Yōko Minamino

The stabbed corpse of IT company president Kinji Shiroyama (Yuichi Haba) is found in the Gulf warehouse at Hinode Pier. Unemployed Satoru Oki (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa) who ran away from the scene of the incident is arrested as the murderer. Fujiko Kajiwara (Yuki Matsushita), who was asked to be a duty lawyer meets him, but Ooki denies the charges makes repeats vague statements and refuses to tell the truth.

Kume tries to protect her husband Tokugawa Yoshimune and their three children from the schemes of the inner palace of Edo Castle.

The body of Kazuyoshi Kawagishi, a construction company worker, is discovered stabbed to death in Shinjuku Central Park in Tokyo. Detective Masanao Ushio of Shinjuku West PD begins an investigation and finds that the murdered Kawagishi was an honest person who didn't have any troubles. Kawagishi worked for a company in Kofu City in Yamanashi, leaving behind his wife and daughter on Awaji Island in Hyogo. He seems to have started working as a laborer 3 years ago, having fallen on hard times when the company went bankrupt. Saeko Kawamura, Ushio's reporter friend, calls him wanting to talk about the case. According to Saeko, Kawagishi was one of the survivors of the "bus hijack arson case" that happened three years ago. In the bus hijack arson case, a man who was hallucinating under the influence of dangerous drugs set fire to an intercity bus going to Shinjuku and departing from Kofu Station...

Set in Kyoto, the story revolves around a single, 40-year-old part-time university lecturer named Urasawa Yu. Although she is awkward in normal social situations, she possesses extraordinary judgment when it comes to understanding people in art-related contexts and determining the authenticity of historical works of art. With those skills, she is able to determine the truth behind various incidents that happen around her. Tokyograph

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!

6.5/10

Follows the final days of the shogunate and Shinsengumi's Vice-Comander Hijikata Toshizo along with his fellow anti-imperialist group.

Shinku is a compelling drama that focuses on the strange relationship that develops between two people who find their lives irrevocably changed as a result of a horrible multiple homicide. The first person traumatized is the lone survivor of the terrible family bloodbath, a girl who grows up to be a pretty college student. The second person affected by this heinous crime is the daughter of the murderer, a young girl who ends up becoming a tattooed bartender. A full decade after the crime, the killer is finally going to be executed, and the surviving member of the massacre decides to reach out and befriend the murderer's daughter. A tentative, odd sort of friendship blossoms between these two people, both of whom seem to have little in common personally, and every reason in the world for not wanting to meet. Yet they do, but not without reservations. And really, is this friendship quite what it seems? Or is it all part of some twisted plan for vengeance?

6.7/10

Biopic of yakuza Noboru Ando, based on his autobiography.

Yoko Sakaki: 24 years old. Occupation: Ghost Negotiator. With her tomboyish attitude and severely bad mouth, she helps ghosts leave this world by shouting at them. But, that work is almost done - she and her boyfriend Toshio are about to get married, and their dream is to open a tofu shop together. However, she has kept her profession a secret from him, instead telling him she is a flight attendant... While out with him one night, Yoko gets a call from work telling her that a ghost has appeared in Hachioji... She goes to bust the ghost with her unreliable new partner, Yanagida, but can she hold on to her relationship at the same time?

2.7/10

A modern Japanese family loses their youngest son in a tragedy. The mother, Misako, plunges into depression and the oldest son Akira starts blaming himself for the death of his brother.

9.3/10

Kunio Shibano was bankrupted. He visits a snowland spa area to commit suicide. But he meets Geisha Moeko, and she gives him power to face life one more time...

6.9/10

Various individuals named Ichiro undergo life-changing events while being inspired by the baseball player Ichiro. A heartwarming movie about the people who root for the baseball player Ichiro, and their struggles to make their own dreams come true.

7.4/10

The story opens with Yukiko and her business partner in Moscow searching for Russian items for their store in Tokyo. There they meet a Russian translator, Nicholai, played by Sergei Nakariakov - a trumpeter from Russia. Some months later after they have returned, Nicholai and Yukiko meet again while he is auditioning for the Tokyo orchestra where seeds of romance begin. Yukiko's father, however, is diagnosed with a terminal case of cancer. Yukiko returns home to be with him in his final months as he decides not to go through therapy and let the disease run its course. Coming into contact with a childhood friend while at home Yukiko is left to choose between her old friend and Nicholai, all while having to face the emotional struggle of dealing with her father's impending death.

6.8/10

An entertaining historical drama depicting Sanada Yukimura, a hero who has gone through the era from the incident at Honnōji Temple to the summer siege of Osaka Castle, as "a man of men".

Based on the comic by Hiroshi Motomiya

The second TV movie Obayashi Nobuhiko directed based on Akagawa Jiro's Mikeneko Holmes series.

At the end of the Heian period, Musashibo Benkei, a warrior monk who hated the Heike clan, was humiliated by his fellow monks and left the mountain monastery. Soon, Benkei competes with the Heike warriors on the Gojo Bridge in Kyoto and takes away their swords. One night he tried to stop a young man who had a beautiful sword on his belt and fought him, but he could not win. Knowing that this young man Ushiwakamaru (Minamoto no Yoshitsune) is looking for an opportunity to overthrow the Heike clan, Benkei asks him to let him join him.

The popular Shinkansen bullet train serves as the setting for a series of romantic encounters, from youthful flirtations to mature relationships, office affairs, and simply the love of life itself. A common thread is maintained by the young chief conductor and his crew of well-worn professionals and first-time pursers.

A former assassin is drawn into a conspiracy which leads him to return to his old ways, endangering his brother who suspects that something is afoot...

In the continuing adventures of Nemuri Kyoshiro, noted film actor Tamura Masakazu stars again as the red-haired ronin with foreign blood in his veins. The son of a foreign missionary and a samurai's daughter. His mother died when he was a child, and he was forced to bury her himself, praying that her soul would rest in peace. He became an expert at swordsmanship, despite being in the shadow of isolation and nothingness, and walks the bloody path of destruction carrying his only friend, a razor sharp sword made by the Master, 'Peerless Masamune' to go with his unique Full Moon Sword style. After being accused of being a government spy, he falls ill and accepts the aid of a prostitute who nurses him back to health. As he prepares to leave the Chief Retainer of the Akita Clan asks him to help save the clan from an evil plot. Kyoshiro's deadly full moon cut will have to come into play against many who seek his life!

6.4/10

The wife of a lawyer and her twice-divorced sister-in-law scheme to break up her brother's marriage in this hard-edged drama of misdirected passion. The quirky characters who fill out the cast include a youthful entrepreneur and the heroine's father, a police officer who would do anything to make his daughter happy.

An illustration of the tragic lives of geishas at a popular geisha house, Shinonomero. Shortly after being sold to a geisha house at age 5, Shizu is befriended by a fellow older geisha, Tsuru. After years of living and working together, Tsuru and Shizu manage to run the operations of Shinonomero as the proprietress and assistant. Despite vows to never to let their lovers come between them or Shinonomero, moments of weakness leave Tsuru and Shizu caught up in a web of betrayal and plunged into debt. With the guilt of losing Shinonomero to Udo, a yakuza who loaned them money, it is now up to young Shizu to redeem Tsuru’s honor and restore Shinonomero as their own.

7.7/10

It is 1965. High-school student Takeyoshi Fujiwara Yasufumi Hayashi) hears "Pipeline" by the Ventures, and is mesmerized by their unique sound. With three friends, he forms a band called "The Rocking Horsemen." A warm and comic glimpse into high-school and small-town life in Japan in the 60's.

7.2/10

Keiko’s life is turned upside down when she discovers that she has been infected with HIV. As she struggles to cope with the situation and resist the infection, she finds new friendship and companionship with a journalist named Miyuki and a man named Akira.

4.9/10

Yasuo Furuhata directs this romantic yakuza flick based on a book by popular romance novelist Tomiko Miyao. Set in 1932, the film centers on Peony (Yoko Minamino), a geisha who was forced into the business at a young age by her dissipated father.

7.2/10

A young woman, Asami, searches for the man who helps her quest to enter medical school.

After the events of the TV series, the 18 year old Yoko Godai has abandoned her special agent Saki Asamiya name to return to her normal life, and is now studying for college entrance exams. However, she accidentally bumps into a young man named Kazuo Hagiwara trying to escape from a group of hitmen, and learns that he comes from Sanko Academy, a private school located in a remote island known as Hell's Castle. The school is ruled by a former revolutionary thought to be dead named Hattori who is trying to brainwash students into terrorists to help him stage a fascist coup d'etat in Japan.

6.5/10

Benio, a peppy tomboy, is surprised to learn that she has been secretly betrothed by her grandfather to a young officer named Shinobu Ijuin. Because of his family’s noble status, Benio must first undergo rigorous training to learn how to be a proper bride and wife before she can marry. However, because of her vivacious personality, this proves to me more challenging than anyone imagined.