Maki Sakai

Thirty-year-old Yoshizumi Sohata (Toruko Miura) has never had any feelings for anyone and does not know what love is. After failing in her aspired career in music, she returns home to work at a call center, where she is busy with her daily duties. With her younger sister married and pregnant, and her mother pressuring her to get a girlfriend, her mother sets up a blind date without her permission. Reluctantly, she heads to the blind date, but there she meets a man who wants to establish a relationship with her as a friend rather than marriage.

A love story of a youth group second-year high school students who are swayed by 'mysterious handsome transfer students' that no one has met because he was absent from the first day.

Kazuki Suzumoto is divorced and he lives with his 15-year-old son Kouki. Kouki is in a susceptible time. The father feels guilty about his son. Kouki then fails his high school entrance exam. In the spring of the following year, Kouki barely passes his high school entrance exam. Kouki mentions to Kazuki that he likes his father's lunch box. The father and son make a promise to each other. Kazuki promises that he will make a lunch box everyday for Kouki. Kouki promises that he will never skip school.

Tsubame (Kaya Kiyohara) is a 14-year-old girl. She has a crush on university student Toru (Kentaro Ito), who lives in the same neighborhood. Tsubame lives in a warm environment with her father Toshio (Hidetaka Yoshioka) and stepmother Asako (Maki Sakai), but, one day, she learns that Asako is pregnant. She feels left out because of her stepmother's pregnancy and she also feels frustrated because she can't reveal her love to Toru. The rooftop of her calligraphy class is the only place where Tsubame can find solace. There, she feels the wind and looks up at the stars. One night, Tsubame goes on the rooftop as usual. She finds a strange kickboard scooter and a mysterious old woman Hoshi-baa (Kaori Momoi) appears in front of her.

Based on award winning novel by Ijuin Shizu, the film focuses on the story of a young girl named Sayaka who develops a heartwarming friendship with an old man named Hasu.

On a gloomy Monday morning, my week begins. Although I (Bakarhythm) am sleepy, I put on my make-up and I leave home for work at a bank. I take the subway filled with passengers and get off on the nearest subway station from work. I meet Maki Fujikawa (Kaho) at that subway station. She is my closest colleague at work. While talking with each other, we get to our workplace.

5.4/10

Hakuro is single and works as a veterinarian. His father died when Hakuro was a child and his mother later remarried into the wealthy Yagami family. Although Hakuro was brought into the Yagami family through his mother's marriage, he does not feel like part of the Yagami family. Especially, when compared to his younger step-brother who possesses the same blood as his family. After the death of Hakuro's mother, Hakuro dropped Yagami from his name and broke off relations with that family. Hakuro has a strong sense of justice and sincerity in his actions. He is very susceptible to beautiful women. One day, he meets a woman. The woman introduces herself as the wife of his stepbrother and informs him that his stepbrother is missing. As Hakuro and the woman trace his stepbrother's whereabouts, Hakuro becomes involved in the Yagami family's fight over a three billion yen inheritance.

A high school student steals the panties of a girl he likes and gets witnessed, which sets off a chain of events that send his life and the lives of others around him out of control.

5.9/10

“Black School Rules” Sora is a high school student who is basically invisible at school. He is friends with Chuya who is an upredictable character that often surprises those around him. Sora and Chuya both have feelings for the same classmate, Kio Machida. Machida girl refuses to come to class, because she doesn't want to dye her naturally brown hair black. Their school has unreasonable school rules, especially about uniforms which including requiring all students to have black hair. Sora and Chuya decide to stand up to change their school's black school rules so that Machida won’t have to repeat a year of school from missing too many classes.

Screenwriter Goro Kaiba (Suzuki Matsuo) is horrified to learn via Facebook that his wife Ayako (Miho Nakayama) is having an affair. Furthermore, her post about the affair has received 108 likes. Absolutely furious, Goro Kaiba contemplates divorcing his wife, but he estimates he will have to pay her half of his assets, about 10,000,000 million yen, in a divorce. To get revenge, Goro Kaiba decides to use that money on a epic one month womanizing streak. His goal is 108, the number of likes his wife received on social media.

6.2/10

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.

5.8/10

In prewar Japan under the military regime, a bloody battle between the extremely oppressive Special Higher Police and villagers begins!

Ueki Hitoshi to Nobosemon is based on the autobiographical novel Nobosemonyaken by actor Komatsu Masao.

Umeda Mina is a pianist whose father is a famous conductor. She has set her sights on winning an international piano competition. However, she has faced countless setbacks and this is her last chance at the age of 35. Mina has been married to her husband Shinji for 10 years, but they do not have children for some reason. One day, a filthy boy with an impassive face breaks into their garden. It turns out that he has been abused and he is put in a home. But several days later, he appears in their garden again. Believing that it is fate that brought him to their house twice, Shinji secretly starts to look up on child adoption … …

7.2/10

45-year-old Kamon Hiro works as a librarian because she loves books. Although she is worshiped as the “aloof beauty” and “ideal female” for her beautiful, gentle smile and amiability, she actually dislikes people. Hiro has been hurt countless times, and Choji, the only guy she loved wholeheartedly in university, also fled in one night. She has become a person who no longer believes in love and has decided to live alone for life. But she ends up acting as a “fake married couple” with Choji whom she happens to meet again, for the sake of his mother, Teruno, who has been given a short time to live...

Kiyoshi, a brilliant detective, inquiries on mysterious cases with his childhood friend, Ishioka, a novelist.

6.6/10

Heisuke teaches at his alma mater, an all-boy’s Buddhist high school and leads a very ordinary life, except for the fact that he is still tortured by the memory of an unfortunate incident that took place there involving him and his school 14 years ago. In hopes of closure, he strikes upon a plan to jointly hold this year’s Culture Festival with a nearby girl’s school, with which there are chilly relations. Determined at all costs to make the event a success, Heisuke finds himself dealing with a constant stream of problems along the way.

7.9/10

A Taiwanese high school baseball team travels to Japan in 1931 to compete in a national tournament.

7.8/10

Miyako participates in a 1 night and 2 days hiking tour of Mount Fuji. Ryoichi Nozawa is the guide for the hiking tour team of Miyako, Shintaro Kondo, Someno Aoyama and Ai Mitsuke. While hiking through Mount Fuji, Someno looks back and sees Miyako is crouced down and has her hands covering her face. Ryoichi tries to talk to Miyako, but she is frozen. Miyako sees the faint shape of person. Miyako realizes that she has a daughter named Natsuki.

Junya and Nanami have been in a relationship for 15 years. They make a documentary together, but, due to differences of opinion, they decide to break up. Nanami stays in Tokyo, while Junya leaves for Paris to find inspiration for a new creation.

Katsuya Maruyama (Hiraoka Takuma) is a middle school student boy full of obscene thoughts. He then meets Tatsuo Shimoi (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi), a single father who moves into the same apartment complex. Tatsuo Shimoi is a bit of an enigma, not getting along with the housewives in the apartment complex and doesn't appear to work.Through meeting the mysterious single father, Katsuya grows as a person.

6.2/10

Five years after a hit-and-run accident kills his wife, a distraught metalworker comes face to face with the man behind the steering wheel.

6/10

"Acacia" revolves around Sekiji Ishida (Antonio Inoki) a former professional wrestler now a lonely retired man. Sekiji then strikes up a friendship with a reserved young boy.

5.8/10

A woman from rural Japan marries a struggling cartoonist in Tokyo. Their life is difficult before he finds success, but at least they're together.

7/10

"No Longer Human" tells the story of a young man who has felt since childhood utterly alien from others around him. Since that time he has learned to put on a face to hide his alienation. He feels incapable of belonging to the human society, especially so by society's refusal to take him seriously. He then follows a descent into alcohol, drugs, & suicide ...

6/10

Sakai plays Rui, a 35-year-old single woman forced to live alone after the aunt who raised her suddenly decides to get married and move out. Through an unexpected set of circumstances, she winds up becoming roommates with an aging ladies’ man named Tony and a timid younger man named Kosuke.

6.6/10

Haru works at a part-time job for a bookstore. Her dream is to become an illustrator and she also loves cats. One day, after a cat named Chibutomu disappears from the bookstore Haru canvasses the neighbourhood in search of Chibutomu.

5.5/10

"Drop" tells the story of a boy named Hiroshi Shinanogawa, who grew up in the 1980s. He became inspired by the Be-Bop High School manga and decided to become a delinquent. Hiroshi dropped out of a private middle school and transferred to a public school There he joins up with a delinquent gang.

6.7/10

Set on the backdrop of 1979 a group of troublemaking teenagers led by Mamachari (Hayato Ichihara) decide to prank Chuzai-san (Kuranosuke Sasaki) the local police officer who caught Mamachari’s friend Saijo (Takuya Ishida) for speeding on his scooter, Chuzai-san gets them suspended from school which only causes the teenagers to retaliate, They discover that Chuzai-san is married to an attractive woman named Kanako (Kumiko Aso) only making their pranks worse.

7.1/10

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.

5.8/10

Nobuko tried to be successful as an actress in Tokyo (stage name ‘Nonko’), but wasn’t popular. She married her manager and soon divorced. Now a once-divorced woman in her mid-30s, she returns home to the Shinto shrine that her family runs, to help out with domestic chores. Her father is always in a stubborn rage, her mother is always trying to calm things down. However, Nonko’s married sister, who already has a daughter, scathingly says of Nonko, “It’s all over for her.”

6.4/10

The series focuses on Ayukawa Noriko, the teacher of a class of first-graders. One day, a boy named Kento transfers into her class from another school, where he was treated as a problem child. In reality, the inquisitive Kento actually displays the potential of being a prodigy, and it's up to Noriko to figure out how to handle him. The story draws inspiration from the childhood of famous inventor Thomas Edison, who was also considered a problem child by most adults around him.

6.9/10

The story takes place in a fictional country with cultural traces from South American countries, mostly from Brazil. The title's Michiko is a free-willed "sexy diva" who escapes from a supposedly inescapable prison fortress, while Hatchin is a girl fleeing her abusive foster family. The two join forces on an improbable escape to freedom.

7.6/10

The film is told in three acts, beginning with a historical background of Japan's student movement of the 1960s and early 1970s, mostly using archive footage and a narrator. The second act follows the formation of the group to their mountain training camps in the southern Japanese Alps. It emphasizes the dogmatic (and eventually hypocritical) bullying of the group by Mori and Nagata, with 12 members being killed for infractions as small as improperly cleaning a gun, wearing make-up, and kissing. The third act shows the splitting up of the group after two members run off. It follows one group of five members to Karuizawa and a hostage-taking and police standoff known as the Asama-Sansō incident.

7.1/10
9.3%

15-year-old Hatsuko (Higashi Ayu) lives with her elder brother in a humble town house. Their mother died when they were young, and the father disappeared. The brother (Shioya Shun) left high school before graduation to work at a factory, but spends their meager house-keeping money on adult entertainment. Hatsuko, who is poor and has no friends, finds emotional support in Mishima (Sano Kazuma), a boy in her class, who helps her with her study to go to a high school together. However, Hatsuko's brother causes trouble at the factory and gets the sack. Hatsuko gives up her dream of going to high school. In spring, the modest relationship continues between Mishima, now a high school student, and Hatsuko who works at a biscuit factory. One day, Hatsuko's long-gone father reappears. In a drunken frenzy, he sets fire to the house to go and rejoin the mother, leaving Hatsuko without a place to live. Hatsuko leaves the town on her own, drawing strength from the promise of marriage with Mishima.

6.6/10

In the near future of a Japan, the ancient 'Act of Vengeance' is revived and professional executioners are permitted to kill criminals by the requests from their victims. People who are to be executed are notified of the execution time and date in advance and they are allowed to have their own guard.

5.2/10

The film follows Nanba, a shunned outcast who doesn’t have a girlfriend, any money or prospects, a turnaround from his glory days in high school when he played on the baseball team; his former teammate Ishioka, who is now a policeman because of an elbow injury; and baseball fanatic Eiko, a hopeless alcoholic who spends more of her time drunk than sober. The three share an intense love of baseball — and their destinies are forever intertwined.

6.3/10

8 short stories comprise this anthology movie, based on the Tales of Terror TV series.

5.7/10

Japanese film directed by Jinsei Tsuji

Masayuki meets Nanami, who is on a journey with a refrigerator named Ullie. Nanami's Iranian friend Amir is helping her haul the refrigerator which contains Nanami's dead boyfriend. Masayuki joins the journey.

4.8/10

A heartwarming situation comedy about a newlywed couple sharing a house with the husband's parents in a suburb of Tokyo. Ordinary situations become hilarious cross-generational battlegrounds, as the wife and her mother-in-law pursue vastly different images of the ideal family. --TBS

7.8/10

Midori (Asami Mizukawa) is in her late 30's and is a cutout picture artist. She has anxiety about her future. Takano (Kodai Asaka) is a 25-year-old bureaucrat at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. He is under a heavy workload and he becomes lethargic at his workplace. One day, he sees a list of people who committed suicide due to temporary employment. On that list, he becomes interested in a 25-year-old young man who killed himself. Takano begins to investigate the background of that young man. --asianwiki

6.5/10
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