Etsuko Ichihara

A businessman kills his adulterous wife and is sent to prison. After the release, he opens a barbershop and meets new people, talking almost to no one except an eel he befriended while in prison.

After being deserted by her parents, 11-year old Miyori shuts her heart from the rest of the world and denies any form of human relationships. She was entrusted in the care of her grandmother who lives near a forest. Miyori will take a walk in the forest where she felt a strong sense of loneliness in the forest which seems to have nothing. However, she soon encounters unbelievable things...

The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped away from her husband by the lord. The husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to get her back.

Can a sinful man change and find peace? It's unlikely in gang-plagued Japan. Jokichi of Mikogami, a drifter (and hired sword), goes straight after protecting a woman in distress: they marry, have a son, and Jokichi pursues his father's craft. After three years, the gangs he embarrassed when he saved his wife find the family and leave Jokichi in grief, vowing revenge. To parry his terrible swift sword, rival gangs join forces, hiring a prostitute to pose as a woman needing help and breaking the code of honor to double cross the drifter. He finds unlikely allies: a thief who aids him for fun and a one-eyed swordsman who may be Jokichi's equal in skill and honor.

A businessman with a disfigured face obtains a lifelike mask from his doctor, but the mask starts altering his personality.

Young Horus lives in a mythical Scandinavia of the Iron Age. Recovering the stolen Sword of the Sun from a rock giant, he learns he must travel to the lands of his ancestors, encountering the beautiful but enigmatic Hilda as his journey leads to a series of adventures.

A private detective is hired to find a missing man by his wife. While his search is unsuccessful, the detective's own life begins to resemble the man for whom he is searching.

Though his parents help him run the family business, Jun still feels persecuted by their love; when they bar him from meeting with his girlfriend, tensions increase.

Shigematsu Shizuma, who lives with his family in a village near Fukuyama, was in Hiroshima with his wife and niece just after the devastating atomic bombing, a tragedy that cruelly took the lives of thousands of people and forever marked the harsh existence of the survivors.

The clerk of a trading company happens to have a large sum of money from his company in his possession. His girlfriend pressures him into fleeing with the money...

Cyborg 009 and his team are re-united to fight the latest menace from the Black Ghost. Before they can tackle their foe the team must overcome an army of monsters sent to stop them, including giant jellyfish, stingrays, plesiosaurs and treacherous cyborgs.

A poor village in the Tohoku area has a law that states when a resident becomes sixty years old, they must move to the place called Warabino, far away from home.

As Japan is preparing to host the Olympics, a gang member wanting to go to America is sought after by the police after helping his friend conduct a robbery.

Kiri no Hi (霧の火) is a Japanese television drama which originally aired on Nippon Television (NTV) on August 25, 2008. Directed by Nozomu Amamiya and with a screenplay by Yō Takeyama, it starred Etsuko Ichihara and Karina Nose. The story takes place in Maoka City, Karafuto, Japan (Currently Kholmsk, Sakhalin, Russian Federation) during the final year of the Pacific War. Nine telephone operators in Maoka took their own lives by taking potassium cyanide when the Soviet Union invaded the city on August 20, 1945.

In 1959, a body of a flight attendant of an international airline is found, strangled. Detective Rokuro Fujisawa takes charge of the investigation with a young detective Ichimura and his investigations lead him to Father Tolbeck as a suspect. But the police are forced to move very discreetly as the time was right after the Second World War, when a sensitive situation that involves Western people and religion is likely to become an international issue. The investigation leads to an unexpected discloser of a shadowy business behind the church that reflects the uncertainty of the time.

When her only relative, her elder brother is accused of robbing and murdering an old woman loan-shark, pretty, young Kiriko travels from her home in Kyushu to Tokyo to get Japan's top lawyer to defend her brother. Unfortunately her naive idealism is shattered when the lawyer refuses to take the case based on her insufficient funds. What follows is a long determined revenge plot that sees the heroine become a Tokyo bar hostess and worse to punish the lawyer. The plot thickens with another murder mystery and a sleuthing reporter.

First live action "Barefoot Gen" sequel.

Gisuke Hayashida is an illegal dentist during the day and a burglar by night. One night during a burglary he witnesses a train derailment. Some communists are found guilty of causing the incident, but he knows it wasn't them. He can save innocent people but for that he must confess his own crime.

This story is based on the novel "Jo no mai" by Tomiko Miyao which is based on the life of painter Shōen Uemura (1875–1949), the first woman to be awarded the Order of Culture. The title refers to the masterpiece bijinga ("picture of a beautiful woman") that Uemura painted at the age of 61. The main character, Tsuya Shimamura, is born in Kyoto as the second daughter of a tea trader who dies before her birth. Tsuya, who loves painting more than anything and is hopeless at housework, attends art school and at age 15 receives the name Shōsui (from the characters for "pine" and "green") from her teacher. The crown prince of England purchases one of her works, propelling her to fame overnight. The novel portrays the remainder of her stormy life, during which she is impregnated by her teacher and raises a fatherless child; through it all she devotes herself to her painting, undaunted.

Historical drama about a sleepy-eyed ronin.

The story takes place during the end of the Pacific War and the aftermath period and it focuses on Mizoguchi, who is the son of a Buddhist Priest. When his father dies, he’s sent to the Temple of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. Mizoguchi is physically unattractive and becomes, in some way, jealous of the beautiful Temple that he loves so much.

High schoolers Mitsuha and Taki are complete strangers living separate lives. But one night, they suddenly switch places. Mitsuha wakes up in Taki’s body, and he in hers. This bizarre occurrence continues to happen randomly, and the two must adjust their lives around each other.

Thirsting for revenge, Jokichi rashly attempts to assassinate the evil Chogoro but ends up being captured by Yakuza. His life is spared by Boss Juzaburo, in order that the harmony of an important commemoration not be further disturbed. Though now even more of an outcast, Jokichi is asked by another Yakuza boss, Umezo, to guard Oyuki, the wayward daughter of Juzaburo. The tragic consequences of this assignment will lead him into a deadly trap and a final confrontation with Chogoro.

Set in Sapporo during the oil crisis of the early '70s, the film centers on the Hokkaitei soba stand run by a stoic patriarch and his perky wife. One New Year's day, a haggard-looking mother and her two adorable moppets poke their heads into the restaurant and ask for a single bowl of kakesoba. Noticing that the trio is looking a little low in the heels, she puts in an extra scoop of noodles. The youngest boy declares that the soba is delicious. The next year, the same threesome appears again asking for one bowl of kakesoba. This time the old man dumps in two helpings. He is struck by how much the youngest looks like their own son who was hit by a truck three years previous. The following year, the three return and this time the mother tells her story...

The master of a dorayaki pastry store hires a 76-year-old woman whose talents attract customers from all over. But she's hiding a troubling secret. Life's joys are found in the little details, and no matter what may be weighing you down, everyone loves a good pastry.

Japanese drama.

Izumi (Kento Hayashi) was abandoned by his parents. He now commits burglary, targeting women and the elderly. He is chased by the cops. While on the run, in the mountains of Miyazaki Prefecture, he helps an injured elderly woman, Suma (Etsuko Ichihara). Izumi then stays at Suma's home. At first, Izumi keeps an eye for money that he can steal. The people though in the village think Izumi is Suma's grandson and take care of him. A change takes place in Izumi.

When Yumiko Tsuyama, a potter by profession, comes inquiring about a room for rent in an old mansion overlooking Osaka, she finds a bizarre collection of characters already living there. The unlikely leader of this menagerie is Yoda Goro, who speaks four languages fluently, is an expert in cabbage rolls, and has written how-to books encompassing every aspect of human existence.

The heir to a family fortune discovers that a curse has been placed on it, put there centuries before by a band of samurai warriors. Adaptation of novel by Seishi Yokomizo

Suspense film based on Ryuji Hori's non-fiction book about the kidnapping and murder of 4-year-old Yoshinobu Murakoshi in 1963.

It's a man's world. Shimamura, an artist, comes to this snowbound town to rejuvenate himself. He connects with Komako, a geisha he met on a previous trip, and it seems like love. She's the foster daughter of a local family, almost engaged to the family's son Yukio, now dying of consumption. He's tended by his sister Yuko who's angry at Komako for abandoning her brother. Shimamura returns to Tokyo but promises he will be back soon. In anticipation of his return, Komako breaks with her patron and her family loses their home. Complications arise when Shimamura doesn't come back as promised. Then Komako discovers that he and Yuko knew each other in Tokyo. Can Komako escape destiny?

A police procedural surrounding murder at a bookstore and the private lives of the cops trying to solve the case.

Monjiro, reunited with his long lost sister, is pursued by a yakuza gang because he killed their boss. He also meets a fellow gambler who idolizes Monjiro. The gambler and Monjiro's sister are pulled into a conspiracy to get to Monjiro, but do things go as planned?

In a time of continuous civil wars ravaging the fields of feudal Japan, the eldest son of a very poor peasant family, living alongside the bridge over the Fuefuki river, decides to serve a warlord to escape his miserable condition, being soon followed by his younger brothers. Although not all the men of the family take this tragic path of death, women of the family will be doomed to endure the pain of loss during the next five generations.

The story surrounds a boy and a cow who have always lived their lives together. One winter, a famine strikes their village. The villagers resolve to the cow, but the boy secretly helped the cow escape. A few years ago, the boy (now grown-up) and the cow meet again...

Sweet Sweat

Two obaachans become fast friends listening to music in front of a record store. They both boast about their loving sons but in reality, one had just escaped a retirement home and the other was looking for an escape from her son and daughter-in-law. With nowhere to go, the two wander around, befriending a cosmetics salesman and a kind waitress who give them beer. This biting social satire starring two memorable grandmothers, scripted by Yôko Mizuki, picked up on Japan’s aging population problem far ahead of its time.

In the past, a woman was raped by her brother-in-law. Keeping this dark secret, she lives a seemingly happy life with her husband and son, but the son, shocked to find out his real father is the brother-in-law, sets out to do something. The downfall of a mother and her child starts there...

This Madding Crowd

A man who survived the war carries the will of his comrades in arms, walking across the country visiting the bereaved families.

A yakuza leader must balance his violent tactics necessary for the rough streets of 1960s Tokyo with the domestic needs of his daughters.

Angel ga Tonda Hi

Bad Reputation: Cherry Blossoms

Could I But Live

In front of Sagami Detention Center. Shosuke, the owner of a strip joint called "Shunpu Music," welcomes Okoma, a stripper who has been locked up for public indecency. Shosuke immediately takes the paroled Okoma to the police station to greet her, and meets a young new detective, Matsuta Obara, who has just been transferred. But the two don't get along from the moment they meet...

Jutaro Torikai is a senior detective set to uncover the truth behind an apparent double suicide.

A woman and her daughter are in love with the same man, a chef at the restaurant that the mother manages. He is slightly crippled from frostbite in his years in Siberian labor camps and considers himself "already dead."

A young woman begins murdering all those responsible for her ailing father's condition. Because the girl is so outwardly sweet and innocent, the detective looking into the deaths does not suspect her.

Miyo Hanayama works as a home care nurse, supporting the home care of patients who are close to death. Shigeaki Noguchi complains that his wife has stopped talking to him since he collapsed once. Noriko Imaizumi refuses to undergo surgery because her business has taken off and continues to recuperate at home. And 18-year-old Emi Akizuki insists on visiting the town where she used to live. Everyone is trying their best to live their lives while keeping an eye on their imminent death, which may come at any moment. Meanwhile, Yuki, a nurse like Miyo, discovers she is pregnant.

Iwabuchi of the Metropolitan Police Department's Investigation Division cooperates with Kubo of the Foreign Affairs Division in re-investigating the case of a foreign drug addict's death at the request of Kubo.

A family murder case that occurred in Hita City, Oita Prefecture. A murderer whose statute of limitations is about to expire is shown on TV, and detective Kiyoshi Atsumi heads to Tokyo, but... The upstart Keiju Kobayashi, his old friend Etsuko Ichihara, and Atsumi. The postwar experiences of three people who were tossed about by the war overlap. The screenplay by Satoru Hayasaka, the music by Kousuke Kanno, and above all, the performances of Atsumi and Ichihara make this a masterpiece in the history of TV dramas. A two-hour version was later created as an art festival award-winning work.

A girl rebels against her mother, who runs a brothel in Yokohama, and attempts to find freedom on her own.

Buriki no kunsho

Ningen no sabaku

富士山頂

Japanese animation adaptation of a 19th century French novel: A boy is given up by his foster parents to a traveling performer.

Story of a resourceful hobo (Kobayashi), a con woman (Takamine) who pretends to be a victim of the Nagasaki A-bomb, and two orphaned children who become a most atypical Japanese family.

1962 Japanese movie

Hearing that his friend Yosuke Tsumura had died, Shiro Okabe returned to Kyoto. He felt that Yusuke's wife, Yusuke Tsumura's former love Yuko, knew something about Yosuke's death, but he was unable to find out what she knew. Okabe investigates Yosuke's death, but someone kills the people who provide clues one after another. Okabe follows Rumi, a woman at a bar who was close to Yosuke, to Mt. Hiei, and to his surprise learns that Yosuke is still alive.

1962 Japanese movie

Fifty-five years after World War II, Morita Misaki travels to China with hopes of uncovering the truth behind the murder of a young Russian woman she witnessed as a child. Her journey allows her to revisit her childhood memories and retrace her family's struggles in a foreign land. In the midst of WWII, the Morita family moves to Manchuria to start a Japanese sake factory. Though their hopes for a new life seem quickly realized with the success of their business, the family's fortunes take a turn for the worse when a military informant accuses their live-in tutor of being a spy for Russia. Further complications arise when Russia begins its invasion of Manchuria and the family is forced to flee for their lives. In the midst of the ensuing turmoil and confusion, the Morita family, led by matriarch Namiko, must find the strength to endure and survive.

A dramatized biography of the second of Japan's three legendary leaders. Rising from obscurity, Hideyoshi served under the command of Oda Nobunaga. With an extraordinary combination of intelligence, bravery and military skill, Hideyoshi rose to near-absolute power and greatly expanded upon Nobunaga's unification of Japan's warlords. This series also focused on Hideyoshi's personal life, particularly his relationships with his mother and his wife, and the pair's rivalry for influence over him.

The legendary suspense series that got one of the highest audience ratings. The main character, Akiko Ishizaki, is a housekeeper dispatched to an upstream family. Her pleasure was to peek into the hidden secrets and misfortunes of an ideal home that seemed to be happy at first glance...

犯罪交渉人ゆり子

おばさんデカ　桜乙女の事件帖

楽園のライオン

Monjiro was born into a poor farm family in Mikazuki Village, Nitta County, Ueshu, and abandoned his hometown when he was 10 years old. He has been traveling aimlessly with a long toothpick in his mouth. Monjiro avoided getting involved in anything, but wherever he went, he ended up getting involved in incidents

ホームドクター・神村愛

Musashi Miyamoto left his village and ended up fighting in the battle of Sekigahara with his friend Matahachi, but Musashi Miyamoto lost Matahachi. He goes back to the village to inform Matahachi's family about what happened. At the village, he is persecuted by people there. Musashi Miyamoto becomes worn down physically and mentally. At this time, Soho Takuan appears in front of Musashi Miyamoto. He then rebuilds his life with his sword. Musashi begins to travel for warrior training. He meets many masters of the sword and grows as a person.