house. Hana's mother, who gave birth to Hana when she herself was a teenager, now resides in the home. They are on the outs with each other, but are forced to stay with each other when Hana's boyfriend fails to show.

A young, good-hearted doctor Kenichi suffers from a rare syndrome whereby his feelings cannot be hidden such people are known as "satorare" and their well-being come under special government protection. As all the young doctor's thoughts/feelings are always heard by hospital colleagues, this creates much inconvenience to them and they try to drive him away. In steps a beautiful female doctor who tries to shield him from the cruel reality of his uniqueness.

Naoya and Katsuhiro are boyfriends, new in their relationship. Things are uneven at first - Naoya is open and free while Katsuhiro is cautious and closeted - but nothing compares to the chaos that arrives when Asako, a troubled woman with a history of psychiatric problems, abortions and casual sex, asks Katsuhiro to conceive a child with her.

It is 1980. Sadatomo is at a secondary school in a small town. His parents barely take any notice of him. The strict teacher Kobayashi has hung up a 'humanity index' in the classroom, divided into the categories 'delinquents', 'scum' and 'people'. In each category he has hung name-cards of pupils. One day Kobayashi finds out that Sadatomo and his friends have stolen some things from a shop for fun. Their fathers are informed and as punishment, the children have to write a 'self-critical' essay of no less than thirty pages. For the first time, Sadatomo is beaten by his father. Shocked, he writes a piece entitled 'I am an onion', in which the teacher thinks he can detect a first sign of humanity. That is the start of a confusing situation in which it gets hard to distinguish lies, truth, justified self-criticism and opportunist wheeler dealing, even for the boys.

This small scale character drama follows two young women (Kumiko Aso & Tsugumi) and a sex date (Masatoshi Nagase) who turns out to be an alright guy. What follows is a classic love triangle, however so skillfully played that most of it comes out rather fresh.

17 year old Tokyo pizza delivery boy Kosuke (Kotaro Takada) crashes his bike into photographer Reiko (Miwa Mukunoki) and breaks her expensive camera. He promises to deliver homemade pizza to make up for her broken camera. After discovering that Reiko has moved 1,200 km away to her hometown of Nagasaki things become trickier, but Kosuke decides to fulfill his promise anyways by borrowing a moped from his workplace.

The fourth movie in the highly sucessful Eko Eko Azarak series. Following the events of the second movie, Misa (this time played by TOEI poster child and Battle Royale II starlette, Natsuki Kato) discovers, along with the rest of Japan, the strength of her newly acquired powers when she and her friends are attacked in the woods…

13-year-old Sachiko is about to encounter the most difficult moments in her young life. Her father abandons her and her mother attempts to commit suicide by slashing her wrist. Her teacher, whom she relies on heavily, leaves for northern Japan to take another job. Other students start to gossip about Sachiko and her former teacher. Sachiko then drops out of school and attempts to find herself.

Emotionally withdrawn strip club dancer Ayako has never recovered from her mother's suicide when she was young. She begins a relationship with patient potter Daiji, but leaves him behind when she quits her job and returns to her home town after a 10 year absence.

A young teen's father dies, and he is sent to an orphanage. He's teased because he stutters almost runs away, until a beautiful, androgynous boy, Yasuo (Sora Toma), convinces him to join the choir.

A group of terrorists has taken hold of the largest dam in Japan. They also capture the workers as hostages, and demanded $5 billion yen from the government with a 24 hour deadline in exchange for the lives of the hostages. To make things more complicated, there was a snowstorm and no one can get in or out near the area. Fortunately, the terrorists did not capture Togashi, the dam controller, and he is the only person who can rescue those hostages from the terrorists...

The traumatized survivors of a murderous bus hijacking come together and take a road trip to attempt to overcome their damaged selves. Meanwhile, a serial killer is on the loose.

The movie is absurd, and a thoroughly original take on the morale in Japanese society. The images are beautiful, and the people are as cold as the snow that surrounds them. The take on Melville's "Samoraï" from -67 is obvious, but Kobayashi turns the image around and portrays the killer as the weakest person in the movie - haunted by his demanding wife and the moaning contractor, who is one of the most mysterious characters ever portrayed in a movie.

A man gets involved in a kidnapping scheme with the wife of a wealthy businessman. She lets herself be tied up and confined in his house while he sends the ransom demand. When he returns home that night, however, he finds her laying dead on the floor. In a panic he buries her body deep in the woods and tries to return to his ordinary life. One day, he thinks he spots her walking down the street. Is his mind playing tricks on him, or has she somehow returned from the grave?

A musical- style comedy movie set in Hakata.

It depicts the fierce battle between the Shanghai Mafia, who is trying to expand its power with sneaky hands, and Kuroiwa, the young head of the former Ryuo group.

Reunited by the death of a friend, a group of former schoolmates reassess themselves and their earlier times together.

Rika, a bright, attractive, and driven young woman, is intent on marrying her dreamy boyfriend Seiichi Ono who is not only tall and handsome but also an up-and-coming executive. One day, Ono abruptly dumps her.

The original story Open House written by Akutagawa Award winning writer, Hitonari Tsuji, is composed of two stories - one about Tomonori and Mitsuwa, and the other about Yuiko.

The police are tracking a man who shoots at people. But the young sister of a detective finds that he's not the mad vigilante portrayed in newspapers.

In spring, a girl leaves the island of Hokkaido to attend university in Tokyo. Once there, she is asked to reveal why she wanted to go there in the first place.

White-collar worker Yamashita finds out that his wife has a lover visiting her when he's away, suddenly returns home and kills her. After eight years in prison, he returns to live in a small village, opens a barber shop (he was trained as a barber in prison) and talks almost to no-one except for the eel he "befriended" in prison. One day he finds the unconscious body of Keiko, who attempted suicide and reminds him of his wife. She starts to work at his shop, but he doesn't let her become close to him.

A detective and his partner track down a call girl with information about a drug cartel. After taking her into custody, they are attacked by cartel members. The detective and the woman manage to escape, but they are soon hounded by a professional hitman hired to eliminate them and recover the heroin stolen by the woman.

Yasuo is a gangster just released from jail. Believing his boss double-crossed him, enraged Yasuo is on his way to find the boss. But before setting out for the dangerous trip, Yasuo asks Kenji to take care of his mentally challenged sister, Yuri, and a mysterious black bag.

Swallowtail Butterfly takes place in an alternate Japan, in a ghetto where immigrants from all over the world have come to live and make their fortune. The city is called Yentown, and it is much like Tokyo. Sixteen-year-old Ageha (Ito), a young girl whose mother has just died, is passed on from person to person until a prostitute named Glico (Chara) finally takes pity on her. Under Glico's care, Ageha has many experiences with the other poverty-stricken immigrants in Yentown. Eventually, due to a sudden twist in fate, the immigrants are given a chance to realize their dreams. But in doing so, they destroy their solidarity, and have to face their problems separately.

One summer day a group of sixth-grade boys have an argument about whether fireworks are round or flat when viewed from different angles and embark on a journey for the answer during the annual firework festival. Meanwhile, one of their classmates, Nazuna, is troubled by her parents' separation and decides to choose one of the boys to run away with.

When exchanging letters two women discover new things about a deceased man they used to know.

A salesman from Delta Works, a London-based computerized database, offers a one month free trial that seems uninteresting until he mentions that an operator, always selected from a group of young women in their 20's nick-named "Delta Ladies", will also be supplied in the trial period. Poo arrives at the one-man Aida Detective Agency with the Delta Mazelan 'F' Series hardware. A dragon fish has been stolen by Tetsu Tobiyama and biologist Thomas Earwing seeks its return (the Super-Red variety is worth 10 million yen). The system fails to provide info about Tetsu, but Poo worms her way into a top secret file at Delta headquarters, finding that he supplies trained assassins for use worldwide. Searching tropical fish outlets where Tobiyama shops for supplies, Poo is led to Natsuro, living alone with fish tanks, one of which contains a dragon fish. This enigmatic young man is not only mysteriously attractive to Poo, he also seems to attract the attention of hit men aimed at him.

Agreeing to move out of his old apartment early to help out others, Ichiro shows up unexpectedly to move into his new place on Christmas Eve, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. As he starts to unpack, he is beset upon by a series of salesmen at his door and as a result he is already not in the mood to make concessions when two strangely dressed and mannered visitors, Nana and Mel, arrive and insist that he and his possessions are in the way of their plans to hold a Christmas party they cannot re-schedule. In the ensuing see-saw battle over possession of the premises, the pair seems to have some unfair advantages. For instance, Ichiro finds it frustrating that only he seems to be able to see the odd pair. Whether or not Ghost Soup can be made and served hangs in the balance.

A school was built on one of the Gates of Hell, behind which hordes of demons await the moment they will be free to roam the Earth. Hiruko is a goblin sent to Earth on a reconnaissance mission. He beheads students in order to assemble their heads on the demons' spider-like bodies. Hieda, an archaeology professor, and Masao, a haunted student, investigate the gory deaths and eventually battle Hiruko

The unexpected death of Fujishima Motoharu, president of a medium-sized firm, triggers a fierce battle over his estate inheritance among family members.

A Japanese boy in love with a girl of Korean origin must battle the prejudices of those around him in order to sustain the relationship.

Yuki, the wife of a leading member of the Domoto family, must assume her husband’s role as a yakuza boss while he serves out a prison sentence. As she grows into her new role, she manages to assert control and increase the influence of her organization. But when her husband is released from prison, she finds him a changed man, lacking the character necessary to be a powerful yakuza leader. Conflict ensues and their marriage is challenged by a desire for power.

Tora-san's family's neighbor, Akemi, who had been married in Marriage Counselor Tora-san (1984), runs away from her husband, who is only interested in work. Tora-san follows her to Shikinejima, and attempts to bring her back to her home. In doing so he encounters a school-reunion group who are traveling to meet their elementary school teacher, which is a reference to the film Twenty-Four Eyes by Keisuke Kinoshita. Tora-san joins them and falls in love with the teacher.

The culturally isolated, nomadic Seburi people of western Japan are the subject of this tragedy about a few of the community's members who especially experience difficulties as modern Japan encroaches on their world. The setting is World War II, and conflicts have already arisen when the military police come to take Seburi men away into the army. Still following their own customs that can be harsh at times, and are particularly cruel to women (women must give birth alone and unaided, a woman's adultery is punished by burying her up to her neck in the earth and then leaving her for days), the Seburi are mainly treated with fear and animosity by the non-Seburi townspeople of the region. Along with the hardships arising from cultural clashes, nature's own vagaries present other challenges to the Seburi -- who still lived in tents until the 1950s. Winter avalanches and snowstorms cause as much havoc as the tensions engendered by the slow encroachment of the modern world.

A young man working as a cameraman in Tokyo is visited for three days by his parents from the countryside.

Tora-san gets into an argument with his uncle and sets out on the road again. In Kyushu he meets a young woman named Keiko and the shy zoologist Saburō, and attempts to play matchmaker between the two when they all return to Tokyo.

A high-school girl inherits a declining yakuza organization, which seeks to repair its fortunes under her leadership.

When cabaret singer Lily writes Toraya about her illness, Tora-san rushes to Okinawa to be by her side.

After a friend and business colleague dies, Tora-san visits the man's daughter, then takes her to Tokyo so she can study for a night school exam.

Based on the comic by Housei Hasegawa

When Momoko Adachi (Kasumi Arimura) was in high school, her parents died in an accident. She was left with her 3 younger siblings. To support her family, Momoko Adachi gave up on going to a university and picked up a job at a hardware store. 9 years later, she is now 27-years-old. Her 3 younger siblings are 20, 17, and 14-years-old. Momoko Adachi places her sibling's happiness before anything else. One day, she meets Yoshioka-san at work. She is attracted to Yoshioka-san, who smiles all the time, but he has a secret.