Yutaka Matsushige

Seiji Kamiya, a pottery craftsman who lives alone in a mountain village, temporarily returns to Japan with his fiancée, Nadia, who has been assigned to work in Algeria. Seiji opposes Satoru, who declares that Seiji should quit the company after marrying and Satoru should take over the pottery business. On the other hand, Marcos, a young Brazilian resident in Japan who lives in an apartment complex in the neighboring town to where Seiji lives, sees Seiji, who helped him when he was being chased and in whom Marcos sees the image of his late father, and he becomes interested in pottery work. Meanwhile, a tragedy strikes Satoru and Nadia, who has returned to Algeria.

The president of an IT company is found dead. The cause of death is believed to be an overdose of medication for a chronic illness, but the possibility of murder emerges since potassium and other substances were found in the body. Ogawa, unfamiliar with the investigation, asks for help from Okawa, a former detective who now works for the police department. The "large-and-small duo", who are uneven in appearance and personality, take on the challenge of getting to the bottom of a difficult case.

Sawada Kyoka is a yoga instructor with a rough personality and constantly fights with her father after her mother passed away. Due to having to spend the time taking care of her father, Kyoka doesn't have much time for herself and has very little desire to get married. Meanwhile, Sawada Rintaro is Kyoka's father and works as a freelance lexicographer. After the passing of his wife, Rintaro hasn't been living well which frustrates Kyoka. One day, Rintaro decides to find his second life partner and wants to start a "double marriage life" with Kyoka.

6.4/10

Middle-aged Fumi lives a quiet seaside life, she spends her days working at a small local factory, spending time with her neighbor’s son, and attending her sober-lifestyle group. One night while driving home her car is struck by a small meteorite, the odds of which are 100 million to 1. Seeing this as a good omen, Fumi decides she should be open to new possibilities in her life, even perhaps romance…

6/10

Two men working in a suburban scrap factory. A society in which parts that are no longer usable are easily replaced and continue to rotate as if nothing had happened. Evil gives birth to evil, lies are overlaid on lies, and weak ones hit even weaker ones. How should we live in this ruthless world? Faced with such an unanswered question head-on, swallowing all the contradictions and confrontations that are unevenly distributed, yet the possibility of salvation and the guidepost for liberation are out of the standard. The movie you are looking for on the scale of is born. Suspense full of speed and excitement, unpredictable angry development, stubborn lyricism and rugged humor in the meantime-giving the viewer a different dimension of horizon while giving a surprise similar to dizziness A terrifying monster movie to take away, that is this "Running the Night".

Aoba Ippei, a police officer in the Police Dog Section of the Forensics Division, and his police dog buddy, Oliver, take on a series of inexplicable cases. As they try to solve the cases, they find themselves in the midst of various conflicting incidents...

Makoto Kanzaki is a PR man at a university. He is swept up in a series of scandals and is driven into a corner as he tries to make temporary solutions. A satirical comedy about modern society depicting the contradictions of modern society and the sorrows of its people with black humor.

Masumi Sendo (Yutaka Matsushige) is a high school teacher who has grown apart from his only son and lives a lonely life. He used to teach his students in the old-fashioned, passionate way, but he feels frustrated every day that it does not work with today's dry children. Then one day, Sendo suddenly receives news of his son's accident and rushes to his hospital room. He finds his son Katsuki (Umi Inowaki) lying in a vegetative state in front of him.

Risa Onodera, played by Miyazaki, had a groom runaway on the wedding day four years ago. Her father, Shusaku (Matsushige) and her mother, Machiko (Matsuzaka), built a large two-family house to live with their daughter and her new family. One day, Risa says that she has been proposed to, Shusaku is surprised to see that face. This is because Kotaro (Nagayama) was a former subordinate of his workplace and was now his boss. Although he wants to congratulate his daughter's marriage, Shusaku wonders if he can live with his boss. Where is the love between Risa and Kotaro? Can the two get married? Can Risa and Kotaro, Shusaku and Machiko become a family?

A high school teacher, struggling to keep up with today's youth and estranged from his only son, receives the news about a terrible accident that left his son in a coma. Wanting to know more about his son's life, he finds out that he's been working as a producer for a new underground idol group who are now left without a guiding hand.

College student Sota picks up a cassette tape left behind by musician Aki when he died a year ago. When the tape is played back, Aki takes over Sota's body for just 30 minutes. They share the same body and rush to reunite a band that split up and bring a smile to Aki's girlfriend Kana's face.

7.8/10

A cat who dreams of reuniting with its owner & works as a housekeeper to save money.

A couple are perfectly happy to not breed and procreate. Thus their life is a content and unselfish one. He writes and admires his wife. However, she informs him that she wants a child. They try and try, but alas are not successful. It is time to visit a physician to unlock the fertility riddle. Well, he is the culprit it seems

4.3/10

A genius and reckless poet and a hard working musician are asked by the CEO of a children literature magazine to write a war song to send children into the battlefield.

6.2/10

Traces Japan’s history with the Olympic games and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics for viewers before Tokyo hosts the event again in 2020. The first half tells the story of marathon runner Kanakuri Shiso, who became one of the first Japanese nationals to participate in the Olympics in Stockholm in 1912. The second half features Tabata Masaji, the coach who laid the foundations of Japanese swimming and helped bring the games to Tokyo for the first time in 1964.

4.7/10

Shunnosuke Katagiri is a samurai and a bookworm. He receives a mission to help a daimyo move. With the assistance of Genemon Takamura and Oran, Shunnosuke Katagiri carries out his mission.

6.2/10

Tsugumi, who works at an interior design firm, has an unexpected encounter with her first love from high school, Itsuki, at a dinner with her client’s whole comp any, an architectural firm. Seeing Itsuki, who is a registered architect with a first-class license and is quite charming, brings back the faint memories from high school. In the middle of dinner, he quietly slips away and begins to head home, getting into a wheelchair. “You didn’t know? Itsuki was in an accident in college, and he can’t walk.” Tsugumi, her pulse racing, takes a step back and thinks to herself, “I can’t love someone in a wheelchair. It’s just not possible to date someone like that.” But when she accepts the reality of the situation and interacts with Itsuki, who struggles but fights to survive each day, she becomes overwhelmed with emotions that she has kept since her youth.

6.9/10

Kenji Amo is a 2nd generation Japanese-American. He was born in America, but went to school in Japan. He returned to America to study at UCLA. Now, Kenji Amo works as a reporter for a newspaper in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles. Charlie Tamiya also studied at UCLA with Kenji Amo. Charlie Tamiya has feeling for Nagiko who works with Kenji Amo at the same newspaper company. Knowing that, Kenji Amo holds complicated feelings. At this time, Nagiko's friend Emi Hatanaka asks Kenji Amo to marry her. He accepts her proposal, but the Pacific War begins. Circumstances surrounding Kenji Amo changes.

2.8/10

Suspicions fall on politician Tagane Seizo over the sale of nationally owned land to a social welfare service corporation back in 2010. Seizo Tagane is then given immunity for his testimony, but people become furious that he was not going to be prosecuted. A committee of prosecutors meets and concludes that Seizo Tagane should be prosecuted. An outstanding lawyer Yui Hitotsugi takes the prosecutor's position in the case with the help of the prosecutor Tachibana.

Mikoto Misumi is a pathologist at UDI (Unnatural Death Investigation) Lab. She can't stand neglecting unnatural deaths and believes there must be a truth behind the deaths. Team members that work with her are autopsy doctor Kai Nakado, recorder Rokuro Kube, clinical test technologist Yuko Shoji and UDI director Yasuo Kamikura. They work on unnatural death cases and try to reveal the truth behind the deaths.

8.3/10

For Yasuko every day is a challenge. Due to her mental illness and hypersomnia, simple things like household chores and holding a job seem impossible. Added to the mix is an indifferent, almost distant boyfriend and an ex-girlfriend with plans to win him back.

6.7/10

When Suei was little, his mother had an affair with a young man who lived next door. Suei's mother and the young man killed themselves by using dynamite. After Suei graduated from high school, he worked at a factory before quitting his job. He then went to Tokyo and began working in the erotic magazine industry. Suei eventually became the chief editor of a famous erotic magazine in the 1980's.

6.5/10

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.

6.5/10

Kazu works at “Funiculi Funicula" cafe. There is a mysterious rumour that if a customer takes a specific seat at the cafe, that customer can travel back to a time of their choice.

6.9/10

Ôtomo gets involved with new Yakuza battles after he comes back the Yakuza society.

6.2/10
6%

Takada (Ryuhei Matsuda) receives a request to find a missing woman. The missing woman is university student Reiko (Atsuko Maeda). While tracking Reiko down, Private Detective (Yo Oizumi) and Takada (Ryuhei Matsuda) meet Mari (Keiko Kitagawa), the owner of a model agency. They get involved in a big incident.

5.7/10

One late night in June 1942, Sakuma Seitaro dangles from the frame of a skylight in an isolation cell in Akita Prison. He forces open the glass window and breaks out of jail. This crime even reaches the ears of Urata Susumu, the chief warden of Kosuge Prison in Tokyo. Urata had been in charge of those sentenced to life in the prison until last year. Although Sakuma is a dangerous person who had also broken out of jail in Aomori, he submits to Urata who is the only person who had treated him kindly in the past. However, three months after escaping from jail, Sakuma shows up at Urata’s house. He has come to complain about the inhumane Akita prison officers. But he is locked up again after Urata notifies the police during an unguarded moment. A year later, Sakuma is sent to Abashiri Prison and Urata is also ordered to transfer as the prison’s chief warden.

8.3/10
6%

A man identifies himself as “Kizoku” ("Aristocrat") and works as a private detective for a hobby. Nobody knows his age, address or anything about his family. The actual deductions and investigations are carried out by his employees including his butler, maid and chauffeur. He only has a good time talking to the women involved in the cases. Meanwhile, Aika Takatoku works as a private detective. She competes with the Aristocrat Detective to solve cases.

6.8/10

Detective Ryoko Kozuki receives a demotion after having an affair with a superior. She succeeds in arresting a rapist in an undercover operation that puts her at risk. Her achievement immediately becomes the talk of the precinct, but no one approaches her because of her past. Ryoko is determined to bring criminals to justice. She takes on “The Prime Ministerial Candidate Snipe Case” which took place 15 years earlier.

A drama series based on the novel "Totto Channeru" by famed Japanese actress Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.

8.1/10

The morning variety show, a staple of television around the world, offers news and entertainment but TV host Shingo didn’t expect to be himself the source of the news and entertainment.

5.8/10

When people finish their day and hurry home, his day starts. His diner is open from midnight to seven in the morning. Pork, miso soup combo, beer, sake and shochu is all that he has on his menu. Nevertheless, he makes whatever his customers request as long as he has the ingredients for it.

7.4/10

Kokoro Kurosawa used to be a contender for the Olympic Judo Team, but she had to give up on her dream due to an injury. In the end, she ends up working at weekly manga magazine "Vibes." The publishing industry is going through a turbulent time due to ebooks. Members of the editorial department struggle to come up with ways to sell more manga books. She learns about editing from her senior editors and becomes fascinated with the edition world, interacting with manga writers, and discovering new manga artists. But what surprises her the most is that in a competitive world such as manga publishing, not all dreams come true, and even when they do, they come with a price...

8.1/10

Edawakare, the driver of the Time Taxi that allows passengers to return to their life's turning points, visits a hot spring this time around. An array of guests at the inn are fraught with troubles in their life and become passengers of the Time Taxi. And somehow all the clients are actually part of a bigger picture?!

Atsuto was abandoned by his mother when he was young. He now works in the lost and found department at the Hoshigaoka Station. He spends his days imagining about the owner of the lost item, how the item became lost and found. One day, Atsuto learns that his mother committed suicide. His life begins to move ...

5.4/10

A series of grotesque murder cases takes place on rainy days. Detective Hisashi Sawamura (Shun Oguri) works to catch the murderer like he has done with past cases, but he soon realizes the murderer's next target is his wife and son. A man in a frog mask is a suspect.

6.1/10
4%

Light Yagami is an ordinary university student. One day, he receives a death note which changes his life. The death note awakens his warped sense of justice and genius. He becomes murderer Kira and punishes criminals. L is a well known private detective. L appears in front of Light Yagami. L defines Kira as evil and decides to catch Kira. Then N, who has a beautiful appearance but dangerous existence, appears.

7.1/10

In Tokyo in the year 2030, 27-year-old Itakura Kakeru lives in a shared apartment. He is suddenly approached by Ogiwara Misae, his housemate three years his senior, about wanting his help to have a child. Kakeru has never even considered having a family before. But as he searches for an answer for Misae, he comes face to face with his parents, grandparents and younger sister who went their separate ways 15 years ago, and starts to consider what family is. And then, Kakeru gives more than a passing thought to the significance of being connected to someone.

Due to the economic recession, the orchestra is shut down. The members hear later that the orchestra will be reformed. Only some of the members, who have not yet been rehired, gather for the orchestra. For the first time since they disbanded the orchestra plays together, but they sound horrible. At that time, the conductor Tetsusaburo Tendou appears in front of them.

6.9/10

Prosecutor Kohei Kuryu (Takuya Kimura) takes charge of a case with a foreign embassy possessing the key to solve the case. Due to the extraterritoriality involving the case, the investigation has not gone anywhere. A crisis then ensues. Kohei Kuryu and his office attempt to extract the truth behind the wall of the embassy.

3.6/10

The time: 1814. The place: Edo, now known as Tokyo. A much accomplished artist of his time and now in his mid-fifties, Tetsuzo can boast clients from all over Japan, and tirelessly works in the garbage-loaded chaos of his house-atelier. He spends his days creating astounding pieces of art, from a giant-size Bodhidharma portrayed on a 180 square meter-wide sheet of paper, to a pair of sparrows painted on a tiny rice grain. Third of Tetsuzo's four daughters and born out of his second marriage, outspoken 23-year-old O-Ei has inherited her father's talent and stubbornness, and very often she would paint instead of him, though uncredited. Her art is so powerful that sometimes leads to trouble. "We're father and daughter; with two brushes and four chopsticks, I guess we can always manage, in a way or another."

6.7/10
9.3%

Yoriko Yabushita works at a Yokohama research laboratory. She tracks trends in relation to macroeconomics. She is 29-years-old and enthusiastic about her work. She also enjoys efficiency and having a regular life. Although she doesn't excel in social settings with other people, her next goal is getting married and having a baby. Yoriko believes that she marry by the age of 30, because everyone around her did including her late mother. If Yoriko finds a man who fills 24 items listed on her ideal husband list, she will marry him.

7.9/10

31-year-old Urara Iwasaki (Kyoko Fukada) makes an error during her first trial as an attorney which hurts her client. Urara Iwasaki thinks law isn't right for her and she quits her job. She now has a debt of 4 million yen and earns a living by doing part-time work. Meanwhile, Rinka Ebisawa (Shinobu Terajima) is a competent lawyer, but its revealed she used excessive ways in her cases and is dismissed from her law firm and disbarred. She can't work as a lawyer anymore. By chance, Rinka meets Urara.

6.7/10

Relatives gather from afar in wintery Ashibetsu upon the death of patriarch Mitsuo (Shinagawa Toru). A mysterious woman named Nobuko (Tokiwa Takako) suddenly shows up. Her appearance gradually exposes wartime secrets and Mitsuo’s unknown past. Building on his previous film Casting Blossoms to the Sky, Obayashi focuses on the border between life and death and brings to light an untold war story that was hidden within a family.

6.9/10

Shinigami-kun, alias grim reaper #413, is a rookie who pronounces the death of those scheduled to die and brings souls to the nether world. He would appear with the signature phrase “Congratulations! I’m here to call on you” although it is hard to say how this can be a happy occasion, and watch over the dying. To a grim reaper, persuading people attempting to commit suicide and preventing unforeseen deaths is also an important task. But because #413 is new to this grim reaper work, he has a tendency to lean towards humans in his judgments, break the rules of the nether world and get reprimanded by his superior.

6.9/10

Somebody’s brain is living inside of me. Medical thriller based on the novel by Keigo Higashino which has sold over 1,250,000 copies.

8/10

This erotically charged drama from Japanese director Ryuichi Hiroki (Vibrator) traces the intersecting stories of a group of employees and visitors at a notorious "love hotel" in Tokyo's red-light district.

7/10

A somber paranormal thriller that offers an original, exciting variation of the tale of two men with supernatural abilities, locked in a duel to the death. A battle between a man who can control people with a stare, and the only man he cannot control. When their fate cross, the survival battle begins. The two men with inevitable fate, who will survive?

5.5/10

Every night, Master (Kaoru Kobayashi) is busy with customers at the restaurant he runs. He has a worried face, looking at the funerary urn which someone left at his restaurant. His customers also talk about the funerary urn.

7.5/10

Yae no Sakura is a 2013 Japanese television series. It is the 52nd NHK taiga drama. The story focuses on Niijima Yae, who is portrayed by Haruka Ayase.

6.9/10

This drama follows the staff of an Italian restaurant and their everyday struggles. “Roccabianca” is a famous and popular Italian restaurant, but their head chef and owner Tatsumi suddenly collapses and the restaurant loses its unique flavor. The number of customers rapidly declines, but the owner’s daughter and deputy manager Saori happens to find another chef named Ezaki through an online job market who learned cooking at the same place her father did. Ezaki becomes the new head chef of this restaurant and while nobody can deny that he is a gifted chef, it’s his extreme rationalism that doesn’t exactly go well with the restaurants attempt to save its traditional flavor.

7.7/10

Yukichi Matsumoto's 2013 stage adaptation of Shuji Terayama's "Lemmings". Two cooks share a room, one of which talks with his mother's head: it lives beneath their tatami mats. On the other side of their room's wall, lives a wife who desperately cares for her feverish husband. As more and more walls are tore down movie studios, hospitals and prisons are revealed, destroying the physical boundaries between their boarding house and the city.

Hitoshi Nagano (Kazuya Kamenashi), who works at an electronics store, picks up a cellphone left behind by a customer and goes about a scam. He calls the person's mother and pretends to be her son. He then gets the mother to transfer money to his bank account. Soon, Hitoshi gets a lot more than he bargained for. (Source: Asianwiki)

6/10

Koichi and Atsumi are lovers who have known each other all their lives. A year ago, however, a suicide attempt by Atsumi left her in a coma. Through 'sensing', a type of neurosurgical procedure allowing contact with the intentional aspect of a comatose patient's mind, Koishi tries to find out why Atsumi tried to kill herself, and to bring her back to consciousness. He enters her subconscious, and is told to find a picture of a plesiosaur she drew when she was a child. It turns out that a childhood incident buried in their past will bring their minds together.

5.7/10
5.7%

A friend of the detective has been is murdered. During the investigation, he comes across a source which tells him that his friend was murdered for involvement with the dark side of the political world. On top of that, a woman approaches the detective with a request.

6.2/10

"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.

8.4/10

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.

6.8/10
4.7%

Centered around typical Japanese food, a solitary salesman travelling through the country for business purposes, eats at its various establishments and experiences the various delicacies of Japanese cuisine.

7.9/10

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...

6.7/10

With the progress made in forensic science, the number of cases of arrested criminals proven innocent because of new DNA tests have been increasing. The police always expect to swiftly solve cases. As crime scene detectives try to measure up to those expectations, they occasionally jump to wrong conclusions. Thus, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police's First Investigative Division set up the Evidence Verification Section and gave it the important task of validating cases that have been closed within a limited time in order to prevent wrongful convictions from happening as a result of out of control investigators at crime scenes. But its actual job is to correct typographical errors and omissions and stamp investigation reports with the words 'verification completed', and then send it over to public prosecutors. The members of the section headed by a veteran detective who worked his way up and has lost passion for his work, are a little idiosyncratic and somewhat difficult. It is merely a titular section meant to call the attention of the public to the fairness of the police. Deputy Inspector Shinkai Akira (Mizuki Arisa), a career elite who has been sidelined as a result of some incident, is assigned to be the new leader of the Evidence Verification Section. A sharp-minded female who gives the impression of an eccentric person, Akira breaks away from the bureaucratic work and genuinely starts to validate evidence, demonstrating her ability to take action and sense of justice in order to rally her disillusioned subordinates. Discovering new facts from small doubts in the reports, she overturns cases that should have been solved and finds the true criminals. -- Jdrama Weblog

After she drives drunk and hits an old woman, a famous novelist is threatened with a law suit by the woman's son... unless she lets him publish his manuscript under his name.

A woman named Kazuko (Kimura) who was guilty of a “serious crime” in the past, along with three of her friends. Those friends suddenly begin to die one by one. Kazuko learns that one of those deaths is somehow connected to Mamoru (Nakamura Aoi), her younger brother from whom she has been separated ever since their father disappeared 15 years earlier. Although Mamoru knows nothing of his sister, Kazuko is determined to find the killer in order to protect Mamoru and herself.

In the Susukino red light district of Sapporo, a private detective (Yo Oizumi) drinks alcohol with his driver Takada (Ryuhei Matsuda) in his favourite bar. There he receives a phone call from a woman who identifies herself as Kyoko Kondo. The woman asks the detective to complete a simple task. The detective, having an excellent sense for danger, thinks the work is easy and accepts the case. The next day he begins the investigation.

6.4/10

Yusaku Hayakawa dreams of becoming a detective, but works as a trainer for police dogs. When Yusaku gets an albino shepherd named Shiro, he forms a special bond with him. Everyone says that Shiro does not have the abilities to become a police dog, but Yusaku believes in him and trains him. When a terrorist act occurs, Shiro gets the chance to show what he has learned.

5.9/10

The story begins with the disappearance of a school bus and four high school girls. Still unsolved three years later, the case gets revived when one of the girls reappears. Odagiri plays a sharp national investigator searching for the truth behind the incident, which leads back to a seemingly peaceful town.

7.8/10

Dr Toma, a skilled surgeon, starts work at a regional hospital in Japan. After performing an operation to remove a patient’s liver cancer, something that normally would not be done at this hospital, he quickly gains a very good reputation amongst the town’s people. Some of his colleagues become so jealous they are resentful and waiting patiently for the perfect opportunity to crucify him. Soon they get their chance as Dr Toma considers performing a controversial operation…

6.7/10

Taiga is a struggling second-generation actor who has developed a complex due to his father, a famous actor in his time. Most of the time, Taiga only gets to appear in variety shows. One day when his friend brings him out skydiving, a big wind drags him away from the dropping point and he gets stuck in a tree. A beautiful woman, Shiori, rescues him. Shiori is a cheerful woman who laughs away all of her worries. She's exactly the opposite of Taiga...

7.6/10

After Detective Shunsaku Aoshima is promoted to section chief he has the daunting task of dealing with eight cases at the same time, which includes a murder case, bomb threat, and a bus hijacking. Complications also arise between Detective Aoshima and his juniors.

5.5/10

Sae (Yui Aragaki) is a high school student who is studying hard for her college entrance exams. She lost her father when she was very young and so lives with her mother Ryoko (Hiroko Yakushimaru) in Hokkaido, Japan. Her father Kemimichi (Arata) once planted a dogwood tree in their garden after he found out he had a terminal disease and could not watch Sae grow up. She hopes to enter a university in Tokyo. She then meets Kouhei (Toma Ikuta), who attends a specialized high school teaching fishery. He hopes to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather as a fisherman. These two young people meet and have a long distance relationship. Although their love is strong it does not last. 10 years later these two people have a miracle ...

6.9/10

Genji and his victorious G.P.S. alliance find themselves facing down a new challenge by the students of Hosen Academy, feared by everyone as 'The Army of Killers.' The two schools, in fact, have a history of bad blood between them. And the simmering embers of hatred are about to flare up again, burning away any last remnants of the truce they had so rigorously observed until now.

7.3/10

Iki Tadashi is a military leader named who was captured by the Soviets during World War II. Treated as a war criminal, he was sentenced to many years of labor in a harsh Siberian detention camp. After 11 years of imprisonment, he is released. He returns to Japan and begins readjusting to life as a civilian, rejecting an offer from his former colleague to work on a defense project. Tadashi has decided to never involve himself in war again, much to the joy of his family. Instead, he attempts to set off on a new path working at a major trading company. --Tokyograph

8.4/10

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.

7.3/10

After being forced to resign from her publishing company job when her magazine goes out of circulation, office worker Haname Jinchoge (Kumiko Aso) is given the name of her real father-Noburo Jinchoge when her mother (Keiko Matsuzaka) falls into a coma after nearly drowning in a pond while searching for kappa. Unsure if Noburo (Morio Kazama) is her father, Haname decides to visit him but tells him that she is a distant relative, he happens to be the shopkeeper at an odd antiquities shop called Light Bulb Co., working for her father is a punk rocker named Gas (Ryo Kase).

7/10

Set in a small restaurant in the corner of a shopping district. The unusual eatery is only open after midnight, and its standard menu consists of just a single choice. However, the customers still come for the amusing chatter and the proprietor's willingness to cook any dish that they request. This drama depicts the lives of the restaurant's patrons, including a yakuza, an unsuccessful actor, a group of office ladies, a newspaper delivery boy, and a stripper.

8.7/10

The drama is based on a true story of Yamaguchi Hayato (25), a young man who learns he has a rare illness known as CIDP, which affects the nervous system. He begins to lose the functioning of his limbs, but he is determined to fight the illness with the support of his wife and his 2-year-old daughter, Myu-chan.

7.6/10

In an alternate version of 1949 Japan in which World War II never happened, the Japanese capital of Teito is home to both an ultra rich upper class and the dirt poor masses. The city is thrown into a state of panic when a phantom thief called “The Kaijin (Fiend) with 20 Faces” (K-20 for short) begins to use his mysterious abilities to steal from the rich and give to the poor. One day a circus acrobat named Heikichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is framed for K-20’s crimes and becomes determined to clear his name. He teams up with K-20’s next target, a wealthy duchess named Yoko Hashiba (Takako Matsu) and her detective fiancé (Toru Nakamura), to take K-20 down once and for all.

6.6/10

The series depicts the relationships and lives of a group of five art school students. This is a live-action television drama based on the manga and anime series with the same name.

7.5/10

Tokyo! is an anthology of three short films by Gondry (France), Carax (France) and Bong (Korea), each of whom offers an imaginative and trans-/super- natural glimpse into the Tokyo Megapolis.

7.1/10
7.6%

Bloody Monday is a Japanese manga series written by Ryumon Ryo and illustrated by Megumi Koji. The series had been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine by Kodansha from April 2007 to May 2009, with individual chapters collected into eleven tankōbon volume as of May 15, 2009, and a total of 96 chapters altogether. The manga has also been adapted into a drama series, which aired on October 11, 2008, starring Haruma Miura. The second season of the manga began in Weekly Shōnen Magazine number 46 released on October 14, 2009, and the second season of the drama adaption began airing on January 23, 2010. Kodansha's USA division will release the first volume in June 2011.

7.2/10

The movie revolves around Mitsuba, who studies traditional art of rakugo. Rakugo is a form of comical story telling, sometimes referred to as sit-down comedy. Even though Mitsuba is mediocre at best, he ends up teaching three students.

6.9/10

Erika Ichinose, a clinical psychologist, is recruited by the National Police Agency in an attempt to stay one step ahead of a bomb terrorist.

4.4/10

A missed confession of love haunts a young man on his best girl friend's wedding day. Sudden appearance of a mysterious Angel enables him to go back in time to regain the love of his life. Will he succeed? A romantic comedy of young Ken who missed a chance to confess his love in the past and ended up attending the wedding of his childhood love. Deep with regret as he helplessly watches the wedding party proceed, suddenly time stops and an Angel appears asking him whether he would like to just start over. Astounded as he is, Ken asks to do so, thereby embarking on a journey that will supposedly change everything. All does not go well however, as fate seems to be a resilient force that refuses to change...

8.2/10

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.

6.2/10

Leading a lazy life, Fumiya has been a university student for 8 years and owes money to loan sharks. One day, a man named Fukuhara comes to collect the loan, which Fumiya cannot pay. So Fukuhara makes a proposition: He will cancel the debt as long as Fumiya agrees to walk with him across Tokyo to the police station of Kasumigaseki, where he intends to turn himself in for a crime he deeply regrets. Not having much choice, Fumiya accepts the deal. Thus begins their journey which will lead them to various unusual encounters, most of all with themselves.

7.4/10

Set in an old prestigious ryotei (Japanese-style restaurant) in a small town in the center of Tokyo, a young itamae (cook for Japanese dishes) struggles his life, love and work while the long-lasted ryotei and the beloved old town face the change to survive the time. This heartwarming drama shows the intimate relationship of the community that has been lost nowadays, asks what the most important things in your life is, and tells how difficult it is to make a decision. The story is told in the form of a letter from him to his unknown father with lots of humor and love.

8/10

A tattoo changes a woman. A tattoo changes a man. Tattoo is everything ... Asami, a woman who breaks into an affair with a man who has a wife the name is Ninomiya, a man who leaves the house apart from his wife and is inviting a self-development seminar to live today. The two who atoned for the past and asked for salvation met by chance. Asami, who decided to carve a tattoo by her own choice, entrusts her skin to a genius skin carver, Kokari. Eventually, a splendid woman's tattoo leaps on her back, which dramatically changes herself. Tattoo greatly changes Ninomiya's way of life and captivates the sculpture that dreams of the completion of tattoos. Eventually, the fate of men and women who were tossed by tattoos began to fluctuate greatly.

Heartwarming human drama about a former tap dancer who trades in his tap shoes to woo a figure skating instructor. But by a twist of fate, he finds himself coaching a local ice hockey team of hapless youths and leading them to a championship

7.4/10

Several hundred years after the Battle of Dannoura, the Genji and Heike clans face off again in a poor mountain town with a buried treasure legend. A revolver-wielding stranger, a lone gunman, burdened with emotional scars and blessed with incredible skill, drifts into town and crosses paths with two warring clans who are both on the hunt for a hidden treasure in a remote western town. Knowing his services are valuable to either side, he offers himself to the clan who will offer up the largest share of the wealth. Yoshitsune commands his Genji gang in white while Kiyomori leads his Heike gang in red. Expectations collide as the key players wonder which gang the gunman will join. Dirty tricks, betrayal, desire and finally, love, get jumbled together, as the situation erupts into a showdown.

6.2/10
5.6%

A freelance writer (Iseya Yusuke) is given a bizarre assignment by the sexy editor of "Black Book Monthly" (Mizuno Miki): find a bug with the power to bring humans back from the dead, in order to report on the afterlife. With his trusty companion Endo (Matsuo Suzuki) in tow, he sets off on a quest for the elusive insect and along the way meets the mysterious Sayoko (Kikuchi), a former dominatrix and habitual wrist-cutter who delights in rubbing wasabi into her wounds.

6/10

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.

7.1/10

A diver on the university team must decide which of her two childhood friends she loves, and they're both on the swim team. High school diver Ami (Masami Nagasawa) and swimmer Keisuke (Mokomichi Hayami) don't exactly get along. Their parents run rival sweets shops and Ami is long-time friends, and maybe more, with Keisuke's freestyle rival Hiroki (Tsuyoshi Abe). Over time, however, hostile words give way to hesitant attraction, leaving Ami torn between Keisuke and Hiroki. With the national championship coming up, the young swimmers are competing for more than the title, but also their hearts.

5.9/10

Takashi, an unemployed young man, is entrusted with a "catch ball shop" by a stranger he meets in the park. While accepting people's feelings through catch ball, Takashi himself remembers the important things that he had forgotten.

The second feature from female director Shindo Kaze (Love/Juice), Princess in an Iron Helmet (a.k.a. Korogare! Tamako) is a bright and colorful youth film about a quirky young woman's reluctant coming-of-age journey. Tamako (Yamada Maiko) is 20 years old, lives at home with her mother (Kishimoto Kayoko) and teenaged brother, and simply refuses to grow up. Ever since her father (Naoto Takenaka) left the family, she's stopped trusting people, and now lounges around in her own small, claustrophobic world. Wearing an iron helmet whenever she steps outside, she ventures only to her mom's beauty salon, the mechanic shop, and the bakery - the source of her greatest joy in life, sweet buns. Her world is static, insular, and safe, and there's no need to change - that is until her cat runs away, the bakery closes, and her mom falls in love with another man.

6.3/10

Suzume Katagura is an bored housewife, she spends her days doing chores and taking care of her husbands pet turtle. One day she sees an wanted ad for spies, hoping for some excitement she decides to give them a call.

6.6/10

Tamaki's (Iwashita) husband is the head of the Idei clan, based in southern Osaka. As the film opens, punch-permed lieutenant Ginji (Riki Takeuchi) is killed while pumping iron. Following the hit, rumors and recriminations abound, slowly corroding the clan's cohesion. Ginji, it turns out, was mired in debt. After Ginji borrowed a small fortune to build a luxury resort, his bank went belly up and stopped financing the loan. Frantic for funds, he decided as a last resort to rat out his boss who had skimmed five-billion yen from the gang. Soon everyone assumes that Idei did the hit. Convinced that Idei is being framed, Tamaki sets out to find the real killer.

7.9/10

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.

Even though Gennosuke and Oboro are from rival ninja villages, they are secretly in love. At an annual conference with the Lord, it is dictated that a competition--a fight to the death--will take place between the five best shinobi from each village. Gennosuke and Oboro's love is made even more impossible when they each got picked as the leader of the five to represent their respective villages.

6.9/10

A story of Yagyu Jubei, master swordsman from the well-known Yagyu-Shinkage school in the Edo period. Even decades after the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, many were framing plots to topple Tokugawa's political system. The master of Yagyu-Shinkage school, Yagyu Munemori who serves the third Tokugawa shogun Iemitsu is commissioned to keep an eye on Daimyo lords all around Japan. Munemori's eldest son, Jubei starts a stealthy trip to fight against those who engage in secret maneuvers. Enjoy sword fighting actions between Jubei and his rivals.

A Japanese film by Hideyuki Hirayama, Lady Joker is a detective thriller with elements of social commentary on Japanese society that is based on the 1997 bestselling novel by Kaoru Takamura.

6.3/10

***Fushiawase wo Anata ni (We Bring You Misfortune) A woman sees a company called "Fushiawase wo Anata ni" (we bring you misfortune) promoting a new sales concept: giving its clients misfortune to motivate them to seek greater happiness. ***Kuuhaku no Hito (Blank Person) A woman wakes up in her bed every morning not remembering the events of the past night, and finding that someone has moved around the things in her room. ***Jigoku wa Manin (Hell Is Full) As there is no more room in hell, the evil/sinful find they cannot die. ***Kako kara no Nikki (Diary from the Past) A struggling author chances upon a diary which changes his life. ***Aketekure (Open Up!) A woman's husband dies in a car accident, but that same evening he is heard pounding on the door for someone to let him in.

Asuka, an architect, had deserted her family, former husband Satoshi and daughter Ayumi as she could not tolerate raising children.

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.

7.1/10

A high school student’s mother passes away leaving her alone with her grief. The girl, Marimo, discovers the name of a father she never knew. Marimo sets off to meet him, but is completely shocked when she finds someone very different from the father she envisioned. Her father, Shinpei, a 38-year-old would-be private detective, is shocked too, and doesn’t believe her until he sees the paperwork. With Marimo muttering “The worst father in the world” and Shinpei lamenting the loss of his freedom, these two are about to learn how difficult and rewarding a father/daughter relationship can be.

Guitarist Ko-chanis a mess of sexual repression after a childhood at the mercy of two elder sisters eager to use him as a guinea pig for their make-up skills. Bassist Gaku-chan keeps a bucket in the wings for whenever his nerves get the better of him, and drummer Momo-chan is doomed to forever carrying the botched childhood attempts at self-tattooing. It's not until this foursome is forced to look for an additional guitar player after Jin's dad burns his Stratocaster, that attitude and musical ability enter into the equation. Leather-clad, shade-wearing Tani (Tamaki), inseparable from his black Les Paul, is introduced as the king of R'n'R cool and Jinnai keeps him firmly seated on his throne throughout the film, retroactively proclaiming the guitarist, rather than himself, as the band's true hero.

7/10

An obsessive-compulsive Japanese librarian living in Bangkok spends most of his days contemplating suicide in his lifeless apartment. His life changes when he witnesses the death of Nid, seconds before he was about to jump off a bridge. This brings him in contact with Nid's elder sister Noi - these two lost and lonely souls help each other find the meaning to their meaningless existences.

7.5/10
9%

A salaryman is hijacked by bank robbers.

7.2/10

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.

6.9/10

The long awaited visualisation of the original manga

Kohei Kuryu is a former juvenile delinquent who drops out of junior high and goes on to earn a high school equivalency diploma. After passing the law board exams, Kuryu becomes a prosecutor. Not your typical prosecutor, which is quickly seen through the clothes that he wears, Kuryu possesses quick instincts and a kind of cleverness that only someone raised on the streets could have. Maiko Amamiya is a shrewd public prosecutor who has her eyes set on passing the exam to become a deputy prosecutor and tries her best to be noticed by her boss. Kuryu, on the other hand, after earning a reputation for doing top-notch work, is transferred to Amamiya's division, and finally opens his eyes to the possibility of promotion. Unfortunately, his unprecedented work behavior abruptly brings things to a halt. Although earning a reputation as a bad apple, the influence from Kuryu's strong pursuit of justice slowly begins to change things around him.

8/10

The birth of outlaw violence, depicts the passionate and fierce way of life of men that chose the path of Shura.

Former sand group member Kasahara attacked the Akamatsu group's office and robbed cash. Kasahara, who was driven by the Akamatsu group and lost his escape, asks Hitoshi for help. Jin, who judged that he was an act that deviated from Jinyoshi, refused to rescue Kasahara. Kasahara, who was in a difficult situation, attempted suicide, and Jin was forced to shoot Kasahara and deliver the stolen money to the Akamatsu group. However, a few days later, Kim and Kasahara's corpse disappeared, and the suspicion was struck by Jin.

Togashi, the leader of Togashi-gumi, boasts enormous power. The leader of the Ryuokai is sent to prison because he distrusts him who controls the town, and a mysterious man who calls himself Takishima appears in front of Shinshiro who becomes the leader of the group.

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.

5.8/10

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....

5.7/10
5.7%

Children born with special power. They seek blood for eternal life. And tonight, the victims ...!

A musical- style comedy movie set in Hakata.

A gas leak explosion at a yakuza hideout provides a shy nurse and a rental car clerk with the opportunity to take a briefcase full of money. A cross-country chase ensues.

6.9/10
7.5%

Young female embalmer Miyako is called in to restore the body of a young man who has committed suicide, before the funeral. While performing the embalming process she finds herself pricks by a needle buried deep in the boy’s flesh where it should not be. During the night the head is removed from the body and stolen, Miyako begins a desperate search for it so she can finish her work. Miyako search finds her encountering organ harvesting, religious cults, incest, psychopathic schizophrenics as well as some very dark secrets from here own past.

5.3/10

A story of young women living in the same local community. Yaeko (Suzuki Kyoka) moves to a condo named "Mezon Africa," and notices her neighbors are all a bit strange. Matsuyuki Yasuko acts selfish neighbor girl Yuka, and Tomosaka Rie acts anarchist college-student Midori. Meanwhile, Yaeko knows her neighbor Mizuho (Muroi Shigeru) killed her husband 14 years ago.

A seasoned detective is called in to rescue a politician held hostage by a lunatic. In a brief moment of uncertainty, he misses the chance for action. Leaving his job and family without explanation, he makes his way to a mountain forest, encountering a peculiar tree called Charisma.

6.9/10

A young pathologist seeks answers to the mysterious death of a friend and soon comes into contact with the same cursed videotape that caused the death of the friend's wife and son, which is haunted by the curse of Sadako, a relentless spirit.

5.2/10

A mysterious video has been linked to a number of deaths, and when an inquisitive journalist finds the tape and views it herself, she sets in motion a chain of events that puts her own life in danger.

7.2/10
9.7%

A retired actress whose husband has recently died visits her summer home. There she has encounters with old friends and acquaintances who bring various stories and news of death and the past

7.1/10

The same situation is played out in different cities (New York, Berlin and Japan). A lover has to choose whether to commit to a partner who is returning home. In each case there are other people involved, an ex-partner and someone else in a "permanent" relationship, what do they choose to do?

6.3/10
8%

One of the contemporary masters of Japanese film, Kiyoshi Kurosawa here fashions a dark tale that is both a sharp satire of corporate life and a B-movie thriller. A former sumo wrestler now working as a security guard goes on a murderous rampage in the company that's employed him.

5.7/10

Dako, Richard and Bokuchan head to Malta to compete in pulling off their next great heist.

Eiji Akutsu (Shun Oguri) is a newspaper reporter. He is working on unsolved case that took place 30 years ago.The case involved a group of people extorting several companies for money. The group sent cassette tapes to the companies. Eiji Akutsu comes across a mysterious cassette tape. Meanwhile, Toshiya Sone (Gen Hoshino) lives in Kyoto and runs a tailor shop. He discovers a cassette tape among his late father's possessions. He plays the cassette tape and hears his voice from his childhood days. --asianwiki