A corpse of a clown is found in a park. Detective Shirataka Amane of Musashino Higashi Police Station begins investigating with rookie detective Uzuka Shinsaku. They find a picture of the victim holding a balloon with the number 1 and the letters TTX on social media which indicates pufferfish poisoning. Shirataka intuitively suspects that this is an incriminating statement done by a serial killer, but Chief Investigator Fukukawa Saeko denies her. Detective Kusano Seiya and other personnel of MPD First Investigative Division join the investigation, then a second murder occurs. Shirataka recalls an unsolved kidnapping and murder case from two years ago that she still regrets.
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.
A woman in the midst of an unpleasant divorce moves to an eerie apartment building with her young daughter. The ceiling of their apartment has a dark and active leak.
At the turn of the 20th Century amongst tension between China and Japan, a Japanese swindler in Shanghai plans to profit by selling weapons. He steals arms from the Japanese military and sells them to the rich Chinese.
The first special of the Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi drama series.
The final showdown, and the final reveal. Who is Friend? How can he be stopped?
Kuki is a veteran newspaper reporter who has been shuffled off to a book-development branch and finds escape in an illicit relationship with Rinko. Together they find the passion no longer present in their marriages.
Toru Kojima and his friend Koji are young student boys with one thing in common - they both love to date older women. Koji is a playboy with several women, young and older, whereas Toru is a romantic with his heart set on on certain lady.
The special will be set several months after the events of the drama. "Onizuka" learns of the imminent closure of the "Smile Duck" orphanage ("White Swan" in the original manga) due to a certain city development plan and some conflicts of interest for the politicians involved. Of course, he cannot let that happen, and together with his students from class 2-4, he will do everything possible to protect the orphanage.
The film follows the life of Sada Abe, who became a celebrity in 1936 after strangling her lover and slicing off his penis.
The four Takezawa sisters discover that their father has an illegitimate child so they hire a private detective to investigate.
Kentaro is an unsocial 35-year-old who lives with his parents and has never dated a woman. When Kentaro’s parents set up an arranged marriage interview with a girl named Nahoko and her parents, he falls in love for the first time in his life. However, the pair soon run into unexpected obstacles. Nahoko is vision impaired and can’t seem to break free of her doting parents. Meanwhile, Kentaro has no idea how to deal with the surge of new emotions he’s feeling.
A series of murders of beautiful girls occur in Tokyo not long after the end of the war. Also the daughter of a retired actress, Yuzuki Yoko, has gone missing. In the meantime, a religious cult that claims to shut away misfortunes in a box has been gaining popularity, displaying an eerie aspect. Yoko's daughter is alleged to have been run over by a train, and taken into a research institute situated in a gigantic box-shaped building. A private detective Enokizu (Abe Hiroshi), a writer Sekiguchi (Shiina Kippei), a journalist Atsuko and a police detective Kiba each pursues their own case, and Chuzenji (Tsutsumi Shinichi), an owner of a secondhand bookshop, "Kyogoku Do" suspects that all cases are linked to the box-shaped research institute.
On the first day of opening, a small Italian restaurant is set on fire, killing three customers, and the unidentified survivor, who was injured and taken to hospital, somehow escapes. Detective Tono and his team, who are renowned for their interrogation skills, realise from evidence left at the scene that there are still survivors who have fled the scene. After obtaining information about the customers from the owner-chef, who was slightly injured, Tono visits the suspects, but they all seem to be acting strangely and are hiding something. The hidden relationship between the suspects, who seemed unrelated, is then revealed.
Upon being sent to live with relatives in the countryside due to an illness, an emotionally distant adolescent girl becomes obsessed with an abandoned mansion and infatuated with a girl who lives there - a girl who may or may not be real.
When a major bank is caught paying off a corporate extortionist, the media and prosecutors begin to dig, breaking open a money-and-favours scandal that threatens to rock the entire structure of business and government to its core. While the bank's top executives continue to vacillate, a quartet of middle-management reformers, led by straight-arrow Kitano (Koji Yakusho), decide to stage a boardroom coup and install a new, clean management team. With the aid of a hotshot news anchor (Mayumi Wakamura) and a hard-nosed prosecutor (Kenichi Endo), heads begin to roll.
Jubei is a Japanese merchant who learns tricks from Western merchants to get ahead in the game.
At the end of the World War II and the middle of the Chinese Revolution, three couples from different backgrounds with different nationalities flee from China to the island of Taiwan.
An advertising agency receives a request from one of their clients, a beverage company. The advertising agency proposes a CM involving the queen of enka who has a difficult personality, an actor on the downside of his career and a hip hop star. who suffers from manic depression. While filming their CM, the shooting set is thrown into chaos.
Wakabayashi Ema is a temporary employee who works at a banquet hall where glamorous celebrities gather. But, she loses her job after protesting against her superior's sexual harassment towards a junior employee. Wandering, Ema visits a perfume shop run by a mysterious woman named Shirashi Yayoi, also known as the "witch." While helping in the shop, Ema realizes that she holds the key to shaping her future through the words and scents given to her by Yayoi. Ema moves to work for a fragrance company, where she reunites with Ren.
Drama set in the historical Warring States Era of Japan. Tokaido name Imagawa Yoshimoto personally led his army to invade Owari Province territory, now in Aichi Prefecture Nagoya City area, was the leader Nobunaga of this surprising burst of death. After the war, the Imagawa clan who originally dominated the Tokaido region fell away, and the victorious Oda Nobunaga quickly expanded his power in Central Japan and the Kinki region, laying the foundation for his future control of the central government of Japan.
The national university entrance examination is coming up and the students of Class 3/4, which Onizuka Eikichi (AKIRA) is in charge of, enter exam mode. Onizuka who conducts career counselling for the students with assistant form teacher Fuyutsuki Azusa (Takimoto Miori), questions their mentality of aiming for a good university in order to get into a good company.
The widow of a murdered yakuza boss serves jail time for attacking the man she believes killed her husband. After her release, as she is shadowed by a hitman, she returns to thoughts of revenge.
Japanese director Satoshi Isaka spins this taunt thriller about an ultra-ambitious reporter who soon finds herself on the receiving end of tabloid dirt. Popular television actress Hitomi Kuroki stars as Yuko, an ice-queen TV news editor who is approached by a mysterious man from the PTT Ministry. The man offers her proof, on videotape, that a major university is bribing a particular government official to overlook a massive media merger. The secret transaction has already resulted in the death of one investigator. Yuko promptly broadcasts the damning footage, and high-ranking bureaucrat Aso (Takanori Jinnai) is forced out of office.
In spite of a longstanding tradition forbidding women from working in a sake brewery, Retsu, a young blind woman, challenges herself to overcome her disability in order to save her family's sake business.
A five-part comedy and horror anthology
Documentary on Japanese wildlife.
A hard working salaryman takes off five days from his busy job and sets off with his wife and two children to visit his parents in his hometown for the 1991 new year holidays. He decides that they will go by car to save on expenses. Unfortunately, the long drive from Tokyo to his hometown becomes a much longer journey than expected due to traffic, sickness and other misfortunes and by the time they arrive three days later, they only have time for a short but happy visit.
Mieko is a housewife with some problems. Her husband is indifferent to her and her daughter Sayako refuses to go to school. One day, Mieko meets Kaori who is divorced. Mieko and Kaori worked at a same company years ago. Kaori tells Mieko that how she was swindled out of money by a man and, because of this, Mieko loans money to Kaori. Due to the loan, Mieko, herself, begins to do part-time work at a convenience store. While at work, Mieko catches a shoplifter Yukimi in the convenience store. It turns out, Mieko and Yukimi get along great. Mieko, Yukimi and Kaori decide to go to a karaoke room together. At the karaoke bar, the women hear the song "Smoke On The Water" by Deep Purple and decide to form a rock band!
Set 15 years after "Twentieth Century Boys," Kanna (Airi Taira) reunites with several main characters from the first film in an attempt to stop Friend's increasing influence over the world and continued plans to eliminate humanity, as detailed in the New Book of Prophecy.
Japan, 250 years ago. Soetsu is a moneylender who is killed by the cruel samurai Shinzaemon. His body is dumped in the Kasenega-Fuchi river. According to legend, all who drown in the river will never surface again. 20 Years later, Shinkichi, the handsome son of Shinzaemon, coincidentally meets Toyoshiga, the daughter of Soetsu. They fall in love. It is a doomed love, as the spirit of Soetsu is far from dead
In 1969, Kenji, an elementary school kid and his friends built a secret base during their summer holidays. They fantasized that they had to fight villains who were out to conquer the world and wrote them in the Book of Prophecies. Years later in 1997, Kenji becomes a convenience store manager and leads a regular life after giving up his dreams to become a rock star. His boring life is suddenly turned upside down when his old classmate dies mysteriously and an entire family in the neighbourhood disappears. At the same time, a religious cult and its mysterious leader, Friend emerges and a strange chain of events duplicating exactly the events described in the Book of Prophecies follow. Is this the beginning of the end of the world? Who is Friend?
A sensuous movie based on a literary work. Hitomi Kuroki stars as the film’s heroine.
In 1940s Japan, the wealthy head of the Inugami Clan dies, setting off a chain of bizarre, gruesome murders. Detective Kindaichi must unravel the clan’s terrible secrets of forbidden liaisons, monstrous cruelty, and disguised identities to find the murderer.
A serial killing occurs at a port town brothel.
Takeharu Samejima is a reticent photographer who runs a deserted photo studio. Taiichi Igarashi, a talented photographer captivated by his photos, gives up his brilliant career to become his apprentice. Taiichi, who has even avoided communication with his family, cannot hide his ...
A story of three couples and their intertwining love stories set in 1940s Taiwan and Shanghai, centered around the 1949 sinking of Taiping.
Having lost his job and the company he built, a 36-year-old man at rock bottom goes on a wistful solo trip to Japan in search of the love he left behind.
Tamura Masakazu returns as Nemuri Kyoshiro for the fourth and final time. Gensai, an eccentric Ukiyoe artist, urgently requests Kyoshiro to kill his wife. He believes that the moment she is killed will represent the ultimate state of beauty, and wishes to see Kyoshiro's signature “Engetsu Sappo” (“Full Moon Cut”) killing technique for the purpose. But this unusual request comes not only from Gensai, but also his wife, Orin, who has a tie to Kyoshiro's past. Meanwhile, Tenzen wants to hire Kyoshiro as their master sword instructor for the Kurume Clan, whose lord has an unhealthy obsession with Kyoshiro and his Engetsu Sappo…
Made-for-TV film adaptation of the 1957 novel by Seicho Matsumoto starring Takeshi Kitano and directed by Noboru Tanaka. The novel was previously adapted in 1978 film entitled “The Demon” starring Ken Ogata and directed by Yoshitaro Nomura. After a married man stops providing for his mistress, she abandons their three young children with him and his wrathful wife. Consumed by the jealousy and power struggles of their own relationships, they involve the children in their own games - with tragic results.
Third installment of the "Gakko No Kaidan" series follows the trek of several elementary school students as they wander into an alternate world that exists on the opposite side of a school mirror. Nishida Naomi (the hapless teacher in "Gakko No Kaidan 2") returns as the teacher who accompanies the children on their journey into the surreal universe.
Erika Toda joins a law firm headed by Serizawa-san, on the first case she meets Enomoto Kei of Tokyo total security who unlocks Serizawa who has accidentally been trapped in a vault. Form thereon the trio solve 10 cases related to the locked room. Enomoto always makes a small scale model and thinks technically in terms of security and locks to solve cases, while Serizawa assists by hinting some circumstantial evidences. Serizawa is always ready to take credit of new found fame.
Rollpanna visits Ukikimo Castle and meets Princess Lola. Her job is to wash away the world's dirt. However, the machine for that has broken down and Rollpanna helps her repair it. Worried that the Ukigumo Castle is dirty, Anpanman came to help. But Baikinman has invaded and tried to fill the world with dirt using "bamboo rain". Rollpanna is turned into Black Rollpanna, and then Currypanman is also turned black. Can Anpanman and friends save the day?
Yukari Kawahara works at a drink manufacturer. She works hard and achieves recognition for her work. Yukari Kawahara is dating research doctor Kippei Koide. They have lived together for 5 years. One day, Kippei Koide collapses from a brain hemorrhage. Yukari Kawahara soon learns that everything she knew about her boyfriend was a lie. She hires private detective Takumi Kaibara to investigate Kippei Koide.
Seven scary true horror stories in this 15th anniversary special. The stories are: S Douzan no Onna (Woman from Copper mine S); Satoru-kun; Hannin wa Dare da (Who's the Crmininal?); Sasoi no Mori (Forest invitation); Ude wo Choudai (Give me your arm); Takushi Doraiba wa Kataru (A story from taxi driver) and Yami e no Shikaku (Vision to the Darkness)
After decades of single-minded dedication to his work, a worker with an elite career course at a major bank is transferred or rather relegated to a subsidiary company, where he finds himself at a loos as he reaches retirement age.
A strange dog meets four orphaned sisters.
There is a story of a grand love torn apart by the Russo-Japanese War. It is an incomparable love story, crossing the borders of Russia and Japan and surmounting fifty years time. The true story of one woman who continued to wait because she loved, and one woman who said farewell because she loved. And a man who, bolstered by the love of these two women, struggled through the most extreme of circumstances and survived.
A police detective Shoukokuji Ryuuya from the first section of Metropolitan Police Department is tasked to investigate the murder case of a woman which takes place at a grand party held by a big-time actress but faces the hurdle of finding the true culprit among the large pool of suspects.
At the end of World War II, a secret human experiment was being conducted in Manchuria, which was in the sphere of influence of the Japanese military. One man's face was to be transformed into that of a completely different person through plastic surgery. Shortly after operation, Japanese military facility where the man was staying was involved in a battle and collapsed, and he disappeared. In 1948, a letter of warning from the Twenty Faces was posted on the wall of the Japanese Museum. The notice read, “All national treasures will be taken away. The police, aware of the warning letter, rush to the Japanese Museum...
The head of a psychological research institute and a lieutenant in the Japanese Air Force are both investigating a mysterious cult known only as ‘Midori no Saru’ (The Green Monkey). Members of this group have committed a string of violent suicide-attacks on military bases and public areas. Part of the mystery seems to involve a young child and an enormous Buddha statue outside Tokyo, but how could all these pieces possibly fit together?
A bruised and battered corpse in Shibuya, Tokyo has the attention of the local cops. A veteran detective is assigned to the case. The last utterance of the victim is one clue that detective Imanishi has to work on. Yet, the case becomes more tangled quickly. Elsewhere, a prodigy named Waga Eiryo is composing an orchestral piece. Remake of The Castle of Sand (1974).
Hirayama Koichi and his wife Michiko eloped from Osaka to Okinawa, where they lived happily with their five children. When war erupts, their eldest son is drafted into the Imperial army. As fighting spreads, the family takes refuge far from the city, but soon, child after child is drafted to serve in various branches of the military and in organizations supporting the war cause. Koichi himself is faced with a moral dilemma when he is ordered to kill a wounded American soldier.
The fear of the fiercely obsessive woman who deprives her best friend of her husband. An emotionally charged movie starring Hitomi Kuroki, Masato Furuoya, and Hisako Manda.
After her grandmother's passing, Natsumi, a third-year high school student, moves to Tokyo to live with her mother Haruka, who works as a stripper in Asakusa. Having been separated from her mother since elementary school, Natsumi initially finds it difficult to connect and often clashes with her. However, as time goes on, she begins to understand and accept her mother's unconventional lifestyle."
Story depicts the life and love of Yayoi Yuki (Haru) and Taro Yamada (Ryo Narita) over a 30 year period. As high school students, Yayoi Yuki and Taro Yamada deal with their friend Sakura Watanabe (Hana Sugisaki) passing away from an illness. Yayoi Yuki and Taro Yamada have feelings for each other, but they hide those feelings and live different lives. While they live their own lives, they go through meaningful events like marriage, having children, divorce, and losing a family member in a disaster. Throughout all of this, Yayoi Yuki and Taro Yamada are always there for each other.
A traveling ronin perceived as a fool impresses a samurai leader with his fishing skills and gains employment.
Set one year after drama series "Overprotected Kahoko." Kahoko is busy running her daycare center "Kahoko House" and also doing housework. Things at work and home are not going smoothly. "Kahoko House" is in financial difficulties and she isn't very good with housework. Her relationship with her husband Hajime is troubled and his career as a painter has been unsuccessful to date. Can Kahoko turn things around?
A university student kills her father with no apparent motive. But is her claim that she is a liar simply another lie? A psychologist burdened with her own scars seeks to uncover the truth. There, she discovers a fabricated past and the screams of a soul violated by those she loved. Based on the novel by Shimamoto Rio.
A horror drama presented by Hideo Nakata, the mastermind of the Japanese horror boom, with a group of gorgeous actors. A total of 2 episodes are included, including the story of a teacher who is troubled by spirits and a dropout student "The 5th Tatari in 6 rows".
A live-action adaptation of Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's masterpiece "Shōshō Shigemoto no Haha (Captain Shigemoto's Mother)". Set in the glorious Heian Dynasty, the TV movie decipts the story of a mother and son torn apart for an irrational reason, and how they are reunited 40 years later.
It is the year 1775, and England and France are undergoing a period of social upheaval and turmoil. The forces that are leading to revolution in France are colliding with a circle of people in England, causing their destinies to be irrevocably intertwined.
Film directed by Koyu Ohara.
Based on Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls.
Performances based on Junichirō Tanizaki's A Portrait of Shunkin and Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma.
Special performance.