Norio Koike
A treasure appears in front of antique dealer Norio Koike (Kiichi Nakai) and potter Sasuke (Kuranosuke Sasaki). The treasure is Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s chawan (procelain tea bowl) called Houou, that has been missing.
In the present day, the local government of Katori City is in the process of sponsoring a taiga drama about its famous historical figure Tadataka Ino, who is known for being the first person to make a map of Japan in 1821. During the process of of making the drama series, a surprising fact is discovered about the first map. That fact is that Tadataka Ino was not the person who made the first Japanese map.
Norio Koike
The central Kansai region of Japan is the setting for the historic cities of Sakai and Kyoto. Noda and Koike from We Make Antiques are back and together for the tea ceremony by Furuta Shigenari who is the master of the ceremony. Enter a mysterious new woman named Shino about whom the two have a feeling.
Keisuke Kuroda
Keisuke Kuroda wakes up in a hospital bed unable to remember who he is. While sneaking out of the hospital, he sees a glimpse of the news and realizes that he is the Prime Minister of Japan. His approval rating was the lowest in the history of modern Japan. During a recent speech, a citizen had thrown a rock at him causing him to lose his memory. Keisuke Kuroda’s subordinate takes him to the official residence of the prime minister where he tries to implement changes to the country. The only people aware that he has lost his memory are his three secretaries.
Keiichi Nakano, convenience store manager
The story takes place over a 24 hour period. In the southernmost part of Japan, 20 fishing boats of an unknown nationality suddenly fire upon and occupy parts of the Hateruma archipelago. Members of the Japan Coast Guard are detained. Under the extremely tense situation, the Japanese government sends Aircraft Carrier Ibuki and an escort fleet to the area. Ryota Akitsu is the captain of the Aircraft Carrier Ibuki and Toshiya Niinami is second-in-command. It is now 6:23 am. and Japan faces one day which they never have before.
Norio Koike
Sakai is a city near Osaka by the bay famous for its swords in the old days and kitchen knives today. Norio is an antique dealer in the city. Sasuke is a potter in the city. Seventeenth century tea master Sen No Rikyu appears before them one day.
Nobunaga Oda
In the late 16th century, after the death of Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi takes power. The age of war is about to end, but Hideyoshi Toyotomi's rule makes life difficult for the people. Monk Senko Ikenobo is a master of flower arrangement. He prays for peace in the world and tries to give hope to the people with flower arrangement. He becomes good friends with Rikyu. Rikyu is a monk and a politician. He has the most profound influence on chanoyu. Rikyu is forced to commit hara-kiri by Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s order. Monk Senko Ikenobo challenges Hideyoshi Toyotomi.
Stories depicting ordinary people revolving around ceremonial occasions. Without knowing that the funeral is for a yakuza member, an undertaker holds the funeral service. Relatives bicker over the deceased's last will. A son insists on wearing a long jacket normally worn by bousouzoku biker gang to a coming of age ceremony. His parents try to stop him. A husband heads over to his pregnant wife. She got pregnant before they got married and his father-in-law is angry at him. A freeter man challenges a professional baseball player over a woman.
Shingo Sumida
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.
Narrator
KEN SAN pieces together the puzzle of the life and legacy of Japan's mythical acting icon, Ken Takakura. Collaborators, friends and family tell intimate stories of Ken's journey: how one man of quiet dignity became a cultural barrier-breaking film star.
Haruhiko Sakacho
Mie’s father died during the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. One day, she finds a bundle of unsent New Year’s cards, which languished there for 28 years. To find out why the cards were never sent, Mie tracks down Haruhiko Sakacho. Haruhiko played on the same high school baseball team with her father. Mie eventually gathers together her father's former teammates to play in the Masters Koshien (a senior league baseball tournament). Mie also uncovers a truth about her father and the baseball team.
Kingo Shimura
At Sakurada Gate in 1860, the shogun’s chief minister and his retinue of bodyguards are ambushed and annihilated. Bearing the responsibility and shame for this failure is Shimura Kingo, master swordsman and chief of the guard. Forbidden to take his own life in atonement, he is instead tasked with hunting down the remaining assassins; however, fate intervenes and now only one is left. Devoted to his late lord and his duty, he relentlessly pursues the sole remaining assassin for the next thirteen years. But times are changing in Japan and the way of the sword has become outlawed. What does this mean for Kingo?
Ryosuke Saigo
A family that was severely damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake that struck in March 2011, and a family that escaped the disaster. The film depicts the collapse and rebirth of two families whose children were supposed to marry each other. A moving drama written by Yamada Taichi and starring Nakai Kiichi, Kuroki Meisa and Kamiki Ryunosuke.
Mitsukuni Mito
A chronicle of the life of Yasui Santetsu, a 17th century master of go who turned his attention to astronomy and created a new calendar for Japan. Based on the life of Santetsu Yasui (December 27, 1639-November 1, 1715), appointed as the first official astronomer in the Edo Period and would go on to create the Jokyo calendar at the imperial request.
Takeaki Aoyagi
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...
To combat rising crime and terrorist activities in Japan, the Japanese National Police Agency authorizes the formation of a secret motorcycle unit known as the Wild 7. The motley group consists of reformed convicts - ranging from simple thugs to former Yakuza members. The Wild 7 are tasked to take out criminals the police cannot touch - due to the criminal's connections with politicians and wily lawyers.
A comedy about a concierge at a plush hotel who deals with a series of unusual guests.
Osano
Defence lawyer Emi is assigned to a particularly unusual case: a man is suspected of murdering his wealthy wife, and his only alibi is a 421-year old ghost, Rokubei. At first Emi is hesitant, but when she pursues her lead she is visited by the ghost herself. And so the fun begins in the courtroom when Prosecutor Osano starts to cross examine.
National Audit Bureau member Hajime Matsudaira (Shinichi Tsutsumi), Tadako Torii (Haruka Ayase) & Asahi Gainsbourg (Masaki Okada) travel from their homebase of Tokyo to the city of Osaka. Their mission is to discover any financial irregularities & to ensure the correct use of federal money in the Osaka city government. Their initial audits go smoothly, but things turn more interesting once they enter the Karahori shopping district - the area with a long history reaching back to the Meiji era.
King of Qi
Rival Chinese military strategists Sun Bin (Sun Honglei) and Pang Juan (Francis Ng) clash in this historic war adventure set during the Era of Warring States.
Hajime Tsutsui
A heartwarming tale about the turning point in the life of an elite business man in his fifties and a local train that has been running since 1911. Hajime is in line to be the next head of a prominent electronics company. He toils day and night over his work and has no time for his family. But one day, his mother in Shimane falls ill, and his best friend dies in an accident. Grief-stricken, Hajime returns home, where memories of his childhood dream come back to him. He had always wanted to be a train conductor and drive the local "bataden" Ichibata Electric Railway.
Sawaki
The prominent lawyer Kinya Ohtsuka looks over the case of the falsely indicted man who was sentenced to life imprisonment and then committed suicide while incarcerated. One year ago, the prominent lawyer rebuffed the efforts of Kiriko Yanagida to represent her brother. Kiriko Yanagida now works as a hostess in Tokyo while planning revenge on those responsible for her brother's imprisonment.
Hiroshi Kataoka
A man arrives in the city upon news of a potential terrorist strike in Italy. He is Japanese foreign diplomat, Kosaku Kuroda, and he’s here under orders of his supervisor at the Foreign Ministry, Hiroshi Kataoka (Kiichi Nakai), to aid in the safeguarding of Japanese citizens. Kuroda’s main contacts at the Japanese embassy consist of Ambassador Kikuhara, Counselor Nishino, and fellow diplomatic envoys Haba and Tanimoto. All are busy preparing for the visit of Japanese Foreign Minister Kawagoe due to arrive for the high-profile G8 foreign minister’s meeting. Meanwhile, somewhere on the festively-lit streets of the city, a young Japanese girl has suddenly gone missing. Is it an abduction simply for ransom? Or could it be a prelude to terror?
Jirocho Shimizu
Jirocho (Kiichi Nakai), a fledgling bakuto who left his wife, goes on a year-long training with his minions: right-hand man and military master Ohmasa (Kishibe Ittoku); stinky priest Daigoro (Takashi Sasano); well-known stranger Ishimatsu Mori (Yoichi Nukumizu); beautiful Masagoro Oiwake (Kazuki Kitamura); and others. As Jirocho's fame spreads, he gains more enemies. Among them are Katsuzo Kurokoma (Koichi Sato), who is one of the most powerful in Koshu, and the villain who is also Ishimatsu's nemesis, Masaru Mima (Riki Takeuchi). A traitor also emerges from the family, Yoshikazu Ebisu (Yoshikazu Ebisu). Meanwhile, Jirocho's wife falls ill and other terrible situations occur. Jirocho falls into a pinch of absolute despair. What on earth will he do? What is the fate of his minions? The Jirocho family will face a fierce battle...
Toru Iwata
A hustler who gets in trouble with a gang boss in the port town of Sukago agrees to make good with the don by putting him in contact with a mysterious hitman — an assassin the hustler has no idea how to contact. Instead, he hires an actor to play the role, though the thespian has no idea what he's getting into.
Chinese film directed by Jin Chen.
Akihiko Takida
After six years away, D.A. Kuryu Kohei (Kimura Takuya) returns to his former Josai branch of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, just in time for a brewing storm. Kohei's first case starts out simple enough. The suspect, a blonde-haired security guard, had already confessed to manslaughter, but he suddenly retracts his confession and takes things to court with big-shot defense attorney Gamo (Matsumoto Koshiro). It turns out that the security guard is a key alibi witness in a high-profile political corruption case, and the results of his case will directly affect the next. With the media, politicians, and a special investigative team breathing down his back, Kohei must handle the case with care (and flair) to find out the truth.
Kagemitsu Daigo
Depois de uma sangrenta batalha, um guerreiro faz um pacto com 48 demônios: Em troca de poder, ele dá todos os membros e órgãos internos de seu futuro filho aos demônios. Ao nascer completamente sem órgãos e membros, o bebê é abandonado num rio e adotado por um velho eremita, que com a ciência e tecnologia que só existem no mundo dos mangás, constrói os membros e órgãos para a criança a partir de pedaços de cadáveres. Ao crescer, Hyakkimaru descobre que se quiser ter os seus membros e órgãos verdadeiros de volta, precisa de matar os demônios a quem os membros foram oferecidos...
Ken-ichi Takata (voice)
Pela primeira vez em muitos anos, Takata Gou-ichi sai da pacata vila de pescadores em que vive e parte no trem-bala em direção a Tóquio. Sua nora, Rie, lhe telefonara avisando que seu filho, Ken-ichi, estava seriamente adoentado e chamando pelo pai em seu leito de morte. No entanto, quando Takata chega à metrópole ele descobre que as palavras de Rie não eram exatamente verdadeiras. Ken-ichi está de fato acamado no hospital, mas recusa-se a ver o pai, com quem havia brigado muitos anos antes. Devastado, Takata recebe de Rie uma fita contendo imagens de um video realizado por Ken-ichi, cujas imagens o conduzem a uma intensa jornada de autodescoberta.
Hashita
A celebration of the ancient art of Japanese rakugo, roughly translated as “comic storytelling”. The film is interspersed with numerous funerals and wakes, songs, dances, and often disgustingly crude jokes.
Yong Fa
The Isokaze, an Aegis-class escort vessel, sets sail on a routine training exercise, playing host to a platoon from the Fleet Training Group. No sooner is the Isokaze on open water, however, then the FTG reveal themselves to be terrorist stowaways who kill the ship's captain, send the rest of the crew overboard and take control of the vessel. The ship is carrying a secret biological weapon which the terrorists are now threatening to use to level Tokyo! Only a stowaway NCO, Sengoko (played by Sanada Hiroyuki from Ring and Twilight Samurai) is in a position to stop them - but does he really have what it takes to save the day? Playing like a cross between a sea-faring version of Top Gun and Die Hard, director Sakamoto Junji shows that it's not just Hollywood that can produce thrill-a-minute action spectaculars.
Genkaku
A group of demons in the ancient Japanese capital of Heian is dismembering members of a family of Japanese nobles.
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.
Lai Qi
Guerreiros do Céu e da Terra é um retrato de guerra, camaradagem e honra. Rodado no terrível deserto Gobi, conta a história do Tenente Li (Jiang Wen) e do emissário Japonês Lai Xi (Nakai Kiichi), ambos, guerreiros de elite e mestres da espada. Depois de três décadas ao serviço do Imperador da China, Lai Xi, anseia voltar ao Japão, mas em vez disso é enviado para o oeste para perseguir uns criminosos. O seu único passaporte para voltar ao Japão é executar o Tenente Li, um desertor que é procurado por liderar um motim quando se negou a matar mulheres e crianças feitas prisioneiras.
Kanichiro Yoshimura
Kanichiro Yoshimura is a Samurai and Family man who can no longer support his wife and children on the the low pay he receives from his small town clan, he is forced by the love for his family to leave for the city in search of higher pay to support them.
Film about Sakamoto Ryōma. The focus is on Oryo, the maid who became Ryoma’s wife and lived with him for one year before his death.
Remake of The Story of a Man Among Men (1984)
Japanese film icon Ken Takakura, who has starred in over 100 films, stars in this elegiac look at war and remembrance. Hideji Yamaoka (Takakura) was a suicide pilot during the war who somehow survived Japan's surrender. After decades of working as a fisherman in Kumamoto, a provincial seaside city in southern Kyushu, Yamaoka remains reluctant to discuss his wartime experiences with anyone, much less an intrusive reporter looking for a feature story. Then a series of events shake Yamaoka to the core, forcing him to re-evaluate his past.
Makoto Sasano
A middle-aged salaryman with a typical family, living quietly in a provincial city (Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture), wakes up one morning in the summer of 1994 to find himself the prime suspect in the biggest mass-murder case of the decade.
(segment "Samurai Cellular")
A four-part anthology in the spirit of The Twilight Zone, this film starts off with a group of commuters stranded at a train station in the rain, listening to stories told by one of the group. These include tales of a group stranded in the mountains and haunted by guilt over a death they inadvertantly caused, an emotionally broken chessmaster pressed into playing a real-life game for an eccentric millionaire, a wandering medieval samurai who finds a modern-day cell phone on the ground and a person on the other end asking questions about the past, and a young couple who agree to try a computer simulation of what their future as husband and wife would be like.
Produced for Fuji TV in 2000, the film reinterprets the story of a special samurai force - the Shinsengumi - at the end of the Edo period.
Tsuzura Juzo
As the great military commander Nobunaga Oda was consolidating his power across Japan, one of his actions was to wipe out a clan of assassins, killing every man, woman and child he found in the village. Years later, one of the survivors has hired a young but skilled assassin to avenge the deaths of his friends and family. His mission: to sneak into the most heavily guarded castle in Japan, and kill the supreme ruler of the country.
The story of Iwaki, a young brawler who becomes a professional criminal when he joins a Yakuza clan.
Shibata
Rica and Kengo have been living together for the past four years. It’s been a very happy time for Rica; the only dark spot being an accident she caused during a shoot for a commercial in which Kengo’s good friend, Shibata, nearly lost his life. The memory of this event weighs heavily on Rica’s conscience. One night Kengo tells Rica that he has fallen in love with a charming but „inscrutable“ woman named Hanako.
Fumio Chin
During a quest to find a Taiwanese father's grave, disturbing memories of child abuse are aroused.
Yuichiro Goda
Assistant police inspector Aida is assigned to investigate the murder of a former gang member. When a justice ministry official is killed days later in a similar manner, he begins to suspect that something bigger is going on...
Matashiro Irobe
Kon Ichikawa's retelling of the classic true story of Samurai honor. When a young clan lord is forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide), his loyal followers (now Ronin, masterless Samurai) dedicate their lives to avenging his death.
Period piece about a samurai who marries a mysterious beautiful young woman who claims to have lost her memory.
Kenichi
Physically separated from her father and at odds with her distraught mother, a girl must negotiate her own passage to maturity.
Kiyonaga
Melodrama about a woman refusing surgery.
Two childhood friends find themselves caught in the midst of an all-out turf war between rival factions in the yakuza-stained region of Kyushu.
After the death of previous Boss, a gang war lasts for more than four years.
Fumio Amamiya
A pampered young model is killed in a traffic accident. Given the chance to return to earth, she becomes involved with the advertising executive who is trying to cover up her death. A blend of fantasy and trenchant realism in which Somai uses the ethereal glow of advertising images to comment on the transience of life.
Ryo, a young former banker, gets beaten up over a debt from gambling. A yakuza boss saves him, and Ryo decides to train to become a yakuza under him.
Otomo-no-Dainagon or Minister of the Military
Two poor, married farmers have recently lost their only child; after a freak visitation, they pry open an alien cocoon to greet their new daughter.
Heinosuke Gosho
Story of famed Japanese actress Kinuyo Tanaka, with an emphasis on her working relationship with director Kenji Mizoguchi.
Nise
Remake of classic samurai film of 1932
Kenjiro Shimada
The environment and the movie stars at a Japanese film studio in the early 1930s are recreated in this drama that looks back on a distinctive period in cinematic history. Using celebrated director Yasujiro Ozu as a model, fictional director Ogata discovers a new female star quite by accident. Koharu Tanaka works selling candy at a studio theater when she is given a part as a bit player. After the studio's top leading lady is embroiled in a scandal, Koharu is suddenly thrust into the limelight when she replaces her in a film and gains instant fame and fortune. But the going is not always easy, and she soon seeks help from unexpected quarters.
A lighthouse keeper and his family follow work from town to town, each time making new friends and receiving a visit from his troublesome father.
Otohiko Kidoji
This gripping docudrama is a fictionalized account of what could happen to a Japanese family when one of their sons shames them in front of the entire nation.
Pvt. Mizushima
In the War's closing days, when a conscience-driven Japanese soldier fails to get his countrymen to surrender to overwhelming force, he adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.
Kusaka
Nakano
Drama set in the world of Formula 2 motor racing in Japan.
Kazumichi
Tora-san visits brother-in-law Hiroshi's hometown to attend a memorial service for his late father. When the local temple priest becomes intoxicated, Tora-san wearing the priest's robe delivers the memorial speech, much to his family's surprise. Thinking he's found his true calling, Tora-san decides to join the order, and falls for the priest's divorced daughter.
The story of a Japanese man who as a 16-year-old went to Maui to work in the sugar cane fields in order to support his family back in Japan. Now 89 and still living in Hawaii he is visited by his granddaughter who brings him a letter from his disinherited and recently dead son. This brings back memories of his life with his wife and family following the attack on Pearl Harbor, in particular of his son who had gone off to join the war for the Americans.
Shinji Terao
Masato Odagiri
A lavish retelling of the true story of the final voyage and ultimate destruction and sinking of the battleship Yamato, Japan's greatest flagship during the Second World War.
