Masayo Umezawa
High school student, Yo, lived with her father, Nao, after her mother, Sachiyo, left the family when she was very young. However, their life together came to an end and they started a new life as a family of four with her father's second marriage partner, Miko, and her stepdaughter, four-year-old Hinata. She confides in Riku, who belongs to the same art club as Yo, about her confusion about this new life. Yo, who has been developing curiosity for her biological mother, Sachiyo, promises to go with Riku to Sachiyo's art exhibition.
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.
College student Kahoko is the quintessential overprotected child born out of today's Japanese society. Shielded by her parents, Kahoko grew up completely pampered and became somewhat of a miraculously naive "test tube human." She is 21 years old and about to start working for a company, but she has never slept away from home, had a part time job, chosen her own clothes, or even ridden a train alone. Kahoko has had her picture taken, but she has never taken a picture herself. Now, Kahoko is about to step out of her germ-free isolation pod and into the germ-infested world. It won't be long until she realizes, "I'm different from everybody else!" She has been her mother's best friend all her life and her father can't live without her. As they become emotionally unstable from the changes that Kahoko goes through, their family begins to fall apart. That's when Kahoko herself and the people around her begin to see the strength that hides deep within.
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.
One evening, a married couple comes to the Itami Law Office. Narumi Suzumura, six months pregnant, and her husband Takuya have come to ask Itami to take the case of Narumi's mother, Kimiko Torii, indicted for the murder of her second husband, company president Takefumi Torii. Kimiko married Takefumi 19 years ago, making him Narumi's stepfather. The couple are questioning whether Kimiko had the intent to kill...
Kota and Yoko have known each other for 17 years. They finally get married and Yoko becomes pregnant. During her pregnancy, Yoko feels ill and gets a checkup. She learns that she has terminal cancer. Yoko is able to give birth and they try to smile everyday until her very last day.
In 1959, a body of a flight attendant of an international airline is found, strangled. Detective Rokuro Fujisawa takes charge of the investigation with a young detective Ichimura and his investigations lead him to Father Tolbeck as a suspect. But the police are forced to move very discreetly as the time was right after the Second World War, when a sensitive situation that involves Western people and religion is likely to become an international issue. The investigation leads to an unexpected discloser of a shadowy business behind the church that reflects the uncertainty of the time.
University student Keisuke returns to his hometown during his summer holiday and takes a part-time job at a run-down movie theater. However, his boss Ruka, a projectionist who lives on the premises, has not set foot outside in three years, and always falls into a deep depression on Mondays. Keisuke feels himself becoming attracted to the mysterious Ruka, but...
In Mahoro, the fictional suburb of Tokyo, Tada works as a general problem solver for hire. One day, former classmate Gyoten appears unannounced. Both men are over 30 years old and divorced. With no explanation, Gyoten suddenly asks to spend the night at Tada's home. Eventually, Tada accepts Gyoten as his assistant and together they become involved in various cases concerning an assortment of people from different walks of life.
Higashigaito Yutaka is transferred to the Bangkok branch of Eastern Airlines. In three months, he will marry Michiko, a relative of the airline's founder, and though he doesn't love her, he knows he could be CEO one day if they wed. In Thailand, Yutaka meets Touko at a bar and is instantly drawn to her. His relationship with her only intensifies as the wedding date approaches. Eventually, he decides to break up with her and calls Michiko in front of her. Touko is disappointed, and the next day she leaves for New York. Yutaka and Michiko reunite in Thailand and proceed with their wedding. Twenty-five years later, Yutaka and Michiko are married with two sons. But Yutaka still harbors memories of Touko in his heart. Yutaka visits Bangkok on business and goes to the Oriental Hotel where he had stayed with Touko-and finds she is now in charge of VIP guests there. They realize their love for each other remains, but reality pulls them apart once again.
A forty-year-old man has married a pretty woman 20 years younger than he is. However, with their marriage as a turning point, his fate dramatically changes. The mother of his newly-wed bride is his old lover! What is worse, the mother voluntarily moves herself in with the newly weds. Their newly married life, which would have been honey-sweet, is becoming a roller-coaster ride. This is a comical drama portraying the triangle with reason of these three people. --TBS
Two kids, fourteen-year-old Eriko and her thirteen-year-old brother Daigo, suddenly find themselves trapped in a parallel universe. Most things are the same as in their own world, but their parents are missing from home and are only contactable when using one particular phonecard. Based on a novel by the Akutagawa Prize-winning Fujino Chiya, and directed by the writer of Nakata Hideo's Dark Water.
A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8.
