Shinji Asakura

A film about a pregnancy

2004 film

On May 2, 1998, Hide, a leading Japanese rock musician who had been active as a guitarist for X JAPAN and as a solo artist (hide with Spread Beaver/zilch), suddenly passed away. His funeral was attended by about 50,000 people and became a social phenomenon as all of Japan wept at his untimely farewell. His younger brother, Hiroshi Matsumoto, who was Hide's manager, started to work with Hide's co-producer I.N.A., who had been working on a song with Hide, and his friends to make his brother's will come true. Yuji and I.N.A. struggle under the unusual circumstance that Hide himself is not present, but they are confronted with various difficulties.

Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.

The 17-year-old Yatabe Mineko grew up in a family of seven in a mountain village in northeastern Ibaraki Prefecture. Her father Minoru has gone to Tokyo to work in order to earn extra money. However, her life completely changes when her father does not come back for the New Year. Mineko asks her family to let her go to Tokyo to find him and promises to send money home. In the autumn of 1964, she and two childhood friends Tokiko and Mitsuo are hired to start working at a small factory in Tokyo’s working class neighborhood. After work each day, Mineko searches for her father and gets disheartened at times. Mineko overcomes challenges and starts to lay down roots in Tokyo as she experiences many meetings and farewells amid the laughter and tears with regulars, people of the shopping street, friends, and colleagues. But will she be able to find her father?

Shogo Kai is a lawyer at one of the big 4 law firms in Japan. He is good at his job, but he is arrogant. Shogo Kai only thinks about winning and he thinks the only way to satisfy his clients is to win. He is getting close to becoming a senior partner at the law firm. Shogo Kai's boss worries about his focus on winning above all else. As a condition of his promotion at the law firm, his boss asks him to hire a young lawyer as an associate. Shogo Kai interviews prospective young lawyers and meets Daiki Suzuki. Daiki Suzuki has high intelligence and his memory ability is amazing.

Saigo Takamori, the hero of the Meiji Restoration, was born to a poor, low-ranking samurai family in the Satsuma domain (present day Kagoshima Prefecture). His simple honesty caught the attention of its charismatic feudal lord of Satsuma, Shimazu Nariakira. Nariakira’s assertion that the love of people is what will enrich and strengthen the nation captivated Saigo who took on Nariakira’s secret mission and eventually became a key person for Satsuma. Not a portrait of him survives today and much of his life is a mystery. He is a man who was twice exiled and thrice married. He overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate with exceptional bravery and action. Although he accomplished the restoration, he lost his life in a fight with the new Meiji government.

警視庁強行犯係・樋口顕

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