Asian Drama

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Minato Kanae (湊かなえ).

"Mothers in Love" follows the lives of three mothers, who have sons that attend the same school.

An Ishiwatari lived with her husband and son. Her husband worked at a travel agency and An Ishiwatari lived in comfort. Her life changed after her husband went missing. An Ishiwatari now raises her son alone and sends him to a prestigious high school.

Yuko Hayashi is a successful career woman. Her husband is an unpopular novelist and he takes care of their home. Their son is a high school student. Yuko Hayashi's family seems to run smoothly, but she worries about her son.

Mari Kanbara lives with her husband and they have 3 children (1 son and 2 daughters). Her son attends the same prestigious high school as the sons of An Ishiwatari and Yuko Hayashi and her husband works at a law firm. Mari Kanbara appears to have an enviable life, but her husband is having an affair. Mari Kanbara is unable to even blame him for his infidelity.

Adapted from the manga by Fumi Saimon.

This drama is a pure love story that depicts the miracle of love over 10 years. Kitazawa Nao (Toda Erika), a 34 year old doctor with juvenile alzheimer's, falls in love with Mamiya Shinji (Muro Tsuyoshi), a 41 year old novelist who works part time with a moving company one month before her marriage to Ihara Yuichi (Matsuoka Masahiro). Shinji keeps her bright and healthy, but Kitazawa's illness has her fearing she will one day forget.

Almost defying description, Miike's film opens with found documentary footage about sperm-production in young males and then turns to a graphically violent recreation of the execution in 1865 of the 28-year-old Okada Izo, a low-born samurai who killed in the service of the anti-shogun rebel Hanpeita Takechi. Fast-forward through 15 decades of Japanese history: suddenly Izo's spirit possesses the body of a street-sleeper in an alley of Tokyo's financial district.

The reincarnated assassin goes on a killing rampage through time and space, from the Warring States period to the day after tomorrow, slaughtering everyone from a Buddhist elder to the prime minister ("Beat" Takeshi in one of dozens of star cameos), not forgetting his own mother. Nothing can stop him, because Izo is negation itself: the contradiction spewed up by the "perfect system" that is Japan. Nothing is immune to his attack, except perhaps the godlike emperor (Matsuda Ryuhei) and the maternal goddess of mercy (Momoi Kaori). Standing to one side, watching and commenting in song, is Tomokawa Kazuki, a radical folkie from the 1960s.