Masahiro Motoki

When Lord Murashige rises up against the tyrannical Oda, he finds himself besieged within the walls of his own castle. Isolated, he is confronted with a series of mysterious crimes that shatter the fragile order of his court, plunging the fortress into fear and suspicion. With Oda's army closing in and a traitor hiding among his ranks, Murashige is forced into an uneasy alliance with Kanbei, a brilliant and dangerous strategist held prisoner in the dungeon, as he must outwit his enemies and uncover the truth before time runs out.

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This is the story of a strange encounter brought about by the atomic bomb, based on the true story of Akihiko Ito, a journalist who lived in Nagasaki and traveled throughout Japan to collect the stories of atomic bomb survivors.

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In 1979 Tokyo, four distinct sisters uncover their aging father's affair, causing their happy facades and bottled-up emotions to slowly unravel.

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The day before his exhibition, world-renowned painter Tamura discovers that his own work contains a forgery. Meanwhile, the body of a woman with countless ukiyo-e tattoos is discovered at the sea. From the two incidents, the name of Ryuji emerges.

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Soon after the break of the pandemic and realizing that his clock is ticking, Kristofer gets the urge to embark on a journey to try to find out what really happened when his Japanese girlfriend mysteriously vanished without a trace from London fifty years earlier.

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Takashi Miike is a cinema monster. Let's return to his filmography, his main themes, the framework of his monumental universe.

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An eight-hour fiction shot for a total of twenty-seven weeks, over a period of fourteen months, in a village population forty-seven in the mountains of Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. It is a geographic description of the work and non-work of a farmer. A portrait, over five seasons, of a family, of a terrain, of a soundscape, and of duration itself. A film-as-adaptive-landscape. A georgic in five books.

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The novelist Shiga Naoya lives with his wife Haruko and their 4-year-old daughter Saeko. He is paranoid about Saeko’s health, making her wear heavy clothes even in summer in order to prevent her from catching a cold. Their child before Saeko died due to an epidemic, and he believes thorough enforcement is a natural consequence. In 1918, the Spanish flu reaches Japan. As the number of infected people grows, Shiga starts to suspect their servant Ishi might have gone to watch a travelling entertainment troupe’s performance which drew a great number of villagers. It is something Ishi is likely to do. But when Shiga questions her, she says that she did not go. However, she makes him have misgivings on a regular basis and he decides to take this opportunity to make her quit. An uproar ensues. Shiga feels that he has become a tyrant and refrains from kicking her out but he loses all reason and faith in humanity amid the pandemic…

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After the Onin War, the world is plunged into chaos. Amid this situation, heroes of the warring states begin to emerge in an attempt to unify the country and rule in these turbulent times. In the mid-1540s, there is a young wandering samurai in Mino which is strategically located between the East and West. His name is Akechi Mitsuhide. At this time, there is plenty of internal strife within the Toki clan which rules Mino. Surrounded by the Oda of Owari, the Imagawa of Suruga and the Asakura of Echizen, Mino has constantly faced the risk of invasion. Mitsuhide is pulled into battle and destroys the enemy. His bravery as well as stratagem catches the attention of Saito Toshimasa, the chief retainer of the Toki clan, and he is singled out. This man who is also known as Saito Dosan will go on to takeover the Toki and make Mino his own.

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Family duty sends a lawman to London to look for his mob-assassin brother as a yakuza war threatens to engulf Tokyo. Trust is even tougher to find.

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A recently widowed writer whose wife died in a bus crash comes to terms with his grief—or lack of it—in caring for the children of a working man who also lost his wife in the same accident.

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Set in 1995. A helicopter, operated remotely, is hovering in the sky over a nuclear power plant. The power company, prefectural government and media all receive a fax. The fax contains a threat that if the nuclear power plant is not taken offline the helicopter will be dropped. 8 hours is given as the deadline. Making the situation even more dire, a young child is in the helicopter.

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In July 1945, during the end of World War II, Japan is forced to accept the Potsdam Declaration. A cabinet meeting has continued through days and nights, but a decision cannot be made. The U.S. drops atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. General Korechika Anami is torn over making the proper decision and the Emperor of Japan worries about his people. Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki leads the cabinet meeting, while Chief Secretary Hisatsune Sakomizu can't do anything, but watch the meeting. At this time, Major Kenji Hatanaka and other young commissioned officers, who are against Japan surrendering, move to occupy the palace and a radio broadcasting station. The radio station is set to broadcast Emperor Hirohito reading out the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War.

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A newspaper reporter (Masahiro Motoki) uncovers a secret "Okinawa pact" between the Japanese and U.S. government. A woman who is the deputy director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs becomes a key figure in the story.

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Musical band "Yajima Biyoshitsu" comes to Japan from Nevada, USA to debut their CD.

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A documentary about the making and shooting of Yojiro Takita’s ‘Departures’ (2008)

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Saka no Ue no Kumo is an NHK 21st Century special drama which was aired over three years starting from November 29, 2009. The series runs 13 episodes at 90 minutes each. The first series, with 5 episodes, was broadcast in 2009, while series two and three, each with 4 episodes, were broadcast in late 2010 and 2011. While most episodes were shot in Japan, one of the episodes in series two was shot in Latvia. The TV series is based on the novel Saka no ue no kumo by Ryōtarō Shiba and adopted by Hisashi Nozawa. The theme song of the drama series is titled "Stand Alone". It was composed by Joe Hisaishi, written by Kundo Koyama and performed by British soprano singer Sarah Brightman.

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Daigo, a cellist, is laid off from his orchestra and moves with his wife back to his small hometown where the living is cheaper. Thinking he’s applying for a job at a travel agency he finds he’s being interviewed for work with departures of a more permanent nature – as an undertaker’s assistant.

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A successful Japanese make-up artist collides with a tough-talking Shanghai taxi driver in this romantic dramedy that twists traditional roles by making the beauty expert a male and the cab driver a feisty female. Although he works in a glamorous industry, Naoki Mizushima can't help but notice that his life is anything but beautiful. Can the uncouth Lin Xi help him make over his life for the better?

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Two penniless orphans, Black and White, struggle to survive on the mean streets of Treasure Town. When a megacorporation threatens to tear down the town to build an amusement park, Black and White engage in the fight of their life.

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Tomonaga Akiyuki and his wife Yu have been married seven years. Akiyuki is a graphic designer, and is quite happy in his work and private life. One day, he attends the wedding of his younger half-brother Ichinose Ryo. However, Ryo runs off with a young woman who appears at the wedding, leaving the bride Jumonji Azusa at the altar. Akiyuki bows his head and apologizes to Jumonji, and this is the prelude to a growing intimacy between them. Is it love, or is Jumonji after revenge? And what do Yu and Ryo think as they become aware of this relationship? Akiyuki and Yu, it seems, are headed for divorce. Further complications arise for Akiyuki and Yu when Akiyuki’s close friend Shunsuke and lawyer Reiko, advising on divorce, get involved.

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A Meiji era home drama about the great writer Soseki Natsume and his wife Kyōko. A story of love and tears of a funny couple starring Rie Miyazawa and Masahiro Motoki!

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This is the tragic love story of Shuhei and Umi. Shuhei is the only surviving son of a hospital director. He loves to play the piano as accompaniment to Umi's cello. Umi is the only daughter of a couple who own a little restaurant. As she is a great cellist, Umi obtained a scholarship to attend a famous music school in Austria. While Shuhei dreams of going to Austria with her, being the sole heir in his family, he has to take up medicine to become a doctor. Ryosuke is Shuhei's best friend, but he secretly covets Umi for himself. On graduation day, Ryosuke purposely lied to the young lovers, causing them to miss meeting each other. On her way home, Umi was knocked over by a truck, and lost the full mobility to her fingers, dashing her dream of becoming a cellist. Shuhei meanwhile, thinks that Umi had given up on him, and left for Austria.

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A foreign spy using the Sorge alias is assigned to Tokyo the capital of Japan just prior to the outbreak of World War II and in the midst of the Japanese imperial ambitions in Eastern Asia. The spy becomes acquainted with a sympathetic communist who like he is attached to the ideals of freedom and rule of the masses. Sorge is able to feed the Soviet Union useful information regarding the Axis allies and their movements in Asia and beyond.

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The legendary duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro on Ganryu Island is brought to life in a way never before seen. The vile Musashi has raped a farm girl and commandeered a boat for his trip to the island.

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In the late 6th century the leaders of the Yamato Dynasty had no clear plan for the creation of a unified state. Battles still raged among various warrior clans. Shotoku Taishi, second son of Emperor Yomei, strived to create a new nation out of this chaos. NHK captures this great man from a time in history rarely depicted on screen, in a story of epic proportions. Shotoku Taishi is known mainly through legends and myths and has been viewed as more god than man. The elaborate and colorful costumes of the time and the beauty of ancient Japan enhance this fascinating historical drama.

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In the late 6th century, the leaders of the Yamato Dynasty had no clear plan for the creation of a unified state. Battles still raged among various warrior clans. Prince Shotoku, second son of Emperor Yomei, strived to create a new nation out of this chaos. NHK captures this great man from a time in history rarely depicted on screen, in a story of epic proportions.

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A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Shin'ya Tsukamoto's film "Gemini".

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Matsuzaki, who gets critically injured after a sketchy deal, is taken by his girlfriend to a church where it is rumored that miracles happen. There, they find strange twins named Pinoko. With Pinoko's guidance, Matsuzaki is saved by a genius surgeon, BJ, in exchange for exorbitant fees. However, Matsuzaki is captured by the police. Meanwhile, Reiko, a female detective who pursues Matsuzaki and other organizations, tries to solve a mystery by conducting an independent investigation. It turns out Matsuzaki was found dead.

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The story starts with a serial killer, whose victims are lone women and acts are perpetrated in Mizuno Maki's neighborhood (it is suggested that Motoki is this serial killer). Motoki is a police officer with 2 faces: he has an obsession for housewife Maki and is very gentle with her, and on the other side he rapes & tortures one of her friend, Kanda Uno. His ultimate goal seems to make Maki fall in love with him: so he uses her friend Uno to affect her relationship with her husband & he gradually introduces himself into her life. Another person is also obsessed with Maki (she is a sort of public personality as she runs a cooking club with other housewives and appears in magazines), harassing her all the time on the phone, spying on her, etc...: this person is close to her as he knows things from her past (her son drowned in an accident). Motoki also had an ordeal in his past: his mother was killed in a fire, by her lover.

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When his mother's untimely death quickly follows his father's, a doctor begins to believe a killer may be targeting him and his amnesiac wife.

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Wada, a salary man, is enlisted to venture off to China to investigate a potential Jade mine. After his arrival, Wada encounters a violent, yet sentimental, yakuza, who takes the liberty of joining his adventure through China. Led on their long and disastrous journey to the mine by Shen, the three men come across something even more magical and enticing.

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The drama is about a cold-hearted corporate warrior who is involved in a car accident, and how he and the woman who loves him so earnestly struggle with the aftermath of the accident and regain the love in their twisted hearts.

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