Tomoko Tabata

Mugimaki Satoko, who has developed an illness she will have to live with for the rest of her life, commutes from an apartment complex where the rent is 50,000 yen to her part-time job four days a week. Having given up on moving to the countryside, she has been feeling somewhat depressed. One winter day, Tsukasa, who is staying next door, invites her to go for an early-morning walk, but she turns him down. Satoko, who feels self-conscious because everything requires physical strength, is hesitant and says, "Someone like me..." even as her landlady, Suzu, and neighbor Koma get excited talking about romance. Suzu then invites Satoko to her home. Amid her usual daily life with her coworkers and friends from the apartment complex, surrounded by medicinal cuisine, Satoko gradually finds small moments of happiness. This is a special episode about those ordinary yet quietly wonderful days.

A woman named Asami Kashima is found strangled. A woman named Eiko Watarai starts confronting various people who knew her – her boss, her neighbor, her boyfriend, her mother – riling them up into revealing their feelings about Asami, and saying she wants to know more about her.

The protagonist, Shippei Iida, moves with his mother to the remote island of Origoshima. He transfers to the island's only high school, Origoshima High School (nicknamed "Oriko"). However, shortly after his transfer, it's announced that Oriko will be merged with a regular mainland school. Naturally shy and with few friends, Shippei is touched by the warmth of the islanders and his fellow students. Wanting to create a final memory at the school, he proposes that all the students perform a choral song together. But this very choir becomes the spark that drives a wedge between his friends' hearts…

A chef's life is disrupted by a chime that brings with it an increasing sense of dread.

Documentary on the creation of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's film "Chime"

To keep using their school's abandoned observatory as a refuge, two sleepless high school students decide to revive the defunct astronomy club.

A teenage girl's accidental death incites a media frenzy and causes her harsh father to turn his rage against those he believes are responsible.

In 1964, Momoko came by herself to Tokyo from her hometown. She met Shūzō and married him. They raised two children together, but Shūzō suddenly passes away. Momoko is dumbfounded by being alone again. She begins to go to the library and borrows books. This changes her life.

Set towards the end of World War II, Kaede Itakura, who leads kindergartners, and Mitsue Nonomiya, who enjoys music, persuades the parents at the school to take their children out of Tokyo. They seek shelter at an abandoned temple in Saitama while Tokyo is bombed.

The story is set 155 years ago, during the battles that ended the Shogun era and through the eyes of young Itosato, we gather an interesting glimpse into a world surrounded by the most arcane women, who for the times they were destined to live, were very similar to the women of today; displaying leadership and strength within the bounds of a society at large. Itosato is a "TENJIN,' who is a courtesan in training just beneath the rank of TAYOU, which carries an Aristocratic title of Supreme Entertainer in the old capital city of Kyoto. There are two more women who play a key role in this story and all three women are in love with men who are commanders within the infamous special police task force, Shinsengumi. A task force that was organized to protect Shogun government under the command of the Kyoto Military Commissioner.

Based on a letter from a fan addressed to the band "SING LIKE TALKING", which will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2018, a movie depicting three true stories about the band. "Love for the first time in 20 years" depicting the reunion of men and women who were separated without being able to convey their thoughts in high school, "door of the heart" depicting a daughter thinking of a sick mother, and the name of the child to be born A drama of three episodes of "My Child" that depicts the uproar.

In 16th century Japan, a young man has to choose between becoming a master steel maker like his father and grandfather before him, or becoming a samurai so that he can help protect his village from attacks by the various clans which want the high-quality steel made there.

In Tokyo, Japan, several grotesque murders take place on rainy days. Detective Sawamura, who is in charge of the case, soon discovers that his own family is connected to the crimes.

Twenty-four-year-old country bumpkin Aiko is a new teacher who has arrived at a new town and a new primary school. When nervous she blurts out her local dialect. This seals her nickname and reputation. Nonetheless, she is determined and strives to do her best for her students. She is an inspiration soon.

Four young soldiers raise the orphaned son of their commanding officer. As they each decide to go working in munitions factories, it is up to four women to take care of the boy as they wait for the men to return.

“Sakura no Ame” is a song viewed more than 4.2 million times in “niconico” video sharing website in Japan. After the release of the song by Vocaloid-virtual-idle Hatsune Miku, this heart touching song became a standard for graduations and now it has become a live-action movie. The story is based on a best seller novel “Sakura no Ame” (PHP Institute, February 2012) which 200 thousand copies are printed and was inspired by the song itself. Many characters such as teachers and students seen in the story are inspired by the song sung by a 16 year-old high school student, Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku.

Rikutaro and Mariko are in the same grade at an elementary school. They become brother and sister after Rikutaro's mother and Mariko’s father marry. After their marriage, the children become upset because they are teased by their classmates, so they hatch a plan to make their parents divorce.

A group of junior high school must find out the truth of their classmate's death is he was killed by someone or committed suicide.

A group of junior high school must find out the truth of their classmate's death is he was killed by someone or committed suicide.

For his first film in fourteen years, animation director Isao Takahata embarked on a visually sumptuous adaptation of The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter. A dream project for the director that would hopefully establish the recently formed Ghibli Studio 7, created to meet the demands of a new type of modern animation process. But, almost immediately, the epic production is faced with difficulties and falls dramatically behind schedule. In this compelling and insightful documentary, we follow Isao Takahata and his dedicated team of artists as they frantically strive against adversity to make their vision a reality and bring Studio Ghibli into a new era.

Country bumpkin Haruko only ever wanted to become a maiko, an apprentice geisha. Initially rebuffed for lack of references, Haruko's strong accent intrigues a linguistics professor, who undertakes to coach her.

Chinami (Erika Sawajiri) works at a fabric shop, dreaming of one day working in the fashion industry. By accident, she begins work in the editing section for a fashion magazine. Chinami believes her new job may open doors for her to new opportunities, but it turns out her new job is like working in a war zone with daily fights and competitiveness between the women who work there. Can Chinami survive in such a cutthroat environment?

Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But, ultimately, she must confront her fate.

The "Himawari So" ("Sunflower House") is a group home for mentally underdeveloped adults. Manga artist Itpon Aijo (Naoto Takenaka) begins to work at the "Himawari So". He moves into the home with his daughter Mako (Shihori Kanjiya), who is mentally underdeveloped. Uyan (Takayuki Takuma) is a resident at the group home. Uyan and Mako begin to develop feelings for each, but Itpon becomes worried about them.

In Osaka, three troubled young kids, Kanako, Atsushi and Kenji, are hanging out together all the time. One day Kenji who lives in an orphanage is sold to a yakuza and their friendship has to come to an end. 25 years later, Kanako is married to Atsushi who is an incompetent yakuza. They have 3 daughters. Kenji is a competent unbeatable yakuza. Atsushi, who sucks at everything, for the first time gets a dangerous mission to kill a thug who has attacked the office of his yakuza group. Kenji, who has advanced to the first lieutenant position, by mistake kills a dumb-ass son of the head of Tokyo Yakuza, which triggers a battle between Osaka and Tokyo Yakuzas. Then, Kenji meets Atsushi in 25 years.

In the Edo period of Japan, a samurai’s life belonged to his lord. On the battlefield or in the home, a loyal samurai must always obey his lord’s commands. This is the tragic story of one such loyal samurai, whose love for his family forced him to make the ultimate choice of disobeying the wishes of his lord.

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.

Teacher Akira Suzuki breaks away from long-held customs and norms at his school. He tries hard to have the ideal classroom by using his own "Suzuki method". The new semester begins. His homeroom 2-A class is about to have a student council election and preparations for a school festival. A man then takes a female student hostage...

Based on the award-winning novel of the same name, this portrait of a group of vulnerable, variously wounded people — a depressed housewife, her high-school-aged lover, and his best friend, who is struggling to provide for himself and his senile grandmother — whose intersecting lives yield both sorrow and a fragile, yet enduring, hope for a brighter future.

Three engineers cannot make a robot work in time for a science show, and hire a man to inhabit the robot's shell to save their jobs. The robot's performance at the show attracts media attention and scrutiny from a science student.

Youko and Harumi have been friends since youth as their life circumstances were similar. Youko ends up marrying a politician and publishes a successful picture book basen on Harumi's life, when her son suddenly gets abducted.

Shunsuke Honma is a detective from the #1 investigation team at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Shunsuke takes a leave from work due to an injury. One day, his relative comes to see him and asks him if he can find his missing fiance Akiko Sekine. Shunsuke takes on the job and enlists the help of Detective Sadao Ikari. The detectives soon uncover the shocking truth behind the missing woman.

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 things they have ever eaten. Shunsuke Aida (Motoki Ochiai) begins their game by talking about a dish which his mother made ...

Haruki Masato is a shy youth who gets swept away when he happens upon a rakugo performance. He knocks on the door of rakugo master Imadoka Shoroku in Tokyo’s old downtown and somehow gets taken on as a disciple, and embarks on a path to become a rakugo comedian under the name of Imadoka Koharu.

In a small rural town, a brother and sister goes missing and there's also a serial killer case involving woman as the victims. Mayu Misono (Aya Omasa) is a sophomore high school student in the town. She is called "Ma-chang". When Mayu Misono was young, she was also kidnapped and locked up. Since that time she has been traumatized and has become indifferent to everything around her. One day, in front Mayu's mansion, her childhood friend Mii-kun (Shota Sometani), who was kidnapped with Mayu, suddenly appears. Ma-chang hugs Mii-kun. Up until now, she has waited for Mii-kun. Mayu has lived in the mansion alone, until a week ago, when she kidnapped two elementary school aged kids and has kept them locked in her mansion. To hide Mayu's crime, the four of them will live together in the mansion. The truth of what happened 10 years ago becomes slowly revealed. The reason Mi-kun tries to protect Mayu, even puts his life at risk, all connects to an unexpected real criminal.

Momose (played by Sousuke Takaoka), who used to be a street punk, lives with girlfriend Kayo (played by Tomoko Tabata). Trouble brews for the couple when Kayo's younger sister Momo (played by Erena Ono) moves into their home for the summer. Momose finds himself gradually being drawn to the free spirited ways of Momo. A new love comedy from Keisuke Yoshida director of "Cafe Isobe".

Shuichi Furukawa receives a phone call from his mother. She reminds him that they are moving the next day. The following day, Shuichi takes a train ride back to his hometown. He arrives at his parents home, but nobody is home. He looks for the house key under a potted plant but can't find the key. He starts to thinks back to his childhood days in his parents home. Shuichi grew up with his younger brother, older sister, father who ran a shoe making business out of their garage and mother. Shuichi grew up with a crush on an older woman who lived next door and he loved to make piggy banks out of empty whiskey bottles. One day on a school picnic, Shuichi's classmates grabbed a lunchbox from a fellow student and eventually gave the lunch box to Shuichi. All the other students chanted "throw it away," while Shuichi's former friend looked on in despair.

A variety of aviation professionals such as pilots, flight attendants, the ground crew, mechanics, dispatchers, controllers, and the bird patrol crew all support a single flight. They have only one mission: to secure the safety of the passengers.

A school teacher suggests to his class that they ought to raise a pig together and eat it when it grows up.

Ever since that fatal incident in college, Kanako has sensed them. A sound behind her... an object moving at the corner of her vision. Birds. Cooing, taunting birds... But are they real, or just in her head? As she struggles to perform her duties teaching marine biology, the images of pigeons slowly begin to drive her to the edge of insanity, until even drugs and alcohol no longer offer her protection. And what if they aren't figments of her imagination? What if that strange rumor she heard at the crime scene was true? If it was, then the real nightmare is only beginning! Vengeance has wings and the sky is filled with terror in GUN-KYU!

There's something wrong at the Pacific Institute...something wrong and evil. For young Mari, whose family has worked in the finishing industry for generations, her studies in advanced genetics and marine bio-engineering represent not just her own future, but that of her entire family. But when her friend Nanako is mysteriously discovered dead, Mari's dreams turn into her worst nightmares! Because not only was Nanako's body covered with fishbites, she was also growing scales! Now, as a new wave of deaths and tragedies engulf the Pacific team, it becomes all too clear that someone....something...has a new future in mind for all human kind. For centuries man has taken from the ocean, never dreaming what might lurk beneath the waves; now the revelation has begun...and this time, we're the sushi!

A middle school teacher, Jinno, is friends with a young couple that is about to have a baby. But on the eve of the birth, the father, Kimura, disappears. Then, a hired private detective appears and ask Jinno's help to find Kimura.

Misaki is a popular bar hostess whose policy is to 'live on presents'. She is haughty and wants nothing but the most expensive and exclusive. One night, she finds a rabbit and takes it home, setting off the story of an unimaginable tragedy. It is an 'animal panic horror' film with a new edge presenting an allegory of the worst in the modern materialistic world. This is the first full-length feature film for Yuichi Kanemaru, who has worked as assistant director to Kaneto Shindo, Yasuo Furuhata and Takashi Miike. And Tomoko Tabata's dynamic performance in her first horror movie is a definite highlight.

The movie is centered around five friends as they end up spending the summer of 1962 shackled up together in a tiny studio apartment in Tokyo. The five friends are Eisuke - the manga artist, Shoichi - the singer, Ryuzo - the novelist, Kei - the painter and Yuji – the 5th wheel (?). The friends spend the summer in pursuit of their own ideals of personal freedom - being able to do what they want. In the process of pursuing their dream they learn firsthand that however ideal it may seem, its not as easy as they think.

In a poor district of Edo lives a young samurai named Soza. He has been sent by his clan to avenge the death of his father. He isn't an accomplished swordsman however, and he prefers sharing the life of the residents, teaching the kids how to write etc. When he finally finds the man he is looking for, he will have to decide whether he follows the way of the samurai or chooses peace and reconciliation.

A Christmas Eve power outage provides a collection of troubled Tokyo denizens the opportunity to come clean on the misdeeds of their past.

The modern-day story of a man searching for a friend who has mysteriously disappeared, with a magical tale involving strange creatures, a heartbroken princess, and a pact that can't be broken. Conflicts between faith and skepticism, and between social obligation and personal desire drive the narrative toward a dramatic conclusion where the worlds of the real and the surreal inevitably collide. Directed by Takashi Miike.

In 1923, teenager Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island, in South Korea, to Osaka, in Japan. Along the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko, processed seafood products, in his poor Korean-Japanese community exploiting his employees.

Set in 19th Century Japan a young samurai who finds himself in love with a farm girl leaves his home to begin a new life. He has to take stock of his new life when he is put to the test and ordered to kill a traitor who just happens to be his dearest friend.

Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro is a collection of 10 short horror films, each 5 minutes long (broadcast on BSi in February 2003). This is the second installment.

"Shin Mimibukuro," which has greatly influenced numerous Japanese horror works such as "Ring" and "Ju-on," is finally being fully adapted into a complete visual format for the first time. The directors include Takashi Shimizu of "Ju-on," Hideo Nakata of "Ring 0," actor Shiro Sano, and Akio Yoshida, the veteran of TBS dramas such as "Kamaitachi no Yoru," all of whom are distinguished talents in the horror world. The cast is also spectacular, featuring a diverse array of talents such as Rina Uchiyama, Kaoru Okunuki, Nao Omori, Mako Ishino, Hitomi Miwa, Riko Kurita, Nobuto Okamoto, and Ikkei Watanabe.

When a young man is sent to a prison workhouse for a crime he did not commit his friend on the outside must find evidence to clear his name.

After surviving from an incident of Cruise ship hijacking, both doctor Tamaki and the boy injured in the incident, Ryota Inamoto, suffered from different degrees of PTSD. Meanwhile, Doctor Chiharu Kanbayashi's wife is about to give birth to their first children. Would these doctors and patients succeed in overcoming their problems and welcome a happy new year?

Physically separated from her father and at odds with her distraught mother, a girl must negotiate her own passage to maturity.