Asian Drama

Hoshi Shinichi is the "God of Short Stories" who published more than 1001 short stories during his lifetime, some of which are included in textbooks and continue to be read even today. His stories often feature mysterious and exciting science fiction and fantasy elements, such as the cosmic space, robots, and demons. A sometimes "humorous" and sometimes "cynic" look at society and mankind. Always short, but always surprising and unpredictable. Is it a poisonous allegory or a wake-up call? See some of his greatest gems come to life in this 2022 live-action adaptation.

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Nakagawa Saori is a chef apprentice at "Chez Nishijima", a prestigious French restaurant in Tokyo in year 2020. Despite winning various French cuisine contests, Saori does not appreciate her cookings and spends her days washing dishes. While Saori slowly loses her confidence and passion, she suddenly slips into Tokyo in year 1964. There, she meets Kikuchi Ryuichi, a cook at western restaurant "Jade-tei" and started training under him. Ryuichi is very dedicated to cooking despite the limited ingredients and cooking utensils as compared to the present days. He shows Saori what is really important in cooking and what she lacks as a cook.

Kanako Oba uses a mysterious site to apply for part-time work. As a result, her life is soon in jeopardy. She is forced to work at the restaurant Diner as a waitress or she will be killed. The restaurant is membership only and their customers are all contract killers.

Police Officer Enami Atsushi was a capable detective with MPD’s First Investigation Division. For a certain reason, he was demoted to Okutama Police Station’s Mizune Police Substation and is now well-liked and known to the local people of Okutama as “Chuzai-san.”

The film centers on Iwao Shishido, who at age forty suddenly leaves his rural village, but returns with a foreign bride during his father's funeral.

This is adapted by director Keisuke Yoshida from Hideki Arai’s 1990s manga series with the same title.

In his third year of marriage, Jun works at an office and lives with his wife Chie. One day, Jun comes home from work to find Chie collapsed and bleeding in the entryway. He rushes to her aid, but it turns out that Chie was just pretending to be dead. After that, Chie pretends to be dead on a daily basis.

A boy is attacked by a giant monster and gets injured. The injured boy runs to a nearby village where Akane lives and warns them about the monster. The residents are frightened. Akane, Sakakida Soei and Kikuchi Enshu look for a way to protect their village. Meanwhile, Akane's older brother Soya Danjo schemes to manipulate the monster.

Adapted from the novel "Kou Jin" by Miyabe Miyuki.

Episodes: 1

Spring 1941. Toshihiko shows up at the home of his aunt in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture. He entertains a crush on his tubercular cousin Mina while reveling in "depraved" adolescence with the girls and indulging in bravery-testing escapades with his school buddies. Meanwhile, the Pacific War erupts.

Balsa and the crown prince Chagum travel together again. The young boy who survived because he was protected by Balsa, has gone through suffering and grown into a splendid crown prince. Balsa starts to expose the conspiracy that lies hidden deep in the bowels of her beautiful homeland of the Kingdom of Kambal. And then, Chagum stands up to the attack of the Talsh Empire which has targeted the New Yogo Empire. A natural disaster occurs that shakes the land. Gold birds flutter in the sky.

In a society in which justice is awfully subjective, and the possibility of finding the truth is so complicated, detective Yugami simply chases after the facts of various cases. He will casually approach potential suspects and talk to them in order to attain new information. All he is looking for are the facts. He feels that there is no point in following the rules, nor trying to read the atmospheres of the environment he's in. For him, resorting to unique and illegal investigations is not out of the ordinary. To assist him, he also has a sidekick, Torao Hanyu, who's a serious detective with a completely different personality. For Yugami, he simply wants to arrest as many criminals as possible through his illegal investigation style, so Torao's existence becomes a bother for him. Two detectives with absolutely nothing in common, somehow try to combine their skills in order to combat the enemies of society.

Tomo is a neglected 11-years-old girl. She lives with her mother, who abandons her when she falls in love with a new man. Whenever that happens, Tomo goes to live with her uncle, Makio. However, this time around, Makio is cohabitating with his girlfriend, Rinko, who is a transgender woman. The film portrays the drama that unfolds in an unconventional family and Tomo's acceptance of LGBT people.

Four years after her journey with Chagum ended, Balsa has become an outlaw. Concealing herself in the kingdom of Rota to the west of the New Yogo Empire, she continues to be a bodyguard. One day, Balsa saves a young girl Asura who has the ability to summon Taru Hamaya, the god of devastation. Spies of the royal family are mobilised in an attempt to eliminate her. Meanwhile, in the New Yogo Empire, Chagum who is now the crown prince, has set out on a sea voyage. The Trush Empire to the south is trying to invade the north and wages war against the seafaring kingdom of Sangal as a beachhead. Chagum leads reinforcements, but this is the emperor’s ploy to expel the crown prince. Sangal falls into the hands of the Trush Empire and Chagum ends up becoming a captive.

Adapted from the novels by Uehashi Nahoko, Kami no Moribito and Sōro no Tabibito, the 5th and 6th books in her Moribito series.

Kenta Sakaguchi was a yakuza member and he spent 13 years in prison for killing a rival yakuza boss. Hidehiko Hirohashi was a secretary for a politician. He took the blame for the politician’s act. Isao Okawara was a self-defense official, but he took in arms against the government. The three men gather under retired ex-detective Gonzaemon Mukai and they get even with the people who betrayed and deceived them.

Morita Sae (Takimoto Miori) lives in the town of Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture. One day, when she visits Spa Resort Hawaiians with her family and their pet dog, Choco, she sees girls doing the hula dance and gets completely engrossed. Time passes. Sae joins Spa Resort Hawaiians. She fulfils her dream to become a hula girl and enjoys her days to the fullest. But on 11 March 2011 at 2.46 p.m. when she is taking a break back stage after the end of a show, the Great East Japan Earthquake hits. Her peaceful, regular life undergoes a sudden change. Transportation and telecommunications are disrupted due to the earthquake. At the hotel, the manager Haseda Takeshi (Ihara Tsuyoshi) issues instructions to staff to take care of guest needs as much as possible. Sae and fellow dancers, Takezawa Kasumi (Haru) and Shimano Hikari (Sasamoto Rena), wait for their families to contact them. She focuses on her family and Choco. At the Moritas at that moment, her father Zenko (Taguchi Hiromasa), mother Ayano (Nakahara Kannan) and elder sister Ami (Sato Megumi) are all safe, but a temporary evacuation warning has been issued because of a second earthquake alert. Sae finally gets hold of her family. The next morning, she rushes over to the evacuation centre where they are waiting. However, Choco is not there. Sae dissolves into tears at the memories of Choco. She had always had her family and Choco by her side. It was Choco that cheered her up each time she came back home after she joined Spa Resort Hawaiians and got yelled at by the instructor, Yoshimoto Minako (Kikuchi Momoko), for not being able to dance to her satisfaction, and whenever she had difficult moments. Forced into harsh circumstances because of the earthquake, Sae and the hula girl members grow depressed. But they also believe in resuming their dance and begin to practice with Minako’s encouragement. Meanwhile, taking Hikari’s suggestion, they pay visits to evacuation centres as well as start the Hula Girls National Kizuna Caravan to hold free performances nationwide to cheer up and bring smiles throughout Japan with the hula dance. The hula girls including Sae transform their sorrow and pain into smiles for the sake of Fukushima’s rehabilitation and Spa Resort Hawaiians’ reopening. Like the hula girls 46 years ago, they head to various parts of the country. However, adversity beyond their imagination awaits them.

Morimura Tomomi is a housewife scorned by her husband and two sons, and yet she continues to protect the family. On her 46th birthday, she leaves home in disgust and embarks on a 1,200 km journey. It is Tomomi’s first time driving onto the highway and she speeds along to the west. On the road, she encounters a series of traumatising episodes. She detects her husband’s affair, is faced with a truck driver who mistakes her for a prostitute housewife, and finally her car gets stolen. While Tomomi is at a loss, a good-looking young man and an elderly person give her a ride, and she arrives in Nagasaki. As she meets various people in this town which was once transformed into a wasteland because of the atomic bomb, she becomes aware of a “wilderness” within her and starts to explore the path to rebirth.

Based on the novel "Dakara Kōya" by Kirino Natsuo.

Ichinose Ryo works as a salesperson for Hashiba Sales Service, a subsidiary of the mid-sized electronics manufacturer, Hashiba Electronics, which prides itself on its long history. One day, he is ordered to transfer to the company’s headquarters. Why him when he has no strong points? Hashiba Electronics designs products which its subsidiary is responsible for manufacturing. The group’s share of the market is now being lost to emerging foreign companies and it is in financial difficulty. The new company president, Matsumoto Kiyoomi, who has come from America, has his eye on Ichinose’s perseverance as a salesperson and intends to make a five-member team contemplate strategies to improve the management of the group. Ordered to submit a proposal, Ichinose and the members head to Vietnam in search of ideas for cost-cutting measures. He finds out about a new business plan, a license business in Vietnam. However, that is when he learns of the ongoing bribery behind the contract work between headquarters and subsidiary as a result of the license business. Ichinose’s former boss, Taki Shinsuke, is aware of this bribery, and had promised to keep quiet about it in exchange for a director’s position at Hashiba Electronics. Determined to push through reforms in order to correct company’s way of doing things and fulfil his own and the other members’ dreams, Ichinose gets close to but a series of big hurdles stand in his way.

Kuraki Naotake is the top ace of the Public Safety Department. Osugi Ryota is a top-notch straight-talking detective from the MPD. Akeboshi Misa is an investigator from the Public Safety Department. Together, the 3 of them investigate on the bombing incident in Shinjuku. Naotake had specifically requested to be on the investigation team as he had lost his wife in the said incident.

The new season begins with a special case that leads the duo to the Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong. It’s the first time for ‘Aibou’ to expand its setting to a foreign location since they went to London in the second season. Mizutani commented that it perfectly suits inspector Sugishita Ukyo, since Hong Kong used to be a British colony and Ukyo is interested in everything British. His new partner is called ‘Kai Toru’. He’s played by Narimiya Hiroki and is going to breath new life into the series. More details about him can be found here and here, but we will have to wait until the first episode to find out how they end up as partners.

It is April at Kokubunkan Public High School which is known for being good at both studies and sports. Aoyagi Haruka, the rookie form teacher of Class 3D, swells with hope. However, the assistant form teacher is Takakura Yuko, the biology teacher with a poor reputation in school. Furthermore, the transfer student Toda Toshio suddenly accuses the class prefect Mochizuki Ryohei and others of bad deeds. There is a lot to sort out for the new school term. One day, Class 3D’s Yamagishi Rio is instructed by her boyfriend, Tatsuya, to collect the email addresses of her friends. Tatsuya attends a first rate university and has also passed the bar exam. He belongs to the “winners”, but is in truth a peddler who sells unregulated herbs. In order to keep her relationship with Tatsuya going, Rio caters to his demands even though she knows is it wrong. Before long, there is a spam email that starts the rumour of Rio offering email addresses and encouraging unregulated herbs. An inspection of Rio’s bag is carried out without warning. Rio seeks Haruka’s help and Haruka promises to keep it a secret from the school. However, Yuko points out that Rio is a mere tool of the peddler. In addition, there is a call about the collapse of the students of Class 3D after smoking the unregulated herbs. In an attempt to save an embattled Rio, Haruka asks Yuko for help. But Yuko coldly says that she will save Rio in exchange for Haruka’s first paycheck. Yuko, the classics teacher Uchida Sumire and art teacher Fujii Aya wear different faces from daytime. They are “black teachers” who solve problems in return for large sums of money.

A former psychologist, who has the ability to recognizes lies through behaviour and mimic, now works as a detective. He uses his ability for solving difficult cases.

At the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Headquarters, the core of the Japanese Police, an unprecedented hostage situation in the history of MPD breaks out. The hostages are 12 top executives of the MPD: Superintendent-General Tamaru, Deputy Supt-Gen Hasegawa and bureau chiefs. The conference room, where the perpetrator and the executives are held hostage, is completely surrounded by Riot Police Squad and Special Investigation Team (SIT). The perpetrator’s motives are unknown and he makes no demands.

Meanwhile, two gunshots echo from the conference room. Ignoring Sugishita’s strong opposition, Nakazono orders Riot Squad and SIT to storm the conference room. What they find there is Yaegashi, shot and dead. Gunpowder residue is found on all the hostages, but who fired the gun? This cannot be determined. While released from captivity, all 12 hostages become suspects.

In response to Supervisor Okouchi’s questioning, all the hostages give ambivalent testimonies that the gun went off while they struggled to neutralize the perpetrator, and that they do not know who pulled the trigger. Concerning Yaegashi’s demands, all remain silent. Becoming strongly suspicious of this, Sugishita and Kanbe gains cooperation of Chief Kakuta and others, and undertake their own question of the executives, who were taken hostage.

On the other hand, receiving the report of the hostage case, National Police Agency Director Onoda, along with National Police Agency Commissioner Kaneko, begins to make disturbing moves.

A man inadvertently kills his uncle. A woman witnesses this act. These two people fall in love and flee to Tokyo. A detective investigates their past.

Episodes: 8

Duration: 54 min.

Aired On: Sunday

Kanbe Takeru chooses to remain in the Special Missions Division, but he seems to continue to keep a distance from his direct superior, Sugishita Ukyo. One day, the dead body of the popular female novelist, Mizumoto Shoko, is found in her own home. The possibility of murder fuelled by a grudge is high from the situation at the crime scene, and a male stalker emerges in the line of investigation. However, Ukyo focuses his attention on a missing section from a document package for a new book that Shoko was working on. It is eventually determined that Shoko was attempting to write a novel with an environmental theme which is completely different from her style of writing so far. Ukyo and Kanbe try to get information from the employees at a trading conglomerate that Shoko had interviewed.

This renzoku follows four women in the "around 40" generation. Shifumi is an attractive woman who stole her classmate's boyfriend in high school, and despite criticism from others, she got married and had a child. However, she soon divorced and currently keeps a younger boyfriend. Three of Shifumi's former classmates: ordinary housewife Makiko, work-focused doctor Neri, and housewife Miwa. Miwa is having an affair with Shifumi's ex-husband Keishi (the boyfriend Shifumi originally stole from her.) Eventually, the various secrets and lies kept by the four women all come to light.

The 45th NHK Taiga Drama is Komyo ga Tsuji.

Kazutoyo lived during the end of the Sengoku period (1546-1605). He was the first feudal lord of the fief of Tosa on the island of Shikoku. He served Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Chiyo (1557-1617) was his wife, and was known in history for her dedication and devotion to her husband (like Matsu was to Toshiie in Toshiie to Matsu). She is the daughter of a samurai who served the feudal lord Asai.