Asian Drama

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Depicts the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident that occurred in 2011 over a period of 7 days. From the three perspectives of the government, corporate organizations, and those who put their lives on the line. It will approach what really happened on that day and in that place.

Hirayama works as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. He seems content with his simple life. He follows a structured everyday life and dedicates his free time to his passion for music and books. Hirayama also has a fondness for trees and photographs them. More of his past is gradually revealed through a series of unexpected encounters.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Co-production with Germany.

Duration: 2 hr. 3 min.

Miyazawa Masajiro owns and runs a pawn shop for generations. His first son is Miyazawa Kenji and his daughter is Miyazawa Toshi. Kenji is supposed to take over the pawn shop as the first son, but he refuses to take over the store. Masajiro is soft on his son. Meanwhile, Toshi is smart and wise. She gives advice to her father and her older brother. One day, Toshi gets sick.

Adapted from the novel "Ginga Tetsudo no Chichi" (銀河鉄道の父) by Kadoi Yoshinobu (門井慶喜).

In the turbulent last days of the Edo period, Kawai Tsugunosuke, a Japanese samurai serving the Makino clan of Nagaoka, dreamt of independence from the restraints of vassalship. Despite his progressive views and his desire for his estate to remain neutral during the Boshin Civil War, he was bound by loyalty and duty to the clan and was compelled to choose sides.

Adapted from the novel "Toge: Saigo no Samurai" (峠 最後のサムライ) by Shiba Ryotaro (司馬遼太郎).

Mikami, an ex-yakuza of middle age with most of his life in prison, gets released after serving 13 years of sentence for murder. Hoping to find his long lost mother, from whom he was separated as a child, he applies for a TV show and meets a young TV director Tsunoda. Meanwhile, he struggles to get a proper job and fit into society. His impulsive, adamant nature and ingrained beliefs cause friction in his relationship with Tsunoda and those who want to help him.

Adapted from the novel "Mibuncho" by Ryuzo Saki.

Tenko runs a pension alone. It is located in a forest in Nagano, that is full of the Japanese larch tree. She interacts with her guests, who come from all walks of life.

1988, Hiroshima. Hioka gets assigned to the second investigative unit under Ogami, a detective rumored to have mob ties, and he is put in charge of the missing person case for an employee at a yakuza-affiliated finance company. Hioka confronts ruthless gang thugs while harboring doubts about the law-breaking Ogami.

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.

In order to end the Sengoku period and determine a ruler for the new era, on October 21, 1600 the Battle of Sekigahara takes place between the Western Army, led by Mitsunari Ishida, and the Eastern Army, led by Ieyasu Tokugawa, who attempts to keep a hold of the nation within his greedy grasp. Even though the Western Army are believed to outnumber the Eastern Army, they take losses on the battlefield. A hidden truth exists. Hatsume was sent to spy on Mitsunari Ishida, but falls in love with him.

Kenichi Endo, Ren Osugi, Tomorowo Taguchi, Susumu Terajima, Yutaka Matsushige and Ken Mitsuishi all receive offers to take part in a big budget drama series with a famous lead actor and world famous director. To study their roles and relationships, the director asks the six supporting actors to live together for 3 months at a share house. The actors begin their temporary living arrangement. An incident from 10 years ago though causes the actors to hold resentment.

In July 1945, during the end of World War II, Japan is forced to accept the Potsdam Declaration. A cabinet meeting has continued through days and nights, but a decision cannot be made. The U.S. drops atomic bombs on the...

The Yazawa family consists of the father Takuro (Koji Yakusho) - who is always busy day trading, charming wife Erumi (Satomi Kobayashi), teenage son Tetsuya (Eita) - who dreams of becoming an astronaut. The family is also joined by Saburo Akiba (Junichi Sawayashiki), a good-natured teen recently released from a juvenile corrections facility. Then one day Tetsuya falls into a coma from a car accident. A chain of events is set to occur set-off by the father taking a phone call from an unsuspecting girl named Hikari. The father pretends to be his son Tokuya ...

Best-selling novelist Kosaku Igami has made a career out of using his family as fodder for his novels, much to their dismay. When his mother, the spirited family matriarch, is diagnosed with dementia, Igami must come to terms with the...

Onimasa is the egocentric boss of a small yakuza clan on Shikoku Island, whose criminal duties conflict with his self-image as a chivalrous samurai. His struggles with his boss, the Shikoku Godfather, and the tumultuous life of his adopted daughter,...

Toda (Koji Yakusho), who has been in confinement for killing a boy servant who had an affair with his concubine 7 years ago. Akiya Toda is expected to commit hara-kiri within 3 years. In the meantime, Akiya Toda works on an order from the previous daimyo to write the daimyo's family tree into a book. Soon, Shozaburo Danno becomes touched by Akiya Toda, Akiya Toda's wife Orie (Mieko Harada) and his daughter Kaoru (Maki Horikita). Specifically, Shozaburo Danno is moved by Akiya Toda's enthusiasm for making the daimyo's family tree book and Orie's love and trust for her husband and daughter. He finds it difficult to believe that Akiya Toda killed a boy servant. Shozaburo Danno decides to investigate the case which occurred 7 years ago.

Venerated actor Koji Yakusho (Shall We Dance?, Tokyo Sonata, The Eel), in his directorial debut, also writes and stars in the charming drama Toad's Oil .It's a story about an egocentric high-rolling daytrader who claims he can earn hundreds of millions of yen in one day, and for those around him as they attempt to cope when his son falls into a coma after a devasting car accident. A chain of events is set to occur set-off by the father taking a phone call from an unsuspecting girl named Hikari. The father pretends to be his son ...

Synopsis:Eureka is a drama, set mainly in rural Japan, and is mostly shot in sepia tone. It tells the story of a young boy and girl, Naoki Tamura and Kozue Tamura (Masaru Miyazaki and Aoi Miyazaki, who are real-life siblings) who are on a bus when it is hijacked by a crazed killer. They, along with the bus driver, Makoto Sawai (Koji Yakusho), are the only survivors and flee together. But upon their attempted return to their normal lives, Makoto becomes a suspect in a series of murders and the children become orphaned. These numerous unfortunate events bring the three, along with the orphans' cousin, Akihiko (Yoichiro Saito), back together, forming a family and working toward reconciliation from the shared hijacking experience.

After the forced suicide of Nobunaga Oda at the Incident at Honno-ji, powerful figures Katsuie Shibata, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Nagahide Niwa and Tsuneoki Ikeda meet to decide on a successor. The conference would become Japan‘s first group made political decision. The meeting was known as the Kiyosu Kaigi.

In the late 1930's (Show Period 14), two sides in Japan are conflicted between joining Germany and Italy in a military alliance. At this time, Isoroku Yamamoto, who strongly opposed the alliance, is appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet. The following year, on September 27, Japan, Germany and Italy form the Axis alliance.

Isoroku Yamamoto leads the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The attack's main purpose is to gain an early peace settlement. The surprise military strike appeared successful and caused massive damage, but US aircraft carriers were not damaged in the assault. After the attack, the Axis alliance initially saw advances without any defeats.

By April 18, 1942 (Show Period 17), formations of U.S. B-25B bombers, flown from an U.S. aircraft carrier, attacked the Japanese mainland for the first time. The Japanese military responded by carrying out their Midway operation, but the mission failed, and the Japanese military lost 4 aircraft carriers.

The U.S. army were encouraged by their victory at Midway and proceeded to carry out a landing operation on Guadalcanal. The Japanese and U.S. military fought fiercely. Besides the toll from fighting the U.S. military, the Japanese military suffered from starvation, dehydration and diseases while on Guadalcanal. The Japanese military were nearing collapse on Guadalcanal before Isoroku Yamamoto gave the order to withdraw to save more lives.

After the completion of the withdrawal from Guadalcanal, Isoroku Yamamoto flew on an airplane to make moral boosting visits to soldiers on the front line. His plane would be intercepted by the U.S. military.

It's New Year's Eve for the Hotel Avanti, and the whole place is in panic mode. There's an award ceremony and countdown party to prepare for, guests to greet, entertainment to organise, a persistent call girl to deter, an escapee duck to find, and more.

It is near impossible to sum up this film in a few neat concise paragraphs. The level of writing that has gone into this film is fantastic. Throughout, it really feels like a stage play. The viewer feels intimate with the story and characters, and there is a real warmth and closeness there that is rare to find. Perhaps it the writer's experience with the stage that allows that quality to come through, and as such it is a real strength for the film.

This intimacy really helps the viewer to involve themselves in the story, which is incredibly fast-paced and deliciously mischievous in design. The film is really funny, and represents a very full spectrum of humour, from "hmmm" funny to "hah hah", and wry to downright silly, but still manages to be quite understated. This isn't the kind of film that you will make Pepsi come out your nose, but it is really funny all the same, and and there are some hilarious cock-ups that will have you giggling gleefully.

The jokes of course wouldn't work without the film's biggest strength: the characters. They are all so enjoyable to watch, as their adventures and mishaps tangle and spiral together, gathering momentum in one huge snowball effect. Some scenes are the culmination of so many threads that it is wonderfully painful to watch it all come together. It is hard not to talk at the TV. To the writer's credit though, the film is often refreshingly unpredictable, and I was impressed to find that this comedy of errors didn't just rely on the same old gags as similarly styled comedies.

The film also carries a dramatic message, and while all of the characters are caricatures of sorts, they are much deeper than that, and live and breath to the extent that the viewer finds themselves genuinely caring about what happens to them. There are so many great characters and scenes in this film that it would be a very cynical viewer that couldn't take away something memorable from it.

The Uchoten Hotel is a delightful film, expertly written, directed and performed. Even as the film effortlessly straddles zaniness and sophistication, and its many threads entwine together, the viewer can, just as the Hotel Avanti promises, think of the place as their second home.

In the last months of the Second World War, the Empire of Japan receives a final gift from the collapsing Nazi Germany: the I-507, a highly-advanced submarine equipped with experimental technology.

The mission, as revealed by the grim Chief of Staff Asakura (Shinichi Tsutsumi) following the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is to intercept U.S. ships transporting a third nuclear weapon to Tinian Island, the principal base from which American B-29s Bombers are striking the Japanese home Islands. The man charged with the mission is Commander Masami (Yakusho Koji) - a brilliant destroyer of enemy ships relieved of his command when he opposed the navy's increasing reliance on suicide tactics. Given a last chance to redeem himself, he is burning with zeal, but is ignorant of the various secrets the I-507 carries on board.

Once at sea, Lt. Takasu (Ken Ishiguro), the owlish technician in charge of the imaging system, refuses to tell Masami what it is or how it works. Masami also discovers that two crew members belong to the "kaiten" suicide corps. He has no idea why they are there -- and neither, for the moment, do they.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy is tracking the I-507 with more than usual interest. What, Masami wonders, is going on here? Enough to say that a sweet-voiced teenage girl (Yu Kashi) is part of the master plan and that one of the minisub pilots (Satoshi Tsumabuki) becomes her protector -- and something more.

In February 1972, five members of the Japanese Red Army lock themselves up in a mountain lodge in Karuizawa called Asama Sanso, taking the wife of its proprietor hostage. Sassa Atsuyuki (Koji Yakusho) of the National Police Agency is put in charge by his chief (Makoto Fujita), and rushes to the scene. The case is supposed to be resolved in a few days, but the police do not get permission to use guns, and in addition, there is the severe cold and continuous antagonism between the Metropolitan Police Department and the Prefectural Police, making things extremely complicated. On the tenth day, in an attempt to force a breakthrough, they eventually use a wrecking ball that is operated with a crane truck to break down the outside wall of the lodge, then start to charge in. However, the crane breaks down halfway through, hampering the continuation of this strategy and the ranks fall into confusion. After the head of the riot police sacrifices his life, Sassa takes his place at the forefront and continues the siege. Under his command, the riot police finally raids the room where the kidnappers are. The radicals are all arrested on the spot, and the hostage is safe and unharmed.

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