Tatsuo Matsumura

A group of travelers is stranded in a small country inn when the river floods during heavy rains. As the bad weather continues, tensions rise amongst the trapped travelers.

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Fourteen-year old student Ayumi has leukemia and starts losing hair. She becomes depressed but receives overwhelming support from her classmates when they all shave their heads for her.

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Hatano is living as an insomniac freelance typesetter alone in his bayside apartment. One day, Aikawa, a high school classmate he hasn’t seen in over ten years, shows up on his doorstep bearing a bag of clams. Though he claims to be the director of a fast-growing trading company, Aikawa crashes on Hatano’s couch for days on end. When the sleeping pills he was offered produce a strange side effect, Hatano is slowly dragged into Aikawa’s con-artist lifestyle. Soon afterward, they cross paths with the representative of a big-name publishing company and Aikawa’s ultimate scam begins to unfold.

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Traveling chef Ryuji is called back to Tokyo to help save his late teacher’s restaurant. With the help of his close friend Kinu, Ryuji must complete the training of Wataru — the apprentice chosen by his late teacher to become the next master chef — in the art of culinary excellence and running a successful business.

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A political satire comedy depicting the turmoil caused when the residents of a small island in Okinawa, feeling neglected by the Japanese government's response, declare independence.

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Hiroshima is a 1995 Japanese / Canadian film directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara and Roger Spottiswoode about the decision-making processes that led to the dropping of the atomic bombs by the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki toward the end of World War II. Except as actors, no Americans took part in the production. The three-hour film was made for television and evidently had no theatrical release, but is available on DVD for home viewing. A combination of dramatisation, historical footage, and eyewitness interviews, the film alternates between documentary footage and the dramatic recreations. Both the dramatisations and most of the original footage are presented as sepia-toned images, serving to blur the distinction between them. The languages are English and Japanese, with subtitles, and the actors are largely Canadian and Japanese.

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Kon Ichikawa's retelling of the classic true story of Samurai honor. When a young clan lord is forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide), his loyal followers (now Ronin, masterless Samurai) dedicate their lives to avenging his death.

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Rock 'n' roll superstar Eikichi Yazawa plays a substitute high school biology teacher whose clumsy social skills steadily mature as he helps his students struggle to balance work, school and extracurricular activities. The result is a heartwarming drama of the mentoring role of teachers during the difficult transition to adulthood.

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Furuhata Ninzaburō is a Japanese television series that ran periodically on Fuji Television from 1994 until its final episodes in 2006. It was written by Japanese playwright Kōki Mitani and is often referred to as the Japanese version of Columbo. The series is a police detective drama starring actor Masakazu Tamura as Furuhata Ninzaburo and Masahiko Nishimura as his stereotypically bumbling sidekick, Shintaro Imaizumi. The program aired weekly and featured a guest villain each time, usually a famous talent in Japan. Pop-stars like SMAP, television hosts like Sanma Akashiya and even sports figures like Ichiro Suzuki have been featured on this program. It was one of the most popular television dramas in the history of Japanese television, having spawned several seasons and TV specials.

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A close look at the inner workings of Japan's political underbelly.

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In postwar Tokyo, beloved writer-professor Hyakken Uchida retires and is buoyed through hardship by the fierce devotion of his former students, who honor him each year with a raucous “Not yet!” birthday toast. Told in warm, gently comic vignettes, Kurosawa’s farewell celebrates aging, friendship, and the sustaining ritual of teacher and pupils refusing to say goodbye.

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In the 16th Year of Keityo (1611), the lord of Ogura Castle in Kyushu admitted Sasaki Kojiro's because of his great sword techniques. However, a group within the feudal clan which supported to use guns considered Kojiro an obstacle in their goals and has the well-known ronin, Miyamoto Musashi, fight him. Now because of political gain and greed, two honorable men are to fight to the death on Ganryu Island.

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Tetsuo is a young man living in Tokyo, who falls in love with a deaf-mute factory girl. He has always felt jealous of his college-educated brother, but ultimately wins both the girl and his father's acceptance and support in a touching and refreshing way.

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An auto repairman's daughter questions him about what happened to her aunt during the war, but the father remains reticent. Finally the man opens up, and the girl is able to piece together her aunt's tragic story.

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This is James Miki's first directorial work, and he is also the original writer and scriptwriter. Noritaka Sakamoto was in charge of photography, and Kentaro Haneda was in charge of music direction. It depicts how an honest candidate aiming for a clean election campaign gradually collapses in the face of various realities. Kiyokawa, the mayor of Higurashi City, died at his lover's house. Yoshihiko announces that he will conduct a clean election campaign, but his sponsors and backers are reluctant.

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A playboy-gambler friend of Tora-san’s dies and, abandoned by his mother, his little boy suddenly turns up in Shibamata. Searching for the boy’s mother, Tora-san meets a cosmetics saleslady and the three become a surrogate family, with Tora-san as “daddy”.

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The story of a teacher who comes to a village on the Inland Sea and the relationship that develops between her and her 12 pupils.

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In Nagasaki, Tora-san and an acquaintance help an old woman who has fallen and injured herself. She invites them to her home where the three share a night of eating and drinking. The old woman's health deteriorates and she dies. At her funeral, Tora-san falls in love with the old woman's daughter, but winds up acting as a go-between for her and a young law student.

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Tora-san visits brother-in-law Hiroshi's hometown to attend a memorial service for his late father. When the local temple priest becomes intoxicated, Tora-san wearing the priest's robe delivers the memorial speech, much to his family's surprise. Thinking he's found his true calling, Tora-san decides to join the order, and falls for the priest's divorced daughter.

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Karate expert Katayama (Takeda) investigates the robbery of a bank in Hokkaido, where an apple seed left at the scene holds the answer to the robbers' whereabouts.

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By all indications, an anti-government conspiracy is brewing in the Satsuma Domain. Already seven oniwaban spies sent by the shogunate have infiltrated Satsuma in order to scout everything on the spot. However, they had all disappeared, and it was unclear whether they were alive or dead. Kenzaburo Kamiya and Iori Matsumura successfully infiltrate as the eighth and ninth spies and witness law-breaking exercises using a cannon. However, soon Satsuma men found them and drove them to the cliff...

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A car going at 25 mph plunges into the sea at Shinko Harbour, Toyama prefecture. Inside is the local business magnate Fukutaro Shirakawa, who perishes. Riding alongside him and surviving unhurt is his second wife, Kumako. It soon comes to light that Kumako’s husband was insured for 300 million yen and she is arrested on suspicion of murdering her husband for the insurance money. The newspapers denounce her as an evil woman, while the public is in no doubt about Kumako’s crime. Ritsuko Sahara is chosen as her defence attorney but the pair clash over almost everything...

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After a friend and business colleague dies, Tora-san visits the man's daughter, then takes her to Tokyo so she can study for a night school exam.

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Police officer Ohno Makoto discovers a lady covered in blood at Shinobazu Pond in Ueno. Feeling sorry for her, he gives her the temporary name "Koike Shinobu" and lets her live at the tofu shop run by his parents. Even though she has not regained her memory, Makoto is gradually drawn to Shinobu's brave personality. At that time, a mysterious man named Yamane began to appear around Shinobu. Yamane is actually a detective who is pursuing the culprit of a murder that occurred in Nagano. The victim was Shinobu's father, and Shinobu's stepmother has already been arrested, but Yamane is convinced that Shinobu is the real culprit and targets her. Makoto takes Shinobu on a journey to find the real culprit.

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Tora-san helps out a runaway bride.

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A scruffy detective investigates the murders of three sisters on a small Japanese island in 1946.

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After Torajiro's latest attempt to find a bride goes awry, he starts traveling again and runs into Utako (last seen in Tora-san's Dear Old Home), now a widow.

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Tora-San returns to Shibamata just before his family leaves on a trip for Kyushu. Later, he encounters an old school chum and begins to have feeling for his artist sister.

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