Yosuke Kubozuka
When Mio was young, she lost her parents in a great flood and also became separated from her best friend Noe. Afterwards, Mio found her talent in cooking and eventually became a cook. Meanwhile, Noe has become an oiran (high-ranking courtesan).
Seven years ago, a mysterious monster was found deep in a rural coal mine. Since then, rumors of a plague spread through the small town, and people experience an unexplainable mental illness. A young Shugendo practitioner goes missing only to resurface transformed, intent on exorcising the world from the monsters haunting it.
Rintaro (Sometani Shota) returns home for the first time in a while to prepare for and attend his father's funeral. He and his sister are surprised to find that their mother has canceled the catering order, and instead will be making the food herself in accordance with her late husband's will. The first dish she brings out is simply sunny side up eggs, and the attendees are at a loss. Rintaro recalls that this was the first meal his father had cooked for him and his sister.
A depressed ex-boxer (Yosuke Kubozuka) self-medicating for the injuries that ended his career finds a stray cat that brightens his day, but she is snatched up by a comical grungy mechanic (Kenji Furuya). Calling each other by the competing names they gave the cat, Maru and Lily, the odd pair is abruptly sucked into a political conspiracy with Saeko (Yui Ichikawa) and her son at the center. Witnessing another injustice in which the economic and social elite prey on the vulnerable, the two strays set off on the road to redemption, or at least peaceful cat ownership. (Fun fact: in addition to acting together in Alley Cat, Yosuke Kubozuka and Kenji “KJ” Furuya released the single “Soul Ship” in 2017. Kubozuka performs as Manji Line and Furuya in the band Dragon Ash.) -JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film
Hiroya Munakata (Sho Aikawa) is the leader of the yakuza group Munakata-gumi. After 10 years since the big fight, Hiroya Munakata's non blood-related younger brother Takashi (Shingo Tsurumi) is released from prison, but Takashi’s daughter, Hyuga (Maika Yamamoto) says she does not want to meet her father and runs away from home. Hiroya, Takashi and Hiroya’s subordinate Shinya (Red Rice) go to Zeni Island where Hyuga is headed to. Something they never expected is waiting for them.
The manger of cabaret club "Hanibani" named Shuu, a worker at the club named Koji and one of the patrons named Ken succeed in robbing a bank. They agree to divide the stolen money equally into 3, but they become consumed by greed and try to get more than their share. In addition, a renowned figure is after their money.
Genius scientist Kikuo Himura (Yosuke Kubozuka) succeeds in developing a miracle cure for the cold virus. There are now people who are after Kikuo Himura's cold vaccine. Doctor Ichinose (Akira Emoto) is jealous of Kikuo Himura and tries to get the formula which is only in Kikuo Himura's head. Dougen (Chris Peppler) is a high-ranking member of a secret organization. Him and his subordinate try to get the vaccine source by any means necessary. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman, Sakurako (Manami Konishi) approaches Kikuo Himura.
In a fancy split-level condo in Tokyo's Roppongi nightlife district, four women and four men gather from midnight to 5 am. They've all paid to be there (men more than women), and they have only one thing in common--they seek anonymous sex. Using no names, they're known only by their types: freeter (temp or part-time worker), mild-mannered salaryman, duplicitous OL (office lady), self-conscious working class factory worker, perfectionist teacher, veteran pervert, shy NEET ("not in education, employment or training") and bashful college student. Together, they unravel their identities in a night of increasing debauchery. Daisuke Miura's adaptation of his critically acclaimed 2005 play of the same name explores Japan's fuzoku (sex industry) with depth, humor and freewheeling indecency. This surprising, erotic and disturbing film features breakout performances by Sosuke Ikematsu and Mugi Kadowaki, who are tempted to mix love with sex.
In an alternate Japan, territorial street gangs form opposing factions collectively known as the Tokyo Tribes. The simmering tension between them is about to boil over into all-out war.
Former college buddies Horaguchi and Okawa suddenly reunite on a whim after 15 years apart and try to resume their friendship by planning a trip together. Meanwhile, Okawa’s live-in girlfriend Kaede and the pair's old friend Kyoko get roped into joining them. Soon, the four head off on a trip together with the goal of sharing sukiyaki by the sea.
Through round after round of extensive plastic surgery and vigorous maintenance, Ririko has become the absolute manifestation of beauty, and becomes a wildly successful model, actress, and singer. However, soon, her body, unable to withstand the burdens of surgery, begins to crumble, and along with it so does her mind, as she plummets towards a frightening and inevitable end.
Having abandoned modern civilization, Ryoichi lives an isolated, self-sufficient life on a snow-covered mountain and sends mail bombs to the CEOs of corporations and TV networks. One day, he encounters a mysterious creature in the forest. That night, his older brother, who had committed suicide, appears before him at his cabin. The apparition takes Ryoichi beyond a door, where Ryoichi learns the truth about his family.
Set after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, all 14-year-old Sumida Yuichi wants to become is a regular boy and live a decent life. His environment though repeatedly drags him into the mud. He runs his parent's rental boat business, which is located next to a nondescript lake. His mother frequently comes home with different men and soon she leaves him entirely. His father only comes around looking for money. Chazawa Keiko is a classmate of Sumida Yuichi. She harbors a severe crush on Yuichi. Keiko's home life isn't much better than Yuichi's. Her mother builds a gallows with a noose in place for Keiko to take her own life. Her mother believes her life would be better off without Keiko. Under these circumstances, Keiko pays a visit to Yuichi's home. A group of people are lingering nearby who live in makeshift tents on the property. Keiko tries to befriend Yuichi, but she is berated and even physically assaulted. She doesn't get deterred though and sticks around.
"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 ...
Former high school teacher Kazuo Hatano (Toru Nakamura) reunites 12 years later with Masako Tezuka (Manami Konishi). Masako Tezuka was his former high school student whom he married after her graduation. Their marriage became a scandal & the couple divorced ...
Men and one woman have drifted to an uninhabited island. The only woman will try to survive by taking advantage of her own sexual attractiveness.
After Japan's defeat in WWII, "Pandora no hako" follows a young man named Risuke (Shota Sometani) who has contracted tuberculosis. He travels to the countryside to a unique nursing facility to receive treatment for his disease. At the sanatorium all the patients and nurses go by nicknames and Risuke decides to reinvent himself as Hibari. During his stay, Hibari develops realationships with other patients and nurses. After Hibari's friend Tsuikushi (Yosuke Kubozuka) gets discharged from the nursing facility, Hibari writes to him about his relationships with Dakesang (Mieko Kawakami) the chief nurse and Mabo (Riisa Naka) another nurse that is bright and seems to like him.
Kohei Miyazaki (Naoto Takenaka), a former railroad worker, has become obsessed with discovering the ancient country of Yamataikoku. His obsession sprouted from a day when he discovered ancient ceramics while repairing railroad tracks. Now completely blind, Kohei relies on his wife (Sayuri Yoshinaga) to guide him through the country and read the maps in their pursuit of Yamataikoku.
Ichi is a blind entertainer that travels the countryside with her traditional Japanese guitar and walking stick. She’s in search for the kind man that brought her up as a child, but because of her beauty she encounters problems every step of the way. Fortunately for Ichi, she is also a gifted swordswoman and carries a lethal blade within her walking stick.
In 1943, as Japan's WWII effort falters, a vice-admiral proposes training squadrons of "volunteer" flyers to crash their armed planes into Allied warships. Yarn follows the lives of kamikaze pilots, as remembered by an aging Kyushu restaurateur who cherishes their memory. Honoring the dead and multiple military anthems may stir the soul of some Japanese, but elsewhere auds will make a one-way trip for exits. Battle scenes are well-executed and script delivers some memorable scenes, but overall competent helming and thesping are powerless over writer-cum-Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishiara's repetitive storytelling. A post-war postscript adds considerable length to an already over-extended narrative. Tech credits are good quality.
Oshima wakes up in the middle of a desert in South America with no memory. A woman named Coco is lying beside him. Coco tells Oshima that he was originally planning on crossing the desert with his girlfriend May to get to Snow Mountain, but May suddenly disappeared, leaving him at bay. Coco helped him out by chance, and now they're heading to Snow Mountain together.Perhaps May is already there...
When Tetsuya (Yosuke Kubozuka) was 10-years-old he met Emi (Meisa Kuroki), who suffered from a heart disease. In hopes to cure Emi's condition, Tetsuya decided to become a doctor. Following through on his dreams, Tetsuya is now a doctor and is about to marry Emi. One day though, Tetsuya hears about Don (Edison Chen). Tetsuya remembers the times he spent with Emi and Don as a child and also feels insecure about Don.
Shiro Amasuka, dead leader of the Shimbara Revolt is resurrected from hell with the desire of overthrowing the shogunate for killing his companions. To do this , he resurrects an army of living dead swordsmen. Between him and his goal, only Yagyu Jubei stands...
It's January 7, just after the New Year begins. Make up classes are being held for students that aren't keeping up with their daily studies; anxious students are there to discuss their exams; and club activities are still in progress. Asami Akio, a teacher, finds himself at the gate of the school with Misaki Yuka, a woman he met long ago and had lost contact with. Before he can explain their disconnect, a group shudders as an earthquakes rocks the school. When it subsides... nothing is the same.
As children, the introverted Smile was being bullied by a gang of kids until the brash Peco comes by and chases all of them them away. Peco then takes Smile under his wings and teaches him how to play the game of ping pong. From there a life long best friend relationship comes into existence between these two polar opposite kids. Fast forward a decade later, these two best friends try to deal with their own inner turmoils, as they move further and further into the regional ping pong tournament. Peco has to overcome a knee injury while trying to rediscover the fun aspects of the game of Ping Pong. Meanwhile, Smile now seems to have gained the killer instinct by going through a rigorous training regiment instilled by his high school coach. As the tournament progresses it becomes more likely that these two best friends will face off against each in the final match.
A young man named Teru, mentally altered by a childhood injury, runs a laundry and falls for Mizue, a lonely young woman who suffers from kleptomania. One day Mizue left one of her dresses behind in the machine that was stained with blood from her failed suicide attempt. Teru decides to find Mizue in order to return the dress, after having tried to desperately to wash off the blood stain. Soon thereafter Teru's grandmother dies, and her creditors repossess the home in which Teru was living in. The young couple turn to Sally for help. Sally is a caring man who trains pigeons for a living. Then one day, Sally leaves everything he owns to Teru and Mizue. They start a new life. Teru proposes to Mizue, but she refuses him. The more she is assured of Teru's pure heart, the more she feels she doesn't deserve it. Full of inner turmoil, Mizue begins shoplifting again.
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.
Yamaguchi, Ichikawa and Kosuge dress in white military-style uniforms to "clean" the streets of Shibuya from bad elements. After rightist gang boss, Aota takes an interest in the three, the boys gradually become influenced by him, but start to go their different ways.
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.
When corporate executives are blackmailed into public displays of nudity on the busy streets of Shinjuku, the big guns are called out to locate "Oboreru Sakana". The "big guns" are a misfit duo of ethically questionable characters who must infiltrate a gay nightclub and "fit in" while they search for clues. What ensues is both hilarious and action-packed. Oboreru Sakana is a rather ambitious and often hilarious contemporary crime thriller. Its narrative swings from the grisly to the humorous and pulls in as many pop culture elements as it can manage.
Strawberry on the Shortcake is a Japanese romance television drama series which stars Hideaki Takizawa and Kyoko Fukada and aired on TBS in 2001. It was written by Shinji Nojima, and directed by Nobuhiro Doi and Hiroshi Matsubara.
Kubozuka plays Araki Ryunosuke who starts working at a host club called "club NO.1" to pay his debt.
A young girl is hospitalized. When an ultrasound examination reveals that something is moving inside her, a surgeon operates. The surprised surgical staff find themselves face-to-face with--not a baby--the disembodied head of a beautiful girl. Her name is Tomie, and she is in the process of regenerating herself. Though you may try, Tomie cannot be killed. She will return to seduce and to kill. Infected with Tomie's blood, the surgeon disappears, leaving his daughter, Yumi, to try to discover Tomie's identity and to solve the mystery of her father's disappearance.
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.
This comedy-romance is about the arranged marriage between an ex-cabin attendant suffering from the pain of lost love, and an elite employee of a trading company. After resigning from her job as a cabin attendant to get married, Setsuko’s would-be fiancé runs off. Following this tragedy, Setsuko spends her days chain-smoking and drinking heavily to escape her broken heart. Meanwhile, Kotaro, an employee of a big trading company, is offered an assignment in Milan. Although Kotaro wanted the job, he had one problem: the conditions state that he needs a wife. Hastily, a date is set for the two to meet for a potential arranged marriage. Despite the fact that neither of them is looking forward to the meeting, fate has a way of bringing two doubtful souls together
ATHENA (アテナ) is a live action drama series based on Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life game originally broadcasted from April 7, 1998 to June 30, 1998 on TV Tokyo.[1] The series was starred Kei Ishibashi as Athena. A VHS collection including unreleased scenes was released in 6 volumes on Japan. The opening theme Lavender Dream (ラベンダドリーム), is performed by Yuki Ishii.
An unhappy housewife regains her passion for life by taking over a failing bath house.
Eikichi Onizuka, former gang leader, becomes a teacher of a class of students who torment their teachers and fellow students. Of course they do not do this out of whim, they have their reasons. Onizuka is charged by the chairlady to help these troubled students into a more healthy adulthood, and help rehabilitate the teachers in the process as well.
Midori is a coming-of-age drama set amongst the heady high school world of peer rivalry and sexual awakening, featuring an emotionally-detached high-school girl who, her parents dead, lives with her brother and his overprotective wife. After being sent out of class due to a dizzy spell, she becomes acquainted with Shun, a boy in the class below, in the school sanatorium. As the two begin feigning illness together on a regular basis, their uncomfortable flirtations soon blossom into a full sexual relationship.
A young man who showed little promise while a high school student becomes a master detective, just like his grandfather.
A university student has the usual dreams and aspirations. It turns out to be a pipe dream and so she murders her own flesh and blood. The usual media heads seek an answer in order to sell copy. A psychologist is writing a book about the character and incident. Her research for the subject matter turn the psychologist inward and things come out of the shadows that perhaps are better left buried deep in the shadows of the psyche.
