Sansei Shiomi
Haruka is a fisherman's daughter, who lost her home and many friends in the Tohoku earthquake. After a year living in a temporary housing, she did not want to return back to her hometown and went to Tokyo where she got captivated by a lighting store. Haruka later works at the store and decides to help the customers to find their own light in life. At the same time, Haruka slowly overcomes her emotional wounds and finds her own light.
A young boxer and a call girl get caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme over the course of one night in Tokyo.
18-year-old Urano Suzu marries Hojo Shusaku and moves from Eba City to Kure City in Hiroshima Prefecture in the middle of the Pacific War. As Japan slides into a war it cannot get out of, the townspeople go on with their “ordinary” lives. Supplies are short, and family and friends get sent to the battlefield. Suzu and the Hojo family battle such anxieties as they try to live positively.
Ôtomo gets involved with new Yakuza battles after he comes back the Yakuza society.
Mayu Daimon is a woman who does not remember her mother's face, and her father is the only person she has blood relationship in this world, but he is going to die soon. Mayu has just started a new life as a detective at the Criminal Investigation Division which deals mainly with murder cases soon, and has to handle with two corpses of old men continuously. One corpse found frozen buried in the snow and the freezing sea. Soon with a detailed investigation she finds out a connection between the two cases which seemed to be completely different at first glance. It was just the breach to open a history of an incident which had origin back to the 1960s in Aomori Prefecture. Growing more and more as a detective, Mayu has to unravel the mystery of a case which goes beyond time and space and which ends in Hokkaido with a result that no one expected.
Akiko (Satomi Kobayashi) lives with her mother, but suddenly her mother passes away. Since then she quits her editing job and takes over her mother's small restaurant. At the restaurant there's only two items on the menu: sandwich and soup.
Masaharu Fukuyama reprises his role from 2008's "Suspect X," playing the physicist-cum-detective Manabu Yukawa. The scientist-sleuth arrives in an oceanside town to speak on a panel. But when a man turns up dead outside the inn where he's staying, Yukawa begins to unravel the connections that tie the victim to the activist daughter of the innkeepers, and a precocious boy who first appears on a train—and keeps popping up. It's a Sherlock Holmes mystery with an environmental twist, and one that should please fans of a classic whodunnit.
A new salesman named Kosuke Okuda happens to meet Mao Watarai, a friend from his middle school days. Back then, Mao was called stupid and bullied, but now she is an attractive woman. Kosuke and Mao fall in love and decide to marry, but Mao has a secret…
As the police launch a full-scale crackdown on organized crime, it ignites a national yakuza struggle between the Sanno of the East and Hanabishi of the West. What started as an internal strife in Outrage has now become a nationwide war in Outrage Beyond.
When Mutta was 12-years-old and Hibito was 9-years-old the two brothers saw what they thought was an UFO flying towards the moon. They made a pact then to become astronauts and one day fly into space together. Fast forward to the year 2025. Older brother Mutta (Shun Oguri) works as for an automotive company and his younger brother Hibito works as an astronaut. Although Mutta failed to follow through on his childhood promise, after losing his job, he receives a phone call from Hibito which reignites his childhood dream of flying into outer space ...
Young French journalist Ada Servier arrives in Kobe to cover the memorial ceremonies of the big earthquake from 1995. Fifteen years after the disaster the city’s wounds have finally disappeared but the former victims continue to suffer. Among them is Kenji whose past is hiding a secret that only Ada is willing to hear...
"FLOWERS" covers the lives of six woman whose lives span a period of three generations (from the Show period all the way through to the present day). Starting in the 1930's, Rin (Yu Aoi) is worried about her arranged marriage that her parents setup. Eventually Rin has three daughters: Kaoru (Yuko Takeuchi) - who tragically loses her husband in a car accident, Midori (Rena Tanaka) - a career woman who becomes shaken by a marriage proposal, and youngest child Sato (Yukie Nakama). In the 1960's Sato gives birth to Kanna (Kyoka Suzuki) and Kei (Ryoko Hirosue). In the present day, Kanna is now worried about becoming a single mother. The lives of these woman are portrayed with beauty and grace.
On September 9th, the day of the Katakai Fireworks Festival, high school student Hana comes home from the hospital after six months of treatment for leukemia. She then discovers that her older brother Taro has become a social recluse. Taro used to be tender, smart and proud of his younger sister, but now he even turns his back on her and stays in his room. With Hana's help Taro slowly opens up to the world again. Then, with winter approaching, Hana has a relapse with her leukemia. Taro comes to the hospital everyday to visit Hana and soon learns that the Katakai Fireworks Festival is a symbol of happiness for Hana. Taro then takes the initiative to make Hana happy and approaches the town's youth group once more for admittance.
Based on the true story of former professional boxer Iwao Hakamada who has spent over 40 years incarcerated on death row. Iwao Hakamada was arrested for the June 10, 1966 murder of a family in Shizuoka . Iwao Hakamada has always insisted on his innocence and many others also believe Iwao Hakamada has been falsely accused ...
Shimizu Yuichi (Tsumabuki Satoshi) is a shy and lonely day laborer looking for love. He aimlessly spends time corresponding with girls via telephone dating services and going on random encounters with girls looking for spending cash. His world is shattered one day when he is involved in the murder of one of his former encounters, the sweet-faced Ishibashi Yoshino (Mitsushima Hikari) who, after being jilted by playboy Masuo Keijo (Okada Masaki), berates and mocks the troubled loner.
Asahiyama Zoo in Hokkaido, is the northernmost zoo in Japan. The unpopular zoo welcomes a new zoo keeper, young Yoshida (Yasuhi Nakamura), who has more affection for insects than people after years of being bullied at school when he was young. Yoshida soon realizes that Asahiyama Zoo is facing a financial crisis and the zoo director Takizawa (Toshiyuki Nishida) has been doing everything in his power to save the zoo from closing down. Moved by Takizawa's passion, Yoshida and other zoo keepers came to share the zoo director's belief that one's dreams can come true, and together they tackle this seemingly impossible task of revitalizing Asahiyama. A breakthrough arrives in the form of “Behavioral Exhibition,†a method that is pioneered by Ashiyama's zoo keepers and which eventually makes the zoo renowned throughout the world.
One day, a middle-aged man, Fujimoto Makoto, is standing on a train platform, about to jump in front of a train. Nakashiro Kana and Tasaki Shota both happen to be on the same platform, and sensing what is about to happen, they quickly pull him back to safety. There's a reason why Kana and Shota realized Makoto's intentions, they both have the kind of emotional scars that can't be put into words. Even after so much pain, through a series of e-mails, they've become attracted to one another and slowly learn to open up their hearts once again.
A salaryman debates selling his grandfather's land to pay off his father's debt.
In an attempt to spur citizens into taking more productive roles in society, the Japanese government issues death messages, or "ikigami", informing them that they have only 24 hours left to live. The film follows a young man tasked with delivering these messages, as well as the victims.
The suicide of a female teacher 15 years ago was actually a murder. A new investigation team, spearheaded by Mizorogi, is formed based on new information turned in to the police. Obsessed about cracking cases right up till the statute of limitation, Mizoguchi has a bitter thought about a 300 million yen case that has reached the statute of limitation... When he goes to investigate the male high school student(s) whom the woman had taught and other persons related to the deceased, he sees an unexpected connection with another case...
Former Yakuza underling Kiryu Kazuma, who has recently been released from prison after a lengthy incarceration, and is trying to piece his life together and distance himself from his Yakuza past. Unfortunately Kiryu's problems slowly escalate as he is pursued by a former associate, the baseball bat-wielding psycho Majima Goro who has a grudge to settle with Kiryu.
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.
The students of Suzuran High compete for the King of School title. An ex-graduate yakuza is sent to kill the son of a criminal group, but he can't make himself to do it as he reminds him of his youth.
The movie is part of the Kindaichi TV movie series. Kindaichi is played by actor Goro Inagaki. The character's grandfather began with the written word. Kousuke Kindaichi started life in the novels of Seishi Yokomizo, written and set in post-war Japan. Inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, Kindaichi is still very much a unique character, giving the Japanese their very own literary hero-detective. Young Hajime Kindaichi is a young man with bad dandruff and worse dress-sense (decades before Columbo), who wears a trademark, scruffy sunhat. He also happens to be better than the police at deductive reasoning. Having gained publicity for solving a high-profile murder case, the detectives allow him to work with them again. This story is slimmer than the twisty plots of Inugami and Village, but is graced by the presence of Chiaki Kuriyama (Battle Royale, Kill Bill Vol. 1, The Great Yokai War) in the title role.
Matsuko, in her 20s, is fired as a teacher and degenerates from an elite to a “Soap Lady.” Through her history of affairs with men, she kills her pimp and ends up in prison. Despite her rough lifex struck by terrible misfortunes, she does not stop loving some one and keeps her dreams until the very end. This drama depicts Matsuko’s stormy life as she deals with it head-on.
Ruri, having been abandoned by her mother to a foster care facility, lives a life of reckless abandonment. When Nakama Yuzo, a kind man but for a trigger-happy temper, runs into Ruri he realizes that perhaps she's the child he's been looking for. Yuzo lives in Hatomijima, a small insland in Okinawa where the population is 49 and the average age group is 61. There are no children. The island has only one school - a primary school. If a child is not enrolled in the school, it will be closed. As a result, society will abandon the island and in a few years, it will cease to have any inhabitants. To save their island, the locals decide to bring in a foster child. Ruri is their candidate, and with her she brings the hope of the island's survival.
Ichigo no kakera deals with a female manga artist Ichigo Nekoda (Miyazawa), whose career is heading into a downward spiral as she can't reinvent the success of her 12 year old hit the Cherry Road. Now in her early 30's she's become quite fond of alcohol and egoism to some annoyance of her loyal manager Tomoko (Kajiwara), who isn't willing to leave her side even though the financial strains of her client are also becoming her personal burdens. Ichigo still gets greeted by her female fans and willingly signs autographs, but getting praised for work that she's done over a decade ago doesn't digest as smoothly as one would assume. Her on and off man, who happens to also be her editor steers toward the off days more than usual as he also grows tired of Ichigo's uninspired ways. But when the going gets tough, Ichigo heads down to a transvestite bar where she's more than welcomed with words of wisdom and a few hard drinks.
Suzuki’s world is shattered when his teenage daughter is brutally attacked. The assailant, Ishihara, son of a politician, brazenly mocks Suzuki as he throws him cover-up money. Angry, Suzuki finds he has no answer to Ishihara and in venting his anger, loses his daughter’s trust too. A sleep-deprived, crazed Suzuki goes to Ishihara’s school wielding a knife. He does not find Ishihara, but instead forms an alliance with an odd group of school misfits called the Zombies. The group’s elusive leader, Pak Sun Shin, decides to train Suzuki, who quits his job and embarks on a punishing programme to win back freedom for his daughter.
Near the slopes of Mount Fuji, there is a so called suicide forest, an infamous place where people who are tires of living have their last breath of air. The four different stories of this film all revolve around this place.
Heaven's Bookstore is a 2004 Japanese film directed by Tetsuo Shinohara about a struggling classical pianist who is sent to heaven to work in a bookstore. It is based on two novels, written by Atsushi Matsuhisa and Wataru Tanaka.
In 1923, the young Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island (South Korea), to Osaka (Japan). Through the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko (processed seafood products) in his poor Korean-Japanese community exploiting his employees. He makes a fortune, abuses and destroys the lives of his wife and family, has many mistresses and children and shows no respect to anyone. Later he closes the factory, lending out the money with high interest and becomes a loan shark. His hateful behavior remains unchanged to his last breath, alone in North Korea. The film is told from the perspective of Masao, his legitimate son by his abused and degraded wife, who knows nothing about his father other than to fear him.
Sometimes it is simply the wrong place at the worst possible moment and get to see their lives change because of this. Such is the case for the film's six heroes, as you can come in three parallel documents which are then woven into each other in a subtle and smooth way. We have Asai, dishwasher that suddenly may act Thai boxer to save the skin of his friend Ishii, who would have ordered an opponent of the evening fixing kickboxing match. We have two "salarymen" Ikeyama and Kishimoto, who by chance ends up at the restaurant where kickboxing match takes place. And last but not least we have the two amateur thieves Fujita and Kudoh, who are both indebted and somewhat desperate. All they will have to fly more or less for their lives from the restaurant and you suspect it will all end in disaster.
Existential study on a misplaced workers and ex-prisoner who moves through the city and his influence on other characters' lives.
Maiko is a 17 year old aspiring picture book writer who was abandoned by her widowed father at the age of 3 and has lived in a foster home ever since. She meets Lisa, also 17, and the two quickly form a bond of understanding as they help each other work out their problems. Lisa holds a grudge against her mother for paying more attention to the men she brings home than her own daughter and Maiko begins to doubt her artistic dream will ever come to fruition after a book editor judges her writing ability harshly.
Isao Yukisada spins this gritty coming-of-age tale about Sugihara, a Japanese-born, third-generation Korean who struggles to find a place in a society that will not accept him. The film begins with Sugihara studying at a Korean junior high school that is dedicated to memory of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. His father is a grizzled ex-boxer who recently changed his citizenship from North to South Korea so he and his wife – Sugihara's mom – could visit Hawaii. Though his father regularly gets drunk and thrashes him, he also taught Sugihara the finer point of the sweet science. At one point in the film, Sugihara takes out an entire basketball team that was bent on taking him out. Upon graduation, Sugihara enters a normal Japanese high school where he meets and soon falls for Sakurai – a loose-sock copper-haired damsel who is attracted to Sugihara's restless spirit. As the film progresses, Sugihara struggles to throw off the stigma of his ethnicity and live a quiet, successful life.
An appassionato art student and a dispassionate college girl make a vow, saying they would meet each other again in the Florence Cathedral after 10 years.
A string of mysterious deaths has occurred, leaving all of the victims with a purple butterfly-shaped bruise. According to investigators, the victims have all died from a hypnotic suggestion. The police bring in renowned psychiatrist Toshiya Saga, who specializes in hypnotic cures, to help with the investigation. He is determined to solve the mystery, but is caught off-guard when the woman he is attracted to becomes a suspect in the investigation.
The original story Open House written by Akutagawa Award winning writer, Hitonari Tsuji, is composed of two stories - one about Tomonori and Mitsuwa, and the other about Yuiko.
The 57th NHK Asadora Renzoku Drama. Story's settings include Kobe and Sasayama. It is a story about the conflicts between generations and the relationships within families. A strong mother-daughter theme and a sister-brother theme exist.
Swallowtail Butterfly takes place in an alternate Japan, in a ghetto where immigrants from all over the world have come to live and make their fortune. The city is called Yentown, and it is much like Tokyo. Sixteen-year-old Ageha (Ito), a young girl whose mother has just died, is passed on from person to person until a prostitute named Glico (Chara) finally takes pity on her. Under Glico's care, Ageha has many experiences with the other poverty-stricken immigrants in Yentown. Eventually, due to a sudden twist in fate, the immigrants are given a chance to realize their dreams. But in doing so, they destroy their solidarity, and have to face their problems separately.
When exchanging letters two women discover new things about a deceased man they used to know.
Zankuro Matsudaira (Ken Watanabe) is a low-grade vassal of the Tokugawa Shogun, forced to moonlight as a bodyguard and executioner to make ends meet. He also has a drinking problem, an overeating mother, and a propensity to protect the oppressed, all of which eat into his finances. His confident mother Masajo (Kyoko Kishida) is the descendant of a famous family of shogunate retainers and a mistress of the pen and sword, who regards her son as a failure.
Today, It's My Turn!! is a shonen manga by Hiroyuki Nishimori. Toei Video released a series of V-Cinema live-action series based on this, and Dengeki no 17 Sai was released in 1995. Two boys, Takashi Mitsuhashi and Shinji Itō meet each other at a salon. It turns out both boys are transferring to a new school and decide to take the opportunity to reinvent themselves. No longer will they be run of the mill high school students, they will become the biggest delinquents Japan has ever seen!
Maria is in need of money. Because her day-time job doesn't pay enough, she works at night at a cabaret. She needs the money so that she can pay for her sister, Nana's eyes operation. When both Maria and Nana were younger, Maria burned down the home, causing her sister's blindness and killing their father (mother survived.) Shiro is a famous concert pianist. However, he isn't happy with his marriage or his life in general. Maria and Shiro are united through a traffic accident, causing Shiro to be hospitalized. Faking amnesia and his identity, he stays at Maria's place and eventually starts to work at the cabaret as a piano player. As you will find out later on, life was not meant for Maria and Shiro to find one another.
Hama-chan and Su-san go fishing during a business trip, but Hama-chan has to give a lecture on Su-san's behalf in a case of mistaken identity.
Adaptation of the Arimasa Ohsawa novel Shinjuku Shark.
The biggest crisis has come to Matsushita, a shootist who has passed through numerous shrines!
Shun Nakahara directs this comic take on Sidney Lumet's 1957 classic Twelve Angry Men. Just as in that earlier work, this film takes place in a jury room and takes place in real time. The film opens as the jury is about to acquit the defendant -- a bar hostess who pushed her ex-husband path of an oncoming truck, supposedly in self-defense. Just as everyone seems to be in agreement over the woman's innocence, one bespectacled juror (Kazuyuki Aijima) -- no one is given names in this film -- voices second thoughts. Slowly, like an inversion of Henry Fonda's character in the earlier film, he sets about convincing his fellow jurors -- a group of nice folks who don't like thinking ill of people -- that the defendant is in fact a cold-blooded killer.
A unique group of individuals who stand out in the Japanese film industry.
