Asian Drama

How will popular actor Sugisaka Hana spend her filming break? This is the 4th season in this omnibus series that focuses on how an actor spends their vacation in between the filming of dramas and movies.

On the morning of her break from filming, Sugisaki Hana listens to the horoscope on the radio. “If you are a Libra, tidy up all your clutter today. Your lucky item is a round object!” Hearing this, she tries to clear her laundry, but the washing machine just won’t work. Sugisaki has no choice but to go to the laundromat which she is unfamiliar with and does not know how to pay the 300-yen charge. What she brought with her is a credit card and a 1,000 yen note. Sugisaki follows another laundromat user’s suggestion to get small change from the vending machine outside. However, she ends up getting entranced by the voice of a street musician that she happened to hear and buys a CD with those 1,000 yen…

How will popular actor Sugisaka Hana spend her filming break? This is the 4th season in this omnibus series that focuses on how an actor spends their vacation in between the filming of dramas and movies.

On the morning of her break from filming, Sugisaki Hana listens to the horoscope on the radio. “If you are a Libra, tidy up all your clutter today. Your lucky item is a round object!” Hearing this, she tries to clear her laundry, but the washing machine just won’t work. Sugisaki has no choice but to go to the laundromat which she is unfamiliar with and does not know how to pay the 300-yen charge. What she brought with her is a credit card and a 1,000 yen note. Sugisaki follows another laundromat user’s suggestion to get small change from the vending machine outside. However, she ends up getting entranced by the voice of a street musician that she happened to hear and buys a CD with those 1,000 yen…

Kiyo and Sumire are childhood friends from Aomori Prefecture who move to Kyoto to become maiko. During their training, Sumire is praised for her talent and diligence. Kiyo, meanwhile, has difficulty learning the basic skills and is eventually expelled. However, Kiyo's talent in cooking is discovered, and she is hired as the new cook of the maiko house. Kiyo is happy with her new role: supporting Sumire and the other maiko through her cooking.

Adapted from the manga series "Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san" (舞妓さんちのまかないさん) by Koyama Aiko (小山愛子).

Torako is a mysterious, but excellent private tutor. She has big ambitions and works to achieve her goal. She takes private tutoring jobs from kids of rich families and makes connections, while saving money. She currently has 3 students. Her 3 students and their mothers hope to have the students enter prestigious schools, while they must deal with their own unique problems.

Shibusawa Eiichi was born in 1840 to a farmer’s family. He grew up helping his family with work, which was to manufacture and sell indigo production and also silk farming. He left his hometown at the age of 23 and began working for the government. He later traveled to Paris and learned about banking. Upon his return to Japan, he helped build up the first modern bank in Japan. He eventually became a founder or supporter to about 500 companies and was involved with about 600 public services, including education for women.

Noriko lost her mother, Yoshie when she was only 10-years-old. Yoshie knew she would not be able to live long enough to see her children grow up and wrote birthday cards to her children in the future. Agonizing over relationships with friends, love and marriage, Noriko grows up with hints and thoughts hidden on birthday cards which are sent from her mother every year

Mitsuko Kuroda is 31-years-old and single. She enjoys her life as a single woman. A big reason why she enjoys her single life is that she has counsellor "A" in her mind, which is her other self. Whenever she does not know what do, "A" gives her the right answers. She believes her happy and peaceful single life with "A" will continue, but she falls in love with Tada-kun (Kento Hayashi). He is a salesperson and younger than her.

Adapted from the novel "Watashi o Kuitomete" by Risa Wataya.

High school student Ayumi (Tori Matsuzaka) is trained by his grandmother (Kirin Kiki) to act as a "tsunagu," an intermediary for people who want to reach the dead.

Kurumi Namihiro (Haru) gets a job at a luxury hotel chain, but she is assigned to work at Amusement Park Greenland in the country. The amusement park is run by an affiliate of the luxury hotel chain. What awaits for Kurumi Namihiro at her new job is a vast rural landscape, the amusement park and its employees. One of the employees there is Yoshiko Ozuka (Hidetoshi Nishijima). He is known as the “Wizard” and he has worked on many successful planning projects there. Kurumi Namihiro knows that if employees come up with results the employee can move on to other departments. She hard works hard there and begins to enjoy her job. One day, she learns Yoshiko Ozuka’s secret.

After a sudden accident in 1995, 10-year-old Imamura Nozomi goes into a coma. Twenty-five years later, in 2020, Nozomi wakes up. Although she is 35 years old, she still acts like she's ten years old. The world has changed around her, but she lives for her future. Yuto was Nozomi's classmate in elementary school, and also her first love. He had once become an elementary school teacher, but quit after a certain incident. In order to hide his lack of confidence, he had been protecting himself by criticizing and looking down on others. When he reunites with Nozomi, he starts to take a good look at himself.

Michiko lost her dad in a car accident when she was 10 years old. After the car accident, Michiko has lived with her mother Kyoko. Michiko, now in her 2nd year of high school, gets a cell phone from her mother as a birthday present. Michiko is so excited to have her very first cell phone. Soon afterwards, she is forced into joining social networking site "AvaQ" by classmate, and queen of the classroom, Awano Taeko. Initially, Michiko is not interested in the site or the world of avatars as she thinks of avatars as nothing more than a doll. But by chance, she becomes hooked on decorating her own avatar. In order to collect virtual money to dress her avatar Michiko blackmails a salary worker. During the annual AvaQ contest for the best dressed avatar, Michiko wins the prize. She now becomes queen of the classroom. Michiko sets up an avatar club of odd gas masks. She also has plastic surgery to make herself look more like her avatar and becomes prettier. Michiko's personality also changes. Trouble soon brews for Michiko when her home room teacher Mizokuchi (Kato Toranosuke) threatens her and fellow classmate Yamanouchi betrays her. Meanwhile, Michiko doesn't even blink her eyes. She starts getting revenge.

Sakura grew up on a remote island. She has a dream, which is to build a bridge on her island. In the spring of 2009, Sakura joins a big construction company. She does not hesitate to tell her colleagues about her dream to build a bridge. Sakura's determination to accomplish her dream affects the colleagues at her company.

This is a love story between 23 year old grad student Asahina Motoko and her 64 year old professor Sakaki Ikuo. Motoko is a very mature and serious girl with poor social skills and is often called dark and gloomy by her classmates. However she finds Professor Sakaki to be kind and easy to talk to, despite his reputation as a strict and scary teacher. Although Professor Sakaki tells Motoko that her feelings for him are not love, something is developing between the two of them, and it might change them both into better people

Follow up the story of 52 years and covers three editions of 1912 Stockholm Olympics, 1936 Berlin Olympics and 1964 Tokyo Olympics where it features the two lead characters Kanakuri Shisou as the first Japanese man to participate in the Stockholm Olympics' and achieved a world record and Tabata Masaji who was credited with bringing the Olympics to Japan.

I got a job in Tokyo, but after 10 years she went back to her hometown. Now, I is 27-years-old and lives with her parents. Even though she works as a freelance writer, her parents treats her as a freeter. She meets her friends from her high school days. Using her courage, she contacts Shiina-kun who was the top player on their high school soccer team. She admired since high school.

Meanwhile, I admire life in Tokyo and is afraid of life in Tokyo. She still lives in her hometown. She can't forget her ex-boyfriend Shiina-kun. After she broke up with Shiina-kun, she hangs out with a man who she does not like. She is obsessed with memories of her happy moments with Shiina-kun.

In order to relieve their boredom, I and I want Shiina-kun.

Saigo Takamori, the hero of the Meiji Restoration, was born to a poor, low-ranking samurai family in the Satsuma domain (present day Kagoshima Prefecture). His simple honesty caught the attention of its charismatic feudal lord of Satsuma, Shimazu Nariakira. Nariakira’s assertion that the love of people is what will enrich and strengthen the nation captivated Saigo who took on Nariakira’s secret mission and eventually became a key person for Satsuma. Not a portrait of him survives today and much of his life is a mystery. He is a man who was twice exiled and thrice married. He overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate with exceptional bravery and action. Although he accomplished the restoration, he lost his life in a fight with the new Meiji government.

Based on the novel "Sego Don" by Hayashi Mariko.

An author of mystery-novels helps a student to uncover the tragic story of the people who lived in her apartment before which is filled with anger, hatred, murder and suicide.

Ichiko (Ai Hashimoto) lived in a big city, but goes back to her small hometown Komori, located on a mountain in the Tohoku region. She is self-sufficient. Ichiko gains energy living among nature and eating foods she makes from seasonal ingredients.

After a chain of deaths at a junior high school, new transfer student Koichi Sakakibara (Kento Yamazaki) turns to a mysterious girl (Ai Hashimoto) who holds the key to the dark mystery ...

In the spring of 1998, 15-year-old Koichi Sakakibara's (Kento Yamazaki) father goes abroad and Koichi Sakakibara goes to live with his aunt Reiko Mikami (Ai Kato), who lives in a mountain region. Not long after he moves in with his aunt, he collapses from a pneumothorax attack and becomes hospitalized. One day, at the elevator in the hospital, Koichi meets a pretty girl wearing a uniform and an eye patch. Koichi just stares at her. The pretty girl says something strange and then vanishes in the hospital mortuary. After being discharged from the hospital, Koichi goes to his new school. He finds the pretty girl, Mei Misaki (Ai Hashimoto) is also in his class. Koichi doesn't feel comfortable, because all of his classmates and even his teacher act like the girl doesn't exist.

* Based on the novel "Another" by Yukito Ayatsuji (first published October, 2009 by Kadokawa Shoten).

A young woman named Ichiko returns to her rural mountain village of Komori after being unable to find her place in the city. While there, she lives self-sufficiently, taking advantage of local seasonal ingredients for the meals she prepares for herself. The film will depict both the blessings and harshness of nature as Ichiko continues surviving on her own through the changing seasons.

Kurumi Nanba (Ai Hashimoto) is a student majoring in math at prestigious university. She's viewed as a weirdo due to her poor communication skills, but having a genius level intellect. Meanwhile, Tatsuhiko Handa (Kengo Kora) is a young detective. Kurumi Nanba and Tatsuhiko Handa work together to solve difficult cases including a series of bomb explosions, a locked-room murder and corporate blackmail.

Amano Aki goes with her mother Haruko to her hometown in Kitasanriku during a summer vacation. There, she meets her maternal grandmother, Natsu, for the first time. Natsu is a woman diver aka "ama", and Aki thinks that is just so cool. Aki is a second-year high-school student, and she struggles to keep up with the fast-paced life in Tokyo. Having been confined indoors most of the time, everything she sees in the rural town is exciting to her. But most of all, seeing her grandmother diving under the fierce surf along the coastline, leaves a huge impact on her. "I think I would like to be a diver too..."

16-year-old Haruka (Ai Hashimoto) lost the people she loved the most in a fire. Haruka is also physically and emotionally wounded from the fire, but she still dreams of becoming a pianist. She takes part in an upcoming competition. Inauspicious incidents then occur around her. Musical student Yosuke (Shinya Kiyozuka), who teaches piano to Haruka, tries to solve the case.

"Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo" tells the story of two high school students who crosses social boundaries between the elite and lower class at their school. Ryoya Maeda, from the lower class, is a member of the film club, while Hiroki Kikuchi, from the elite class, is a non-participating member of the high school baseball team.

* Movie is based on the novel "Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo" by Ryo Asai (first published February, 2010).

* Ryo Asai's original novel "Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo" is an omnibus story telling the stories of numerous characters. The movie "Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo" focuses on two characters from the novel Ryoya Maeda & Hiroki Kikuchi.

* Filming takes place in Kochi City, Japan.

Middle school teacher Moriguchi Yoko's life comes crashing down after the murder of her 4-year-old daughter. Eventually, Yoko suspects some of her own students to have been responsible for her daughter's death. She comes up with an elaborate plan for revenge against the students who killed her innocent daughter

Middle school teacher Moriguchi Yoko's life comes crashing down after the murder of her 4-year-old daughter. Eventually, Yoko suspects some of her own students to have been responsible for her daughter's death. She comes up with an elaborate plan for revenge against the students who killed her innocent daughter.