Sadawo Abe

Sou Makimoto works in the "send-off" department at the city hall. The department's main responsibility is to hold funerals for people who die alone and bury them at a cemetery. Makimoto doesn't like to socialise with his colleagues or listen to them. By doing his job, he meets various people and slowly begins to change his life.

6.7/10

6.3/10
5.5%

"Mothers in Love" follows the lives of three mothers, who have sons that attend the same school. An Ishiwatari lived with her husband and son. Her husband worked at a travel agency and An Ishiwatari lived in comfort. Her life changed after her husband went missing. An Ishiwatari now raises her son alone and sends him to a prestigious high school. Yuko Hayashi is a successful career woman. Her husband is an unpopular novelist and he takes care of their home. Their son is a high school student. Yuko Hayashi's family seems to run smoothly, but she worries about her son. Mari Kanbara lives with her husband and they have 3 children (1 son and 2 daughters). Her son attends the same prestigious high school as the sons of An Ishiwatari and Yuko Hayashi and her husband works at a law firm. Mari Kanbara appears to have an enviable life, but her husband is having an affair. Mari Kanbara is unable to even blame him for his infidelity.

Akiko is a single mother and her son is Shuhei. Akiko casually has sex with other men, including Ryo. Akiko is the only person whom Shuhei can rely on. One day, Shuhei kills his grandparents.

7/10

There is “another Japan,” which is divided into three countries and has been in ethnic conflict for 100 years. In the middle of the conflict, a young girl (Ikuta Erika) was kidnapped and confined by a group calling itself “National Liberation Army.” However, the girl has escaped from them to the outside world for the first time in 10 years. She befriends a girl whose father runs a business recycling artificial soldiers made from soybeans. They meet the group of boys including Harikona (Ryunosuke Kamiki) who has the ability to make flowers bloom. Keeping watch over Kegare is her adult self, Misa. This empathetic play transcends time and space. As past, present, and future get jumbled up, Kegare finally confronts an unpleasant memory that she should have forgotten. (Source: @floren646730)

A girl has lost her family and is cast out from society. She meets an old woman. Both of them do not have faith in other people, but they feel something for each other. The old woman hides the girl. An incident occurs.

6.2/10

Shing (Sadao Abe) is a rock star. He has an amazingly loud voice with a range of four octaves. His secret is that he has created his voice through a method of vocal cord doping. His voice is now teetering on the edge, due to side effects from the vocal cord doping. Around this time, Shing meets Fuuka (Riho Yoshioka) who is a street musician. When Fuuka sings, her vice is so small. Due to Fuuka, Shing looks back upon his past.

5.1/10

An unstable young woman pines for the ex boyfriend who nearly beat her to death - and who has mysteriously disappeared - in this gripping tale of lust, devotion and redemption.

6.5/10
10%

Shinichi Sakurai (Sadao Abe) is married to Kanako (Kyoko Fukada) and they have a daughter named Kaori (Mikuu Yamada). Both, Shinichi and Kanako received only a middle school level education. Even though they don't have much money, they are a happy family. At work though, Shinichi experiences effects of only having a middle school education. One day, Shinichi sees Kaori’s poor score for a national test. He freaks out and decides to improve Kaori's education. Thus, 41-year-old Shinichi begins studying with Kaori and instructs her for the upcoming middle school entrance exam.

5.1/10

Detective Ryoko Kozuki receives a demotion after having an affair with a superior. She succeeds in arresting a rapist in an undercover operation that puts her at risk. Her achievement immediately becomes the talk of the precinct, but no one approaches her because of her past. Ryoko is determined to bring criminals to justice. She takes on “The Prime Ministerial Candidate Snipe Case” which took place 15 years earlier.

Residents in a town have a hard time due to the land tax and forced labor. 9 people, including Juzaburo Kokutaya (Sadao Abe), worry about the future of their town. They then set up a plan to save the town. The plan is to lend large amounts of money to han (historical term for the estate of a warrior) and distribute the interest annually to the residents, but if they're caught they will lose their lives.

6.5/10

Twenty-four-year-old country bumpkin Aiko is a new teacher who has arrived at a new town and a new primary school. When nervous she blurts out her local dialect. This seals her nickname and reputation. Nonetheless, she is determined and strives to do her best for her students. She is an inspiration soon.

Natsumi Yukihira (Ryoko Shinohara) receives secret documents of an organization that controls the country from the shadows. Because of this, Natsumi's ex-husband, Kazuo Sato (Teruyuki Kagawa) pays a terrible price. Natsumi goes back to the Investigation #1 of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to take on the organization, but Natsumi becomes involved in a new case. She gets closer to the final enemy.

6.1/10

Alien pods come to Earth and, naturally, start taking over Human Hosts. One such pod only manages to take over one human's, Shin Izumi, right arm. Together they grow and co-exist, all the while the other aliens are making meals of other humans; Shin feels he must put a stop to it all, but his alien, Migi, doesn't see why.

6.5/10

A 3-part series of biographical dramas to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the establishment of NHK.

Takeharu Takami (Ryuhei Matsuda) is a bank teller, but he becomes allergic to money. He decides not to use money at all. Takeharu decides to move to a small village in the Tohoku region. There, he encounters residents who are not so easy.

5.7/10

Alien pods come to Earth and, naturally, start taking over Human Hosts. One such pod only manages to take over one human's, Shin Izumi, right arm. Together they grow and co-exist, all the while the other aliens are making meals of other humans; Shin feels he must put a stop to it all, but his alien, Migi, doesn't see why.

6.9/10

A gothic lolita merges with a samurai teddy bear to fight zombies and save the world.

5.9/10

After years of trying, Kyoko and her husband Takehiro are finally pregnant. But their joy at the prospect of becoming parents ends suddenly when they learn Kyoko has stage four cancer. They now must face agonizing decisions that force them to choose between the life of Kyoko or the health of their baby. Adapted from a true story.

A new female detective joins the special investigations team and dives into some of their hardest cases in this follow-up to the series 'Unfair.' The team investigates a grisly video circulating online that asks viewers to answer 'yes' or 'no' questions with potentially deadly outcomes.

Ryoro Kurojima (Sadao Abe) is the director of a Tokyo apology center. His job is to teach others how to apologize. Ryoro Kurojima solves problems by using his apology techniques on anything from simple arbitration to a national crisis.

6.4/10

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...

7/10

"Blazing Famiglia" centers around a family of former teenage gangsters. Tetsu Hino (Yoshimi Tokui) was once the leader of the most feared motorcycle gang in the Kanto area. Now, Tetsu Hino is middle-aged man who is looked down upon by his rebellious son Shuhei (Kento Hayashi). One day, Tetsu and his old biker gang gather together again after the daughter of a member is assaulted. Tetsu, worried about his day to day life, nevertheless regains the passion from his biker days. Tetsu then finds out that Ken Igarashi (Jun Murakami) is the man behind the attack. Ken Igarashi has had a grudge against Tetsu for a long time.

5.9/10

Sasaki has had a difficult period, going through a divorce and losing his job. To take a break and start anew, Sasaki decides to visit Iriomote Island. While there, Sasaki's belongings are stolen by four homeless men. Sasaki then lives with three other people: a survivalist, a city man and a girl who speaks Kansai dialect. One day, Sasaki hears news about the four homeless men and decides to get revenge ...

5.7/10

After losing their restaurant in a fire, a husband and wife come up with a strange plan to rebuild their shattered finances: marrying the husband off to a series of lonely women and defrauding them.

6.7/10

Ryota, a timid salaryman who has difficulties fitting in at home and work has his average life changed after his estranged father falls ill. Along with his wife Sae and their only child Moe, he travels to his father's country town, where he begins to uncover his father's mysterious past spent searching for a mythical creature.

7.9/10

Marumo no Okite is a Japanese television series which premiered on Fuji TV on April 24, 2011. This television series stars Sadao Abe as Mamoru Takagi, a public relations officer with a stationery company. It also stars child actors Fuku Suzuki and child actress Mana Ashida as Mamoru's late friend Jun-ichiro's twin children. The television series was broadcast as part of the Fuji TV's Dramatic Sunday time slot, which airs every Sunday from 9pm to 9:54pm.

7.6/10

After detective Natsumi Yukihira brings an end to the police hospital terrorist case, Natsumi is transferred to the Nishimonbetsu Police Station in Hokkaido. Meanwhile, a series of grotesque murders occurs in downtown Tokyo involving nails placed in the body of the victims. The fingerprint of Natsumi's ex-husband, freelancer journalist Kazuo Sato, is found on the the body of a victim and Kazuo is placed on the most wanted list. Soon after, Kazuo finds Natsumi and hands her a USB memory stick. The device contains information on a secret organization within the police department. Kazuo tells Natsumi that the series of murders are warnings and suspects become the next victims. Natsumi is then arrested as a suspect. Tokyo prosecutor Katsuaki Murakami appears at the Nishimonbetsu Police Station to investigate.

6.2/10

Offshore, shrouded in fog, there is a mysterious island that is said to be the home of a family of monsters. It is strictly forbidden to approach it. But one day a human child, Mushroom, it loses and coming face to face with the mysterious creatures that live there. The arrival of Mushroom, makes panic on the island because the monsters are actually terrified of living humans.

6.4/10

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.

6.5/10

In the year 1716 a mysterious epidemic stickens men in the country of Japan, dropping the population of men to 1/4th of its prior state. With the drastic reduction of men, the gender roles have become reversed in Japan. Woman become the dominant members of society and males are sought out for the ability to produce children. A young man named Unoshin Mizuno (Kazunari Ninomiya) hopes to marry childhood sweetheart Onobu (Maki Horikita), but due to class differences realizes this is almost impossible. To raise his social status and also save his poor family, Unoshin Mizuno enters the Ohoku (inner chambers of the Shugun's castle) and attempts to vie among 3,000 other men for the affection of the female shogun. What Unoshin Mizuno quickly learns about the Ohoku is that the men there are all beautiful, but highly ambitious and conniving. In this environment, the 7th shogun Tokugawa passes away and the new shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa (Kou Shibasaki) takes the thrown and enters the Ohoku.

6.4/10

Gan and his girlfriend Ai are mild-mannered toy shop owners by day but, when evil lurks, they transform into superheroes Yatterman 1 & 2. With the help of a dog-shaped robot, Yatterwoof, they take on the Doronbow gang, lead by the sexy Lady Doronjo. Together, they must stop the evil gang from finding the four magical skull pieces that will allow them to control the world!

6/10

Iki Tadashi is a military leader named who was captured by the Soviets during World War II. Treated as a war criminal, he was sentenced to many years of labor in a harsh Siberian detention camp. After 11 years of imprisonment, he is released. He returns to Japan and begins readjusting to life as a civilian, rejecting an offer from his former colleague to work on a defense project. Tadashi has decided to never involve himself in war again, much to the joy of his family. Instead, he attempts to set off on a new path working at a major trading company. --Tokyograph

8.4/10

Abandoned by his father as a boy, Yuta grows up as the foster son of a restaurant owner and takes over the restaurant at the owner's death. Cheery, always smiling, always helpful, Yuta is known as Yama-chan, the friend everyone turns to. When Yuta discovers he had a hitherto unknown baby brother, he sets out to track him down. But the baby brother, Yusuke, has grown up to be half of a successful comedy team, the Kinjo Brothers, and Yusuke's professional "brother" has just written a best-selling book about their adventures growing up together. Yuta's appearance on the scene threatens to reveal that the book is a complete fiction and to set all three "brothers" into conflict with each other.

6.4/10

Taishi lives with his father Kazushi. His mother left home when Taishi was very young and he barely has any memories of her. He believes that his mother left home to study in Paris. His favorite moments come once a week when he receives a letter from his mother. But one day, during Taishi's summer vacation, he learns that his mother isn't in Paris but in Shodoshima, Japan. Taishi then decides to take his pet dog with him and bicycle from his hometown of Yokohama all the way to Shodoshima. On his 500 kilometers trip to Shodoshima, Taishi meets various peoples and touches their hearts, while leaving behind small miracles. What Taishi doesn't know about his mother is that she suffers from memory loss and that's why she lives apart from her family. Taishi's father Kazushi soon learns that his son has left for Shodoshima and he sets out to find his son.

5.9/10

Home-design sales representative Tomohiro lives with his wife and their son. As his job involves houses, it is his motto to take great care of the family who live in the house. However, he has been working so hard that he has forgotten to cherish his own family. When he looks after a client who wants to leave her father-in-law in a nursing home, it reminds him of his grandmother whom he loved so much. Father's death, grandmother's struggle with disease, and home care - those were grueling times, but the memories have become invaluable for Tomohiro. He realizes his family is the most precious thing of all. On a day off, he and his family decide to visit his mother who lives alone in their old hometown.

There once was a hospital where patients and even doctors & nurses were all weird. Above all, Onuki, a patient who built up his company all by himself from scratch, is a super cranky old man. One day, he meets up a girl called Paco, who cannot retain memory beyond one day due to a car accident. She is reading the same picture book everyday. Onuki starts bonding with Paco after some incident, and begins to doubt his way of living. He starts wanting to do something for Paco with his remaining life, and comes up with a brilliant idea. This pleases Paco, but their fate is?

6.9/10

Hosted by veteran comedian Tamori, "Bizarre Tales 2007 Fall Special" presents five tales. 1. Mirai Dousoukai - starring Ishihara Satomi. 2. Countdown - starring Abe Sadao. 3. Jihanki Otoko - starring Joshima Shigeru. 4. Gomi Onna - starring Matsushita Yuki. 5. 48% no Koi - starring Shiraishi Miho. Synopsis: A "trainee angel" named Natsumi works on Earth for an advertising company. In order for her to become a fully-fledged angel, Natsumi must facilitate the meeting of a man and a woman who are destined "by fate" to spend their lives together, and she has her sights on a man who works in the same building.

Kimihiko Onizuka is a salaryman infatuated with maiko (apprentice geisha) and whose greatest goal in life is to play a party game called "yakyuken" with one.

6.5/10

When a devoted detective probes the suspicious death of her father, she uncovers massive corruption and finds herself in grave danger.

5/10

A heartwarming home drama told from the perspective of 11-year-old Kaoru (Nagashima), who says his family is often called weird/unusual. It revolves around the lives of stay-at-home dad (Tamura), lawyer and breadwinner mother (Ito), tomboyish oldest daughter (Uchida) and SNAG oldest son (Tamayama). A mysterious neighbor (Kobayashi) also gets involved.

7.4/10

A young boy named Taichi Ogawara finds a fox cub on the side of the road and takes it home as a pet. He discovers it is blind, deaf, and mute. Because of this, he names it Helen, after Helen Keller.

6.8/10

A no-nonsense detective with a reputation for pushing limits investigates a rash of brutal murders connected by a series of cryptic short stories.

7.5/10

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.

6.4/10
8%

After terminally ill Bussan finally passes away he misses hanging out with his still living friends and decides to return to Kisarazu. In his ghost form however only his most trusted friends can see him, and his meddling in the lives of the living results in the return of Ozzy and a long dead team of American baseball players who drowned off the shores of Kisarazu. It's down to Bussan and the Cats to save the day and restore the town to order, but can Bussan bring himself to say bye-bye once and for all?

6.7/10

Ryutaro Asada was the chief surgeon of Team Medical Dragon, a globally active emergency medical care team that worked in refugee camps. After his return to Japan, this amazingly talented surgeon starts work at a university hospital, where he uncovers one case of corruption after another and takes on a lot of powerful contenders in this heroic drama. The struggles between the hospital and the patients, the infighting among the hospital staff, and the patients who get involved in those struggles are all depicted in a realistic manner in a drama that has an overwhelming feeling of speed. Here’s a human drama depicting a thrilling battle between life and death, a totally new, outstanding form of entertainment.

8.3/10

In 1868, after the fall of the Shogun-dominated Japan, the new government orders people from Awaji, near Kobe, to re-locate to the northern part of Hokkaido. These people once supported the now displaced Samurais of the older days. After two years, over 500 of them settled in their new land under the leadership of Hideaki, husband of Shino. However, as crops fail he is to go to Sapporo to learn new techniques of farming, leaving his wife and daughter for 5 years. All this time, the new community is constantly watched by the government which choose to again uproot them from their new homes.

6.5/10

A young boy with a troubled home life becomes "chosen," and he stumbles into the middle of a great spirit war, where he meets a group of friendly spirits who become his companions through his journey. Now he must fight to protect his friends and free the world of the spirits from oppression. The creatures and ghosts are taken directly from Japanese folklore and range from the cute and silly to the disturbing. Written by Seikima

6.4/10
7.1%

A re-imagining of the classic Japanese comedy "Yaji and Kita's Travel Journey", this is the story of two samurai in Edo period Japan who are in love. One is married, the other is a drug addict. They decide to go on a trip to Ise Sanctuary, where it is presumed everything will be made right. What happens once they get on the road is as wild and wacky as anything your likely to see.

6.4/10

Toraji is a stereo-typical yakuza who is hoping to become a rakugo (comic) storyteller. Ryuji is a designer who has terrible taste, but owns a fashion shop in Ura-Harajuku, a shopping district famous for its avant-garde clothing. The story develops around the relationships Toraji and Ryuji have with the offbeat and comical characters around them. This fast-paced comedy is a collection of one-off stories which blends the modern and traditional by basing each episode on a classic rakugo storyline.

8.2/10

Momoko is an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life. Ordinary, that is, if you define ordinary as wearing elaborate lolita dresses from the Rococo period in 18th Century France. However, when punk girl and self-styled 'Yanki' Ichiko comes calling, her days as 'ordinary' are most certainly numbered...

7.2/10
6.2%

He's divorced and a bit hopeless. Although considered a "loser," he's still a good person. She is in her 30s. Unmarried and no kids, she is considered by some to be a bit of a loser too which is a stab in the heart for any woman. There are men who are not offensive, but somehow useless. Men in their 30s, divorced and on top of that, a bit useless. Popular, but lightweights. That they are serious, but a bit dense is another mark against them. But there are some women, for whom this is actually a turn on. This is a different love story about guys like this and the women that surround them. It shows men and women in their 30s losing their way and making mistakes as they strive for happiness in a real and candid way.

When Bussan learns he has less than a year to live, he decides to continue his life as usual. He spends his time with his friends, a band called Kisarazu Cat's Eye. Their funny adventures range from playing gigs to solving a mystery surrounding counterfeit money, but Bussan's impending death is never far away.

6.6/10

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.

A mother is accused of murdering her daughter but when she tells her tale, things don't seem to make sense. Her husband says they have no daughter, there's a psychic that can trace phone calls, a blonde who sings the US anthem, a house with no bathroom, some Lynchian dream sequences, aliens, breeding experiments, very quirky FBI agents, and some other random events.

5.9/10

Kisarazu Cat's Eye is a humorous Japanese television show and movie series. To date, there have been two Kisarazu Cat's Eye movies:Kisarazu Cat's Eye Nihon Series and Kisarazu Cat's Eye World Series.

8.1/10

Ikebukuro West Gate Park was a wildly popular, highly influential Japanese television drama by screenwriter Kankuro Kudo, based on a novel by Ira Ishida, that initially aired on the Tokyo Broadcasting System during the summer of 2000, and directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi. The success of the television series would launch a manga adaptation the following year. In a break from traditional Japanese programming, the series used edgy graphics and scene breaks to highlight a story involving themes drawn from the underbelly of modern Japanese society: hip-hop youth gang warfare, juvenile delinquency, prostitution, drug abuse, the Yakuza, rape and murder. Notable among the cast are Tokio lead singer Tomoya Nagase, film star Ken Watanabe, and future stars Koyuki, Satoshi Tsumabuki, and Tomohisa Yamashita of Johnny's Jimusho idol group NEWS. The series is also credited for bringing up the profile of actor Yosuke Kubozuka.

7.9/10

Inhabitants of a small Japanese town become possessed by spirals (uzumaki).

6.2/10
5.6%

Based on the comic by Hiroyuki Yasuda

After death, people have just one week to choose only a memory to keep for eternity.

7.6/10

Nijima, a white-collar worker, finds the man responsible for his young daughter’s brutal rape and murder. He tortures and interrogates the man, who maintains his innocence, before killing and burying him. He returns to his ordinary life feeling listless and hollow, until he meets an old high school friend who introduces him to his hapless band of hired killers. His skill in the assassination business catches the attention of a bigger crime boss. For reasons that remain opaque, Nijima is assigned to investigate his friend, which ultimately results in a bloody confrontation.

6.6/10

Two young men have a special ability: they can sense ghost spirits. With this special ability they try to solve mysteries / crimes.

8.1/10
10%

A scientist taints his mother's scientific experiment with his own drug that transforms pain into a pleasurable experience. Unfortunately for the three women involved in the experiment, the drug works a little bit too well.

6.2/10

There still stands a famous apartment building where such prominent manga artists as Tezuka Osamu, Shotaro Ishinomori and Fujio Akatsuka once lived, worked, and shared experiences.

7.1/10

Sequel to the Pinku TV Movie 'Love Hotel Night'

Masaya is a university student, but he attends a school that's not his ideal school. His days are generally gloomy. One day, he receives a letter from serial killer Shinmura. He was convicted for 8 murders and received the death penalty. Back when Shinmura was committing his murders, he ran a bakery store. At that time, Masaya was a middle school student and a customer at his bakery store. According to the letter, Shinmura confesses to having committed 8 murders, but he insists that he did not commit the last murder. Masaya begins to investigate the last murder case involving Shinmura.