Tsutomu Yamazaki
A seventy-year-old retired school headmaster informs his wife and daughters that he has Alzheimer’s disease. They are all concerned, but react differently due to their individual situations. The family watches as the husband and father regresses due to the disease and loses his memory. Interestingly, there are sparkling moments of his life of which the man will not let go...
Michiko Oshitani, who lived in Shiga Prefecture, is found dead at an apartment in Tokyo. She was strangled to death. Mutsuo Koshikawa is the owner of the apartment and he goes missing. Detectives including Yuhei Matsumiya who is a cousin of Detective Kyoichiro Kaga , have difficulties in solving the case. They can't find a connection between Michiko Oshitani and Mutsuo Koshikawa. They soon learn that Michiko Oshitani came to Tokyo to visit Hiromi Asai . They graduated from the same school, but there isn't a connection between Hiromi Asai and Mutsuo Koshikawa. Detective Yuhei Matsumiya finds something near Michiko Oshitani's body. That something has the names of 12 bridges surrounding the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. Detective Kyoichiro Kaga learns of the clue and becomes agitated. There's a connection with his late mother
In 1974, Morikazu is 94-years-old and his wife Hideko is 76-years-old. They live at a house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The garden at their home is full of trees, plants and insects. Morikazu paints pictures of the creatures in his garden and also observes them. This has been his daily routine for more than 30 years. Morikazu and Hideko entertain visitors every day including a photographer and the couple living next door.
Keiichi Yoshinaga, who works for a major construction company receives a sudden phone call from his ex-wife, Junko Aoba. She tells Keiichi that their second son, Tsubasa, who lives apart, has been arrested for murdering his classmate. Keiichi immediately meets Tsubasa, but for some reason he keeps silence. Since Tsubasa shows no signs of reflecting upon his conduct, he is possibly going to an open trial. To overcome this situation, Keiichi consults a lawyer Kyoko Kanzaki who has a child of the same age.
Young public prosecutor Keiichiro Okino is assigned to the department of the Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office that deals with violent cases, where he will work with Takeshi Mogami, whom he admires. When a money lender is killed and it is suspected that someone from Mogami’s past is the perpetrator, the team prepares to do his best in order to prove the alleged criminal’s guilt.
Manji, a highly skilled samurai, becomes cursed with immortality after a legendary battle. Haunted by the brutal murder of his sister, Manji knows that only fighting evil will regain his soul. He promises to help a young girl named Rin avenge her parents, who were killed by a group of master swordsmen led by ruthless warrior Anotsu. The mission will change Manji in ways he could never imagine.
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.
In July 1945, during the end of World War II, Japan is forced to accept the Potsdam Declaration. A cabinet meeting has continued through days and nights, but a decision cannot be made. The U.S. drops atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. General Korechika Anami is torn over making the proper decision and the Emperor of Japan worries about his people. Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki leads the cabinet meeting, while Chief Secretary Hisatsune Sakomizu can't do anything, but watch the meeting. At this time, Major Kenji Hatanaka and other young commissioned officers, who are against Japan surrendering, move to occupy the palace and a radio broadcasting station. The radio station is set to broadcast Emperor Hirohito reading out the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War.
A man is found dead in a office of Takayanagi Ballet Company. The suspect is a female dancer at the ballet company. The Takayanagi Ballet Company insists that the incident is a self defense case, but after an investigation there's doubts in that claim. Then, the director of the Takayanagi Ballet Company is poisoned to death. Are the cases related?
Takahata Shun's day at high school begins just as boring as ever, but it doesn't end that way. He and his classmates find themselves forced to play children's games with deadly stakes. With no idea who is behind, the only thing Shun and other students can do is keep trying to win.
Based on the same-titled novel by Ikeido Jun (the writer of Hanzawa Naoki series), the drama unfolds against a backdrop of economic recession. Hosokawa Mitsuru is the current president of the core-precision tools manufacturing company, Aoshima. He was personally recruited from another company by the company's founder, Aoshima Takeshi. Needless to say, this move was not well-favored by the existing management who themselves were vying for the job. Not long after Mitsuru joined the company, the global financial crisis caused the economy to slump, and Aoshima was certainly not exempted from the ill-effects of the slump, which was accentuated by fierce competition within the industry. Realising that he needs to stem the company's cashflow crisis, Mitsuru proposes to sell the company's baseball club. However, his proposal is opposed by all the other top management, especially Sasai Kotaro, a long-serving employee who feels that he should have been promoted to President instead of Mitsuru. Mikami Fumio, who is the baseball club's manager, also tries to foil Mitsuru's plans of selling the club. Amidst all the enmity of the long-serving management, and also sabotage from a rival company, Mitsuru has to find a way to save the company from its downfall...
Ninagawa is a powerful man in Japanese politics and with top economic connections.His granddaughter is then murdered. The suspect is Kunihide Kiyomaru (Tatsuya Fujiwara). Kunihide Kiyomaru has a prior conviction for assaulting and killing a girl 8 years ago. The police could never apprehend the suspect in the prior killing.
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 man's body is found under the statue of a winged kirin in the Nihombashi area of Tokyo. A suspect named Yashima has a car accident and falls unconscious while he is attempting to run away. Yashima's lover Kaori comes from Fukushima and tells detectives that he is absolutely not a criminal. Meanwhile, Detective Kyoichiro Kaga's (Hiroshi Abe) investigates and uncovers a point of contact between the dead body and Yashima. A hidden fact of the victim is revealed which even his children did not know about...
In May 2003, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (or JAXA) launched an unmanned spacecraft of their own development to retrieve samples from an asteroid. Seven long years later, Hayabusa achieved its goal and was the first of any kind of craft launched from Earth to safely return samples of this kind to home base. The story was one of such great national pride for Japan, and in the wake of the tsunami and resulting tragedies in Japan it’s strong nationalistic message became the subject of no less than three rival films. Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s high-profile effort, simply titled Hayabusa (2011) starred the incomparable Toshiyuki Nishida. Most recently, Welcome Home, Hayabusa (2012) was released to Japanese audiences. Slipping in between those two was Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home, concentrating on the people on the ground who helped return the probe safely.
Rookie movie director Koichi and his crew travels to the mountain village of Yamamura to film his next movie. The villagers are eventually enlisted to help film the movie and, in particular, 60-year-old lumberjack Katsuhiko helps against his will.
In 2199, five years after the Gamilons began an invasion of Earth, the planet has been ravaged by the aliens' bombs. The remnants of humanity have fled underground to escape the irradiated surface. One day, former pilot Susumu Kodai discovers a capsule sent from the planet Iscandar that tells of a device that can remove the radiation from the Earth's surface. The Earth Defense Force rebuilds the battleship Yamato with a new type of propulsion system to make the 148,000 light year trip to Iscandar in hopes of saving the Earth. Within one year, the radiation will drive the rest of humanity to extinction.
On August 12, 1985, a jumbo jet crashes, causing 520 fatalities, making the accident the biggest single-plane accident in the world. The local press reporters are tossed about by the waves of facts and rumors. While overwhelmed by the magnitude of the accident, Yuuki, in charge of this crash report at a local newspaper, faces a string of decision-making moments. What are news and a reporter? How should a man do his work and survive in a corporate hierarchy? What do family and friends mean to him? An intriguing story, which keeps the audience on the edge of tension and reality.
Daigo, a cellist, is laid off from his orchestra and moves with his wife back to his small hometown where the living is cheaper. Thinking he’s applying for a job at a travel agency he finds he’s being interviewed for work with departures of a more permanent nature – as an undertaker’s assistant.
Kaoru, a wealthy woman whose youth is fading, abandons the hustle and bustle of the city to live a peaceful life in a house on the coast. There she takes care of an old deaf, dumb and blind man as if he were an insect, a child or a pet. He can’t do anything for himself, so she feeds him and accompanies him on his walks. This strong mutual dependency offers Kaoru an escape from society and allows her to free herself from restrictions imposed by common sense.
Kurosaki is a young man whose family was destroyed by swindlers. Despite that, Kurosaki grows up to become a con artist known as Kurosagi. As Kurosagi, he swindles other con artists and returns the money to the original victim. He works with the master swindler Katsuragi Toshio even though Toshio had a hand in the destruction of Kurosaki's family. Kurosaki's life begins to change when he meets Yoshikawa Tsurara, a young law student who disapproves of his disrespect of the law. Can she persuade Kurosaki to give up swindling and his quest for revenge?
While searching for his fiancee Ritsuko, Sakutarou rediscovers through flashbacks the void deep within him caused by the events from his high school days.
Anthology of five low-budget short films: "Nao and I", "MILD7", "LOVERS", "Strawberry Fields", "Label"
When he finds himself in an Hokkaido prison for a minor firearms possession offence, it doesn't take long for Hanawa (Tsutomu Yamazaki) to surrender utterly to the routine, arbitrary rules and grinding sameness of life in the prison system. Indeed, he comes to find his stint in solitary confinement, cut off from fellow-inmates and with a mechanical task of creating hundreds of folded paper bags each day, a curiously satisfying experience.
Masahiro Nakai (SMAP) stars in this hit film based on the best-selling novel by Miyuki Miyabe. Directed by Yoshimitsu Morita, the film also stars Tsutomu Yamazaki and Yoshino Kimura. The title “Mohouhan” means “copycat”, and it tells the story of a criminal who abducts and kills women, and those who try to catch him. Nakai is cast as a cold-blooded, intelligent and evil guy who uses the media to announce and show his murders live to the public.
Genichiro, a lonely retired man living with his son’s family who mostly ignores him, feels closest to his granddaughter who is in highschool. Through her, Genichiro meets another high school girl, Mina, who also feels ignored by her family. She is also troubled by her friend’s pregnancy and the bankruptcy of her father’s company. Unlike her friends, Mina has an ungilded view of life and finds herself comforted by Genichiro’s wisdom. Genichiro likewise is happy to be making a difference in someone’s life.
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.
The year 1864: The Shinsengumi, the shogun’s armed force in Kyoto ripped the city apart, with blades in hand, searching for pockets of resistance, slaughtering the samurai who sought to bring down the shogunate and restore Japan’s emperor to power. By chance, Murao Mayumi and his sister Shiho, meet samurai Kurata. Murao, seeking his fortune with his sword-arm, will join Shinsengumi, never suspecting his friend Kurata is secretly Kurama Tengu, who hides his face in a black hood, and who will tear a bloody swath through Shinsengumi’s massed blades, to aid the samurai who had taken up the emperor’s cause. Will friend kill friend in a time of war?
17 year old Tokyo pizza delivery boy Kosuke (Kotaro Takada) crashes his bike into photographer Reiko (Miwa Mukunoki) and breaks her expensive camera. He promises to deliver homemade pizza to make up for her broken camera. After discovering that Reiko has moved 1,200 km away to her hometown of Nagasaki things become trickier, but Kosuke decides to fulfill his promise anyways by borrowing a moped from his workplace.
Set in the Phillipines, Takashi Miike’s “The Guys from Paradise” weaves together the stories of several real-life criminal cases. Young up-and-coming salaryman Kohei Hayakawa is sent to Paradise prison on false drug charges, and assumes his lawyers will clear up this misunderstanding fairly quickly. However, he soon comes to the realization that his innocence means less than how much bribe money he’s able to come up with for his release. It becomes apparent that Kohei is going to have to get to know his fellow inmates a little better, as he’s obviously in this situation for the long haul; but meeting a female inmate from a nearby jail certainly makes his transition to the criminal life a little easier to take.
A droll and formalistic comic drama about the various relationships among, and odd obsessions of, the residents of a Tokyo apartment block.
A salaryman faces a major life change as his firm undergoes financial difficulties. To add to his troubles, a man claiming to be his long-estranged father shows up at his house requesting shelter. One of the best of Somai's seriocomic studies of the messiness of family life.
A Choice between Loyalty or Duty of the Samurai! Can the heartlessness of society crush the honor of an individual? In the spring of the 18th year of Kanei, Hosokawa Tadatoshi, feudal lord of the Higo area, died. Although Tadatoshi forbade his vassals to follow him in death before he died, they still committed seppuku one after the other. The new feudal lord, Mitsunao, Tadatoshi's son, also gave the order forbidding seppuku. Abe Yaichiemon obeyed his former lord's last wish but is now being called a coward by his comrades and finally decided to follow Tadatoshi in death in order to save his family's honor. Mitsunao, upset by Yaichiemon actions, punished the Abe family unfairly. Objected to this, the Abe family shut themselves up in their manor as the lords troops moved in. This is the true story of what happened within the Hosokawa clan in early Edo era. A masterpiece by director Kinji Fukasaku that boldly depicts the struggle between humanity and the code of the Samurai.
Melodrama about the life of a mentally handicapped young man and his devoted sister after their famous novelist father and housewife mother go to Australia on a business trip.
A Salaryman in Hokkaido heads to Tokyo for his daughters wedding, but the fun is just beginning,,,
A middle-aged journalist looking to make her big break. After working the same beat on the "women's page", Yumiko gets promoted to editorials.
Businessmen competing for international building contracts in this globe-trotting comedy-adventure.
Based on a semi-autobiographical story by Ogai Mori, about a Japanese medical student who goes to Berlin to study in the 1880s and falls in love with a German ballet dancer.
A TV production crew are making a documentary about the infamous painter Mamiya Ichiro. When they start filming at his old home, they come under attack from the ghost of the painter's wife.
Late in the 1500s, an aging tea master teaches the way of tea to a headstrong Shogun. Through force of will and courageous fighting, Hideyoshi becomes Japan's most powerful warlord, unifying the country. Rikyu, through the tea ceremony and floral arrangements, tempers his lord, helping Hideyoshi focus on a single flower or be in a simple room where the shape of a cup is of most importance. But other forces fuel Hideyoshi's ambitions: the Portuguese bring a globe and guns, and he believes he can conquer Korea and China. When Rikyu raises doubts about invading China, Hideyoshi demands an apology, and Rikyu himself must find courage in the way of tea.
Ryoko Itakura is a government tax agent who has just landed a big promotion. Her first assignment is to catch wheeler-dealer Hideki Gondo. She has a tough job, since in Japan tax evasion is an art and Gondo is, in effect, Rembrandt.
A surreal, isolated village sees its inhabitants gradually leave behind their mutual traditions and superstitions as they leave for the city. Among them are two cousins who love each other and who get into a quarrel with other villagers.
At the beginning of the film the father-in-law of the protagonist dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. The remainder of the film is episodic, moving from one incident to another over the course of the three-day funeral, which is held (as is customary) in the home. These incidents contrast old ways and new ways, young and old, ritual ceremony and true feelings, often comically, but sometimes with real poignancy.
A poignant love story between a 29-year-old woman, who has once been a prostitute but is now the mistress of a wealthy jewelry merchant, and a 19-year-old college student.
The drama portrays people like "beasts" blinded by greed, while shedding light on the evil that lies behind the political and financial world through the life of one woman's vicissitudes. Tamiko Narisawa (Yuko Natori), a waitress at a ryotei, conspires with a man she met as a guest named Kotaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki) to murder her bedridden husband in what appears to be an accident. She was then sent to political mastermind Kito (Akira Nishimura) with the promise of a large reward. Dramatization of Seicho Matsumoto's classic work of social suspense, "Kemonomichi".
A doctor who died at a young age due to the metastasis of a malignant tumor to the lungs after cutting his right leg below the knee due to osteosarcoma. The title "Asuka" is the name of the eldest daughter, and "Unseen child" is the child whose wife was pregnant at the time of her death.
A college student has an affair with a married, middle-aged teacher.
Slow na boogie ni shitekure (also known as "Play it, Boogie-Woogie") is 1981 Drama film directed by Toshiya Fujita, and written by Yoshio Kataoka and Eiichi Uchida , starring Atsuko Asano, Masato Furuoya, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Yûko Asano, Renji Ishibashi and Kahori Takeda.
Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler. He soon begins to appreciate life as Shingen, but his commitment to the role is tested when he must lead his troops into battle against the forces of a rival warlord.
A large earthquake hits Tokyo, which was predicted by a seismologist but was ignored.
Outside of a small village in Japan, a mysterious pond is inhabited by mythic creatures. Their story is of revenge, tragedy, and the power of real love. A classical tale which translates wonderfully to film.
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...
Taking the Chilean coup as an example, a group of young officers plan to overthrow the Japanese government on V-J Day. They aim to abolish the post-war constitution, restore the national army and revive the traditional spirit of Japan. As the conspiracy is exposed, the coup squadrons are wiped out one by one. The remaining squadron takes over a night train bound for Tokyo.
The heir to a family fortune discovers that a curse has been placed on it, put there centuries before by a band of samurai warriors. Adaptation of novel by Seishi Yokomizo
The seventh in the shocking "Jingi Naki Tatakai" movie series, which exposes the true lives of the yakuza that is hidden by a mask of "jingi". The next stage of this continuing drama is the Kanmon Channel where the Owada and the Kyoei groups are battling for territorial rights and drug smuggling. The Owada sends their man, Tetsu, and his friend Shuji to kill the Kyoei boss. With the promise of fame and riches, Shuji takes the fall and goes to jail for 7 years. But when he's released, he discovers that he and Tetsu have been all but forgotten by the Owada. Feeling betrayed, Shuji takes natters into his own hands and becomes an unsuspecting pawn in an internal conflict and an assassination attempt on the Owada boss. And now angered, Shuji seeks revenge...
A ryokan maid is on trial for pushing a familiar guest off a cliff to his death. An eager attorney offers to take the case to gain notoriety.
Kuruma Torajiro is discovered looking around Kyoto for someone special to him.
Writer Jippensha Ikku hears Tsutaya Juzaburo, a wholesaler of picture books, mutter on his deathbed, "Where has Sharaku gone?" He begins to figure out the true identity of Sharaku, who disappeared after about 150 portraits of actors he created came out.
The Story is about three daughters of a "Hatamoto" during the end of the Edo period and the Meiji Restoration.
Remake of Kurosawa's films Sanshiro Sugata and Sanshiro Sugata part 2. A young man, Sanshiro Sugata, troubled by personal problems, takes up judo. His teacher, Shogoro Yano, is a devout man who has aroused the enmity of the local practitioners of jujitsu, the older and more accepted of the two sports. Sugata uses his newly learned prowess to gain a measure of respect from others; however, Shogoro insists that the sport has a spiritual side, a lesson Sugata has yet to learn. Eventually, in hand-to-hand combat with the father of a young woman he loves, he comes to understand the true meaning of judo.
Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
A Japanese detective, Kikuchi, is framed for a murder and sent to prison. When he is paroled, he joins a private detective agency to investigate his case and investigates Mitsue Takazawa, the wife of a local trading firm whom is really a crime lord responsible for Kikuchi's imprisionment and now sets sights on Setsuko, a woman Kikuchi becomes romantically involved with.
An executive of a shoe company becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped and held for ransom.
During World War II Japan sends gold to the Phillipines. After the war, the gold is lost in the bay of Manille. Takeichi Matsuo, a former soldier is working now as a buisiness executive. He meets Mintsura Gunji the boss of a large company who offers him to go to the Philippines and bring back the gold.
A man with a dark past comes from Tokyo to the fishing port of Izu, and tries to begin a new life as a fisherman.
A woman remember's her own marriage when dealing with the love life of her son.
A semi-documentary story about the vicissitudes in the life of an elderly fisherman.
