Mieko Harada
Tsuda Umeko was born in December 31, 1864 and became a pioneer in women's eductation. In 1871, Tsuda Umeko, with her father's recommendation, went to the United States to study at the age of 6. She was the youngest of the group of females to travel there. They were the first Japanese female students to study overseas at their government's expense. 11 years after studying in the United States, Tsuda Umeko returns to Japan. She wants to become a woman who is helpful to her culture, but she is shocked by the low status of women in Japan. (Source: AsianWiki)
Junichi is a young man without job or home who seems to have a great power of fascination over woman. He crosses the paths of different women who are unsatisfied with their lives and find comfort in his presence. It is a subtle love story between Junichi's drifting life and six different woman from 16 to 65 years old.
17-year-old Aoi came to Yui Obstetrics and Gynecology clinic as a part-time nurse apprentice in Summer 1997. Right after her entry, she is shocked after witnessing an abortion surgery. However, she also met staff members like Yui, the head of the clinic who is careful about everything, Sayako, a reliable and experienced nurse, and Sakaki, the gentle head nurse, who face each pregnant patient and support them after surgeries. Fumika, Aoi's mother, is worried about her clumsy nature and poor communication skills, but Aoi's unique compassion and kindness draws patients' hearts. "I wonder what's life..." Aoi matures while looking at the newborn babies' overwhelming life and asking herself that question.
Hitsujido Honpo, an established Japanese-style sweets company known for its traditional flavours and reliability, has maintained a modest popularity. To win a new segment of customers, it has embarked on new business development. The leader of this team of five young employees is 28-year old Kudo Mayuko (Takahata Mitsuki). Mayuko was headhunted by the current CEO Okazaki Kengo (Maruyama Tomomi), for her achievements in her previous job. However, she struggles with the difficulty of new business development and pressures within the company. One day, a “new” 68-year-old employee Niimoto Kazuo (Kusakari Masao) is assigned to be Mayuko’s subordinate all of a sudden. She is dumbfounded to learn that he is 40 years her senior and even feels anger. Mayuko is confronted with the question of whether he should do the old job he was proud of? Or a new job as a brand new employee, and assumes the role of mentor.
Kuwahata Chokichi used to be a famous actor, but now he's suspected to be suffering from dementia. He is betrayed by his older daughter, Yukiko, her husband-cum-his-former-disciple, Ikuo, and Yukiko's lover, a mysterious driver, and gets sent to a high-class old folks' home. One day, Choukichi runs away from the home and wanders to the beach where he meets his younger daughter, Nobuko, who he had with his lover. Although he had thrown Nobuko out in the past, he begins to imagine seeing her as the image of Cordelia, who is the beloved daughter of King Lear, after talking to her. Gradually, his past memories start to come back to him, and Choukichi heads towards the world of insanity.
A postman learns that he doesn't have much time left to live due to a terminal illness. A devil then appears in front of him and offers to extend his life if he picks something in the world that will disappear. The man thinks about his relationships with ex-friends, ex-lovers, relatives and colleagues who will be sincerely sad when he dies.
Hinako Todo (Haru) is a first-year detective who graduated from the police academy at the top of her class. She always carries with herself a bottle of shichimi chili peppers which was left by her late mother and sprinkles shichimi over everything she eats. Despite her a bit quirky/cheerful demeanor, she holds dark secrets locked deep within her heart… Hinako became a detective, because she wants to find the line between people who kill and those who don't. Once her "crime-solving switch" is on, nothing can stop Hinako from tackling even the most bizarre crime cases. Armed with her overwhelming memory and unstoppable curiously, will Hinako be able to find answers to her question through seeking to solve various crimes?
Nakadai Tatsuya, Japan’s greatest living actor, gives the performance of a lifetime as Shoji Sanosuke, and elderly samurai forced to pick up his sword to protect those he loves in this adaptation of a Fujisawa Shuhei novel. As a ”Heya-zumi” (essentially a freeloader living off his family) Sanosuke has one last chance to help his grandniece escape from the cruel samurai of an arranged marriage. Nakadai proves he ”still has it,” when fate forces him into a deadly duel. This award winning samurai drama from the pen of noted author Fujisawa Shuhei is a tribute to one of the greatest actors to ever grace the silver screen!
Hitomi Ashizawa works at a real estate corporation as a team leader. She is engaged to physician. On the 100th day before the wedding, Hitomi Ashizawa is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her mother appears even though they have not seen each other for the past 28 years. Her mothers with her bright personality offers Hitomi encouragement and she tries to live positively.
A retired samurai must redeem himself for a crime that he committed earlier in his life.
Your whole outlook on life can change in an instant. Takuto Sawada (Haruma Miura) is your average college student. But one day, he finds out that he has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and only has a short time to live. How will he choose to spend the remaining days of his precious life?
The emotional journey of a four-member family that fails to recognize that it is rapidly growing apart until the mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The story is set in the 70s where Ishihara plays Fumiko, an university student, who gets involved romantically with her assistant professor Katase Shintaro (Iura Arata) and his wife Hinako (Tanaka Rena). However, on 28 February 1972, the police finds Shintaro seriously injured and a young man working in a electronics store (Saito Takumi) dead in a bungalow at Karuizawawhile Fumiko and Hinako are also present at the scene. The truth behind the case is not known and the case is quickly classified as a crime of passion which leads to Fumiko being sent to prison. 40 years later, a report writer Torigai Mitsuhiko (Watabe Atsuro) comes to know about this case and goes to interview the elderly Fumiko (Harada Mieko) in prison which leads him to find out what really happened at the bungalow.
Akinori Kimura (Sadao Abe) and his wife Mieko (Miho Kanno) opens an apple orchard in their hometown of Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture. Due to Meiko's allergic reaction to pesticides, Akinori Kimura has to grow his apples without the aid of chemicals. Because of this challenge, his family endures hardships and suffers severe financial difficulties. Akinori Kimura even contemplates suicide. A miracle then happens...
A prison officer hands in his resignation after his wife's death, to drive to the port where she wants her ashes scattered at sea. Eiji (Ken Takakura) works as a prison officer in Hokuriku. At the age of 53 Eiji loses his wife who he loved the most. Eiji then receives a letter from his dead wife which requests that her ashes be spread by in the sea next to her hometown. Her wife never mentioned such a thing while she was alive. In order to find out her real intentions, Eiji heads to his wife's hometown of Nagasaki with his homemade camper van.
Based on the award-winning novel of the same name, this boldly erotic yet movingly tender portrait of a group of vulnerable, variously wounded people — a depressed housewife, her high-school-aged lover, and his best friend, who is struggling to provide for himself and his senile grandmother — whose intersecting lives yield both sorrow and a fragile, yet enduring, hope for a brighter future. (TIFF)
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 woman named Kazuko (Kimura) who was guilty of a “serious crime” in the past, along with three of her friends. Those friends suddenly begin to die one by one. Kazuko learns that one of those deaths is somehow connected to Mamoru (Nakamura Aoi), her younger brother from whom she has been separated ever since their father disappeared 15 years earlier. Although Mamoru knows nothing of his sister, Kazuko is determined to find the killer in order to protect Mamoru and herself.
Three tales of love told through wildly intoxicating, colorful stories. When platinum redhead Ovreneli Vreneligare was just a little boy, he fell in love in the park. Sharing a juice box with the stunningly gorgeous Milocrorze, he took her home to his cat, Verandola Gorgonzola, and made her his girlfriend until the fickle beauty abandoned him, and he covered the hole in his heart with a pot lid he found lying on the ground. This is only the beginning of his story but it’s not the end of his heartbreak. MILOCRORZE: A LOVE STORY is a candy-flavored anthology of hopeless l’amour, and it has many victims.
In the lush tradition of the glorious films of Merchant and Ivory, comes the true life story of Leonie Gilmour (Emily Mortimer), whose life crossed continents, wars and cultures, embodied with courage and passion in search of art and freedom. A tender and inspiring story of a remarkable woman who nurtures the amazing artistic talent of her son who has only one way to succeed and one person to guide him, as he grows into the world renown artist, Isamu Noguchi.
Nagareboshi is a Japanese television drama adapted from the Young Scenario Prize-winning screenplay Kurage Marriage by Motoko Usuda. The series aired on the Getsuku time-slot from October 18 to December 20, 2010 on Fuji TV. The drama's slogan was "Itsuwari no Ai Kara, Shinjitsu no Ai e". The series stars Yutaka Takenouchi, in his first Getsuku drama lead role in nine years, since Dekichatta Kekkon, and Aya Ueto, in her second supporting role in a Getsuku drama and first since Konkatsu!. The theme song of the drama, "Ryūsei," is performed by folk rock duo Kobukuro. The series premiere, which was extended by 15 minutes, earned a rating of 13.6%.
Based on a true story, "Sunshine Ahead" tells the story of environmentalist Koji Kinjo & his wife who embarks on a ambitious plan to create coral reefs in the sea. Although it takes the couple 10 years to finally succeed, they are able to persevere and become the first persons to ever spawn coral reefs.
Shinzanmono is a detective Japanese television drama, part of the Spring 2010 season of the Japanese TBS Network. It is based on the latest novel in the "Kyoichiro Kaga" series by mystery author Keigo Higashino and is set and filmed in the Ningyo-cho area of Nihonbashi, Tokyo. This series was followed by a special "Akai Yubi" aired on January 3, 2011 and a feature film The Wings of the Kirin, released on January 28, 2012.
Too shy to speak out the word of appreciation, too busy to show that you care... Many excuses lie between each and every couple, when they look back the distance created during the long years in which they took each other for granted... Love Letters sent from husbands to wives and from wives to husbands, quietly voice their unspoken appreciation for each other over the years that they have shared. The original idea comes from the postcard project "Love Letters at Sixty" which has brought a wave of sympathy to the precious emotions shared by many married couples.
The hero, Hyakkimaru is a wandering "demon hunter" whose extra body parts -- 48 to be exact -- were grafted onto his head and trunk by a herb doctor who discovered him as an infant, in a process that echoes "Frankenstein" and "The Island of Dr. Moreau." His warlord father gave the originals to 48 demons in exchange for power. When Hyakkimaru kills a demon, he wins back a body part. He is spotted in one of these battles, with a giant spider demon, by Dororo, a scrappy female thief who is fascinated by not only Hyakkimaru's prowess with the sword blade poking out of his arm but the new leg he grows after dicing his opponent. Is he a man -- or a monster? After hearing his story from an old minstrel, she decides to join him on his travels and find out for herself.
Set in a five star Tokyo hotel on New Year's Eve, the film follows the misadventures of various hotel staff and guests in the run-up to midnight. The plot involves numerous characters, the different problems or situations they face in the run-up to midnight, and the ways that these different storylines interact and are resolved. The film is reminiscent of the Hollywood screwball comedies of 1930s and 1940s, and explicitly references the 1932 film Grand Hotel, whose plot also followed the interlinked lives of various characters in a fictional hotel over a short period.
A young samurai stuck at the bottom of the hierarchical order attempts to rescue his childhood sweetheart from an evil clan lord after learning of a plot to kill her and her infant child. Bunshiro Maki is a skilled swordfighter who's lethal with a blade, yet still can't rise through the ranks of the system. After his father is accused of plotting against his clan and forced to commit ritual suicide, his longtime love Fuku is sent to Edo to become the clan lord's concubine. A few years later, Fuku has bore the clan lord a son. When Maki learns that the clan has hatched a plan to kill Fuku and her son to secure succession to the throne, he recruits two childhood friends to help thwart the diabolical plot.
A recent accident has left Satoru Iwamoto, an elementary school student, temporarily wheelchair-ridden. In addition, the recent loss of his mother has thrown Satoru into a reclusive state, locking himself from the outside world. However, in an effort to help Satoru recover from his injuries, his father, Kaoru, has designed a remote-controlled robot that will go to school in his place and allow him to interact with people and do normal things.
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.
Yuki, mother of the Mashiba family, is the grease that keeps this well-oiled machine running and its seven members happy and healthy. But when Yuki herself falls ill and needs to be hospitalized, the rest of the family must cooperate and make sacrifices in order to keep everything running smoothly and make ends meet.
Live-action adaptation of a madcap manga about art, opposites, love and a whole lot of cosplay.
Half a Confession introduces itself as a thriller and abruptly changes gears, transforming into a tale of morality with deeper insights into its characters than we had anticipated. It begins when Soichiro Kaji (Terao), a retired detective, walks into police headquarters and confesses to the murder of his wife. We learn that the victim had prematurely developed Alzheimer's after the tragic death of their son, and in her suffering, had asked to die. The police chiefs would be far more content to take him at his word if it were not for a conspicuous hole in his story: 48-hour gap between the alleged murder and his confession. Fearing a public relations nightmare, they are eager to bury the incident and keep the press in the dark.
About a family shouldering an unexpected responsibility when Alzheimer's disease strikes their grandmother. The superb cast portrays this serious and realistic situation with heart-warming compassion, stressing the importance of empathizing with the victims of this difficult disease.
When pregnant lunchbox factory worker Yayoi has finally taken all the abuse she can handle, she strangles her brutish husband and disposes of the body parts, piece by piece. She's soon joined by three down on their luck housewives who murder their own husbands and find various ways to hide the evidence.
This coming-of-age story from Japan opens just after 17-year-old Sataka has gotten dumped by her boyfriend. When her mother is hospitalized with a malignant stomach ulcer, Sataka is left alone with her emotionally repressed father; whiling away the hours one day, she comes across a love letter written to her mother 24 years earlier. Deciding to track down the letter's author, Sataka eventually finds Shinichiro (Hiroyuki Sanada), an overweight slob who was abandoned by his wife years earlier and now spends his time hanging around pachinko parlors. Determined to clean him up and reintroduce him to her mother, Sataka nags Shinchiro until he finally agrees to her demands, and a gradual friendship develops between the two as Sataka drags him to the gym and a clothing store. But once Shinchiro's makeover is complete, he turns the tables on his young friend, and when the time comes for him to meet Sataka's mother, all concerned parties find themselves embarking on a new phase in their lives.
A group of travelers is stranded in a small country inn when the river floods during heavy rains. As the bad weather continues, tensions rise amongst the travelers trapped at the inn. Ihei Misawa is a ronin, a samurai without a master, whose skills with a sword make him a valuable employee but whose brutal honesty and lack of social graces prevent him from staying with one master for too long. One night, Ihei impulsively offers to buy food and drink for the guests at a hotel; he doesn't have the money to pay, and to raise cash he concocts a scheme to take on anyone brave enough to fight him for a prize. Ihei's fighting skills impress Lord Shigeaki, who offers him a position as fencing master in his court. Ihei gratefully accepts, but when Shigeaki challenges him to a fight, Ihei beats the Lord decisively. Ihea is certain that he's managed to throw another opportunity away when a band of mercenaries attacks him, and his skills as a swordsman are put to the ultimate test.
During a quest to find a Taiwanese father's grave, disturbing memories of child abuse are aroused.
Nemureru Mori is a drama that aired on Fuji TV. It first aired in Japan from 8 October 1998 to 24 December 1998. It is written by Nozawa Hisashi, starring Miho Nakayama and Takuya Kimura, and features music by Mariya Takeuchi and U2.
The film centers on Riko Murakami, a tough-as-nails detective who is also the single mother of a young boy. At work, she has hit a wall investigating a grisly murder in a hotel room. In her private life, she sweats her son's impeding "park debut" -- when she introduces her son and herself to the young mothers of her neighborhood. Most give her strange almost hostile looks except Sachiko (Keiko Unno), who says her kid is in the hospital. While her son gambles about the playground, Riko and Sachiko exchange child-rearing war stories and soon become friends. Then she learns that the prime suspect of her case is none other than Sachiko's husband. Moreover, she learns that Sachiko's son was in fact the center of a kidnapping case several years ago and the child has been long thought of as dead. Her husband and the detective in charge of child's case both have their own secrets, and soon Riko finds herself and her son threatened.
Tells of the childhood of two nine-year-old twins in a rural village in Japan after World War 2. Includes the boys relationships with their schoolteacher mother, civil servant father, elderly landlord, a rough new boy at the school, and three mysterious spirits in the form of old women.
Hikaru, an ordinary man, discovers a way to unleash the supernatural powers hidden inside his soul, allowing him to cure others with his newfound “ki” healing power.
Toyoichi Otomo suffers from psychological and spiritual troubles after a horrific industrial accident. He lives with his elderly mother and wife near Mt. Aso in rural Kyushu. He seeks solace in a small religious group run by Buddhist nun Chishu-bo who claims to be the 68th descendant of famed 11th century poet Izumi Shikibu. The members of her sect regard her as a living saint. Yet instead of balming his soul, she riles his libido by playing a sexual cat-and-mouse game with the fragile Toyoichi. When she does bed him, it leads to a miracle healing -- followed by a terrible calamity.
Hama-chan gets Su-san hooked on fishing, but Su-san has some problems to deal with; a beautiful woman saves Su-san when he collapses while fishing.
The reincarnation of a 10th century Japanese general haunts 1920's Tokyo.
Sex isn't something one plans. It just happens. Yoko is a 23 year old pink collared worker. After college she is kept close with Yokoyama and Ishida, two male college friends who both harbor feelings for her. Yokoyama is straight as an arrow, yet impulsive when it comes to love. Ishida is more the outspoken type. When Yokoyama proposes to her, Yoko wonders if the old marriage myth is true. Is settling down with an 'ordinary' guy the key to a happy marriage?
Sashikakari, a young girl ( Noriko Ogawa ) have the ability to kill peoples by making them bleeding to death. The film follow her as she try to control her power.
Fuyuhana, is bullied child at school, because she was not able to speak until recently. This was due to the accidental death of one of her classmates, a few years ago. And now she is haunted by the secrets of the old school.
In the 50s, the complicated life of a popular writer who must share his life with his family, his numerous mistresses and his work
With Ran, legendary director Akira Kurosawa reimagines Shakespeare's King Lear as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan. Majestic in scope, the film is Kurosawa's late-life masterpiece, a profound examination of the folly of war and the crumbling of one family under the weight of betrayal, greed, and the insatiable thirst for power.
The story of Takeha, a free-spirited genius poet who lived through Taisho Romanticism, and the women who gave themselves over to his ambitions.
Depicting the turbulent life of truck driver Takashi, his fellow drivers, and the women he meets.
Aspiring to be admitted to a good university and to become a lawyer, Tasiro Yuusuke, a tenth-grader from Kyushu, enrolls in a prestigious high school in Tokyo. Plans are made for him to live in his uncle's house, part of which is rented out while his uncle is abroad on business. A realtor's mistakes leaves Tasiro sharing the house with Kei Yamaba, the most beautiful girl in the school, who is also his classmate. There is the risk that their unexpected 'co-habitation' will be discovered by the school authorities. While he grows increasingly attracted to her, he is often irritated by her innocent and nonchalant attitude towards their predicament. They each develop other romantic attachments, but end up turning to each other.
Hell manifests itself through the sins, shame and desires of an upper class rural family and a mother's grief from beyond the grave.
The story of the silk industry and the young girls who worked as silk spinners in the early 1900s in Japan. The silk mills were located in Okaya which lies just beyond the Nomugi Pass. The women and girls worked in a hot, humid atmosphere without rest, and endured those conditions and sexual harassment to earn money for their poor families. Across the ocean, it was the great depression in America.
Two Kyushu based yakuza groups are desperate for domaination of the area. When more powerful yakuza groups get involved in their power struggle, a group of childhood friends, belonging to different yakuza families, are caught in the middle. Lies, deceit, and backstabbing are in play resulting in a bloodbath and a quest for revenge...
This is the story of "The Forty-Seven Ronin." Based on historical events in 1701-2, the movie tells the tale of the Asano clan's downfall and the revenge of its former samurai on the perpetrator of the catastrophe. Lord Asano was goaded, or tricked, into drawing his sword inside the Shogun's palace -- a crime which carried the death penalty. The newly installed Shogun was furious at Asano and ordered all his clan's assets seized, meaning some 20,000 samurai and commoners were unemployed and landless at a stroke. Forty-seven of these ronin (masterless samurai) banded together to take attempt revenge on Lord Kira, who had goaded Asano into drawing his sword.
Hoping to romance an alien, Momojiro meets beautiful animal trainer Eriko instead. Then he and Jonathan get drawn into her old friend's fraud.
In the early hours of April 13th, a five year old hemophiliac child was kidnapped by someone from Tanemura General Hospital in Tokyo, Setagaya. Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Inspector Kitahara, who received the report, goes quickly to the Tanemura home, along with other police to speak to the family of the child. Then, suddenly, the phone rings. The kidnapper wants money.
A young doctor starts working at a mental hospital in the Yokohama region and falls in love with one of the patients there.
Though his parents help him run the family business, Jun still feels persecuted by their love; when they bar him from meeting with his girlfriend, tensions increase.
The story of an orphan girl, brought up in naive, rustic innocence by an elderly relative, who is suddenly exposed to the brutality, greed and deceptiveness of the outside world when her grandmother dies. Notwithstanding her healthy distrust of all strangers, which her upbringing instilled in her, it is not long before a cunning racketeer finds her weak point, that temptation which she cannot resist, that weakness, different as it may be, that each of us has, and brings her into his power. What follows is a depiction of her cruel descent into the depths of moral decay, as she becomes a collaborator in a system of exploitation, unbridled lust, vanity, and greed, in which she and other victims are always the losers.
The 15th NHK Asadora. Starring Shinobu Otake in a story about a young woman striving to become a doctor and her mother, who is a nurse. The first six-month Asadora. Average rating of 40.1%.
A youthful film depicting the sexual awakening of a boy who has just entered adolescence and his heartbreaking romance during the summer holidays with a young sprightly girl.
