Yoko Maki
A human drama about the strange fate of the three brothers, played by Masatoshi Nagase, Joe Odagiri, and Nobuaki Kaneko, set in Nagoya.
atsuya Fujiwara plays a talented detective who trades hardened criminals for troubled teenagers. Placed in an unruly public junior high school, he gets to work contending with the many problems it faces and uncovers some more serious ones. While the detective tries to operate in the hard-line way he knows best, he finds himself confronted by a skeptical and fiery teacher, played by award winning actress Yoko Maki.
Kaname Azuma is sick of her marriage life with her husband and she decides to divorce him. She leaves Japan and travels to South Korea. There, she visits her brother Teruo's villa. Teruo is surprised by Kaname's sudden visit, but after he hears of her marriage life, he lets her to stay with him. Somehow, Teruo and Kaname happen to enter The Cursed Sanctuary X.
Rei helps the woman she's been in love with for years escape her abusive husband. While on the run, their feelings for each other catch fire.
Set in 1988 in Hiroshima, Japan, prior to the enactment of the anti-organized crime law. A rumor exists that Detective Shogo Ogami has ties with the yakuza. He is partnered with Detective Shuichi Hioka and they investigate a missing person case involving a financial company employee. Conflicts between opposing yakuza groups become more serious.
Set in the 1970's in the Kansai region of Japan.. Yong-Gil is Korean, but he moved to Japan and settled down. He runs a small restaurant named Yakiniku Dragon. He is married and has three daughters: oldest daughter Jung-Hwa, middle daughter Yi-Hwa and youngest daughter Mi-Hwa. Oldest daughter Jung-Hwa is dating Tetsuo, but they break up. Middle daughter Yi-Hwa loves Tetsuo and marries him, but Tetsuo still loves her older sister and they divorce. Youngest daughter Mi-Hwa wants to become a singer, but she is in love with a married man.
To get revenge on her ex-boyfriend and to help revive her late mother's tennis table club, a table tennis prodigy decides to take part in a mixed doubles table tennis tournament.
Miyaji is a full-time housewife who has no interest in dressing herself. One day, her life changes completely as she was scouted as a reader model for a popular female fashion magazine "Vogue". She meets various types of women in the fashion magazine industry, each in their own hunt for happiness.
Ryota is an unpopular writer although he won a literary award 15 years ago. Now, Ryota works as a private detective. He is divorced from his ex-wife Kyoko and he has an 11-year-old son Shingo. His mother Yoshiko lives alone at her apartment. One day, Ryota, his ex-wife Kyoko, and son Shingo gather at Yoshiko's apartment. A typhoon passes and the family must stay there all night long.
Yukio Haruyama (Riku Ohnishi) is an elementary school student. He has an uncle (Ryuhei Matsuda) that teaches philosophy part-time at an university. His uncle leeches off his family. The uncle then goes on a blind date and falls in love with beautiful Eri Inaba. She is a fourth generation Japanese living in Hawaii. Sometime later, Eri goes back to Hawaii to take over a coffee farm left behind by her recently deceased grandmother. Yukio and his uncle travel to Hawaii to see Eri.
Akago (Fumi Nikaido) is a red goldfish able to change into a girl. She possesses a pure and sensuous side. She lives with an old male writer (Ren Osugi) whom she calls “Ojisama.” One day, the ghost of Yuriko Tamura (Yoko Maki) appears. She is a woman the writer knew in the past.
Tamako works for a company in the restaurant business. She experiences betrayal from Makoto, a chef she recently hired. Rumors then spread at work about her. Tamako decides enough is enough and quits her job. She decides to open a restaurant and run it from a woman's perspective. Tamako soon learns that Makoto has opened a luxurious restaurant across the street from her modest restaurant.
Koichiro Shimada is sent to a research facility in Kenya, Africa by a teaching hospital in Japan. He encounters a desperate situation and decides to work there as a doctor, treating patients hurt in battles. He struggles with nurses and colleagues at the hospital. Koichiro Shimada then encounters a boy soldier severely wounded mentally. This changes Koichiro Shimada’s fate.
Ichiko is a 30-year-old unemployed woman. She meets Ryoichi at a drinking establishment. Even though he is a lot younger than her, she can't forget him. Meanwhile, Ichiko has 5 different characters in her brain that governs her actions. The 5 characters are Yoshida, Ishibashi, Ikeda, Hatoko and Kishi. These 5 character then have a fierce meeting. Yoshida presides over the meeting as the chairman. Ishibashi is the optimist. Ikeda is the pessimist. Hatoko is the character that lives in the moment and Kishi thinks about the past.
Lone wolf detective with an enormous personal grievance seeks to connect the mysterious death of his daughter to an urban legend of a villain who terrorizes Japan by insinuating himself into people's dreams and the collective psyche of the Japanese people.
Set within the fictional city of Mahoro, Keisuke Tada runs a "benriya" - a general problem solver for hire. His assistant is his former high school classmate Haruhiko Gyoten. A big crisis then occurs for them.
2500 years ago, in India, Siddhartha was born as a prince of the Shakya clan, but he gives up his position as a prince to see the world. He meets a strange boy named Assaji, who can predict the future, a monk with only one eye and Depa. Siddhartha continues traveling. Siddhartha is overwhelmed by the sufferings he witnesses around him. Meanwhile, Prince Ruri of Kosara begins his attack on the Shakya clan. Second Buddha movie from Tezuka Productions.
Ishigami comes home from work and discovers his wife dead. Just then, he receives a phone call from his wife and falls in utter confusion. Unexplainable things keep happening as Ishigami struggles to find his wife. Gradually, Ishigami realizes all his memories are gone and finds himself acting like someone else. What is his true identity?
An explosion take place in a street of Tokyo. Many people were killed or seriously injured. One casualty is Chihiro, the wife of Public Security chief inspector Kuraki Naotake. While trying to find why his wife was being implicated in the explosion case, Kuraki comes into contact with Public Security sergeant Akeboshi Miki and Metropolitan Police Department inspector Osugi Ryota who are also investigating this case.
Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman driven by money. He learns that his biological son was switched with another child after birth. He must make a life-changing decision and choose his true son or the boy he raised as his own.
Su-chan, Mai-chan, Sawako-san follows the lives of three women who are former co-workers. 34-year-old Su-chan works at a coffee shop and has feelings for the manager there. 34-year-old Mai-chan works at an OA machine maker. She is in a relationship with a married man. 39-year-old Sawako works as a web designer and also takes care of her grandmother. -san and her mother take care of her grandmother.
Ordinary salaryman Hamasaki Mitsuo works for a company which installs vending machines. He complains about his marriage life while at the dentist office. Mitsuo isn't happy at all with his marriage with his wife, Hoshino Yuka, who has the complete opposite personality from him. He doesn't know if he loves Yuka or not. At this time, Mitsuo meets Kono Akari, his ex-girlfriend from his university days, who is now married to Uehara Ryo.
In a valley, with a dense growth of trees, a baby is killed. The baby's mother Satomi is arrested as the prime suspect. The police also learn that Satomi is involved in a romantic relationship with her next door neighbor Ozaki. The information was provided by the neighbor's lover Kanako. Meanwhile, magazine reporter Watanabe, who is covering the story, discovers the shocking fact that Ozaki was involved in a rape case 15 years ago. Even more shocking, the victim in the rape case is Kanako.
Matsuoi (Hiroshi Abe) and his wife Tsuya moved to Oshima City because of her unpredictable character. Even though Tsuya continues to have affairs, Matsuoi loves her and is a devoted husband. Tsuya is then diagnosed with a cancer and later goes into a coma. Matsuoi then thinks of his wife's lovers. Matsui goes to those men and informs them of Tatsuya's condition. The other women in the lives of those men are shocked and begin to re-examine their views of their men.
"Late blooming Sunflower -My life renewed-" is a story of 7 young adults living their ordinary days near the Shimanto river of Kochi prefecture, renowned as the last of the crystal clear streams. Somewhat nostalgic, somewhat new, they hold on to their dreams and insecurities. It's a true-to-life portrayal of the days in young adulthood.
In 2011, top-secret data on nuclear power is stolen from a university facility. At the same time, leaked information comes in about enriched uranium from the Korean peninsula. Sumimoto of the external affairs fourth division suspects that a conspiracy has been hatched to rock Japan-Korean relations.
Haruko (Maki Yoko), an events producer, is the second of the Inuyama family's three daughters. She turns down a proposal from the man she has been cohabiting with, causing their relationship to turn awkward. Her older sister, Asako (Kimura Tae), is hides her husband's domestic violence while her younger sister, Ikuko (Kaho), cannot instinctively understand love. Haruko is at a critical point in her career and love life, but she scrambles about for the sake of her sisters. The three of them are helped by the family ties and eventually break out of their shell.
Writer-director Gu Su-yeon's new film draws on his own semiautobiographical account of growing up as a delinquent zainichi Korean (Japanese-born, but of Korean ancestry) in the seaside city of Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture, a working-class hellhole overflowing with sex and fury. Day after day, (fictional) Gu finds fresh foes and makes the local hoodlums want to kick his ass. While working multiple dead-end part-time jobs, he cruises around town on his scooter in search of gangland trouble: leaping across rooftops with irate hordes of punks in hot pursuit, running off with a fetching belle in a sailor suit, rescuing a schoolgirl from being gang-raped at a glue-sniffing orgy…
"Genji Monogatari" focuses on the love and hate relationships surrounding Genji Hakaru. Lady Fujitsubo is Genji's first love. Ryokuzono Miyasutokoro is obsessed with Genji and eventually becomes a spirit. Yu Kao, who is from the lower class, give comfort to Genji's emotional wounds. Writer Murasaki Shikibu is jealous of Genji and is eventually ordered by Seime Abe to write a work ...
A three-timing 29 year-old man loses part of his memory after taking a nasty fall at a skating rink. The man, who works as pharmaceutical salesman, then discovers an engagement ring in his briefcase. Later, he comes across three different women who all claim to be his girlfriend. To figure out which of the women he planned to marry, he sets up dates with each of them.
Set one year after the drama series "Moteki." 31-year-old Yukiyo Fujimoto (Mirai Moriyama) doesn't have money, dreams or a girlfriend. He has left his job at a staffing firm and is attempting to start a new life by working as a writer for a news site. Suddenly, Yukiyo experiences "moteki" - a period when a man becomes suddenly popular with woman. Cute magazine editor Miyuki (Masami Nagasawa), pure and naive office worker Rumiko (Kumiko Aso), beautiful shop assistant Ai (Riisa Naka) and beautiful, but tough co-worker named Motoko (Yoko Maki) all become interested in Yukiyo. He tries to calm down, but is shaken by the interests of these women.
At an event hall in Roppongi Hills, there is a charity event for landmine eradication. Kaoru does security with Security Police officers Soichiro Ogata, Eri Sasamoto, Takahumi Yamamoto and Mitsuo Ishida. Kaoru Inoue senses a threatening existence and starts to suffer a severe headache and becomes dizzy. When Kaoru was young, his parents were killed by terrorists and that incident has had an traumatic effect on Kaoru since.
How hard is it to kill an idiot? Just ask Kudo Kankuro! The acclaimed screenwriter brings his 2004 Kunio Kishida-winning stage play Donju (a.k.a. Dumb Animal) to the big screen in all its wacky tragicomedic glory. The one and only Asano Tadanobu sports a seriously nerdy bowl haircut to play the leading role of simple-minded novelist Dekogawa who has mysteriously disappeared. Dekogawa wrote an autobiography about his youth that reveals not only his past, but also some of his childhood friends’ best-forgotten secrets. In order to keep the skeletons in the closet, these buddies of yesteryear try to silence him permanently. But no matter how hard they try to kill Dekogawa, he just keeps coming back – because he’s simply too thickheaded to die!
What would you do if you knew that your time in life is ticking away by the minute? A mysterious "referee" appears in front of individuals in their dying moments while living their usual lives, and announces the exact amount of time they have left to live. Each individual must make a quick decision on how to best spend the time remaining before his or her time expires. --groink
A 13-episode series where Maki Yoko plays the lead role in stand alone episodes. She plays a wife, a hostess, a student. Not only does each episode have a different story, but the styles vary widely from comedy to gangster drama.
Yukari always wanted to become a flight attendant and has just been hired by Japan Airlines. However, due to an unexpected mistake, she has also been recruited to the company's basketball team (the JAL "Rabbits") despite being a lousy at basketball. Forced to divide her time between job training and playing basketball, Yukari makes an increasing amount of mistakes in both areas. Frustrated, she nearly gives up on her dream career, but somehow finds the strength to keep trying both in the skies and on the court.
The story takes place in a fictional country with cultural traces from South American countries, mostly from Brazil. The title's Michiko is a free-willed "sexy diva" who escapes from a supposedly inescapable prison fortress, while Hatchin is a girl fleeing her abusive foster family. The two join forces on an improbable escape to freedom.
"You will die six hours later." Keishi, a youth who proclaims himself a seer, suddenly says this to Mio, who is walking along the streets of Shibuya. At first, Mio scoffs at it as nonsense but ever since her acquaintance was murdered a few days ago, she realises that she has also become a victim of a stalker. Half believing it, she decides to hang around with Keishi. Later, with the help of Sawaki, a detective she knows, the stalker is identified. She thinks the case is closed but a totally unexpected person attacks her...
SP, also known as Security Police is a Japanese television drama based on the real life security police unit of Japan which is responsible for protecting domestic and foreign VIPs. The series script was written by famed GO author Kazuki Kaneshiro and marks his first time writing for a television drama. The drama centers on a newly recruited SP officer named Kaoru Inoue, who is the only SP officer known in the force to have sharp senses that enables him to conduct his duties by using this ESP sense to take down the threat before it appears to threaten the VIP and the civilians who are caught in the middle. The franchise consists of the TV series, two film adaptations of the series released in 2010 and 2011 with an ongoing manga adaptation.
A school is supposed to be the safe place for children, but unfortunately it is not any longer. It has so many problems that even most dedicated teachers would give up eventually. Kohei KAJI (Atsushi ITO) a young passionate teacher who's just started his career at a junior high school, but he is thrown into the chaos and desperation when one of his student dies at school. Tamako TSUMIKI (Miho KANNO) is a cool elite lawyer who seems to have some secret connection with that dead girl. Is that an accident? Or suicide? Together they start investigate what has been going on at the school and they have to face some terrifying facts that show how easily one could fall. This is a controversial theme that questions every one of us if we can change the world.
Rei Iwatsuki (Ai Otsuka) moved from her hometown Kōchi to Tokyo to pursue her dreams. On arrival, she found a job as a waitress in a restaurant and met guitarist Ryuuji Shintani. Ryuuji (Eita) liked her voice and invited her to join his band as the vocalist, The Survival Company (also known as Sabakan). The two started a relationship but then broke off when Rei wanted to write her own songs. Rei met other girls also working in the restaurant, Hirono (Matsumoto Rio), Ryoko (Maki Yoko) and Maki (Kobayashi Mao), all in pursuit of their own dreams, and became good friends with all of them. One day, Rei receives news that Takashi was seen in New York and she decides to go look for him..
A young reporter is covering the mysterious case of a child found dead with missing internal organs.
A murder investigation reveals a deep-rooted sibling rivalry in director Miwa Nishikawa's brooding family drama. On the one-year anniversary of his mother's death, Tokyo art and fashion photographer Takeru (Joe Odagiri) returns to his small hometown in order to pay his respects. But all is not well back home, and when Takeru's authoritative father questions his sincerity, the frustrated son strikes back with accusations of violent conduct. Though the situation is initially diffused by Takeru's older brother Moniru (Teruyuki Kagawa), who stayed behind to run the family business, tensions once again start to run high when Tekeru, Moniru, and pretty childhood friend Cheiko (Yoko Maki) decide to celebrate their reunion by taking a hike in the wilderness.
Towa lives in a peculiar sanatorium after committing suicide. Convalescing in sanatorium, she is informed that she has only 7 days to live. Isolated within their worlds, strange people live in this sanatorium and try to avoid making any contact with her. However, Kuroda a man who lost his power of speech feels sympathetic towards her and their every lovable things give true colors to the life and inspire Towa’s honest desire for the life…
In order to avoid a jail sentence, Sean Boswell heads to Tokyo to live with his military father. In a low-rent section of the city, Shaun gets caught up in the underground world of drift racing
Romeo, A.K.A. Kosuke Matsuyama (Shun Shioya), is a second-year high school student. A nice, normal, nonviolent type, he suddenly finds himself in the middle of a rampaging crowd of Korean boys, outraged by insults perpetrated by several of his idiotic class-mates on two Korean girls. He makes a narrow escape, but soon after, he and his best bud Yoshio (Keisuke Koide) are sent by their home-room teacher to invite the Korean students to a friendly soccer game as a way of restoring the peace.
A free-spirited psychiatrist exudes a magnetic attraction for patients with out-of-the-ordinary neuroses and odd conditions brought about by stress.
Tokyo Friends is a Japanese television drama released on June 3, 2005. Unlike many other dramas, it was never aired on TV but released as a set of 3 DVDs. Volumes one and two contain the first 4 episodes while volume three contains the last episode. Each episode is approximately 70 minutes. The Tokyo Friends Premium Box was also released which includes all 5 episodes, a bonus DVD, and 12 postcards. Although this is a very typical Tokyo-story and was never aired on TV, it was quite successful probably because it was Ai Otsuka's debut as an actress.
A light hearted comedy following a group of friends in a science-fiction club, who spend their summer holidays fooling around at their club house, have a mission to go back into time, using a time machine that appeared out of nowhere, in order to save their summer days from unbearable heat by retrieving the remote control for their air conditioner. But wouldn’t changing the past have an effect on the future? Be prepared for a wild ride regarding time travel with a bunch of whacky characters and theories thrown into the mix.
Dark Tales of Japan is a collection of five short horror films that are directed by five notable Japanese film directors. Produced by the Tokyo Broadcasting System.
An American nurse living and working in Tokyo is exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim.
It's three years after the events of the original Battle Royale, and Shuya Nanahara is now an internationally-known terrorist determined to bring down the government. His terrorist group, Wild Seven, stages an attack that levels several buildings in Tokyo on Christmas Day, killing 8000 people. In order for the government to study the benefits of "teamwork", the new students work in pairs, with their collars electronically linked so that if one of them is killed, the other dies as well. They must kill Nanahara in three days - or die.
Yuki is the last surviving royal of the House of Takemikazuchi or Takemikazuchi no Hime (たけみかずち の ひめ), who live in a futuristic post-apocalyptic isolationist world where they use their skills as former Mikado guards to become hired assassins. The wise old sage Kuka, who was once Yuki's mother's bodyguard, gives Yuki information that changes her life—and her destiny. She discovers that Byakurai has a dangerous connection to Yuki. After learning this information she chooses to leave the House of Takemikazuchi. She soon encounters Takashi, leader of the rebel movement, who offers Yuki a chance at revenge—and perhaps love. They soon discover similarities for they are both trying to escape the past to start new lives....
Yakuza film about Mine, a strong-minded woman, who risks her life and her body in a desperate search for true love.
