Asian Drama

Yoko (Atsuko Maeda) is a reporter for a TV variety program. She visits the country of Uzbekistan. Through meeting people there and experiencing the country's culture, she grows as a person.

Movie is co-produced by Japan and Uzbekistan to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

A co-production with Uzbekistan and Qatar.

Koichi is a son in the Suzuki family. He is a shut in who never leaves his house. He dies suddenly. The rest of the Suzuki family, father Yukio, mother Yuko and daughter Fumi fall into a state of confusion. Yuko, the mother, is so shocked by her son's death, that she loses her memory. Fumi lies to her mother and tells her "Koichi stopped being a shut in and is now working in Argentina."

Rei Kiriyama is a 17-years-old shogi player. He debuted as a professional shogi player when he was in middle school. He lives by himself in Tokyo, because his parents and younger sister died in a traffic accident when he was little. One day, Rei Kiriyama meets three sisters who are his neighbors. The three sisters are Akari Kawamoto, Hinata Kawamoto, and Momo Kawamoto. This is his first meeting with someone outside of the shogi world in many years. Having meals with the Kawamoto family brings warm feelings to Rei Kiriyama. As Rei Kiriyama continues his shogi career, his interactions with his neighbors allow him to grow as a shogi player and as a person.

Kiriyama Rei is a 17-years-old shogi (Japanese chess) player. He debuted as a professional shogi player when he was in middle school. He lives by himself in Tokyo, because his parents and younger sister died in a traffic accident when he was little. One day, Kiriyama Rei meets three sisters who are his neighbours. The three sisters are Kawamoto Akari, Kawamoto Hinata and Kawamoto Momo. This is his first meeting with someone outside of the shogi world in many years. Having meals with the Kawamoto family brings warm feelings to Kiriyama Rei. As Kiriyama Rei continues his shogi career, his interactions with his neighbours allow him to grow as a shogi player and as a person.

Haruko Azumi is a 28 year-old woman working in a small office. She begins an awkard loveless half-relationship with an old school friend who works at a convenience store. At the same time a gang of rogue schoolgirls is attacking men at night, and another young woman, Aina, gets involved with two graffiti artists who have created a stencil from a poster of Haruko Azumi's disappearance in 2015, looking for love with either one of them.

Putting down unwanted animals is a daily job for Makita Hiroshi and his fellow doctors, Hataeda Aki and Shiga Satoshi. All three do what’s requested of them, suffering from pangs of conscience. The situation will change with the arrival of a new shelter head, who is bringing her own vision of how the animals should be treated.

Episodes: 1

A story of 6 days with 5 Japanese gathered around a small sparkling pool at Chiang Mai in Thailand.

4 years ago, Kyoko started to live alone in Thailand, leaving her mother and her daughter, Sayo, in Japan. Just before the graduation of University, Sayo sets foot on Thailand to visit her mother. However, contrary to her expectation, it was not her mother who came to pick up Sayo, but Ichio who works for Kyoko. After 4 years, Sayo finds her mother not changed at all. Kyoko always lives her own way no matter where she lives or whom she lives with, and it perplexes Sayo though she knew it.

At a guest house Kyoko runs, there also were a Thai kid called Bee and a Japanese woman called Kikuko who has mysterious atmosphere, and Sayo can hardly accept her mother living happily with those unknown people.

At a place with beautiful greenery, there is a small pool where you can feel wonderful ozone. During 6 days at Chiang Mai in Thailand with beautiful scenery, with a close relationship among the people, there is something developing in Sayo’s mind who is going back home…

Three Koda sisters, 29-year-old Sachi, 22-year-old Yoshino, and 19-year-old Chika live at their grandmother's home in Kamakura, Japan.

When the Koda sisters were young, their parents divorced and they were abandoned. Not having seen their father in 15 years, they receive news of his death. Sachi asks her sisters, Yoshino and Chika, to attend the funeral where they meet 13-year-old Asano Suzu, their half-sister. Yoshino is aware that her father's widow, Yoko, is not Suzu's real mother and finds her to be unfit as a guardian. Concerned for Suzu's well-being, Sachi attends the funeral and invites Suzu to live with them, Suzu gladly accepts.

There are three sisters: 29-year-old Sachi Kouda (Haruka Ayase), 22-year-old Yoshino Kouda (Masami Nagasawa) and 19-year-old Chika Kouda (Kaho). They live at a house in Kamakura, Japanese. Their house was left by their grandmother.

One day, they receive news of their father's death. When the sisters were young, their parents divorced and their father left them. They haven't seen their father in 15 years. Upon hearing the news on their father's death, the sisters attend their father's funeral.

At the funeral, they meet their stepsister Suzu Asano (Suzu Hirose). She is 14-years-old and there are no one to take care of her. Oldest sister Sachi invites Suzu to live with them.

Akiko, an editor at a publishing company, has been living with her mother all this while. One day, her mother’s sudden death and an unreasonable personnel transfer makes her decide to take over the eatery that her mother was running. She remodels the eatery to her tastes. The new store, called sandwich a, has a simple menu of breads and soups. It is a small, cosy cafe with Akiko and a helper, Shima-chan. Customers gradually start to come in. The florist Yamada also visits despite his confusion about the store change and stuffs himself with sandwiches. One day, a cat unexpectedly appears in front of Akiko as if someone had sent it. Then, there are the people of the local shopping district who joyfully take care of Akiko -jdramas.wordpress.com Based on the novel "Pan to Supu to Neko Biyori" by Yoko Mure

In a ruthless battle for power, several yakuza clans vie for the favor of their head family in the Japanese underworld. The rival bosses seek to rise through the ranks by scheming and making allegiances sworn over saké. Long-time yakuza Otomo has seen his kind go from elaborate body tattoos and severed fingertips to becoming important players on the stock market. Theirs is a never-ending struggle to end up on top, or at least survive, in a corrupt world where there are no heroes, but constant betrayal and vengeance.In order to destroy a violent criminal organization, the police release Otomo (Takeshi Kitano) from prison ...

On the surface, About Her Brother seems very different from Yoji Yamada’s samurai masterpieces that have reached the U.S. in recent years, films like Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade. However, consistent with those films, and with Yamada’s service as the regular director of the long-running Tora-san series, About Her Brother is, at heart, a contemplative character study with room for both wry humor and tear-jerking emotion – a gentle portrait of fundamentally decent people under stress. The film follows Ginko, a widowed Tokyo pharmacist dealing with her daughter’s marriage and her ne’er-do-well younger brother Tetsuro, whose drunken antics and stubborn refusal to grow up cause her no end of trouble. The title may be Ototo or “younger brother” in Japanese and Yamada may have packed the cast with ringers - Tsurube Shofukutei (Dear Doctor) as Ginko and Yu Aoi (One Million Yen Girl, Hula Girls) - but the film really belongs to Sayuri Yoshinaga. As Ginko, Yoshinaga simultaneously captures affection, exasperation and embarrassment without ever sliding over the edge into caricature. Rated one of Japan's 10 Best Films of 2010.

Like the original series, "SPEC" will revolve around a pair of police detectives as part of a special division solving difficult cases (Mishou). Touma Saya is a woman with an IQ of 201 and an inability to "read the atmosphere" in social situations. Due to a previous case, her left arm is in a sling. Her partner Sebumi Takeru used to be the star performer of the Metropolitan Police. After some incident however, he was transferred to Mishou. Those two track down offenders with special abilities(SPEC) who managed to get away with their crimes.

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.

Based on the hit anime of the same name, "Honey and Clover" deals with five college art students. While the premise may sound simple, it's quite the opposite; the characters struggle through school, work, and love. All within the confines of a university, "Honey and Clover" showcases the journey that everyone must take from being a young adult and following the long and challenging road to becoming a full fledged adult.First off, the cast is wonderfully presented. Their likeliness to their anime counterparts is great and for the most part (albeit hair color) spot on. The mannerisms of the cast also reflected the anime greatly and fans of the anime will certainly enjoy this aspect of the film. Another great aspect of the film is definitely the cinematography. Since this film's environment is mostly held at or around an art school, you would expect for most part, as viewer, to be stimulated visually, right? Indeed this is the case with "Honey and Clover". The film accurately displays the happenings of an art school, from the constant unfinished student projects scattered about, to the multiple classes that art students participate in, it is faithfully recreated here.The musical score by famous composer Yoko Kanno is wonderfully implemented into the movie too. I for one have taken notice that Kanno is starting to produce more film scores, and she has done great job so far. With her most recent contributions to Su-ki-da and Kamikaze Girls, her slow transition from anime composition to film composition can only be seen as a good thing. I hope to see her contribute more to the realm of films in the future. Putting music aside though, "Honey and Clover" does run into some slight problems… Based on an anime series, one can truly see the tremendous amount of time and effort it would take to condense 26 episodes into roughly a two hour film. What happens in most cases when this occurs in other adaptations is that entire story arcs, characters, and original endings are left out. "Honey and Clover" suffers from the all these. While significantly better in many regards than most anime to film conversions, the story of "Honey and Clover" is just too character driven for a film. Maybe a Japanese TV drama would perhaps work well, but due to the time constraints of a film, it doesn't provide the adequate depth that the anime series does. This leaves viewers who aren't fans of the anime or manga sometimes clueless as to what is happening on screen. Some characters relationships might be questionable for those viewers who haven't seen the anime or read the manga. Some characters just pop in with little to no background and the viewer is expected to already know who they are, what their purpose is, and what their relationship is to plot. By the end of the film, all we are left is with a cast we don't really care for (even if you have seen the anime/read the manga). This hurts a film that otherwise is a moderately accurate retelling of a rather well crafted anime series.With all but one minor quibble (a major one if you haven't seen the series or read the manga), "Honey and Clover" is one of the better anime adaptations out there. While fans of the anime will definitely enjoy this film, non-fans will probably be asking themselves why certain characters do this or that, unknowing to the fact that their questions are clearly explained in anime. In the end though, I recommend this film for fans, but I have to say pass if you haven't seen anything that has to do with 'Honey and Clover".

Kiichiro Ota has recently begun work at an advertising agency. He is then forced to participate in the world's biggest TV Advertising Festival as a judge. There's parties held there every night and Kiichiro is paired with Hikari Ota, who shares the same family name, to act like husband and wife there.

At the festival, Kiichiro learns that if he doesn't allow the CM from his agency to win the grand prize then he will be fired. Directors from all over the world are gathered at the festival and the judges work within a hotel that is completely closed off. The directors scheme and bargain to make their agency win the grand prize.

Rival Japanese judges appear in front of Kiichiro.

The drama focuses on 45-year-old Tsuboi Ryota, the coordinator of a large CM company who is receiving a request from one of their clients to change some parts of their new CM. However, he’s unable to really explain to the director what changes should be made exactly. At the same time, he receives a call from his older sister, who tells him that his father has collapsed while golfing in Nagano and that he was admitted to a local hospital. In a hurry, Ryouta decides to go to Nagano, his birthplace.

Tsuboi Ryota is a good man. Nobody can really hate him, which is why the coordinator between his company and their clients seems like the perfect job for him. However, he frequently finds himself stuck in a dilemma, whether that’s between his wife and his daughter, his older sister and their mother, or his family and work in general.

Adding some mysterious, almost fantastical elements to this family drama are Miyazaki as a puzzling young woman Ryota happens to meet at the hospital and Natsuyagi as his father who strongly believes in the existence of a tiny fairy-like race called the ‘Kuna’.

Episodes: 10

The murder of Emili, a young girl, leaves the inhabitants of a small Japanese village in shock. The raped body of Emily is found by the four classmates with whom she was playing. The murder is never solved. Emili's mother Asako is torn by grief and puts a curse on the four girls when they claim that they don't remember the killer's face. Each of the girls, in their own way, will do their penance for their silence. Deeply struck by the words of Asako and burdened with her curse, the four girls are forced into adulthood which eventually triggers a tragic chain of events.

Adapted from the novel by Kanae Minato.

Set in Tokyo, actress Touko leaves the filming set of her latest project. She then comes across three people by random chance. She gives a ride to a man named Nagano whom she has never met before. At a small theatre, Kouko runs into Kikuchi - a former screenwriter who now works in the small theatre. Lastly, Touko meets Yasuko at the zoo. Yasuko is a woman studying for her college entrance exam and applying for a job at the zoo.

After being forced to resign from her publishing company job when her magazine goes out of circulation, office worker Haname Jinchoge is given the name of her real father-Noburo Jinchoge when her mother falls into a coma after nearly drowning in a pond while searching for kappa. Unsure if Noburo 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.

Haname becomes fascinated with the various oddities and charm of Light Bulb Co., and discovers that she, like her father has a knack for selling things so she decides to become a shopkeeper herself. Customers are hard to come by, but she listens to her dad's strange advice-like filling a sink full of water whilst running errands makes life exciting. One day her father offers to sell her the key to the family warehouse for 1 million yen to fund his next trip, which she excitedly agrees to without thinking. However, when she discovers a shocking fact about Light Bulb Co. she chucks the key away in disgust. Later she realizes that she's been stubborn not telling Noburo he was her dad, but by the time she runs back to meet him he's already gone. Eventually Haname with the support of gas.

One day a puppy comes to the house of Akari, who has just turned twelve and was trying hard to act strong after her mother suddenly fell ill. She immediately falls in love with the puppy and names it "Socks" after the paws which looked like they had white socks on. Akari was together with Socks day and night. However, as Akari grows up, her feelings and interests move away from Socks. Year by year, their distance grows, which also leads to her physical distance as she moves to a far-off city, and must leave Socks behind to a childhood friend. One day, Akari remembers the 10 promises that she had made with Socks and her deceased mother.

The plot revolves around four ladies struggle to find happiness in the capital city of Tokyo:

Satoko: Works as a receptionist at an escort service “Heavan’s Gate.” At home, she often prays to God to find a boy that will love her.

Chihiro: Works in a low level office position. When her roommate, Toko, asks if there is a God, she replies “God would be something like a boyfriend. Buys me whatever I want and makes possible all my wishes.” She often involves herself with men who only use her for sex.

Akiyo: Works at an escort service “Heavan’s Gate” as a call girl. She saves her money in order to eventually buy a condo situated on the 5th floor or higher. Once she gets old & senile, she plans to jump out of her apartment to her death. She is infatuated with Kikuchi, an old school friend. Akiyo changes her appearance when around Kikuchi and conceals the fact that she is a call girl.

Toko: Works obsessively as an illustrator. She suffers from bulimia, a fact she conceals from her roommate, Chihiro.

Three unpopular brothers, Masaichi, Masaru and Masao, are struggling to be popular among the girls. Luckily enough, they finally get a chance to have a co-ed picnic with some pretty young ladies! With 21 free-associative episodes ranging from a nonsense "sci-fi" comedy to a dance-battle daydream, Funky Forest: The First Contact will challenge your mind and melt logic, as its unique characters find themselves in warped dimensions way past our imagination.

The story concerns a boy called Shuji, growing up in a rural area of Japan where the community is divided into "Shore" and "Offshore" - the latter so-named because it is built on reclaimed land. He meets a few main...

In Tokyo, the reckless single mother Keiko moves to a small apartment with her twelve years old son Akira Fukushima and hidden in the luggage, his siblings Kyoko, Shigeru and Yuki. The children have different fathers and do not have schooling, but they have a happy life with their mother. When Keiko finds a new boyfriend, she leaves the children alone, giving some money to Akira and assigning him to take care of his siblings. When the money finishes, Akira manages to find means to survive with the youngsters without power supply, gas or water at home, and with the landlord asking for the rental.

Record shop clerk and aspiring DJ Tsutomu searches for his masculinity when challenged to a kendo duel.