Asian Drama

Himura Kenshin is a legendary swordsman who has stopped killing people with his sword. Instead, he uses a dull-edged sword. He tries to live a peaceful life with Kaoru who runs a swordsmanship school in their village. Kenshin's past catches up to him causing the destruction of Akabeko Restaurant, which was Kenshin's favorite place to eat. There, he finds a note with the word 'Jinchuu' on it.

Adapted from the manga series "Rurouni Kenshin" (るろうに剣心 -明治剣客浪漫譚) by Nobuhiro Watsuki.

Rai keeps failing to find a regular job. He works on setting up an exhibition for classic novel "The Tale of Genji" as a part-time laborer. At the exhibition, he listens to the narration about younger brother Ninomiya and older brother Ichinomiya from "The Tale of Genji." Rai can relate to the story. His younger brother is smart and handsome, but Rai is unable to find a regular job. His inferiority complex about his younger brother gets worse.

On the way back home, he hears that his younger brother has passed his medical school entrance exams. Rai decides to wander around his neighborhood, without going home. At that time, he sees a strange light and is sucked into the light. When he wakes up, Rai finds himself in the Heian period, which is the setting for the novel "The Tale of Genji." He learns about the Heian period from a pamphlet he picked up at the exhibition. He introduces himself as Onmyoji Raimei Ito. Thanks to a headache pill he has on him, he is hired as an onmyoji by the emperor’s wife Nyogo Kokiden. She is a fearless woman and coldly analytical in her actions. She desires to have her son take the emperor's position.

Agetaro Katsumata’s family runs a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo. Agetaro Katsumata will inherit the restaurant one day and he currently performs menial jobs at the restaurant, like chopping up the cabbage and delivering food orders. He isn't happy with his work. One day, Agetaro Katsumata delivers tonkatsu to the staff at a nightclub. There, he becomes fascinated with DJing. He sees a lot of similarity between tonkatsu and DJing. Agetaro Katsumata makes the decision to become Tonkatsu DJ.

Based on manga series "Tonkatsu DJ Age-Taro" written by Iipyao and illustrated by Yujiro Koyama.

Honma Kai and Ichinose Jiro are cadets at the police academy. Honma is the intellectual type who places emphasis on theory. A serious A-student born with excellent memory, he developed analytical skills at the academy and his skills at profiling began to blossom. He might seem like he does not care but he will not give up on people in need. On the other hand, Ichinose is the emotional and physical type. He is a fearless fighter whom even people with martial arts experience will dodge because of his boundless physical strength. Although his somewhat goofy way of speaking and thinking confuses the people around him, he is an honest, kind-hearted guy who will be the first to help when anyone who is in trouble. What the two of them lack practical experience, they make up with the knowledge obtained through lessons at the academy as well as their youth and enthusiasm. They become the best buddies who make up for each other’s deficiencies.

Makino Satoshi is a genius classical guitarist. One day, he meets journalist Komine Yoko. They become attracted to each other, but Komine Yoko has a fiancé.

The story is set in a fictional Japan where people are discriminated according to their birthplace and residence. Saitama Prefecture is particularly criticized by the people in Tokyo. One day, a mysterious male student named Rei Asami transfers to Hakuhoudou Academy, a prestigious high school in Tokyo, from America. Momomi Hakuhoudou, the male president of the school's student council and the grandson of the director of the school, is gradually attracted by him.

However, Rei's secret origin that he was born in Saitama is accidentally revealed. He returns to Saitama to join resistance movement to eliminate discrimination against Saitama citizens. When Momomi learns that a powerful politician tries to destroy Rei's resistance group, he decides to go to Saitama to inform Rei of the danger.

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.

29-year-old Kuroki Sayaka is a writer working for a magazine at a publishing company. She's engaged to her long-term boyfriend and will have her wedding in three months, so resigns from her job. But that night, she discovers that her fiance Kazuya, who was her first love from high school, has actually been cheating on her. When she confronts him, he breaks off the engagement saying he felt pressured by her to get married.

Broke from all the wedding expenses, Sayaka tries to return to her old job only to find out she's already been replaced. Her boss feels bad for her, though, so he finds a way for her to get reinstated in the company with a much higher caliber fashion magazine. However, there's a catch: according to her eccentric new boss Usami, Sayaka must meet his strange conditions. She must find a better man to marry within six months, and as embarrassed as she is, she must write an ongoing column about her experience, from broken engagement to wedding. But first, Sayaka has to figure out why she doesn't value herself enough to believe it's possible.

Inuyashiki Ichiro is a middle-aged, friendless man with an uncaring family. One fateful evening, he is struck by a mysterious explosion in a public park, which is of extraterrestrial origin, and his body is replaced by an incredibly powerful, but still outwardly human, mechanical body. He quickly realizes the extent of his body's powers, and after saving a homeless man being beaten by a pack of teenagers, he decides to dedicate himself to doing good, using his powers to heal those with incurable diseases and fight crime.

Attempted murder, fraud and embezzlement, illicit drugs, tax evasion and even murder? Five women convicted of various crimes and a crime-loathing female warden put aside their differences to hatch a grand plot of revenge against a handsome but crooked company CEO. But the revenge plan keeps hitting snags. All of these mature women with interesting back stories meet in a female penitentiary and band together to clear each other of unjust sentences in this blockbuster female crime story rich in laughter and tears, brilliantly merging the comedy and cheerfulness of Kudo Kankuro storytelling with serious deeper questions of why we’re all here and what constitutes true happiness.

In the fictional town of Moriou, Josuke Higashikata is the illegitimate son of Joseph Joestar. He possess a Stand (super power), called Crazy Diamond, that allows him to restore or fix broken objects or animals. Josuke and his friends go to war with other Stand users.

It is a warring period in feudal Japan. The warlord, Oda Nobunaga, is rapidly vanquishing his foes on a quest to pacify and unify the country under his rule. However, there is one domain that he forbids to lay a hand on, that of the Iga ninja, whom even the great Nobunaga fears most. The Iga are known to wield extraordinary and supernatural powers as invincible weapons of war who will assassinate anyone for money, and money only. They don’t think of people as human and are dubbed “the killer clan”. But there is one Iga ninja, Mumon, who while peerless inability is indolent and taken to task for an inability to earn much of an income. In the fall of the year Tensho 7, Nobunaga’s second son, Oda Nobukatsu, decides to ignore his father’s orders and attack the Iga country, partly encouraged by Taizen Heki, a man who had once turned on his master and was now employed as a vassal of Nobukatsu. Shimoyama Heibe, whose brother had been killed by Mumon also seeks revenge on the 12 Iga ninja core, including Momoji Sandayu and Shimoyama Kai. Amid various colliding interests and schemes, ultimately, a major bloody showdown is coming between Oda’s army and the Iga ninja.

Set six months after Naotake (Hidetoshi Nishijima) learned the truth behind his wife's death. Naotake works for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau, but feels worn out. Ryota (Teruyuki Kagawa) quit the police force due to his distrust...

Set in Kabukicho, which is an entertainment and red-light district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Tatsuhiko Shiratori (Gou Ayano) doesn't have money or a job. One day, he meets a scout named Matora (Yusuke Iseya) who recruits girls on the streets to work in the adult entertainment business. Matora likes Tatsuhiko and introduces Tatsuhiko to the world where he works. Tatsuhiko soon works as a scout too.

Strange cases of resurrections start occurring in a small isolated village, people being dead for days or decades, suddenly coming back to their families. The Ministry of Health decides to send a team to investigate the case, among whom is Heita, who was born in the region. He meets with Aoi, a childhood friend who was engaged to his best friend before this one died. Heita tries to understand what's happening in the village while Aoi hopes that her fiancée will also return.

After death, people have just one week to choose only a memory to keep for eternity.

A fantasy love story that drifts between this world and heaven. Chasuke is in charge of making tea in heaven. He has feelings for a human woman named Yuri whom he has seen from a writer who is scripting her life from heaven. He knows that Yuri is condemned to die in a car accident. To save the woman, Chasuke goes down to this world.

The film has little plot to speak of, but is instead divided into three short episodes, each of which opens with a man desperately running away before being trapped in a dead end, where something out-of-the-ordinary occurs. The episodes include a musical number, a Mexican stand-off and a police pursuit.

Kaoru (Matsumoto Kana) is just a normal girl living with her annoying brother (Taniyama Takeru), harried mom (Suzuki Sawa, Loft), and languid dad (Furuta Arata, Hana), until one day her mom just ups and leaves. Soon after her dad's new girlfriend Yoko (Takeuchi Yuko) comes strolling in. Kaoru isn't sure what to make of Yoko, who is brash, forward, good-humored, and at times downright uncouth. As the summer passes day by day, a unique friendship forms between them and Kaoru opens her eyes to a new, exciting world, even as reality begins to catch up. Based on Nagashima Yu's Akutagawa Prize-winning novel.

In a world with an alternate history, a great war finally comes to an end leaving the earth diseased and polluted. The geneticist Dr. Azuma vies for support from the government for his neo-cell treatment that he claims can rejuvenate the body and regenerate humankind. The government leaders, guarding their own deeply entrenched powers, turn down the professor. Driven to complete his work, Dr. Azuma accepts a secret offer from a sinister faction of the powerful military. After an incident occurs in Dr. Azuma's lab, a race of mutant humans known as the Shinzo Ningen are unleashed upon the world. Now only the warrior known as Casshern, reincarnated with an invincible body, stands between the Shinzo Ningen and a world on the brink of annihilation.

Set along a backdrop of a fictitious second world war at an international city in Asia.

In Japan, Lieutenant Colonel Yuki recommends the creation of spy training school "D Kikan". Meanwhile, Kato is facing capital punishment for his refusal to follow a superior's order. Kato is then scouted by "D Kikan". He goes through a harsh training regiment and faces his first mission as a spy.

In order to seize American ambassador Graham's confidential documents "Black Note", Kato infiltrates into an international city. A battle to gain possession of the "Black Note" ensues between Kato, a mysterious woman named Rin, the British Spy Agency, the Soviet Spy Agency and the radical army in Japan.

Fumi becomes Genzui Kusaka’s wife. During the turbulent times of the closing days for the Tokugawa shogunate, she lives positively and tries to keep up Shoin Yoshida's will. Shoin Yoshida is her older brother and intellectual.

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".

Sen no Rikyu is the son of a fish shop owner. Sen no Rikyu then studies tea and eventually becomes one of the primary influences upon the Japanese tea ceremony. With his elegant esthetics, Sen no Rikyu is favored by the most powerful man in Japan Toyotomi Hideyoshi and becomes one of his closest advisors. Due to conflicts, Toyotomi Hideyoshi then orders Sen no Rikyu to commit seppuku (suicide).

Adapted from the novel "Rikyu ni Tazuneyo" by Kenichi Yamamoto.

Ito Kaiji erased all of his debts by successfully navigating through death-defying games one after the other. A year later though, he's back in the same debt-ridden situation. Kaiji then gets a chance to clear himself of his 200 million yen debt, but he has only 2 weeks. Kaji then decides to take on the mother of all pachinko machines named "The Swamp". The top winning payout is over 1 billion yen. "The Swamp" is controlled by an illegal casino operation named Teiai. Meanwhile, Ichijo Seiya, controls the machine from a remote location to ensure the machine never pays out the jackpot. Kaiji recruits the help of Ishida Hiromi, whose father was killed by Teiai, Kotaro Sakazaki a fired employee of Teiai, and Yukio Tonegawa who lost his position at the hands of Teiai. They all join Kaiji to take down "The Swamp," but their lives are at stake.

Joe Yabuki is an aimless young man who runs away from an orphanage with no money and no place to stay. He runs into a former boxing trainer, Danpei, who still has a strong passion for boxing. Danpei watches Joe fight and regains his desire to train future boxers. Joe, however, does not have any interest in boxing until he ends up in a juvenile prison where he meets Rikiishi, a former boxing prodigy. They quickly develop a rivalry, and a newfound interest in boxing overcomes everybody in prison, including Joe.

Cult director Takeshi Miike delivers a bravado period action film set at the end of Japan's feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the...

Koji Namiki, a talented young pitcher, who had won the National High School Baseball Championships enters university, but soon afterwards injures his elbow. He and his teammates work hard to get back on the field placing all his hopes on a new slow-ball, "the magic pitch." However, the outbreak of WWII wipes out the baseball ambitions from everyone. They join the military and in the navy undergo the severe training that prepares them for death. Death awaits them in a "kaiten" (special attack submarine or "human torpedo") within the gloomy ocean depths, but Koji never gives up his dream of the "magic pitch."