Three tales raise unsettling questions about the central qualities of being human. In one, a father is torn between love for his son and the desire for revenge, while a second examines the twisted love of a teacher for his female colleague. The third story delves into the complex affections hidden within a bully....
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Detective Ukyo Sugishita confronts crime on the basis of his own convictions. He has a partner that works for him in the Special Task Unit. For the first 7 seasons, Ukyo’s first partner is Kaoru Kameyama. He is a good-natured, hot-tempered, straightforward and somewhat scattered detective. Beginning in Season 8, Takeru Kanbe replaces Kameyama. Contrary to his predecessor, Takeru is a lanky, cool, conceited and confident detective. From Season 11 to Season 13, Ukyo’s partner is a young detective ...
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Natsuko is going back to the advertising agency she worked for before taking maternity leave and is shocked to learn that she is not the creative director any more but instead, she is put in charge of the Sales Development. Unmotivated, Natsuko finds she has her work cut out for her, and she has trouble balancing her job responsibilities with her home life, so she hires Miyuki, a babysitter. Unfortunately, Miyuki’s presence eventually works to tear her marriage apart....
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The wife of a lawyer and her twice-divorced sister-in-law scheme to break up her brother's marriage in this hard-edged drama of misdirected passion. The quirky characters who fill out the cast include a youthful entrepreneur and the heroine's father, a police officer who would do anything to make his daughter happy....
Sayama Michio is a young and callous beautician who will stop at nothing to fulfill his ambition(s). Coming from an impoverished background, he suddenly becomes the darling of the beauty world. He holds women who desire beauty captive and puts on several different faces when dealing with Murase Minako, the female owner of the place that he works at; Hatano Masako, a woman of leisure; and Fukuchi Fujiko, an editor of a weekly magazine to come out tops. He also gets involved with two detectives wh...
Tsukiko Otonashi is a fashionista who is too beautiful to be a detective. She is also intrigued by urban legends so much so that she believes all crimes are somehow linked to these legends. She even conducts her investigations in such a way as to prove them to be true. Tsukiko also likes to make use of whatever she can. She especially likes to enlist the help of crime lab officer Hitoro Katsuura, who happens to have a crush on her. Many other unique characters will make appearances as she inve...
Two Japanese scientists, Ushioda and Ochi, develop a bond with their sled dogs while on an expedition in Antarctica....
Because of the desolate landscape, Kobayashi chose snow-covered Hokkaido (the most northern island of Japan) as the setting for Amazing Story, a light-erotic drama about a lonely man, Kenji, who kidnaps the woman of his dreams. The woman is Harumi, a hairdresser in the deserted town where Kenji has just arrived. It's never really busy in her business. Harumi's husband is a gambling addict and spends all Harumi's money. Maybe that's why Harumi doesn't try very hard to escape when Kenji kidnaps he...
Following the bloody aftermath of a heist, three robbers are double-crossed by a new accomplice, who is then tracked down amid escalating carnage and spectacular car chases....
Rin Jyoshima lost her father to death-by-gambling; years later, she's grown up in the Kosugi household and has fallen victim to gambling herself....
During a suicide attack on an airport, the hand grenade of 'M', one of three terrorists, malfunctions, leaving him captured. Exposed to maltreatment in prison, he slowly loses his grip on reality as he is forced to confront his ideological convictions....
Out of the blue, a bourgeois family on the Sea of Japan finds an unconscious woman on the beach and decides to let her board....
Saginuma moves into an old apartment, dreaming of success as a sculptor. However, there is an unusual atmosphere among the residents, and they stubbornly try to maintain order. And then, there is an eerie sound that can be heard....
The film is a series of vignettes from Taiji Tonoyama's life and film clips, interspersed with a dialogue to camera by Nobuko Otowa, addressing the camera as if she is addressing Tonoyama himself, recollecting events in his life. The film focuses on Tonoyama's alcohol dependence and his various sexual relationships, as well as his film work with Shindo....
Kamikawa Katsuji, a bank employee, is married to Yasuko, the daughter of a rich family and lives an ordinary married life. But he keeps a lover, Kamiya Ayako, a nightclub hostess, behind his wife’s back and is mired in a web of lust. His life takes mysterious turns after becoming Katsumura Hisako’s disciple. The beautiful and elegant Hisako, a calligraphy instructor, possesses the special ability to tell the fortune of people by looking at their calligraphic styles....
Original Video...
A series of serial murders occurred in a historic ruins where a TV crew is shooting a documentary....
During Tenpo period, Bakuhu announced a law regulating expenditures in order to improve the financial situation. However, Doshin of a government office Itami Hanzo, called Kamisori Hanzo, challenged Bakuhu's oppressive way. Because of this, his father Magobei was told to kill himself by the Bakuhu and Hanzo himself was demoted. Five years later, Hanzo came back to the government office and implement a law regulating expenditures. He stands up for revenge Torii Kainokami who desires power as he l...
Matsuoi and his wife Tsuya moved to Oshima City because of her unpredictable character. Even though Tsuya continues to have affairs, Matsuoi loves her and is a devoted husband. Tsuya is then diagnosed with a cancer and later goes into a coma. Matsuoi then thinks of his wife's lovers. Matsui goes to those men and informs them of Tatsuya's condition. The other women in the lives of those men are shocked and begin to re-examine their views of their men....
In a rugby match, disaster strikes as player Kazuki causes serious injury to his friend Takeshi, and as a result he is left as a vegetable. Guilt-ridden he quits the team and settles in a remote Kamakura Girl’s High School as a sport teacher. During a hot summer holiday, Kazuki has fallen into a love relationship, albeit unacceptable to the outsiders, with one of his student Mayu. Later, he realizes that his attraction to her comes from nothing other than her loneliness and a crime labelled as g...
Towa lives in a peculiar sanatorium after committing suicide. Convalescing in sanatorium, she is informed that she has only 7 days to live. Isolated within their worlds, strange people live in this sanatorium and try to avoid making any contact with her. However, Kuroda a man who lost his power of speech feels sympathetic towards her and their every lovable things give true colors to the life and inspire Towa’s honest desire for the life…...
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High school seniors Mikayo, Chuko and Kei are forced to join a historical research club to fulfill a graduation requirement. Their teacher, Mr. Kachi, plans a mandatory club trip to a small village called Oshakabe in Yamagata prefecture to study remnants of an ancient clan of warriors called the ochimusha who displayed legendary cowardice in battle. When they arrive, the local villagers hold a special ceremony and construct a "super shrine". As a result, an 800-year seal is broken, unleashing a ...
Akira's wife walks out on him, leaving him to confide in his gangster brother-in-law. Using only a cryptic note as a clue the two brothers go on a road trip to find his wife. After a series of violent encounters with strangers, Akira meets a prostitute. The pair start a relationship. After Akira finds his wife, he questions whether he still wants to be with her....
Weaving two storylines together: the first is the story of 18th-century shogunate intrigue and loyalty, and the second is a ghost story about a beautiful woman who falls victim to passion and evil....
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A scruffy detective investigates the murders of three sisters on a small Japanese island in 1946....
Bandit leader "Night Rabbit" Kakuemon has always kept the rule to "never kill, never rape, never steal from the poor", passed down to him by the gang's previous leader. He has never been arrested, and for that, he always thought he would have a peaceful death. But one day, after talking to a young one-armed homeless girl, he decides to break up his gang and turn himself in....
Jirocho (Kiichi Nakai), a fledgling bakuto who left his wife, goes on a year-long training with his minions: right-hand man and military master Ohmasa (Kishibe Ittoku); stinky priest Daigoro (Takashi Sasano); well-known stranger Ishimatsu Mori (Yoichi Nukumizu); beautiful Masagoro Oiwake (Kazuki Kitamura); and others. As Jirocho's fame spreads, he gains more enemies. Among them are Katsuzo Kurokoma (Koichi Sato), who is one of the most powerful in Koshu, and the villain who is also Ishimatsu's n...
A thrilling and entertaining piece in which Jirokichi, portrayed by Morio Kazama, tackles a major event involving an attempt to assassinate the shogun. This production features historical figures such as Toyama Kagemoto, Oshio Heihachiro, Utagawa Hiroshige, and Watanabe Kanzan in their youth, depicting their exploits before they became famous. It becomes a lively portrayal of youthful vigor, with scenes of Jirokichi leaping using trampolines, creating a light and lively action....
Edogawa Rampo is a writer whose latest work is censored by the government, deemed too disturbing and injurious to the public to be allowed to be published. However, after burning his drafts, his publisher shows him a newspaper with an account of events just like his forbidden story. As the film progresses, fantasy and reality intermingle in a tale that draws heavily on influences from Poe and Stoker's Dracula. The film's strongly Expressionistic direction skillfully combines a variety of media (...