Koji Yakusho
Birthday: Born in 1956-01-01 in Isahaya, Japan
Deathday: Alive
Kōji Hashimoto (橋本 広司, Hashimoto Kōji, born 1 January 1956), known professionally as Kōji Yakusho (役所 広司, Yakusho Kōji), is a Japanese actor. He is known internationally for his starring roles in Shall We Dance? (1996), 13 Assassins (2010), The Third Murder (2017), The Blood of Wolves (2018), Under the Open Sky (2020) and The Days (2023). For his performance in Perfect Days (2023), he was awarded the Best Actor award in the 76th Cannes Film Festival.
TV Credits
サハリンの薔薇
Character:
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オトナの男
Character:
Three close friends realize, at the age of 40, that maybe it's time to think seriously about getting married. Employed by an advertising agency, each struggles with his own weakness-one consistently strikes out with women, while the second can't seem to break his attachments to his mother, and the third is an unabashed playboy. This adult comedy exposes the humorous views and sobering misconceptions of marriage by single men today....
合い言葉は勇気
Character:
The story takes place in a small rural village surrounded by beautiful nature. However, it is about to be destroyed by a waste disposal plant. Something must be done. The villagers rise up. They get a lawyer from Tokyo to help fight alongside them. Only that he's not a real lawyer but a washed-up actor (Yakusho Kōji), who once played a lawyer on TV....
世にも奇妙な物語特別編
Character:
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武田信玄
Character: Takeda Shingen
During the 16th Century Japan was involved in the Sengoku Period, an era of Civil Wars and the powerful Warlords who fought them. One of the earliest and strongest of these men was the Great Lord TAKEDA Shingen. A tremendous military genius, his battles are the stuff of legend....
盤嶽の一生
Character: Ajigawa Bantake
Master swordsman Bangaku Ajigawa is a Ronin with an honest heart, and hates deception. With no family or money, he lives by his own rules. Bangaku’s one treasure and reason to live is his master sword, Hekimitsuhira. But because of it, people around him regularly lie and deceive him. This light-hearted samurai drama follows the comedic life of Bengaku. Produced by Eizou Kyoto, this drama is to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Director Kon Ichikawa....
花の乱
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The story takes place during the Muromachi period of Ancient Japan, in the midst of the Ōnin War. The main character in the series is Tomiko Hino, a historical figure with a bad reputation because of her actions to rebuild Kyoto after the Ōnin War....
三匹が斬る！
Character:
A wandering samurai, ronin, and ninja; meet by chance repeatedly and reluctantly team up to solve the problems of innocent villagers along the way....
陸王
Character: Koichi Miyazawa
A CEO struggling to maintain his small sock business risks the company's future with a new challenge — creating a line of running shoes....
金馬獎
Character: Self
The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards (Chinese: 台北金馬影展; pinyin: Táiběi Jīnmǎ Yǐngzhǎn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-pak Kim-má iáⁿ-tián) is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. It was founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The awards ceremony is usually held in November or December in Taipei, although the event has also been held in other locations in Taiwan in recent times...
着ながし奉行
Character:
Koheita, a newly appointed magistrate, never shows his face in the magistrate's office, instead spending his time in the 'Horisoto', a den of evil where anything goes, from theft to prostitution to murder. However, this man is about to clean up the city in an unconventional way!...
二百三高地 愛は死にますか
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An epic of love and death that depicts how soldiers and ordinary people lived and fought during the Russo-Japanese War, when Japan's very existence was at stake in the face of the great power of Russia....
樅ノ木は残った 乱心
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A human drama based on the "Date Riots"....
水曜ドラマ 宮本武蔵
Character: 宮本武蔵
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チョッちゃん
Character: 神谷容
The 38th NHK Asadora. Based on the autobiography of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's mother....
八丁堀捕物ばなし
Character:
A jidaieki drama where a hard-nosed doshin, Shinpachiro Kariya, takes on difficult cases with exquisite teamwork under the supervision of a young magistrate....
絆～走れ奇跡の子馬～
Character: Masayuki Matsushita
Based on novel "Kizuna ~ Aru Jinba no Monogatari~” by Akihiro Shimada (published from June, 2012 to December, 2012 in horse racing portal site ‘netkeiba.com’)....
THE DAYS
Character: Masao Yoshida
Blamed by some, hailed as heroes by others, those involved with Fukushima Daiichi face a deadly, invisible threat — an unprecedented nuclear disaster....
いだてん〜東京オリムピック噺〜
Character: 嘉納治五郎
Traces Japan’s history with the Olympic games and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics for viewers before Tokyo hosts the event again in 2020. The first half tells the story of marathon runner Kanakuri Shiso, who became one of the first Japanese nationals to participate in the Olympics in Stockholm in 1912. The second half features Tabata Masaji, the coach who laid the foundations of Japanese swimming and helped bring the games to Tokyo for the first time in 1964....
VIVANT
Character: Nogōn Beki
Yusuke Nogi of Ryosho's Energy Development Division said that 10 times the official down payment was mistakenly sent to GFL, a local infrastructure company involved in a solar energy plant to be built in the Balkan Republic in Central Asia. Suspected of involvement, he heads to the Balkan Republic to collect the difference of $90 million. With the cooperation of his CIA friend Sam, Nogi obtained information that the terrorist al-Zaer had laundered the full amount of the contract money into diamo...
新･四谷怪談
Character:
New Yotsuya Kaidan" is an adaptation of the original work by Tsuruya Nanboku, "Yotsuya Kaidan," incorporating the emotions of modern youth and arranging it in a contemporary style. The unique casting includes roles such as Iiemon played by Koji Yakusho, Oiwa played by Ryoko Sakaguchi, Osode played by Kawase Koiseko, and Oume played by Kumiko Ohba....
おやじの背中
Character: Aoki Sosuke
A 10-part omnibus drama by 10 different scriptwriters on the theme of fathers and their sons and daughters....
ペンションメッツァ
Character: Tsuneki
Tenko runs a pension alone. The pension is located in a forest in Nagano, that is full of the Japanese larch tree. She interacts with her guests, who come from all walks of life....
徳川家康
Character: Oda Nobunaga
The story chronicles the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu....
Movie Credits
Babel
Character: Yasujiro Wataya
Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families....
The Great Department Store Robbery
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The Eel
Character: Takuro Yamashita
A businessman kills his adulterous wife and is sent to prison. After his release, he opens a barbershop and meets new people, talking to almost no one except for an eel he befriended while in prison....
Shall We Dance?
Character: Shohei Sugiyama
A bored Japanese accountant sees a beautiful woman in the window of a ballroom dance studio. He secretly starts taking dancing lessons to be near her, and then over time discovers how much he loves ballroom dancing. His wife, meanwhile, has hired a private detective to find out why he has started coming home late smelling of perfume....
Tampopo
Character: White Suit Man
In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life....
Sleeping Man
Character: Kamimura
Ever since an accident in the mountains outside town, Takuji's slept in a coma; his neighbors care for him as new events occur every day....
Doppelganger
Character: Michio Hayasaki
Shortly after hearing from a colleague about a woman whose brother committed suicide after seeing his doppelgänger, a Japanese engineer on the verge of a breakthrough in medical technology is confronted by his own....
Bounce Ko Gals
Character: Oshima
Filmed somewhat in documentary style, it follows three girls over the span of one day and night in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. Jonko runs a group of high school girls involved in paid dating, Raku is a street dancer, and Togo was brought up in the US and back in Japan for one year wants to escape to New York. Their contact with the world of talent scouts and yakuza places them in danger....
Pulse
Character: Ship Captain
In the immense city of Tokyo, the darkness of the afterlife lures some of its inhabitants who are desperately trying to escape the sadness and isolation of the modern world....
Séance
Character: Sato
A psychic housewife and her husband accidentally find a kidnapped girl. But instead of informing the police, they hatch a scheme to get famous by working with the police as a psychic consultant to "find" the girl. And then, things start to go terribly wrong....
Gelatin Silver, Love
Character: Client
The story of a photographer who becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman who lives in the apartment opposite his....
Cure
Character: Kenichi Takabe
A detective starts spiraling out of control when a wave of gruesome murders with seemingly similar bizarre circumstances is sweeping Tokyo....
Eureka
Character: Makoto Sawai
In rural Japan, the survivors of a tragedy converge and attempt to overcome their damaged selves, all while a serial killer is on the loose....
Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean
Character: Masami Shin'ichi
A drama set during World War II where a submarine carrying a secret weapon attempts to stop a planned third atomic bombing of Japan. Based on Harutoshi Fukui's novel Shuusen no Lorelei....
University of Laughs
Character: Mutsuo Sakisaka
In pre-war Japan, a government censor tries to make the writer for a theater troupe alter his comedic script. As they work with and against each other, the script ends up developing in unexpected ways....
Warm Water Under a Red Bridge
Character: Yosuke Sasano
A down-and-out businessman travels to a seaside town, where he meets a woman with unusual sexual powers....
Hunter in the Dark
Character: Kuwano
Yataro Tanigawa, a one-eyed hired assassin, impresses yakuza boss Gomyo Kiyoemon with his skill. Gomyo hires Tanigawa as his bodyguard, or yojimbo, to protect him during an inter-clan conflict. Tanigawa quickly rises in stature in the clan, but finds his boss's enemies almost overwhelming....
Retribution
Character: Noboru Yoshioka
A detective investigates a series of murders. A possible serial killer might be on a rampage, since they all are in the same vicinity and by the same method, but as the evidence points toward the detective as the prime suspect, a ghost in red follows him, and he begins to question his identity. His realization of what seems to have really happened results in something much more sinister and larger in scope, and it leaves his psyche scarred....
Paco and the Magical Book
Character: Onuki
Onuki asks people in a hospital to perform a play for Paco, who suffers from memory disorder. His only hope is to help Paco survive from her illness....
Lost Paradise
Character: Shoichiro Kuki
Kuki is a veteran newspaper reporter who has been shuffled off to a book-development branch and finds escape in an illicit relationship with Rinko. Together they find the passion no longer present in their marriages....
The Last Ronin
Character: Magozaemon Senoo
16 years after the fateful "revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin," involving samurais from the Ako domain who avenged their leader and then commited seppuku (ritual suicide), the sole survivor of that incident, Kichiemon Terasaka (Koichi Sato) traverses the country on a mission. His purpose is to find the families of the fallen samurais and spread the truth of the ronin uprising....
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
Character: Kageyu
A tale of revenge, honor and disgrace, centering on a poverty-stricken samurai who discovers the fate of his ronin son-in-law, setting in motion a tense showdown of vengeance against the house of a feudal lord....
13 Assassins
Character: Shinzaemon Shimada
A bravado period action film set at the end of Japan's feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war-torn future....
The Woodsman and the Rain
Character: Katsuhiko
A widowed lumberjack's life is turned upside down when a film crew shooting a zombie movie asks for his help and increasingly starts to rely on him....
Suite Dreams
Character: Heikichi Shindo
New Year's Eve at a posh hotel and all should be shipshape. It is not. There is the traditional party, an official ceremony, entertainment and a special dinner planned and yet there is trouble everywhere. An Animal is on the loose, a politician to protect, a prostitute to handle, a bellhop to focus and a few things more....
Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet
Character: Isoroku Yamamoto
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (1884-1943) was the Japanese Naval commander who was given the order to attack Pearl Harbour, an order he was duty bound to obey which went against his own personal beliefs. While this infamous attack is a low point in Japanese and US history it wouldn’t have happened if the Japanese government had listened to Yamamoto in 1939 and searched for a more peaceful way to end their war campaign, proving his many ominous presages of the outcomes of the attack to come true....
The Summit: A Chronicle Of Stones to Serenity
Character: Morisaku Furuta
In 1907, a group of men climb an unconquered peak in the last unmapped region of Japan....
Another Way: D-Kikan-Joho
Character:
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The Terminal Trust
Character: Shinzo Egi
Shinzo Egi is an asthma sufferer who does not want to be place on life support. As a last request, Shinzo Egi asks his doctor Ayano Orii if she could follow his wish. Doctor Ayano Orii is then questioned in a criminal case because of her decision....
Aurora Borealis
Character: Genzo
The story of a man and a wolf-dog in East Siberia during the early 1900s....
The Law of Hell
Character:
At a restaurant called Anrakutei on an island is a wasteland surrounded by moat and swamp. The owner Ikuzo manages the restaurant with his daughter. It’s customers who have a dark past have utmost respect for Ikuzo. One day, a half-dead man Tomijiro comes to the restaurant. This is the beginning of Ikuzo’s terrible fight....
Perfect Days
Character: Hirayama
Hirayama is content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Through unexpected encounters, he reflects on finding beauty in the world....
Yukon
Character: Takayuki Iwabuchi
Takayuki Iwabuchi, a former yakuza member with a tattoo of Kisshoten on his back. Although he has a criminal record, he is currently working as a driver at a hearse transportation company. One day, a young man visits the company and asks Takayuki to transport the body of his fiancé, Sawa, who had unexpectedly passed away, to her hometown in a rural area of Takamatsu, Shikoku. Takayuki decides to go to Shikoku with the young man, However, the man disappears when leaving to take a call while they ...
The World of Kanako
Character: Akikazu Fujishima
When Kanako, a model daughter and a brilliant student, disappears, her mother asks her ex-husband, a violent former policeman, to find her. As his investigation progresses, his idealized image of Kanako cracks: the girl hides a dark life that her father can not even imagine....
The Kiyosu Conference
Character: Katsuie Shibata
After the forced suicide of Nobunaga Oda at the Incident at Honnō-ji, powerful figures Katsuie Shibata, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Nagahide Niwa and Tsuneoki Ikeda meet to decide on a successor. The conference would become Japan's first group made political decision. The meeting was known as the Kiyosu Kaigi....
Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window
Character: Sōsaku Kobayashi (voice)
This engaging series of childhood recollections tells of an unconventional school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. The school had old railroad cars for classrooms and was run by an extraordinary man – its founder and headmaster, Sōsaku Kobayashi – who deeply valued children's independence, and who was a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity....
Gratitude
Character:
A man wanders alone, away from his family, in search of a place to die. He runs away from the massage therapist who is supposed to heal him, and drives into the deep mountains in a car he stole on the road. He abandons his car and walks further into the forest, where he meets a strange young man....
History of Jirocho Shimizu
Character:
A historical chivalric drama with tears and laughter, telling the story of Jirocho Shimizu's family, his confrontation with Katsuzo Kurokoma's family, right up to the final battle on the Tenryu River to avenge Ishimatsu Mori....
Toad's Oil
Character: Takuro Yazawa
The story of Takuro Yazawa, a day trader who claims he can earn hundreds of millions of yen in one day, and those around him as they attempt to cope with the death of his son and somehow find a way to benefit spiritually from the experience....
The Lakeside Murder Case
Character: Shunsuke Namiki
Three couples are staying at a lakeside cottage with their children. They want them to prepare intensely for a prestigious high school's entrance exam with the help of a private tutor. One night, one of the wives confesses to her husband that she has killed his mistress....
Silk
Character: Hara Jubei
French silkworm trader Hervé is married to the beautiful Hélène. When an outbreak of disease ravages European silkworms, Hervé must travel to Japan to retrieve healthy eggs. After a long journey, Hervé finally arrives at a village where he can buy them. He becomes infatuated with a young concubine and goes to great lengths to see her again. But, when war breaks out in Japan, the concubine flees, forcing Hervé to return home to his wife....
Família
Character: Seiji Kamiya
One day a young Brazilian man living in Japan crashes his car into the side of the house of a happy family. They take him in after realizing he had been beaten. As they get to know each other they find the bonds of family transcend blood and lineage....
Twelve Months
Character: Young soldier
A young queen requests a bouquet of snowdrop flowers for New Year's Day in exchange for a reward. One greedy woman sends her stepdaughter, whom she does not like, to look for the flowers in a cold forest, knowing the task will be impossible for her. The girl almost freezes to death in the forest, but she is rescued by the spirits of the Twelve Months, who create spring around her. The girl is able to deliver the bouquet to the queen, but others want a share of the reward....
Onimasa: A Japanese Godfather
Character:
Onimasa is the egocentric boss of a small yakuza clan on Shikoku Island, whose criminal duties conflict with his self-image as a chivalrous samurai. His struggles with his boss, the Shikoku Godfather, and the tumultuous life of his adopted daughter, Matsue, form the backdrop of this epic tale of justice, obedience, and bloody vengeance....
Dora-heita
Character: Koheita Mochizuki
A new magistrate in the town of Horisoto—widely reputed to be the most lawless township in Japan, uses guile and his opponents' own misperceptions and prejudices to defeat his enemies and uproot corruption....
Kamikaze Taxi
Character: Kazumasa Kantake
A young foot soldier in the yakuza seeks revenge when his prostitute girlfriend dies after a session with a high-ranking Japanese politician with a taste for torture. He sets out on a 'kamikaze' mission to kill his bosses and the politician; along the way, he acquires the aid of a taxi driver who has recently returned to Japan after living in South America for several decades and is struggling to cope with poverty and the prejudices of native-born Japanese....
I Just Didn't Do It
Character: Masayoshi Arakawa
A young man is falsely accused of molesting a high-school girl on a train. He is arrested and charged, and goes through endless court sessions, all the while insisting that he is innocent....
License to Live
Character: Fujimori
Yutaka was fourteen years old when he was run over by a car and fell into a coma. Now, ten years later, he wakes up and realizes that his family is not intact anymore: father, mother and sister live at different places. Yutaka decides to re-open the pony farm that his family once ran....
Charisma
Character: Goro Yabuike
A seasoned detective is called in to rescue a politician held hostage by a lunatic. In a brief moment of uncertainty, he misses the chance for action. Leaving his job and family without explanation, he makes his way to a mountain forest, encountering a peculiar tree called Charisma....
Chronicle of My Mother
Character: Kosaku
Best-selling novelist Kosaku Igami has made a career out of using his family as fodder for his novels, much to their dismay. When his mother, the spirited family matriarch, is diagnosed with dementia, Igami must come to terms with the toll his own behavior has taken on his increasingly distant family and resolve his own long-simmering resentments. Evocative of classic Ozu, this gorgeously wrought epic family portrait explores the tenderness and trappings of familial bonds....
The Emperor in August
Character: General Korechika Anami
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 wat...
Tokyo Sonata
Character: Robber
A young boy takes interest in piano while his family begins to disintegrate around him after his father loses his job....
The Choice of Hercules
Character: Atsuyuki Sassa
When radicals from Japan's Red Army took a woman hostage in the resort town of Karuizawa, Nagano in 1972, Officer Atsuyuki Sassa was put in charge of diffusing the situation. But the task had its challenges. Upon arriving in mountainous Nagano, Sassa had to compete with freezing winter temperatures, conflicting opinions between the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the Nagano Prefectural Police, as well as public opinion to gain entrance to the lodge that held the single woman captive....
Whistleblower
Character:
A seemingly lazy salaryman is tasked with managing a company secret....
The Boy and the Beast
Character: Kumatetsu (voice)
Kyuta, a boy living in Shibuya, and Kumatetsu, a lonesome beast from Jutengai, an imaginary world. One day, Kyuta forays into the imaginary world and, as he's looking for his way back, meets Kumatetsu who becomes his spirit guide. That encounter leads them to many adventures....
Father of the Milky Way Railroad
Character: Miyazawa Masajiro
Kenji, the eldest son of Masajiro, a wealthy moneylender, refuses to work in the family business and becomes obsessed with farming, jewelry and religion....
I Am Searching For Myself
Character:
Interview with actress Nana Komatsu on her debut film "The World of Kanako"....
The Fir Trees Remain
Character:
The 21-year-old feudal on Sendai, Tsunamune Date, was prohibited to go out in the daytime for his misbehavior during his short stay in Edo. On the next day, his 4 attendants were killed one after another. Sakai Utanokamike, the Rozyu, is turned out to be involved in this scheme, and the aim is to destroy the Date family. Tsunamune's brother Munekatsu Date who is willing to take over the family doesn't know the real purpose of Utanokami and helps him. Munesuku Harada gets to know the whole pictur...
Ekiro
Character: Det. Yobuno
An employee of a bank goes missing following his retirement from the bank. Veteran detective Yobuno (Koji Yakusho), who is set to retire himself, is charged with the investigating the missing person case. Det. Yobuno quickly finds more mysterious as he delves into the case, but a woman named Keiko Fukumura (Eri Fukatsu) surfaces who may hold the key to case....
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Ars longa, vita brevis
Character: Narrator
A Music Special episode broadcasted by NHK. This documentary looks back at the great achievements and innovative works of Ryuichi Sakamoto's carreer, with a variety of rare footage from the NHK archives and other sources. The programme is narrated by Koji Yakusho, a long-time friend of Sakamoto....
Hakkenden
Character: Bakin Takizawa
Takizawa Bakin, a popular Edo period author, begins to recount a story he is planning in front of his friend, the artist Katsushika Hokusai. The story is about eight warriors who, each carrying a jewel, gather together as if guided by fate and embark on a harsh journey to fight the curse of the Satomi family. Hokusai is drawn into the story that Bakin is telling, and visits Bakin on various occasions to hear the rest of the story, and a strange relationship between the two begins. The serializa...
Crimson Lotus
Character:
Sakura and Kenzo are married. Both think they can live a happy marriage, despite the fact that she cannot have children and he does not want to give up her relationship with her lover Yoko....
Jubaku: Spellbound
Character: Hiroshi Kitano
When a major bank is caught paying off a corporate extortionist, the media and prosecutors begin to dig, breaking open a money-and-favours scandal that threatens to rock the entire structure of business and government to its core. While the bank's top executives continue to vacillate, a quartet of middle-management reformers, led by straight-arrow Kitano (Koji Yakusho), decide to stage a boardroom coup and install a new, clean management team. With the aid of a hotshot news anchor (Miho Wada) an...
Oh Lucy!
Character: Takeshi Komori / Tom
A lonely, chain-smoking office lady in Tokyo falls for her teacher when she decides to take English lessons. When her teacher disappears, she sets out on a journey to find him....
The Third Murder
Character: Misumi
A lawyer tasked with defending a robbery-and-murder suspect begins developing doubts about what truly happened....
Dark Society in the East
Character: Ryosuke Kano
A story about the activities of Southeast Asian Mafia gangs in Shinjuku. Ryosuke Kano is an ex French Foreign Legion soldier and is now a cocaine smuggler and dealer. He is acquainted with Larry, a Japanese American, but he turned out to be an undercover cop from New York....
The Legend of Sayo
Character:
Sayo has just celebrated her sixteenth birthday when she attends a temple festival. On her way back she sees a large cherry tree which is infamous for the legend of dead white horse. When her fiancé returns from war and visits her he comes across a white horse which he takes in. The man also does not see himself engaged anymore as his family has lost its wealth....
A Samurai Chronicle
Character: Toda
A retired samurai must redeem himself for a crime that he committed earlier in his life....
Sekigahara
Character: Tokugawa Ieyasu
The background to and depiction of a watershed battle in Japanese history, at Sekigahara in 1600, when Tokugawa Ieyasu's Army of the East defeated the Army of the West of Ishida Mitsunari. The story includes the intrigues and shifting loyalties of the various retainers, family members, and samurai....
Mifune: The Last Samurai
Character: Self - Actor
An account of the life and work of legendary Japanese actor Toshirō Mifune (1920-97), the most prominent actor of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema....
Fireflies: River of Light
Character: Mr. Takiguchi
After finally passing his teacher's exam, Miwa (Yukiyoshi Ozawa) devoted himself to teaching in a rustic primary school. He struggles to get through to his students, until he creates a class project to raise fireflies to fly over it once again. All students, even the reserved girl Hikari (Risako Sugaya), become passionately involved in the project. However, it brings them into conflict with parents and the school, one problem after another stands in his way....
Argentine Hag
Character: Satoru Wakui
After the death of her dearest mother, her serious-minded father goes missing, leaving their only daughter Mitsuko. Six months later, it turns out that he is at Yuri's house, who is rumored to be an eccentric and is commonly known as Argentine hag....
The Hunter and the Hunted
Character: Detective Jin
Jin (Yakusho), a young, widowed police detective who is thinking of leaving the force to better take care of his 8 year old daughter Misaki (Kanno), by chance arrests Neko (Emoto), an accomplished middle aged burglar who has just fixed Misaki's bicycle. After Neko has several weeks to see Jin in the interrogation room, he decides to confess to Jin and teach him how to become a capable detective and worthy adversary. By the time Neko serves his 10 year sentence, Jin is a highly regarded detective...
The Blood of Wolves
Character: Shogo Ogami
Set in 1988 in Hiroshima, Japan, prior to the enactment of the anti-organized crime law. A rumor exists that Detective Shogo Ogami has ties with the yakuza. He is partnered with Detective Shuichi Hioka and they investigate a missing person case involving a financial company employee. Conflicts between opposing yakuza groups become more serious....
The Sin
Character:
A housewife was killed by a falling fire extinguisher, which a boy of seven years dropped from the top floor of an apartment. The offender, however, was not accused because he was too young. Ten years later, a series of murders occur, which target young girls only. It is the boy accused of killing the housewife who comes up in the couse of investigation, while the son of the murdered mother is the witness of a new murder. When the two families of the offender and of the victim meet again, two op...
Mirai
Character: Grandfather (voice)
Unhappy after his new baby sister displaces him, four-year-old Kun begins meeting people and pets from his family's history in their unique house in order to help him become the big brother he was meant to be....
Eternal Monument
Character: Ootaka
A remake of the 1953 film of the same name....
Bonds
Character: Takaaki Ise / Tetsuro Haga
Tetsuro Haga is a troubled gangster, living under the assumed identity Ise for ten years, to escape jail for gunning down his cruel adoptive father. His life begins to unravel when a journalist following him takes an interest in the wife of a boyhood chum, and the wife of another close friend takes an interest in Ise. A couple of murders later, Ise/Haga goes on the run and also sets out for revenge....
Wings Over Everest
Character: Jiang Yuesheng
An experienced mountain rescue team is tasked with recovering crucial documents from Everest’s notorious death zone...
Walking My Life
Character: Yukihiro Fujiyama
A 48-year-old company chief, Yukihiro Fujiyama (Koji Yakusho) goes to a hospital. There he discovered that he has got terminal lung cancer and will die within half a year. He declines any treatment and decides to go to see some people he has not met for years, to write farewell letters to his family, relatives and friends......
Shabu
Character:
Makabe is a yakuza who is addicted to 'shabu' (a slang refers to stimulant drug). He lives as if he wants to destroy himself. He steals a mistress of the boss of a big yakuza syndicate by force. He takes over the yakuza group he belongs to, by killing the old boss. When he tries to use 'shabu' as the main financial resource of his group, it leads to the serious confrontation with another big yakuza syndicate....
Willful Murder
Character: Journalist
The president of the Japanese National Railways is found dead during a period in which train service is plagued by numerous layoffs, strikes and shutdowns. The government says that the president was murdered; the police claim it was a suicide. A quizzical reporter follows the case for years, but the basic question remains unanswered: was the victim killed by members of the burgeoning Communist movement in Japan, or was the death stage-managed by the authorities in hopes of discrediting the Commu...
Under the Open Sky
Character: Mikami Masao
Mikami, an ex-yakuza of middle age with most of his life in prison, gets released after serving 13 years of sentence for murder. Hoping to find his long lost mother, from whom he was separated as a child, he applies for a TV show and meets a young TV director Tsunoda. Meanwhile, he struggles to get a proper job and fit into society. His impulsive, adamant nature and ingrained beliefs cause friction in his relationship with Tsunoda and those who want to help him....
Memoirs of a Geisha
Character: Nobu
In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house....
Osaka Gokudo Senso: Shinoidare
Character:
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Tokyo: Level One
Character: Governor of Tokyo
Panic occurs when the Governor of Tokyo proposes to attract a nuclear power plant to Tokyo....
Belle
Character: Suzu's Father (voice)
Suzu is a 17-year-old high-school student living in a rural town with her father. Wounded by the loss of her mother at a young age, Suzu one day discovers the massive online world "U" and dives into this alternate reality as her avatar, Belle. Before long, all of U's eyes are fixed on Belle, when, suddenly, a mysterious, dragon-like figure appears before her....
The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai
Character: Kawai Tsugunosuke
In the turbulent last days of the Edo period, Kawai Tsugunosuke, a Japanese samurai serving the Makino clan of Nagaoka, dreamt of independence from the restraints of vassalship. Despite his progressive views and his desire for his estate to remain neutral during the Boshin Civil War, he was bound by loyalty and duty to the clan and was compelled to choose sides....
The Supporting Actors in Byplaywood
Character:
In a studio at the foot of Mt. Fuji, Gaku Hamada is struggling to shoot a movie with a dog in the lead role. Enter a huge cast of veteran actors who get involved in misadventures while on set....
Megumi no Sekai
Character:
A unique combination of social problem and entertainment TV movie about a female journalist who is hurt to the core when the truth of an article is questioned....
Suzume Iro Doki
Character:
The TV movie is about a third-rate female lawyer who is an alcoholic, has a history of divorce, and only handles divorce settlements. She spends her days in a state of despondency, but when her estranged husband and daughter disappear, she embarks on a search, partly out of ambition....
Snowflowers: Seeds of Hope
Character:
A touching true story which portrays a doctor who selflessly dedicated his personal fortune to spreading the smallpox vaccination for saving people's lives....
Keijitachi no Natsu
Character:
The TV movie follows a detective with a burning sense of justice who risks his life to pursue a corruption case involving the prime minister's office....
People Without a Fort
Character: Nagasaka Fumio
After female high school student Furuya Meiko is found dead in her apartment from an apparent suicide, police investigate and discover that she was involved in prostitution. The night before Meiko's death, her secret job was exposed and broadcasted to the public by well-known journalist Nagasaka Fumio on a very popular news program. Filled with anger and confusion, her boyfriend, Yahiro Kiichiro vows to get revenge on Nagasaka....
Common Ground: Under Construction Notes
Character: Self
The making of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel is chronicled through an observational approach that captures the creative and logistical challenges of filming a deeply interconnected narrative across four continents. Directed by Carlos Armella and Pedro González-Rubio, the documentary reveals Iñárritu’s commitment to authenticity and cultural sensitivity, from collaborating with local actors and communities to meticulously recreating environments. Through behind-the-scenes footage and the dir...
Takeda Shingen
Character: 武田晴信
During the 16th century, Japan was involved in the Sengoku Period, an era of civil wars and the powerful warlords who fought them. One of the earliest and strongest of these men was the Lord Takeda Shingen, a tremendous military genius....
The Brightest Sun
Character:
When a private detective is murdered, a former colleague and a trainee detective are sent to investigate. Along the way, they uncover a tragic truth that triggers memories from their own haunted pasts....