Akaji Maro
Birthday: Born in 1943-02-23 in Kanazawa, Prefettura di Ishikawa, Giappone
Deathday: Alive
Akaji Maro (麿 赤児 Maro Akaji, born February 23, 1943) is a Japanese actor, Butoka, and theater director. He was born in Sakurai, Nara and is the founder of Dairakudakan. One of his sons is the film director Tatsushi Ōmori; another is the actor Nao Ōmori.
TV Credits
経世済民の男
Character: Fujita Denzaburo
A 3-part series of biographical dramas to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the establishment of NHK....
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....
ルパンの娘
Character: Iwao Mikumo
Hana comes from a family that has been thieves for generations. Hana refuses to become a thief and she wants to live a normal life. She currently works as a librarian and she is dating Kazuma, who works as a public officer. She hears that Kazuma's family are all public officers. One day, Hana visits Kazuma's family. She discovers that Kazuma's family, including Kazuma, are actually all police officers. Hana gets involved in a case and falls into trouble....
ハヤブサ消防団
Character: Tasuku Enishi
Mima Taro is a writer who has hit a slump. Tired of city life, he moves into the house he inherited from his father in the mountainous Hayabusa. When he joins the fire brigade, he becomes involved in a series of arson cases and suspicious incidents. As Taro searches for the truth, a huge conspiracy comes to the surface....
パパがも一度恋をした
Character:
Yamashita Tomo is just an average junior high school girl...but her father is a "NEET" (Not in Employment, Education or Training) and her mother is an "old man"?...
おそろし～三島屋変調百物語
Character:
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牙狼＜GARO＞
Character: Amon
The Makai fight a secret war against the demon forces known as Horrors, evil creatures that manifest themselves through darkness to devour Humanity. On the frontlines are the Makai Knights, given the task of watching over a district and eliminating any Horrors that manifest there. GARO follows the tales of the Knights bearing the title of ‘Golden Knight Garo’, and their duty to vanquish the Horrors and protect Humanity from the darkness....
鴨川食堂
Character:
Customers relying on a single line advertisement “Search for food with memories”, finally arrive at Kamogawa Shokudo, which has no signboard or fabric curtain. Those who come to this inconspicuous eatery near Higashi Honganji in Kyoto are people of today who have troubles. Work, family, life, love, interpersonal relationships… Although their troubles are wide-ranging, the eatery’s poster girl Kamogawa Koishi accepts customers’ troubles with sincerity while her father, Nagare uses the instincts a...
星新一の不思議な不思議な短編ドラマ
Character: 老人
Hoshi Shinichi is the "God of Short Stories" who published more than 1001 short stories during his lifetime, some of which are included in textbooks and continue to be read today. His stories often feature mystery, science fiction, or fantasy elements. A sometimes "humorous" and sometimes "cynic" look at society and mankind. Always short, but always surprising and unpredictable. Is it a poisonous allegory or a wake-up call? See some of his greatest gems come to life in this 2022 live-action adap...
有言実行三姉妹シュシュトリアン
Character: Otori-sama
The fourteenth entry in the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series....
プリティが多すぎる
Character: Shinjiro Tatsumi
A newly transferred employee discovers the hard work and passion of the professionals that fuels the ‘kawaii’ fashion magazine and its culture!...
dele
Character:
Freelance programmer Sakagami is paralyzed in the lower half of his body and confined to a wheelchair. He sets up a company called dele.LIFE in partnership with a law firm established by his late father. At the request of clients, Sakagami works together with a freelance jack-of-all-trades Mashiba to delete all unfavorable digital records of their clients left in their computers and smartphones after they die. They are not supposed to see inside the files but when they feel something strange in ...
まほろ駅前番外地
Character:
In the fictional town of Mahoro on the outskirts of Tokyo is Tada Benriken, a small business which does odd jobs. Its owner is the solemn and level-headed Tada Keisuke, and his unexpected guest, the easygoing but vague Gyoten Haruhiko, a former junior high school classmate who showed up one day and started to sponge on him. The two of them get on like oil and water, and yet are somehow inseparable. They receive queer, dubious incoming odd job requests which they accept, and what comes into view ...
稲垣吾郎の金田一耕助シリーズ
Character: Hōan Tatara
...
やすらぎの刻〜道
Character:
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星新一の不思議な不思議な短編ドラマ
Character:
Hoshi Shinichi is the "God of Short Stories" who published more than 1001 short stories during his lifetime, some of which are included in textbooks and continue to be read today. His stories often feature mystery, science fiction, or fantasy elements. A sometimes "humorous" and sometimes "cynic" look at society and mankind. Always short, but always surprising and unpredictable. Is it a poisonous allegory or a wake-up call? See some of his greatest gems come to life in this 2022 live-action adap...
精霊の守り人
Character:
The heroine Balsa is a skilled bodyguard and a masterful spear-wielder. One day she rescues Prince Chagum who has fallen into a river. The prince is carrying a mysterious spirit egg in his body, and is in danger of being assassinated by his father, the Mikado, who fears this will damage his imperial prestige. Balsa embarks upon a perilous journey when she accepts the queen’s plead to protect her son from her husband....
優しい時間
Character: Amano Rokusuke
This is the story about one small coffee shop located in the northern island of Hokkaido. Yukichi Wakui used to work as a successful businessman at a prestigious trading firm. He worked for several years in New York as well as other cities around the world. When his wife Megumi died at the age of 47 in a car accident three years ago, he decided to leave the company. He was only 57. When Megumi died in the accident, her 18-year-old son Takuro was at the wheel. Yukichi declined an offer to switc...
金魚倶楽部
Character: Mizuki Yozo
Irie plays Hiiragi Haru, a third-year high school student with no real interest in women or higher education, instead choosing to live his life idly. When he notices a first-year student named Harukawa Koto being bullied, he lends her a hand, and the two form a “goldfish club” just for themselves. While love begins to bloom between them, the bullying against Koto continues to escalate. --- Tokyograph...
全裸監督
Character:
Follows the rise of Tooru Muranishi, one of Japan's most notorious directors of adult video. Adapted from a biography of the man, this series depicts the character, his art, vision and his interactions with the approving and disapproving folk around him....
永久就職試験
Character: 모리오카 아버지
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金田一少年の事件簿
Character: Goryu Tachibana
A young man who showed little promise while a high school student becomes a master detective, just like his grandfather....
Movie Credits
The Haunted Lantern
Character:
Wife in former life plagues husband as ghost in the present...
Kikujiro
Character: Crazy Man
Brash, loudmouthed and opportunistic, Kikujiro is the unlikely companion for Masao who is determined to see the mother he has never met. The two begin a series of adventures which soon turns out to be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with a wide array of surprises and unique characters along the way....
Doomsday Detective
Character:
Shinjiro, who runs a humble detective agency using a coffee shop in a certain town as his office, gets into trouble at a dark gambling den and is forced to take on a troublesome job by Kyoichi, an executive of the Kasahara clan, a yakuza gang he knows well. The task is to investigate an arson case that is suspected to involve the Chinese mafia Barretto, with whom the Kasahara-gumi has a rival gang. In addition, Shinjiro is asked by Michiko, whose Filipino parents were deported in the past, to se...
Pornostar
Character: Yakuza Boss
A young man decides one day to start killing yakuza. After he kills his first two he gets roped into helping a wannabe gangster and his bumbling underlings to perform a hit. While things work out in the beginning, this young psychopath quickly becomes more trouble than the gang expected. Will they be able to rid themselves of him, or will they be his next victims?...
Suicide Club
Character: Detective Murata
When 54 high school girls throw themselves in front of a subway train it appears to be only the beginning of a string of suicides around the country. Detective Kuroda tries to find the answer to this mystery, which isn't as simple as he had hoped....
Gemini
Character: Kakubê
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....
The Trap
Character: Lt. Nakayama
When a hooded stranger appears in private eye 'Mike' Hama's office with the cryptic challenge "I want you to look for me," Hama is drawn into a string of bizarre serial murders that have Yokohama's police baffled and the city terrified....
Postman Blues
Character: Boss of Minato Gang
Sawaki is a postman who's not quite thrilled about his boring way of life. But his life is about to change when he delivers mail to his old schoolmate Noguchi, who's now a member of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia, and just finished cutting his little finger off....
The City of Lost Souls
Character: Okijima Gang Member
Brazilian-Japanese gangster Mario rescues his Chinese girlfriend Kei as she's about to be deported from Japan. Desperate to escape, he hides in Tokyo's booming Japanese-Portuguese community and seeks passage from the country from a Russian mobster. To meet his price, they hold up a bigtime drug deal between the Chinese Mafia and the local Yakuza....
Be a Man!! Samurai School
Character: Heihachi Edajima
Momotaro and Hidemaro are 1st-years at Otokojuku, a private boys school where true men are made. Momotaro, proficient in academics and martial arts becomes good friends with Hidemaro an underachieving weakling. Omito Date, former student leader, plans his revenge against his former school. Now leader of an evil army from rival Kanto Gogakuren school he fully intends on taking over Otokojuku....
Nagaremono Yokohama Yakuza War
Character:
The life and death of the men who are bound by violence....
Known As! Pissken
Character:
The thug is now back in Shaba as a legendary hitman!...
Shangri-La
Character: Ookura Nagashima
Shangri-La follows the lives of a group of homeless people in Japan who run into a man who nearly commits suicide and decide to help him out of his financial troubles. Using their various ingenious resources they embark on a complex scheme to blackmail a crooked businessman, whose bankruptcy claim has put people out of work. It’s a fun romp as these seemingly homeless people manage to outsmart the very people who cast them from society....
Lie Lie Lie
Character: Den
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 ...
Yakuza Weapon
Character: Kenzo Iwaki
After four years overseas, Shozo returns to Japan to avenge his yakuza boss who was assassinated by his own treacherous top man, Kurawaki. The resulting battle leaves both men severely injured, and Shozo awakens in a mysterious medical facility to find his arm replaced with an M61 Vulcan cannon and his leg replaced with a rocket launcher. Meanwhile, Kurawaki has been fitted with mechanical augmentations of his own. Get ready for the second round....
Dark Harbour
Character:
Manzo is a fisherman in a small seaside community who lives and works alone, but longs for a relationship and maybe a wife. When a sign is posted advertising a matchmaking party with city women, all the men gussy themselves up and videotape themselves for the dating service. Manzo borrows a camcorder and tries his luck, but his rehearsed speech doesn't go as planned. When showing the videotape to the prospective dates, he discovers something unusual: There is a woman and her son living in one of...
Kaidan. Strange Stories of Japanese Ghosts
Character: Himself
An exploration of the spirit world as portrayed in the height of the J-horror era of the late ‘90s....
Boxer Joe
Character:
A docudrama about the boxer Jôichirô Tatsuyoshi. The documentary part follows Tatsuyohi for 18 months, from his comeback from an eye injury to his match against Yasuei Yakushiji in 1994. A fictional part follows a restaurant owner, fan of Tatsuyohi, waiting for the match with his friends and family....
A Last Note
Character:
A retired actress whose husband has recently died visits her summer home. There she has encounters with old friends and acquaintances who bring various stories and news of death and the past...
The Room
Character: The Hitman
A quiet killer is looking for a room. The real state agent, shy and expressionless, guides him through Tokyo, towards the ruins the decadent economy has left behind, in hopes of finding The Room....
Ox-Head Village
Character: Kanon's Grandfather
Having launched a social media prank about a haunted building, three girls suddenly vanish. Rumours circulate that they were victims of The Ox-Head Village curse, triggering an investigation by two of their friends, desperate to find the truth about what has happened…...
Diary of a Shinjuku Thief
Character: Actor
In Tokyo's Shinjuku district, the lives of a young man prone to theft, a young woman he meets at a bookstore, and a kabuki actor intersect....
Zigeunerweisen
Character:
A surreal period film following a university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways....
Tonbi
Character: Kaiun
Yasuo (Hiroshi Abe) grew up as an orphan. He married a woman he loved and they had a son Akira (later played by Takumi Kitamura). Yasuo's life seemed great at the time, but his life totally changed after his wife died in accident. Since that time, Yasuo, who never experienced parents' love himself, has to raise his son Akira alone....
Utsushimi
Character: Self
This faux-documentary follows a butoh master, a fashion designer, and a filmmaker racing against time to create art and help a young girl in love....
Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands
Character:
A wealthy real estate investor is forced to watch the rape of his girlfriend and then is sent a film showing the fact. He hires a hitman, Sho, and shows him the film, so that the detective can get rid of the criminals. But the boss of the criminal band is Ko, Sho's archnemesis, who raped and murdered his girlfriend....
All Under the Moon
Character: Senba
A Korean taxi-driver interacts both humorously and tragically with his customers and employers in '90s Tokyo....
The Pistol That Sprouted Hair
Character: Taka
Shirō raids the office of the organization that attacked his lover, wreaking havoc and escaping with a stolen handgun. In retaliation, the organization hires two killers to get rid of Shirō. The duo begin to develop a strange kinship with their target......
Crazy Camel
Character:
‘Many people have a preconception about butoh — that it is performed by dancers whose bodies are painted white. So when we debuted our current program, ‘Crazy Camel,’ in France, and we came on stage covered in gold-colored powder, the fans and experts there thought we were pioneering a new style,” 72-year-old butoh master Akaji Maro says in a recent email interview. “In fact, this gold-powdered showy performance style has existed as a cabaret-show flip side of orthodox butoh since not long after...
Mitsugetsu
Character: Brokerage Firm President
Tetsuaki's struggling to write a novel while his mother fades; Mitsuko's engagement has been forced upon her unwillingly; the two individuals run away to share their grief....
Dreams on Fire
Character: Grandfather
Fleeing to Tokyo with the hopes that she can fulfil her dream of becoming a dancer, Yume is met with the harsh reality that success isn’t something that comes quickly or easily. Whilst juggling her job as a hostess in Tokyo’s red-light district, Yume throws herself headfirst into studying the artform and integrating herself into the underground dance community....
Katsu Fūtarō! !
Character:
...
Ginji - The Slasher
Character: Ōmuta
In prison for 50 years after massacring his corrupt workmates with a samurai sword in 1945, Ginji Sonesaki (Riki Takeuchi) is given the nickname of Ginji the Slasher. On his release he finds himself on the streets living with the homeless hiding from a man whose life he tried to end. His former boss and the object of Ginji's hatred is now a highly-regarded figure in politics but Ginji plans to remind him of his past transgressions and make him pay for ruining his life....
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Character: Boss Ozawah
An assassin is shot by her ruthless employer, Bill, and other members of their assassination circle – but she lives to plot her vengeance....
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Character: Boss Ozawah
The Bride unwaveringly continues on her roaring rampage of revenge against the band of assassins who had tried to kill her and her unborn child. She visits each of her former associates one-by-one, checking off the victims on her Death List Five until there's nothing left to do … but kill Bill....
Into a Dream
Character: Sato's Father
Low-profile theater troop actor Mutsugoro Suzuki begins an oneiric journey back to his hometown, marked by his quest to find the one responsible of infecting him with a STD....
An Angel with Many Scars
Character:
An odd journey starts as Mitsuru, a private detective, and a boy, whom a dying mobster entrusts to him, decide to go to northern Japan in search of the boy’s mother, and the detective’s buddy Hisashi joins them later....
The Most Terrible Time in My Life
Character: Lt. Nakayama
Maiku Hama is a private detective working in Yokohama. Hama comes to the aid of a Taiwanese waiter named Yang and agrees to track down his missing brother. Through a series of double-crosses Hama gets embroiled in a gang war and a revenge plot between the two brothers...
Circus Boys
Character: Tattoo Master
Two brothers, Jinta and Wataru, are raised in a travelling circus. After an accident, Jinta decides to leave the circus and travels the countryside working as a con-man. After a run-in with a local gang of yakuza, he is invited to join their ranks, where he makes the mistake of falling for a boss's mistress. Wataru stays with the circus and works hard to regain its former glory...
Toy Reanimator
Character: Mr Iwai
Set in a toy store specialized in antique toys, a boy works in the toy store and is obsessed with tin toys. There's one particular tin toy he loves more than the rest. In walks a girl wearing shades, and starts telling her own story, a weird and fascinating experience she had with a toy....
Awakening
Character:
After the unexpected death of her husband a new life begins for Toshiko. 30 years of a happy marriage seem to suddenly vanish as she finds out that her husband had lived a double life. Struggling between her anger and the chance to begin a new chapter for herself, she finds her life moving into unchartered waters as she faces her 60th birthday....
Shinran: Path to Purity
Character:
In the 12th century, Buddhism was still a relatively new religion in Japan. At that time, one school (Shingon) offered extensive training in complex and very demanding practices which might eventually bring about spiritual purification and realization. Various Zen schools offered students a lengthy path, literally composed of a blank wall and unceasing meditation. Yet another school (Tendai) emphasized complex metaphysics and the study of philosophical systems. Basically, all of them were design...
Dangan Runner
Character: Kibo Boss
A would-be bank robber forgets his mask on his first big heist, and then botches an attempt to shoplift a replacement mask from a nearby convenience store. The store's clerk, a washed-up rock star, chases the thief and literally runs into a Yakuza to whom he owes money. Thus begins an all-night, three-way pursuit through the streets of Tokyo....
The Stairway to the Distant Past
Character: Lt. Nakayama
Broke, with his vintage Nash convertible repossessed, private eye Mike Hama is reduced to combing the mean streets of the Yokohama waterfront on a borrowed bicycle. But when Lily, a beautiful stripper from out of Hama's past, returns to town, the fuse is lit on a criminal powder keg set to blow the lid off the Yokohama underworld....
We Make Antiques! Osaka Dreams
Character:
A treasure appears in front of antique dealer Norio Koike (Kiichi Nakai) and potter Sasuke (Kuranosuke Sasaki). The treasure is Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s chawan (procelain tea bowl) called Houou, that has been missing....
9 Souls
Character: Owner of Candy Shop
After discovering a hole in their crowded cell, nine prisoners escape their confinement to track down the key of the universe, which a fellow prisoner known as the Counterfeit King said he had hidden....
Akame 48 Waterfalls
Character: Triangular Eyes
A man is trying to flee from his past, and he ends up in an underworld filled with strange characters. He finds a job skewering meat in a dirty old room in a shabby old house filled with prostitutes, gangsters and a weird old tattoo master. He clearly doesn't fit in to this new world, and the inhabitants of it immediately despise him....
Disconcerto
Character: Oka
Set within the fictional city of Mahoro, Keisuke Tada runs a "benriya" - a general problem solver for hire. His assistant is his former high school classmate Haruhiko Gyoten. A big crisis then occurs for them....
This Is Shinogi
Character:
An office worker who happens to end up helping a yakuza...
Jam Films
Character:
Jam Films is a 2002 suite of 7 shorts produced by Sega/Amuse....
Hanako of the Toilet
Character: Monk
When a young girl discovers that her new middle school is the same one her sister mysteriously disappeared from eleven years before. She and her new friends join forces to fight the evil force that threatens them all....
TAP: Perfect Education
Character:
In Okinawa, a down-and-out middle-aged yakuza underling named Shidara kidnaps and confines a high school girl named Yui, the daughter of a fellow yakuza’s mistress....
Born to Be Baby
Character:
A detective, a mysterious beauty Ekin and other characters appear in the film. It creates a mysterious visual world that takes us one step further into the world of Ekin. This is the second art documentary film produced by the Museum of Art, Kochi, following Hiroyuki Oki's HEAVEN-6-BOX. This time, the stage performances of butoh greats Maro Akaji and Dairakudakan were documented by Hayashi Kaizo....
Monday
Character: Homeless Man / Demon
A simple funeral turns a man's world Topsy turvy. He wakes up in a posh hotel room, totally clueless about how he got there. Slowly, he recalls what happened a day before....
The Whispering of the Gods
Character: Shopkeeper
Rou has returned to the monastery he was raised in. As he listens to the whispering of the Gods through his germanium radio, Rou defies God in every which way and puts religion to the test....
Golden Flower: What Is Hidden Is the True Flower, What Is Gone Is the Butterfly
Character:
Nursing home "Yuyoso". Many lonely old people live there, including botanist Taro Makiso, a physicist, an actor, a bar mom, and a chef. Maki has spent most of his life studying botany, and has lived without regard for entertainment, drinking, women, or everything else in the world. Then came my 80th birthday. He and a young staff member go digging for wild yam and find a mysterious golden flower. It was the flower of immortality, the "Golden Flower", which was said to bloom beside the Himalayan ...
Heisei Irresponsible Family: Tokyo de Luxe
Character: Kanji, Nobuko's father
The members of the Ameya family are all scammers. After their election scheme goes bust in their hometown, they move from Shikoku to Tokyo and resume their fraudulent activities. Everything carries on smoothly until the eldest and the fourth sons' modus operandi go awry, the mother's lover runs off with another woman, and disasters strike one after another. This film is a collaboration between Yoichi Sai and Goro Kishitani following "All Under the Moon." The family business of the Ameya family ...
Piledriver
Character:
...
Persona
Character: Daimon
Into the bully-infested home room class struts a fearless, ceramic-masked student. Squarely confronting a gang of ruffians, it is soon discovered that behind the mask is none other than Danta, an otherwise weakling student who has heretofore been picked on relentlessly by these same bullies. Donned with his mask, however, Danta exhibits a totally other personality, lacking fear and intimidation. The other students, looking on, soon experiment with the power of masks and find to their glee that b...
SPEC: Heaven
Character: Akira Nitanai
Saya Toma is a female detective with an IQ of 201. Takeru Sebumi is a career detective with a distinguished background. They work on cases by postulating the "SPEC" of the unknown criminals and then deduce the criminal's unknown "SPEC" to make arrests. A mystery occurs when bodies are found on a cruiser in the ocean. Saya Toma and Ryo Kase of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department are brought in to solve the case....
Tada's Do-It-All House
Character: Oka
In Mahoro, the fictional suburb of Tokyo, Tada works as a general problem solver for hire. One day, former classmate Gyoten appears unannounced. Both men are over 30 years old and divorced. With no explanation, Gyoten suddenly asks to spend the night at Tada's home. Eventually, Tada accepts Gyoten as his assistant and together they become involved in various cases concerning an assortment of people from different walks of life....
En moi
Character: Man on Duty
A movie director goes to the Paris Opera to shoot his new film. Lacking inspiration, he looks for ways out of his solitude and fear of failure. With each step forward, his imagination reveals itself to him, and mysterious characters lead him towards his desire to create and love....
Evil Spirits in the Darkness
Character: Hirose Kinzō
The film depicts the youth of Kinzo, a heretic painter who worked in Tosa during the late Edo period, and the hurricane-like inner side of his life....
The Naked Summer
Character:
The Naked Summer is a film that documents young artists' effort and growth while training and preparing for a performance of Butou that is praised internationally as a unique art form. Butou was born about 40 years ago as a form of modern dance that pursues the untraditional movement of the body and defies the convention of the human body. As a result, it is known for the dancer's strange facial expressions, naked body covered in white powder, and strong visuals. The film contains the summer tra...
Shin-Karajishi Kabushiki-Kaisha
Character:
Remake of Chusei Sone's 1983 comedy about a yakuza family trying their luck in show business....
Hanezu
Character: Yo-Chan
Woodwork artist Takumi moves to the small village Asuka in Nara Prefecture. He remodels old homes and lives a peaceful existence with nature. Takumi then meets Kayoko, a woman who went to the same school as Takumi. Kayoko is fascinated with the color crimson. She dyes scarves with the color of hanezu. Kayoko lives with boyfriend Tetsuya, who works as an editor of a PR magazine. They live together. Soon, Kayoko falls in love with Takumi....
Moonlight Serenade
Character: Circus performer
After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, a writer remembers travelling with his family to bury his brother after World War II....
The Night the Angel Turned Away
Character: Aota
...
The Dropout
Character:
Detective Seiji Otaki is determined to find the psychopathic killer of a young woman who was ostensibly a student but in reality a high-priced prostitute. Even though he has been taken off the case for beating up a suspect, he refuses to let it go and recruits his mistress to act as a decoy for the killer. Her involvement turns out to be a fatal mistake, and when her husband gets out of prison, Detective Otaki is in worse trouble than ever....
The Outer Way
Character:
The cop Himuro is picked as scapegoat by his superiors because of their own involvement in sokaiya gangster practices....
Wild Flowers
Character:
Real pro wrestlers Mizuho Ishikawa, Cutie Suzuki and Emi Tojyo star alongside newcomer Miki Suzuki as the women tag teams, and they are managed reluctantly by Yoshinori Okada, forced to take over as manager of his mom's struggling female wrestling team....
Neko Ninja
Character: Katsuragi
Kagerota is a young ninja who embarks on his first mission: stealing the goldfish from a wealthy samurai. He succeeds, but then a mysterious fat cat starts following him. His distinctive red nose leads Kagerota to believe that the feline stalker is actually the reincarnation of his long last father, a legendary ninja who left him when he was ten years old....
GARO Special: Beast of the Demon Night
Character: Makai Priest Amon
In the aftermath events of GARO: Chapter of the Black Wolf, Saejima Kouga sets out to the northern district upon reassignment. While hunting down Horrors, a young priestess named Rin informs Kouga that she's been sent by Priest Amon to save a presumed dead friend in the Makai realm within Kantai, Jabi. Kouga teams up with Rin in a quest to save Jabi as they are hindered by supernatural and Makai forces alike. Meanwhile somewhere in Japan the dark Horror lord Legules was resurrected and plots a m...
A Light in the Distance
Character:
Mado wakes up in the morning finding all the people disappeared. Hearing a strong typhoon might strike, everyone has escaped the disaster. She checks her school, but no one is there. She meets her classmate, Fujii, unexpectedly. Fujii asks Mado to find a shelter together. He doesn't want to leave her alone. Both start looking around to see if anyone's left behind: An empty theatre, a movie is still running on the screen. A young girl stands by a desolated pool. A strip show theater with a retire...
Fly me to the Saitama
Character: Sojyuro Saionji
People from Saitama Prefecture are persecuted and, because of this, they hide the fact that they are from there. In Tokyo, Momomi Hakuhodo is a male high school student and the son of the Tokyo governor. Physically, Momomi Hakuhodo looks like a girl. One day, he meets mysterious male transfer student Rei Asami. They are attracted to each other, but Rei Asami is from Saitama Prefecture....
Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis
Character: Himself
"Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis" is a visually striking film portrait shot on location in Japan with the participation of the major Butoh choreographers and their companies. Although Butoh is often viewed as Japan's equivalent of modern dance, in actuality it has little to do with the rational principles of modernism. Butoh is a theater of improvisation which places the personal experiences of the dancer on center-stage. By reestablishing the ancient Japanese connection of dance, music, and m...
Hell Girl
Character: Wanyudo
Tormented and bullied people can access a special website, run by a Hell Girl who will enable them to take revenge on their torturers. The price for such a service is only that the person must join their torturer in damnation....
Sekigahara
Character: Ishin Shimazu
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....
Birdsong
Character: Akira
Tokyo. Asuka, a young cleaning lady working the night shift, is ready to pay a high price to achieve her dream of becoming a music star. She manages to perform on a TV-talent show, but all her sacrifices backfire when she is accused of murder and is forced to reveal all the details of the dark path she has followed until then....
Ghost Master
Character: Tetsuhiko Todoroki
Akira Kurosawa is a nerdy movie buff who works on low budget romantic comedies while dreaming of becoming a horror master. After being abused by his mentor, “the master” he finally decides he’s had enough and opens a door allowing an evil spirit to wreak revenge on those who have been cruel to him. But much like the movies he loves, once a spirit is unleashed – it can’t be controlled and starts to kill everyone!...
Yumeji
Character: Criminal
Following the life of Japanese artist and poet Yumeji Takehisa through the imagining of an encounter with a beautiful widow with a dark past....
The Emperor in August
Character: Admiral Hisanori Fujita
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...
Guard Dog
Character:
A tough and violent battle ensues between Hikaru Gotokuji, who's been assigned as the bodyguard for a popular young entertainer, and the ex-mercenary who is aggressively intent on assassination....
The Nearest Place to the Sky
Character:
Kitagawa, a top salesman with an impressive record, is hiding a dark secret—he borrowed the 9 million yen of his record from loan sharks. One day, while being pursued by the Yakuza, he escapes to a rooftop where he unexpectedly meets a mysterious elderly woman and an office worker. Soon, the rooftop transforms into a serene escape, as they find themselves playing nostalgic childhood games like "Kick the Can" and "Red Light, Green Light." But beneath the surface, all three of them are hiding a si...
Why Don't You Play in Hell?
Character:
In Japan, gonzo filmmakers hatch a three-pronged plan to save an actress's career, end a yakuza war and make a hit movie....
The Notorious Concubines
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Dark, cynical Japanese epic brought to U.S. in a dubbed version by shlockmeister Harry Novak. Still, this gory, sexy epic is made with style and interesting for to compare to "Yojimbo" and other masterworks of the form....
Kagero-za
Character: Homeless
A 1920s playwright meets a beautiful woman who may be the ghost of his patron's deceased wife....
Sukiyaki
Character:
Kenta Kurihara (Tasuku Nagaoka) is sent to prison for battery. In his cell he is referred to as the "newcomer." Meanwhile, Kenta is bummed out with simple meal offerred in prison. The four other prisoners in his jail cell have no problems eating his food. On lunar new year's day the prison offers the traditional Osechi-Ryori dish. The inmates in the cell gather to play a game that has become an annual ritual. They compete for items from each other's dishes by boating about the most delicious th...
Knockout
Character: Daisuke Kamoi
A Japanese boxer stages a dramatic and dangerous comeback after suffering brain damage in the ring....
The Love and Adventures of Kuroki Taro
Character:
Taro Kuroki, 42, is a stuntman with a samurai's heart. He loves adventures, plays pranks with the police, tries to cure a cat lady by reversing her trauma, and finally, rescues his niece who is about to be lured into prostitution....
Ready to Shoot
Character: Sakurada
A middle-aged man discovers an injured refugee woman trembling in the corner of his bar in Kabukicho. He quickly becomes aware that her life is in his hands when he learns she is hiding from the yakuza....
Uneasy Encounters
Character: Man of dry river bed
A five-part comedy and horror anthology...
That's Cunning! Shijo Saidai no Sakusen?
Character:
Comedy about a group of chemistry students who organize a cheating scam during their final exams. Amuro Namie, the top pop music sensation, plays one of the students....
Cat's Eye
Character: Umehara
Three cat burgling sisters have to go up against the police and a Chinese crime syndicate in order to rescue their kidnapped father....
Unlucky Monkey
Character: Hobo
A dark and strange comedy about a bank robber with bad luck. Bungling a bank robbery turns out to be a profitable mistake for Yamazaki, an amateur crook who ends up with 80 million yen after a string of improbable accidents. But having so much cash doesn't make his life is any easier. In fact, it gets much more complicated when Yamazaki stabs a hairdresser by mistake and instantly becomes a hunted fugitive. He's just one unlucky monkey but can he turn his luck around?...
Female Ninjas Magic Chronicles: Legend of Yagyu Part 1
Character: Tenkai
Yuko Moriyama stars in this ninja period piece as one of seven women determined to exact revenge on the evil lord Akinari Katou and “The 7 Spears”, the band of soldiers he commands. Trained assassins and skilled in sorcery, these men took over the Aizu prefecture and took its most beautiful young women as concubines. They left behind 7 daughters now seeking out Jyubei Yagyuu to help get revenge....
Swing Man
Character: Oda
A man is assaulted by someone with a bat and attempts to figure out why....
KT
Character: Susumu Kawahara
This movie is a political/espionage thriller, based on a real kidnapping incident of Korean politician, Kim Dae-Jung....
Drive
Character: Lord Kobari
Kenichi Asakura is an uptight, hyper-square salesman. One day, three bank robbers commandeer his van. They are in hot pursuit of their fellow robber who has snatched the money. Unfortunately for the bank robbers, Asakura never drives over 40 km/h speed limit even under the extreme situation....
Samurai Resurrection
Character: Ieyasu Tokugawa
Shiro Amasuka, dead leader of the Shimbara Revolt is resurrected from hell with the desire of overthrowing the shogunate for killing his companions. To do this , he resurrects an army of living dead swordsmen. Between him and his goal, only Yagyu Jubei stands......
The Motive
Character: A-san
Four people are discovered brutally murdered in an up-scale high-rise apartment. All the victims appear to be family, but as the investigation deepens it is discovered that one of the victims isn't related to the family....
Damejin
Character:
An off-beat comedy about 3 'damejin' (useless persons), who don't work and spend their lives doing nothing. They actually don't want to work. When they hear 'in India one can live without working' they take it seriously. They begin to raise the money to go to India by doing anything but working, such as ripping off stamps from others' letters to sell, robbery at the bank which itself went bankrupt, etc....
Pacchigi! Love & Peace
Character:
In 1974, during the height of the recession, a Japanese Korean family relocates to Tokyo to raise money and seek better treatment for their ill son....
Shaolin Girl
Character: Rin's Master
A Shaolin-trainer young woman returns to Japan to resuscitate her grandfather's defunct martial arts school....
Asahiyama Zoo Story: Penguins in the Sky
Character:
Asahiyama Zoo in Hokkaido, is the northernmost zoo in Japan. The unpopular zoo welcomes a new zoo keeper, young Yoshida (Yasuhi Nakamura), who has more affection for insects than people after years of being bullied at school when he was young. Yoshida soon realizes that Asahiyama Zoo is facing a financial crisis and the zoo director Takizawa (Toshiyuki Nishida) has been doing everything in his power to save the zoo from closing down. Moved by Takizawa's passion, Yoshida and other zoo keepers ca...
Kazura
Character:
Bald Moriyama wants a new image and buys a wig. It works: suddenly he has a career and a girlfriend. But life is hard when you have to keep a secret. Perfect timing and handling of real-life anxieties plus brilliant comedians MIMURA and OOTAKE make WIG an exceptionally funny comedy....
Postcard
Character: Monk
Toward the end of World War II, middle-aged soldier Keita is entrusted with a postcard from a comrade who is sure he will die in battle. After the war ends, Keita visits his comrade's wife Yuko and bears witness to the tragic life she has led....
Zipang Punk Goemon Rock III
Character: Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Goemon Ishikawa steals a golden statue from Yukari Kukai with female thief Neko no Me Ogin, but Private Detective Shinkuro Akechi chases after Goemon Ishikawa and Neko no Me Ogin. Detective Shinkuro Akechi discovers that there is a code hidden within the golden statue. The code reveals the location where gold is hidden. Meanwhile, outlaws gather under Goemon Ishikawa....
Kakekomi
Character: Seisetsu
Kakekomi tells the stories of Edo women in the 1800s that escape abusive husbands and lovers by taking refuge in Tokeiji, a monastery in Kamakura....
The Projects
Character: Gondo
Whether it's someone mixing burnables and recyclables or noise from a neighbor's domestic spat, there's always something occupying the residents of a housing project in the suburbs of Osaka. However Hinako (Naomi Fujiyama) and Seiji (Ittoku Kishibe) couldn't care less. Having moved in just six months ago after the closure of their herbal medicine shop, the old couple is reluctantly putting their life back together. But when Seiji disappears, the apartment rumor mill churns: divorce, murder, dism...
Check
Character: Hakugin
Set in Osaka's Shinsekai, the film depicts the lives of Ayumu Tobita (Hidekazu Akai), who makes a living as a shogi gambler (shinken-shi), and Ryuzo Kayama (Masaya Kato) who aims to become a professional player....
Madness in Bloom
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Yamaguchi, Ichikawa and Kosuge dress in white military-style uniforms to "clean" the streets of Shibuya from bad elements. After rightist gang boss, Aota takes an interest in the three, the boys gradually become influenced by him, but start to go their different ways....
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
Character: Boss Ozawah
An assassin is shot and almost killed by her ruthless employer, Bill, and other members of their assassination circle – but she lives to plot her vengeance....
Uta Monogatari: Cinema Fighters Project
Character: On (segment "Kuu")
Six Stories based on Six Songs....
Under the Turquoise Sky
Character: Saburo
Takeshi grew up spoiled in an affluent family. One day his businessman grandfather Saburo sends him to the grasslands of Mongolia where he is to search for a daughter born out of Saburo's relationship with a local woman after the Second World War....
Tales of the Bizarre 25th Anniversary Spring Special: Popular Manga Artist Competition
Character:
Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the series. In this work, we collaborate with five popular manga artists such as Go Nagai, Junji Ito, Eiichiro Oda, Kazuo Umezu and Masayuki Ishikawa....
Will to Live
Character:
It is based on the story of The Ballad of Narayama updated to the present day, with the substitution of putting a parent into an old people's home for the abandonment of the original. The film won the Golden St. George and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival....
SHANAŌ: Les Garçons-Bonbons 3
Character: Narration (voice)
The third movie in Léona Hirota's 'Candy Boys' series....
Crazy Love
Character:
Correlated with Susan Sontag's theorization of kitsch as well as employing the queer lingo of "camp," this film's relentless equal opportunity pop-art montage shattered the foundations of conventional cinema, making it a true document of the Shinjuku underground scene. Director Okabe himself appears recreating his favorite roles from Bonnie and Clyde to Spaghetti Westerns, as well as incorporating quotations by inserting stills of Godard, Kennedy’s assassination and the Vietnam War....
Lupin's Daughter: The Movie
Character: Iwao Mikumo
Am I really the daughter of a thieves family? Hana Mikumo, daughter of the "L family", a family of thieves, unexpectedly falls in love with Kazuma Sakuraba, the son of a family of police officers. She spends her days dreaming of a normal life whilst hiding her true identity. Eventually her true identity is revealed to Kazuma, and after overcoming many difficulties, the two accept their fate and get married. Along with their new daughter Anzu, they manage to live happily, despite the problems tha...
Love Will Tear Us Apart
Character: Ryûjin Maro
Wakaba saves her classmate Koki who was being bullied. From then on, people who are involved with Wakaba are killed one after another. When the murderer is found out, Wakaba realizes what true love is....
Kaiju Guy!
Character:
Yamada, a good-for-nothing local civil servant who just loves monster movies, is suddenly given a huge mission to liven up the city! What unprecedented strategy will he take?...
Or Utopia
Character: Ken Hirayama
Japan, 2024. The Earth is dominated by a mysteriously giant creature (That Thing) and the group of 12 survivors has formed an uneasy community out of necessity to survive Two years later, Hirayama, the hotel owner, is found dead. Is it suicide or murder? As they search for the truth behind his death, the past and the secrets of each individual are revealed....
Pandora Hong Kong Leg
Character: Young Man
Mayuko suffers from severe athlete's foot. She visits a mysterious Chinese man, Zhou, in search of a secret medicine she heard about. He leads her to an abandoned theater, where she places her foot in a box. A young man hiding in the box begins to lick her foot. "Saliva is the cure for all diseases." Eventually, the day of her final treatment arrives. However, Mayuko, who has already gotten used to having her feet licked, does not want to stop the treatment. The Chinese man says to her, "There i...
We Are Aliens
Character:
One day, while Seiya was calling everybody on the phone to tell them "It's me, thank you" on the rooftop of a building, a strange creature with emerald-blue fur, something he had never seen before, descended from the sky. The creature, along with its companions, claimed they had come to exterminate human race. However, through conversations with the humans they encountered, they gradually began to understand each other......
A Day Begins
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新・痴漢日記2
Character:
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Death of the Lion Kings
Character: Sakurai
Tells the story of an up-and-coming Yakuza, who makes a name for himself alongside his two friends just before 1992, when the enforcement of the new gang law came in place....