Haruka Igawa

Toho university hospital has established an outstanding coronary surgery team under the leadership of a up and coming, star, U.S. trained surgeon that specializes in the highly risky "Batista" procedure to shrink the size of enlarged hearts. Normally this procedure has only a 60% success rate, but "Team Batista" has achieved a run of 26 straight successes....when suddenly 3 patients in a row die on the operating table. Very disturbed, the lead surgeon requests an independent investigation. The hospital turns to Dr. Taguchi who is a specialist in psychosomatic disorders who is shocked to at the assignment because she knows nothing in particular about surgery. Assured, however, that this very lack of insider specialized knowledge is in fact the "objectivity" required, she diligently begins to investigate in her own polite, but persistent manner.

A Christmas Eve power outage provides a collection of troubled Tokyo denizens the opportunity to come clean on the misdeeds of their past.

A 48-year-old company chief, Yukihiro Fujiyama (Koji Yakusho) goes to a hospital. There he discovered that he has got terminal lung cancer and will die within half a year. He declines any treatment and decides to go to see some people he has not met for years, to write farewell letters to his family, relatives and friends...

Hosted by veteran comedian Tamori, "Bizarre Tales 2003 Fall Special" presents five tales. 1. *Kagi (The Key) - starring Eguchi Yosuke. 2. Perfect Couple - starring Yada Akiko. 3. Toosugita Otoko (The Man Who Was Too Far Away) - starring Nakamura Shido. 4. Meiro (The Maze)- starring Tanihara Shosuke. 5. Kage ga Omonaru Toki (When Shadows Accumulate) - starring Yashima Norito. * Adapted from a novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka.

Six women attempt to make it in current day Tokyo, living their everyday lives the best and worst they can. For them, every little moment becomes a ritual of the ordinary and the exciting, a balancing act for their dreams and hopes as the days perpetually tug on their heartstrings.

A precarious loner sneaks into a blind woman's home and begins living there without her noticing. Meanwhile, the woman mourns her recently deceased father and struggles to remain connected to the world.

Koji, a university student and budding photographer, is asked by a man to secretly take pictures of his wife Yurika. As a result, his relationships with a girl who visits his part-time workplace called Tominaga and his step-sister Misaki begin to change subtly.

ウーマンズ.アイランド～彼女たちの選択

A young child is obsessed with learning about and drawing fish. The child seems a little odd, but if you are understanding and supportive you will be cheering in the end.

A seeing-eye dog (Shiro) is granted one wish by his former owner. He chooses to become a human for a short time so he can find the girl who trained him as a puppy. While attempting to get to know her (as he runs along behind her and sniffs for her around town) he eventually falls in love with her.

Four short films based on ghost stories written by award winning modern Japanese writers.

Izakaya Choji

Osamu Ino is a great doctor who is beloved in his rural village. His knowledge and dedication make an equally strong impression on his reluctant medical intern, Keisuke Soma. But, Soma and the villagers reconsider their opinion when they learn about a shameful incident from Dr. Ino's past. Now the once-respected doctor must account for his past actions.

The heart wrenching love story between a married couple. The jobless husband cheats on his wife and has no love for her. The wife wants to go on a trip to get pregnant.

Japanese film directed by Jinsei Tsuji

Due to his short fuse, Kyota is never able to hold a job for very long. Instead, he wastes his days with his dead-beat friends, Takuji and Ringo. Meanwhile his father is a cross-dresser, and his little sister Akemi is a dangerous sleepwalker who is trying to divorce her dangerous yakuza husband. When their mother returns after abandoning them 10 years earlier, Kyota lashes out. But as their dysfunctional life together begins, something happens that changes this family's destiny forever.

A young boy takes interest in piano while his family begins to disintegrate around him after his father loses his job.

The year is Seitoku 2 (1712), and Japan has a new ruler. But Ietsugu, the 7th Tokugawa shogun, is only four years old. The power vacuum this creates has Edo Castle roiling in political intrigue and personal positioning of all kinds.

Dear Hinagon

Newspaper correspondent Kyoko Togakure visits a nursing home in the outskirts of Tokyo. She finds the dead body of a resident. It was an apparent suicide. He's holding a piece of paper with the mystifying word "Death Water" written on it. Nearby are blood-stained scissors, and his eyes are squashed. She has no idea that this death is just the beginning of a horrendous nightmare.

Near the slopes of Mount Fuji, there is a so called suicide forest, an infamous place where people who are tires of living have their last breath of air. The four different stories of this film all revolve around this place.

Follows the life of an Office Lady who gets through her tedious work days by dreaming of a legendary soup and soup chef she's heard of. She decides to go in search of it.

If actresses Hirosue Ryoko, Igawa Haruka and Saito Yuki chose different paths at the turning point in their lives, what kind of life would they be leading?

Ōoku supesharu ~ mō hitotsu no monogatari ~

Orimoto Shinnosuke, a former popular news anchor, was forced to leave the nationwide news program “Showtime 7” for a certain reason. Orimoto, now a negotiator, forcefully goes live on air to negotiate with a bomber. Based on the 2013 Korean film “Terror, Live.”

Kensho Aoto reunites with Yoko Sudo, whom he had feelings for in junior high school, for the first time in 35 years. On the second floor window sill of a small apartment. Yoko was leaning against the window and looking up at the moon in the night sky, then Kensho was watching her from outside. Kensho “What were you thinking back then?” Yoko “...Something like a dream. Just about something like a dream.” The two of them are naturally attracted to each other for the first time at the age of 50. They eventually start talking about the future...

In the ever-changing landscape of redeveloping Shibuya, Tokyo, Ren works as a delivery driver for moth orchids. Haunted by the childhood loss of his mother, Yumiko, to suicide, he has long been estranged from his father, Hajime, a landscape designer. One day, during a routine delivery, Ren unexpectedly comes face to face with Hajime…

Based on four of the six short stories compiled in Murakami Haruki's anthology, After the Quake explores the complex aftermath of Japan’s earthquakes and other global crises. (Movie version of the TV drama).

As a former manager of a top hotel, Seiji has been entrusted with the reopening of a hotel in the high plains that has been boarded up and closed for years. With a budget of 20 million, he begins to hire interesting characters to work there and rebuild the hotel. However, his attempts to get a top chef to draw customers fail. The staff members begin to worry about the hotel's future and try to leave, but at precisely that moment, an elderly man who used to be a chef at a top hotel pays a visit. Will this mean success for Seiji or just add to his troubles? --TBS

孤独の賭け〜愛しき人よ〜

A woman searching for "phantom soup" and a quiet chef who lost her family. The mystery surrounding them is slowly unraveled ...Based on an original story by Michiko Matsuda

Mike Hama, Private Detective, is a chain-smoking, wisecracking tough guy with a weakness for the ladies and a soft spot in his heart, especially for his kid sister Akane. Mike's so down on his luck he'll take any case, from finding a lost pet to spying on cheating spouses. But every now and then, along comes a client with dubious and dangerous case… and that's when Mike shows his stuff.

Funny Pets is a digital computer anime series created and directed by Ryuji Masuda that was made in 2006. The sound effects were made by Shizuo Kurahashi. The plot of the series is that a UFO carrying two aliens from another planet ends up falling into Earth, where they are saved by a moody air-headed showgirl called Funny. The two aliens, the moon-like Crescent and the sun-like Corona, must adjust to life as Funny's pets. There are twelve episodes in the series.

Nakajima looks up to his father, who was a war photographer, but can only get a job as an assistant for gravure magazines. Mizuno is a provisional high school teacher, currently on probation. Nishimura is Mizuno's best friend, whose boyfriend has been avoiding her since she discovered she was pregnant. Ichihara works at a magazine where he is being blackmailed into sexual favours by his chief editor. Park, on Twitter, takes on the persona of a doctor, when he is actually working at a company that sells medical equipment to disinterested doctors, and at the same time, trying to take care of his younger sister. This is a story about the blossoming friendship of five young people who were brought together by Twitter, and their journey to finding honesty with each other and with themselves.

Sachiko and Masato Azuma, in their 4th year of marriage, had been so excited about the birth of their long-waited first child. They named their baby boy "Hikaru" (meaning light in Japanese). Nobody doubted that the birth of their precious son Hikaru would bring great happiness to the Azumas' family life. Until one day, Sachiko noticed that there was something different about Hikaru. This heartwarming drama is a story about family. Hikaru's mother goes through so many difficulties raising her autistic son, sometimes so overwhelmed that she doesn't know what to do. Then at Hikaru's school, with the help of one very special teacher, Rio-sensei, she learns to deal with her son's autism and think positive about her family life. Her story will touch the heart of all mothers with young children, mothers who have brought up young children, as well as woman who will be mothers in the future.

A consultant who has a superhuman sense of smell and assists in solving cases by smelling the scents left behind at crime scenes. He usually lives with a nasal plug, but once he removes it, and takes one sniff with his keen sense of smell, he will know the person’s age, gender, what he or she ate and even lifestyle. Besides investigating cases, he is researching whether people’s emotions have scent too. He has a daughter with Katayama Megumi.

Nagumo Shuuji, a social studies teacher at Mie Prefecture’s Etsuzan Senior High School, was a former baseball player up until university when he quit after sustaining an injury. Thereafter, he worked as a sports trainer but returned to university at 32 years old in order to pursue his dream of becoming a teacher. However, his peaceful daily life goes through a change after he’s appointed to be the advisor of his school’s baseball club that is on the verge of abolition.

After her mother dies, Kyoka moves in with her father, Rintaro, who begins to obsess over finding spouses for himself and his daughter.

NHKスペシャル 未解決事件

Rosuke Narumi works at a trading company and he is pretty good at his job. He dates Satoko Matsubara. The trading company has a business relationship with a private high school experiencing some difficulties. One day, Rosuke Narumi is appointed as the principle of the private high school. Rosuke Narumi soon discovers how different the work environment is from his previous job. So the school can run in the black, Rosuke Narumi implements cost cutting measures. School staff members including Chihiro Mashiba oppose his plan.

The basis for the drama is the novel “Kashikogi” by author Cho Chang-in, which has sold 2 million copies in Korea since its publication in 2000. It has already been adapted as a television drama and a stage play in that country. On February 4, Shogakukan is publishing the book in Japan under the title “Good Life.” Sorimachi plays the part of Daichi Sawamoto, a newspaper reporter who has always prioritized his work over his family. When his wife suddenly leaves him, he finally notices the love he has been receiving from his son. Just as he decides to answer back, it is discovered that his son has leukemia.

In Tokyo in the 80s, before the Big Bubble: Momoko is the second oldest daugther of four siblings in the Mitamura family. After her father Tadashi Mitamura is laid off from work and suddenly disappears, the sensitive Momoko feels most responsible to fill his place. But the family starts to break apart, when their problems outgrow. Mother Ayano deals with her disappointment, oldest sister Sakura Shimizu is troubled by her husband´s infidelity and the youngest, brother Kentaro faces a difficult job hunt and begins questioning his own life. -DramaWiki

Ruri, having been abandoned by her mother to a foster care facility, lives a life of reckless abandonment. When Nakama Yuzo, a kind man but for a trigger-happy temper, runs into Ruri he realizes that perhaps she's the child he's been looking for. Yuzo lives in Hatomijima, a small insland in Okinawa where the population is 49 and the average age group is 61. There are no children. The island has only one school - a primary school. If a child is not enrolled in the school, it will be closed. As a result, society will abandon the island and in a few years, it will cease to have any inhabitants. To save their island, the locals decide to bring in a foster child. Ruri is their candidate, and with her she brings the hope of the island's survival.

The down-and-out detective Kanzo Dojima (Sanma Akashiya) is thinking about hanging up his job. A mysterious man named Ryo Katase (Takuya Kimura). No one seems to know what's going on in the heart of this lonely guy, what he believes in, what he really loves. Then these two men meet by chance one day. The story takes an unexpected turn of events concerning a murder case. Maybe the two of them should never have met. And then there's Kanzo's sister Yuko (Eri Fukatsu). What will the relationship between her and Ryo be like?

Satoru Matsudo moves to Tokyo in hopes of becoming an actor. He has trouble breaking into the industry, but his luck begins to change when he finds an airplane ticket belonging to a talent agency CEO. Time passes, and Satoru makes a name for himself as an actor. He gets a call from America. Hoping it is a Hollywood offer, he instead hears about his estranged older brother.

In the end of Meiji era, Takei Chiyo was born in a poor family in Osaka, and was sent to a theatre tea room as a servant when she was 9 years old. There, she was attracted by the world of theatre comedy. She grows up to be an actor and marries to Amami Ippei , but the war broke out and she was forced to stay away from acting for a while. However, when she comes back again, her acting in a radio drama impresses many people and makes herself one of the leading actors in western 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.

Parliamentary secretary Toru Washizu (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) has devoted 20 years of his life to Kosuke Inukai, a member of parliament and cabinet minister. Toru works behind the scenes as Inukai's "shadow," deftly handling the petitions of Inukai's supporters and crushing any hint of scandal. Cool and collected, Toru rarely betrays emotion and would humble himself to anyone to get what Inukai needs. But then a shocking event changes everything. Toru's only son, Taiki, is gravely injured in an accident that leaves him close to death. Toru is stricken with worry and fear for his son, but Inukai orders him to conduct a cover-up. Feeling betrayed, Toru, who once would have done anything for Inukai, begins to question everything.

竜馬がゆく

Four renowned Japanese directors each adapt a supernatural short story by Japanese literary masters for the KAIDAN HORROR CLASSICS omnibus series. In his adaptation of Yasunari Kawabata's THE ARM, Masayuki Ochiai reveals the inner world of fetishists in an eerily unsettling tale of a man who convinces a woman to let him borrow her arm for a night. Meanwhile, Shinya Tsukamoto explores death and unrequited love in Osamu Dazai's THE WHISTLER, about a woman who spies on her dying sister's secret love life after her own romance is dashed by her father. After VILLAIN, Lee Sang-Il looks at social outcasts once again in Ryunosuke Akutagawa's THE NOSE. The story follows a priest with a hideous nose who kills a young local boy in a moment of blinding anger. Meanwhile, Hirokazu Kore-eda creates a gentler ghost tale with Saisei Muro's THE DAYS AFTER, about a married couple who thinks the young boy who visits their house daily may be the ghost of their dead infant son.

サイコドクター

The 74th NHK Asadora Drama is Junjo Kirari, which means something along the lines of "pure-hearted Kirari." The story is set in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture in the era around the Second World War. When the story opens in 1928, the heroine, Sakurako, is a very active seven-year-old girl. Indeed, even in the first episode she exhibits her confidence and enthusiasm. But above all else, Sakurako is interested in becoming a jazz pianist, and music features extensively in the plot.

流星ワゴン

Adapted from the book with the same title by Ryusho Kadota, a journalist who followed the "Hikari City Mother and Child Murder Case" that took place in Hikari City, Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1999, the drama is a fictionalized human story of a bereaved family that suffered repeated setbacks and was on the verge of despair, but continued to fight on with the support of others.

Despite her undeniable beauty and powerful presence, Rei is lonely all her life. One day, she meets Kazunari, a high-level bureaucrat and widower. They marry and she moves into his house, where he lives with his two grown-up sons. Rei's presence is about to wreak havoc on her new family.

Hanzawa Naoki works as a loan manager at the Osaka Nishi branch of Tokyo Central Bank. One day, Hanzawa makes a loan contract for 500 million yen with Nishi Osaka Steel Company. Hanzawa didn't want to approve the loan, but he had to due to the branch manager's order. Nishi Osaka Steel Company seems financially stable, but the company actually hides massive amounts of debt through fraudulent accounts. The company is caught. Three months later, Nishi Osaka Steel Company goes bankrupt. The bank's branch manager is Asano. He is an ambitious man and tries to shift the blame to Hanzawa. Hanzawa then attends an inquiry about the loan failure at the bank's headquarters in Tokyo. Hanzawa denies fault and promises to retrieve the 500 million yen loan. He did this because it's the only way for Hanzawa to survive as a banker.

死ぬかと思った

This year marks thirty years since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and four stories that are based on Murakami Haruki’s exquisite short series about the people ‘after the quake’ are adapted into dramas featuring star-studded casts.