Kyoko Koizumi
Young, free and madly in love. As teenagers, the world was their oyster—but, as adults, their lives seem dimmer, like a very important piece is missing.
Traces Japan’s history with the Olympic games and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics for viewers before Tokyo hosts the event again in 2020. The first half tells the story of marathon runner Kanakuri Shiso, who became one of the first Japanese nationals to participate in the Olympics in Stockholm in 1912. The second half features Tabata Masaji, the coach who laid the foundations of Japanese swimming and helped bring the games to Tokyo for the first time in 1964.
Story follows the daily lives of 8 women with different backgrounds, including Atsuko Mochitsuki (Kyoko Koizumi), through what they eat and whom they date. --asianwiki
Narumi is on bad terms with her husband Shinji when one day, Shinji goes missing. He comes back a couple of days later, but seems like a totally different person, and is now gentle and tender. He goes for a walk every day. Meanwhile, Journalist Sakurai covers the story of a family that was brutally murdered, when an unexplained phenomenon takes place. Shinji Kase tells his wife that he came to Earth to invade.
Kitazawa Haku had watched a movie and dreamed he was in a parallel universe. Meanwhile, Ryū, the older brother of Haku's friend Takeru, is facing down boys' bar owner Rokujō. Then Ryū becomes fascinated with Kikiyō standing behind Rokujō. On the day of the yearly festival, Haku suddenly disappears. Takeru disappears while in search of Haku. Ryū disappears while following Kikiyō. And then Rokujō also disappears.
Kako (Fumi Nikaido) is a female high school student. She lives at a restaurant run by her family in Kitashinagawa, Tokyo. Unexpectedly, Kako's aunt, Mikiko (Kyoko Koizumi), suddenly appears. Kako thought her aunt died 18 years ago. Her whole family is embarrassed by Mikiko's appearance due to a past incident caused by Mikiko. Kako is also irritated when Mikiko lives in her room. They spend the summer together.
At the foot of Mt Fuji, there is a small old-fashioned shop ‘Fuji Family’ that is a convenience store in name only. It is run by three sisters who are known in the neighbourhood as beauties. Oguni Takako is the dependable eldest sister who supported the family in place of their parents when they died young and is the breadwinner who works at a department store. Uninhibited second sister Nasumi is the complete opposite of Takako in personality and lifestyle.
High school student Jinta (Nijiro Murakami) is a hikikomori and lives in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. One summer day, when Jinta is absorbed in a video game, a girl suddenly appears in front of him. The girl is Jinta's childhood friend Meiko (Minami Hamabe), but it seems impossible because Meiko died on a summer day. Meiko wears the same white dress when she died, but she looks a little taller. She tells Jinta that she has a wish and that's why she came back as a ghost, but Meiko can't remember what her wish was. To grant Meiko's wish, Jinta along with his friends Atsumu (Jun Shison), Naruko (Airi Matsui), Chiriko (Marie Iitoyo), Tetsudo (Yuta Takahata) and Meiko gather together for the first time in 7 years. Jinta soon realizes that he is the only one able to see Meiko.
Matsuoi (Hiroshi Abe) and his wife Tsuya moved to Oshima City because of her unpredictable character. Even though Tsuya continues to have affairs, Matsuoi loves her and is a devoted husband. Tsuya is then diagnosed with a cancer and later goes into a coma. Matsuoi then thinks of his wife's lovers. Matsui goes to those men and informs them of Tatsuya's condition. The other women in the lives of those men are shocked and begin to re-examine their views of their men.
Koichi and Atsumi are lovers who have known each other all their lives. A year ago, however, a suicide attempt by Atsumi left her in a coma. Through 'sensing', a type of neurosurgical procedure allowing contact with the intentional aspect of a comatose patient's mind, Koishi tries to find out why Atsumi tried to kill herself, and to bring her back to consciousness. He enters her subconscious, and is told to find a picture of a plesiosaur she drew when she was a child. It turns out that a childhood incident buried in their past will bring their minds together.
Amachan is the 88th 2013 NHK asadora written by Kankuro Kudo (Tiger and Dragon, Unobore Deka). It's about Amano Aki (Nounen Rena), a 16 year old girl from Tokyo who goes to her mother's former home in Sodegahama, a fishing village in Kitasanriku, Iwate prefecture for the summer break. She falls in love with the sea and its people, and decides to stay on to become an Ama (women divers who fetch clams and sea urchins for tourists) just like her grandmother, Natsu (Miyamoto Nobuko). Her decision is welcomed wholeheartedly by Natsu and the other locals. However, her mother Haruko (Koizumi Kyoko) does not like the idea at first. She has a strained relationship with Natsu, and her extreme dislike of the sea, diving and the countryside is one of the reasons why she left her hometown 24 years ago. Eventually, she decides to stay in Sodegahama with Aki, considering that she is contemplating on getting a divorce anyway and does not want to go back to her husband in Tokyo. She also notices that it might be good for Aki for she seems livelier and happier in Kitasanriku than in Tokyo. The road towards becoming a full-fledged Ama-san is tough for Aki as she encounters tests and hurdles. One day, a video of her as an Ama gets uploaded in the city's tourism website, transforming an ordinary high school girl into an overnight Internet sensation. Suddenly she is called upon to use this opportunity to attract tourists to a city suffering from depopulation.
Chiaki Yoshino is a TV producer. She is 45-years-old and single. Chiaki Yoshino worries about her health and her later years rather than dating. She hopes to buy an old house and live there with a friend when she gets older. Chiaki then goes to Kamakura, Japan to look for a house. There, she meets a 50-year-old single man Wahei Nagakura. Wahei's first wife died and he has one child. Their love story begins ...
The movie consists of 4 stories each telling how people survive on life-death choice. The story titles are: Cheering Girls, Boy? meets girl., Claim Night! and The House Full Of 'Abandoned' Businessmen.
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.
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.
Asako, a comic book artist in her early forties, is devastated by the death of her precious cat, Ca Va, which kept her company for over 15 years, as her assistant Naomi watches on with concern. Naomi is a young woman in her early twenties, who has her set of worries about love and future. Then one day, Asako meets a new cat, Gou-gou, which brings new joy and vitality to her life. What is more, she finds potential for love in a man named Seiji. Like Asako, Naomi, too, embarks on a new life plan.
Ryûhei Sasaki is keeping a secret from his wife, Megumi and his two teenage sons. Even though he leaves the house every day, he's not really going to work. He's going to an employment office. He recently lost his job due to outsourcing, but is determined to find another position, all while supporting an old friend who is also out of work. But when Megumi accidentally finds out Ryûhei's secret and doesn't tell him, her trust in him, and their marriage, suffers.
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.
Leading a lazy life, Fumiya has been a university student for 8 years and owes money to loan sharks. One day, a man named Fukuhara comes to collect the loan, which Fumiya cannot pay. So Fukuhara makes a proposition: He will cancel the debt as long as Fumiya agrees to walk with him across Tokyo to the police station of Kasumigaseki, where he intends to turn himself in for a crime he deeply regrets. Not having much choice, Fumiya accepts the deal. Thus begins their journey which will lead them to various unusual encounters, most of all with themselves.
A young girl is sold into the red-light district Yoshiwara and is put under the care of the oiran (lead prostitute) of the Tamakiku house. The girl is rebellious, but the more experienced people in the household begin to think that she will be one day a great oiran, since an oiran needs not only beauty and talent, but she should also have the tenacity to maintain the position.
Tears for You is a love story about two step-siblings, Yota (Satoshi Tsumabuki) and Kaoru (Masami Nagasawa). Long ago, Yota's mother (Kyoko Koizumi) married Kaoru's jazz-playing father (Tatsuya Nakamura), effectively merging the two families. Unfortunately, Kaoru's father skipped town, and Yota's mother passed away, but not before imparting a dying wish to her young son to take care of Kaoru. In the meantime, the two young children were raised by Yota's grandmother on a small island off the coast of Okinawa. When Yota came of age, he took on a role not just as a brother but as a surrogate father of sorts for Kaoru, al
High school student Hoshi Izumi loses her father suddenly in an accident. One day, Sakuma, the waka gashira of a small and weak Yakuza gang in Asakusa - the Medaka Gumi - pays Izumi a visit along with the gang members. The death of their former kumicho (Boss) puts Medaka Gumi on the verge of a breakup. Therefore, Sakuma begs Izumi, the former boss's only distant relative left, to succeed to the kumicho position. Izumi is taken by surprise and keeps refusing at first. However, she ends up becoming the 8th kumicho of the Medaka Gumi! The police tell her that her father's death may possibly be a homicide case. There's also Mayumi, a mysterious woman staring closely at Izumi's father's photograph at his funeral. The situation becomes complicated when the drug-dealing vicious yakuza, Hamaguchi Gumi, comes into the picture as well as Sandaiji Hajime, a politician whose public stance is to eliminate drugs.
Based on renowned Japanese writer Natsume Soseki's same-titled short story collection, Ten Nights of Dreams brings ten fantastical dream sequences to film with great visual and psychological panache. Representing the combined efforts of eleven directors, this outstanding anthology delves into the surreal subconscious with ten madly imaginative, reality-subverting visions that range from wonderfully wacky to nightmarishly unsettling.
Following a tip, Manabu Yazaki loses his last money betting on the older "banba" horse "Unryu" (jockied by Makie, a legendary jockey's daughter) in a draft-horse race held in his childhood home of Obihiro on the island of Hokkaido.
For his fourth full feature, Toyoshi Toyoda has abandoned the theme of the angry young man, examined in depth in Pornostar, Blue Spring and 9 Souls. Kuchu Teien is, on the face of it, more a drama, a character study, than a typical Toyoda genre flick. Yet within this beautifully structured and photographed film, there lies a dark soul. Ostensibly the story of a happy family, it becomes increasingly clear as the movie progresses that the Kyobashis are anything but. Despite a family agreement that they are all open with each other, the entire household knows the opposite is true.
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.
Guitarist Ko-chanis a mess of sexual repression after a childhood at the mercy of two elder sisters eager to use him as a guinea pig for their make-up skills. Bassist Gaku-chan keeps a bucket in the wings for whenever his nerves get the better of him, and drummer Momo-chan is doomed to forever carrying the botched childhood attempts at self-tattooing. It's not until this foursome is forced to look for an additional guitar player after Jin's dad burns his Stratocaster, that attitude and musical ability enter into the equation. Leather-clad, shade-wearing Tani (Tamaki), inseparable from his black Les Paul, is introduced as the king of R'n'R cool and Jinnai keeps him firmly seated on his throne throughout the film, retroactively proclaiming the guitarist, rather than himself, as the band's true hero.
Tsukiko is in her late 30s and living alone when one night she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, 'Sensei', in a bar. He is at least thirty years her senior, retired and, she presumes, a widower. After this initial encounter, the pair continue to meet occasionally to share food and drink sake, and as the seasons pass - from spring cherry blossom to autumnal mushrooms - Tsukiko and Sensei come to develop a hesitant intimacy which tilts awkwardly and poignantly into love.
Next door to Chuo TV's offices is "Manhattan," a coffee shop for aficionados. The owner's passion for coffee is almost a sickness and all he wants is for his customers to enjoy their coffee. He is a man of few words. If he has to say something, he gets his waiter Shinobu Gamo to speak on his behalf. Owner's real name is unknown. He would prefer to be addressed as the shops' "Master" rather than its owner - not that anyone is aware of this. He gives his all to coffee. Despite his wishes, his regular customers don't really come to taste the coffee. They are there because of love. They use his shop as a place for dates, marriage proposals and break-ups. He doesn't show it, but it saddens him that his customers are so preoccupied with affairs of the heart and not the coffee.
Mike Hama, Private Detective, is a chain-smoking, wisecracking tough guy with a weakness for the ladies and a soft spot in his heart, especially for his kid sister Akane. Mike's so down on his luck he'll take any case, from finding a lost pet to spying on cheating spouses. But every now and then, along comes a client with dubious and dangerous case… and that's when Mike shows his stuff.
Soon after being named the new leader of his high school's gang system, Kujo grows bored with the violence and hatred that surround him. He wants desperately to abandon his post… but his once-enviable position of power has a strange way of making him feel powerless.
Yuko, Mayumi, and Sakiko have all been married for some time, and are all reasonably happy. But they share their troubles, secret hopes, and dreams whenever the meet at Mayumi's beauty salon. This story highlights the lifestyles of women today--housewives in particular.
In Somai's final film, an alcoholic civil servant wakes up under a cherry tree in Tokyo next to a bar hostess with whom he's impulsively made a suicide pact. Though he's now changed his mind, he agrees to travel with her to Hokkaido, her preferred site for ending it all. An elegiac road movie of restrained emotion.
This hard-boiled action starring Naoto Takenaka is directed by popular manga artist Kazuhiro Kimchi. 8 years previously, one man, Brazilian Mafioso Carlos had brought the Japanese Yakuza organization to its knees. He breaks out of prison while being transported back to Brazil. He then begins to seek to get even with the organization.
Aoshima, a police detective working in the Bayside Precinct, is continually frustrated by the hierarchy and red tape that plague the system. His friend Muroi is climbing the ladder of the police bureaucracy. Muroi has made a pact with Aoshima that while Aoshima looks after the streets, Muroi would make life easier for the cops on the beat. One day in Bayside, a series of events turns the small station upside down. A corpse is found in the river, then the Police Commissioner is kidnapped, leading to the Metropolitian Police Department to take over the investigation which is led by Murai. Will he be true to his pact with Aoshima and co-operate with the local police? In the meantime, the murder investigation leads to a morbid web page and a deadly chat room in cyberspace...
Kunihiko Yamanobe, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, owes money to Yuki Tachibana, played by Kyoko Koizumi, because of his wife's credit card bankruptcy. This is the love story of two men and a woman who are brought together by a strange bond of debt!
Papa to Nat-chan is a drama about a young girl who matures from a high school student into a wife.
A highly anticipated cultural festival is less than a week away for the students of a local high school when mysterious, seemingly paranormal events start occurring within their building. A piano plays when no one is in the room; the power continually shuts off, seemingly at random; footprints are left behind by an unseen presence; objects appear to levitate and are hurled across the room. Concerned about the strange phenomena, six students, advised by Professor Yamakawa, form a research team and investigate the strange goings-on. One of the students is Reiko Kudo, who has ESP and a family history with the occult. As the investigation ensues, a disturbing story from the past emerges from the woodwork, culminating with an ESP confrontation on the day of the festival...
Fubuki is a young female teacher in a girl's college. Being quite new, she's unexperienced in many ways, eg. advising students on love problems. However, she gets to know three male teachers from a nearby boy's college one day, and these three people are playing as crazily as their students. They go after girls, ... and behave very differently from what a teacher should behave. Though as such, they're in fact good teachers, who always stand by their students, and help them out in every way they can. This gradually changes Fubuki's poor impression of them and touches her heart. --Snowflakes
Fubuki is a young female teacher in a girl's college. Being quite new, she's inexperienced in many ways, eg. advising students on love problems. However, she gets to know three male teachers from a nearby boy's college one day, and these three people are playing as crazily as their students. They go after girls, ... and behave very differently from what a teacher should behave. Though as such, they're in fact good teachers, who always stand by their students, and help them out in every way they can. This gradually changes Fubuki's poor impression of them and touches her heart.
The story of two animals and their adventures. Milo, the cat, and Otis, the dog, are two animals who grew up together on the same farm. One day, the two are separated and begin a journey to find each other. The adventurous, and often perilous quest finds the two animals traveling across mountains, plains, and snow-covered lands searching for one another.
Super idol Koizumi takes on the challenge of making her first suspense film in the role of a tomboy! Hitomi, who grew up in an orphanage, begins to tutor a wealthy child, in spite of the kid's reluctance to been tutored.... It's the beginning of a kidnapping case and even a murder case, and the beginning of an uppity escape with a child!
A lower-middle-class policeman lives decadently, chasing cheap beer and girls at the same time he's running from loan sharks and his personal expectations.
here is a small old-fashioned shop called ‘Fuji Family’ at the foot of Mt Fuji that is a convenience store in name only. It is run by three sisters who are known for their beauty. Dependable Oguni Takako (Yakushimaru Hiroko) is the eldest sister, free-spirited Nasumi (Koizumi Kyoko), the second sister, is the complete opposite of Takako in both personality and lifestyle, and tactful Tsukimi (Mimura) is the youngest sister. Although Nasumi lived and got married in Tokyo, she abruptly came back with her husband Kinoshita Hideo (Yoshioka Hidetaka), but died suddenly of illness eight years ago. Takako finally wed Haruta Masao (Takahashi Katsumi), with whom she has had an enduring but difficult relationship, this year. The newlyweds now live in an apartment nearby but Takako constantly comes to ‘Fuji Family’.
Each year, at the start of the fall school year in September, Japan suffers from typhoons. That same month, in a small elementary school in a mountainous region, Saburô, a new red-haired pupil has just arrived with the wind. The children of the village thought they recognized in this strange boy who came from the city the spirit that they called “Matasaburô, the wind”. During two weeks of autumn, Matasaburô and the other children will do various experiments in nature.
