Takashi Kashiwabara

Wagura Yusaku unwillingly broke up with his first love in high school and became a policeman after years of struggle. Ten years later, the suspect of a murder case appeared to be his previous rival, Uryu Akihiko, who peculiarly had became the husband of his first love, Uryu Misako. The detective and the suspect, childhood rivals, carried out the confrontation of fate and are tossed about in destiny, accepting their "fate"...

A four-part anthology in the spirit of The Twilight Zone, this film starts off with a group of commuters stranded at a train station in the rain, listening to stories told by one of the group. These include tales of a group stranded in the mountains and haunted by guilt over a death they inadvertantly caused, an emotionally broken chessmaster pressed into playing a real-life game for an eccentric millionaire, a wandering medieval samurai who finds a modern-day cell phone on the ground and a person on the other end asking questions about the past, and a young couple who agree to try a computer simulation of what their future as husband and wife would be like.

A pair of hard-boiled Tokyo cops are investigating a gruesome murder: after killing the victim, the murderer cut his skull open and cooked his brain in a stew. As they try to track down the killer, they discover that, quite literally, everybody is a suspect. Will they bring the terror to an end, or will they become part of it themselves?

Hiroko attends the memorial service of her fiancé, Itsuki Fujii, who died in a mountain-climbing incident. Although Itsuki's mother says that their old house is gone, Hiroko records the address listed under his name in his yearbook and sends him a letter. Surprisingly, she receives a reply, and discovers it came from his old classmate, a girl who also happens to also be called Itsuki Fujii.

Hong Kong director Patrick Leung, Japanese director Takahiko Akiyama, and Thai director Thanit Jitnikul pool their resources to terrify audiences with a three-part horror omnibus that proves terror takes many unique forms.

Onchi was exiled to posts around Asia and Africa due to his work as head of a labor union for National Air Line. He is ordered to return to head office after ten years, and continues to struggle. When a National Air Line plane is involved in the worst air disaster in Japanese history, he is assigned to console and provide restitution to the families of the victims.

Japanese film directed by Michio Mitsuno.

A vast wheat field, a straight road that has no end, a sky without a single building in sight – this is a town in the country where time comfortably passes by. But this former paradise is now being stirred up by a fight amongst its people over constructing an airport. This is a tale of three young people exploring youth and friendship as they reach out into the sky.

Japanese film directed by Hiromasa Taguchi.

A former TV presenter is murdered. On the same day, two police officers from the Metropolitan police Special Mission Task Force, Sugishita Ukyo (Yutaka Mizutani) and Kameyama Kaoru (Yasufumi Terawaki), are guarding a female Diet member, Katayama Hinako (Yoshino Kimura). The pair identifies explosives and saves her life. From the clues left at the scene, Sugishita builds up his case and finds a connection between the murder of the TV presenter and the attempted murder of the Diet member. During a painstaking investigation, the savage murder case of a young overseas volunteer five years earlier emerges in the background, and the pair prevents indiscriminate murder at the Tokyo Big City Marathon event by suppressing the perpetrator.

Do criteria exist for the death penalty? Yusuke Mito, a law faculty lecturer who did not become a lawyer even though he passed the bar exam, the famous lawyer Kojiro Otomo who advocates the abolition of the death penalty, and the public prosecutor Mariko Nagase studied law together. Each have their own thoughts about the death penalty. One day, Otomo’s wife is murdered by someone. Shinzo Sabae who is resentful of a lawsuit that Otomo had been in charge of, is arrested as a suspect. Otomo reverses the stance he had had until now and seeks the death penalty against Sabae. This prompts Mito to make the decision to become a lawyer and stand in the court. However, the first case Mito takes charge of is the defence of Sabae, who murdered the wife of his good friend, Otomo…

After a death-defying game of chicken one evening in 1958, Akagi nonchalantly enters a Yakuza Mahjong parlor to shake the cops' trail. Even unfamiliar with the rules of Mahjong, his gambling intuition is enough to save a small time gambler, Nangou, and grant him a seat at the gambling table. As the night progresses, the stakes are raised both within the game and for Akagi, who is under the suspicion of local police. However, Akagi overcomes the situation with his tactics, defiant of both life and chance. When he leaves the gambling house, no one present is in doubt of his genius.

Kanna is extremely beautiful. No one could pass by without having a second look. The truth is, she was so ugly that she spent her entire savings on whole-body plastic surgery. Since she became beautiful, Kanna has been leading the happiest life, until someone shows up to reveal her makeover.

In the lush tradition of the glorious films of Merchant and Ivory, comes the true life story of Leonie Gilmour (Emily Mortimer), whose life crossed continents, wars and cultures, embodied with courage and passion in search of art and freedom. A tender and inspiring story of a remarkable woman who nurtures the amazing artistic talent of her son who has only one way to succeed and one person to guide him, as he grows into the world renown artist, Isamu Noguchi.

Kimi no tame ni dekiru koto

Burned by the desire to avenge her dead boyfriend, a Japanese woman learns to shoot a gun, and goes after the local Mafia in Taiwan. Mizuno Miki excels in her role as the grieving and estranged, then vengeful and cold-blooded foreigner.

Gotaisetsu

A Japanese Anthology

Hosted by veteran comedian Tamori, "Bizarre Tales 2002 Spring Special" presents five tales. 1. Mushi Game (Ignore the Game) - starring Uchiyama Rina 2. Okashina Machi (Funny Town) - starring Yanagiba Toshiro 3. Tokage no Shippo (Lizard's Tail) - starring Kashiwabara Takashi 4. Yogisha no Otoko (Man's Night Train) - starring Osugi Ren 5. Manhole - starring Kagawa Teruyuki

Akagi appears again one year after the night where he first played mahjong.

極限推理コロシアム

Beauty at the Bottom of the Lake

Segment 1 - actress Saki Aibu plays a woman who doesn't do anything. Segment 2 - actress Asami Mizukawa plays an unlucky woman who messes up a man. Segment 3 - actress Koyuki plays an excessively beautiful woman. Segment 4 - actress Yuka plays an easy/promiscuous woman. Segment 5 - actress Kyoko Hasegawa plays an ordinary woman.

Big Wing

夜叉

Tokiwa plays a sharp tongued reporter for a major daily newspaper. She was demoted to a sleazy tabloid as a punishment for breaking the reporter's code of conduct. While working in the tabloid, she discovered that she has the freedom of uncovering the truth behind a murder case.

Late for a meeting, Kotoko was running along the corridor in school and bumped into Naoki, their lips meeting. Naoki showed his disgust, but Kotoko started to idolise him, who was good at everything from studies to sports. When Kotoko's house burned down, her father's good friend Machiko invited them to move in with her family. It was then that Kotoko realised Naoki was the elder son of Machiko, who took up the role of a fairy-godmother to bring the two together...despite the fact that Naoki was disgusted. Not discouraged, the clumsy and not-so-bright Kotoko started to do everything that would change her impression on him. Gradually, the icy-cold Naoki who disliked girls started to feel for Kotoko...

A psychology major meets a prickly violinist on campus. As they communicate through sign language, their new relationship helps them face their fears.

恋の神様

A comic-based comedy about the young and talented Shota (Kashiwabara Takashi) who set a goal of becoming the no. 1 sushi chef in Japan to save his father's sushi shop. To learn the art of making sushi, he became an apprentice at the famous Otori Sushi. Each episode sees him picking up a new skill, and going a step towards his goal. However, many obstacles stood in his way, including a harsh and cold senior who was jealous of his talent.

The series depicts the relationships and lives of a group of five art school students. This is a live-action television drama based on the manga and anime series with the same name.

バベル〜The Tower of Babel〜

What happens with two children commit two different muders in order to protect each other? Does salvation exist for them? In order to walk beneath the sun once more, Ryouji and Yukiho find themselves in a twisted web from which neither can escape without abandoning the other. Having no one but each other, this drama follows the events the follow that fateful day… 14 years ago.

Wealthy daughter of a hotel chain mogul meets poor widowed father of three. Despite their vastly different values and beliefs, will their chanced encounter blossom into something more?

This TV series is the story of 5 japanese seniors and 1 night school student struggling with their future as they prepare for the grueling entrance exams and what lies ahead after graduation.

毎度おジャマしまぁす

Koizumi Kyoko stars as Asako, a 32 year old woman working for a Beer Company. She gets set up with an affable 38 year old man named Koichi (Yanagiba Toshiro) who tries to win her love against competition like a younger co-worker and off-putting best friends!

夏日幽会

智子と知子

恋爱结婚の法则

世にも奇妙な物語特別編

Koshiba Seijuro is the assisstant to some influential figure whose daughter was all messed up, and who comes to the psychiatrist Koizumi Santa and asks him to counsel the daughter without her knowledge. Since Santa is a compulsive gambler he's hard up for money and takes the job even though he's queasy about the ethics. Turns out that she's the same girl he took to the hospital nine months earlier when she had passed out drunk on a roof preparing to jump. As it happens she woke up in the hospital and saw Santa's best friend Kusanagi Shunsuke (a surgeon) holding the Santa Claus hat Santa had been wearing (it was Christmas Eve), and it turns into a very complicated love triangle.