Shirō Itō

Commemorating the 70th anniversary of TV broadcasting in Japan, and the 60th anniversary of the Taiga drama, this special depicts the struggles of creating the first Taiga drama.

An old man who has been given supernatural powers by a donkey alien plays an active role as a justice hero "Robaman". 68-year-old Yoshimura, who has passed retirement age, is living a lonely day away from his wife and away from his daughter. He reports on the radio and posts on the internet about events and accidents that make noise in the world, but in reality he can't even be alert when faced with interruptions and noisy guests. One day, when he encountered a UFO on the way of a walk, he was mistaken for a fellow by an alien who looks like a donkey.

A couple are perfectly happy to not breed and procreate. Thus their life is a content and unselfish one. He writes and admires his wife. However, she informs him that she wants a child. They try and try, but alas are not successful. It is time to visit a physician to unlock the fertility riddle. Well, he is the culprit it seems

The body of Shinsuke Maeda, a wealthy older man, is discovered in his garden. While at first glance it appears that he missed his step while exiting into the garden and hit his forehead on a flowerbed rock, it is established that a safe installed in the living room has been emptied. It seems that, the night before, Maeda left the hospital he was staying at of his own will and came home, and was robbed immediately after returning. His daughter Yumie Nagano insists that Chikako Inui, a woman her father had been seeing, must be the perpetrator. She says that Maeda was thinking of getting married to Chikako soon. However, Chikako finds Yumie and her husband suspicious. Troubled by debts incurred by opening their ramen store, they pestered Maeda and he pushed them away. She calmly points out that Maeda gave her a will in which he left all of the 50 million plus yen hidden in the safe to her, so she had no reason to steal from him.

The dead body of Maki Tsujimoto, a popular stage actress, is discovered in a theater in Oji. After striking her in the back of the head with a bronze statue prop, the criminal laid the body on the floor and pointed a light at it, "directing" the crime scene as if it were a scene from a play.

Matsunaga Yasuzaemon was a man called “Electricity Monster”. The post-war recovery and high economic growth serve as the basis for him to achieve the breakup and privatisation of the electricity business. As a follower of Fukuzawa Yukichi, he inherited the spirit of independence, self-respect and the people. He rose up alone from the ruins of the war. It was the fight of an unconventional, stubborn old man over 70 with an indomitable will. Minister of Trade and Industry Ikeda Hayato admired Matsunaga like a father while Prime Ministers Yoshida Shigeru and Konoe Fumimaro, Shirasu Jiro (Takagawa Yuya) and others were in awe of his unfathomable passion.

Nobuko Sawaguchi is a surly, unattractive housekeeper in her mid-thirties. However, in actuality, she is a beautiful woman, but she hides this fact using her makeup because of a traumatic past experience. One day Nobuko is sent to housekeep for the Uehara family, known for its tremendous wealth. In the Uehara family, there is a massive quarrel over each member’s future succession and inheritance. In the middle of this hectic situation, Nobuko is asked by the daughter called Akemi to protect her.

Kageyama (Sho Sakurai) works as the butler for rich heiress Reiko Hosho (Keiko Kitagawa). Reiko happens to be a novice detective but lacks certain deductive skills needed by detectives. Because of this Reiko relies on Kageyamaa to help her solve cases. Meanwhile, Kageyama isn't afraid to mince words and often calls out Reiko with his sharp tongue!

Tamura Masakazu plays Shohei Yamauchi, a freelance reporter obsessed with finding out the truth about a traffic accident in which his beloved daughter died. Judging by the photo of the accident, which appeared in the news described by photojournalists as "one coincidence in a hundred thousand", and the survivor's testimony that "I saw a red fireball" immediately before the accident, the circumstances of the accident are questionable. The film is based on a late masterpiece by Seicho Matsumoto.

Shinjo is a new employee at NEO Beer, which is currently ranked fifth in the industry. When NEO’s president demands that they figure out a way to capture the top market share, Sales division chief Nakanishi and his team are struggling to come up with ideas when Shinjo suggests “sexy” as a possible marketing buzzword.

When easy-going Aoyagi meets an old friend for a fishing trip, he ends up drugged, framed for the Prime Minister's assassination, and on the run from corrupt cops. It's only the beginning of what quickly becomes the worst, weirdest day of his life. But he'll get by with a little help from his friends, who include a famous pop diva, a rockabilly deliveryman, a crippled old gangster, and the world's most cheerful serial killer.

A radio DJ, Mai starts a new program called, "Love Letters from the Drawer" to assist people who need an extra push to send out their simple yet very important message for their loved ones. The show was inspired by her own experience after reading a letter from her father after he died. Through her radio show, various characters come to light as everyone awaits for a miracle to happen. A miracle which can occur only by them expressing their true feelings... The movie is full of emotions and music plays an important part of it. It has a great cast that represent the many faces of love. Parents, sons, lovers, and friends. The movie takes you to several locations within Japan, you can get a look at the beautiful coast and shrine, as well as the city sights

Following the brutal rape and murder of his teenage daughter, a single father seeks revenge against the responsible youths. His pursuit for justice becomes a deadly cat-and-mouse game with both the perpetrators and the police.

Follows the life of an Office Lady who gets through her tedious work days by dreaming of a legendary soup and soup chef she's heard of. She decides to go in search of it.

It may sound cliché, but Japanese people really do love their fish. If Japan has the best and freshest fish in the world, then Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market is where you're most likely to find them. It's the home of Japan's biggest daily fish auction, and it's a place of fierce competition between fish merchants that have been in the business for generations. Based on a comic series, The Taste of Fish follows businessman Shuntaro, who has a successful career in a trading company and is in a steady relationship with girlfriend Asuka. One day, Shuntaro has to help out at the fish wholesaler store run by Asuka's father, and he immediately falls in love with the world of Tsukiji Fish Market. Soon, Shuntaro quits his job and devotes all of his time to running the business while learning about the market's fascinating set of long-standing traditions. However, he must first also learn to distinguish the tastes of different fishes before he can survive in the competitive world of Tsukiji.

Kimihiko Onizuka is a salaryman infatuated with maiko (apprentice geisha) and whose greatest goal in life is to play a party game called "yakyuken" with one.

The movie revolves around Mitsuba, who studies traditional art of rakugo. Rakugo is a form of comical story telling, sometimes referred to as sit-down comedy. Even though Mitsuba is mediocre at best, he ends up teaching three students.

Jr. High School Student Wataru and his friends like playing in an abandond building and looking for ghosts. However it seems he is not the only one. Another mysterious student Mitsuru shows Wataru that there is a magical door to another world where one can go and get the Goddess of Fortune to grant one wish! When tragedy strikes Wataru's family he decides to open the door for himself.

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.

World Wat II broke out shortly after diplomat Chiune Sugihara was assigned to Lithuania. Nazi Germany occupied the western half of Poland and began persecuting the Jews. Lithuania was then annexed by the Soviet Union, and the Japanese consulate was ordered to close. Meanwhile, Jewish refugees who had fled Poland flocked to the Japanese consulate, requesting the issuance of Japanese transit visas. Chiune repeatedly sent telegrams to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting permission to issue visas to the Jewish refugees, but received a final notice that the visas could not be issued. However, with only a month left until the departure deadline, Chiune decided to defy the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' orders and issued visas to the Jewish refugees...

Two Osaka comedians, Makoto (Tomomitsu Yamaguchi) and Kinta (Go Morita), are riding bicycles in Tokyo when they're hit by a dump truck. They regain consciousness in 1945, but not of their own bodies. Somehow, their souls have been transported into the bodies of two tokkotai (special forces, or "kamikaze") pilots. Having grown up in a peaceful, carefree Japan, the two comedians experience severe disorientation at having to suddenly deal with the realities of war. They attempt to escape their squadron, knowing that Japan will eventually lose the war, but are nevertheless moved by the young men they meet, all of whom have very different opinions about their fate and the responsibilities that have been placed upon them.

Kanzo Hattori, an apprentice Ninja, leaves his home town of Iga for his final training. He must go to the city of Edo (Tokyo), and the first person he meets shall be his master, whom he must protect with his life, whilst upholding the ninja code. Also while in Edo, Hattori must find out why their rivals, the Koga Ninjas, are flourishing while the Iga Ninjas are dying out. Hattori's master is Kenichi, a 9 year old boy. Kenichi is an introvert and not very popular boy, so he never plays with the other children from school. Kenichi also has a secret crush on a young lady called Midori, yet he's too shy to speak to her. Though as he watches Hattori trying his best, he too begins to try. Meanwhile, people are being found unconscious, their bodies completely unmarked. All the victims have a tattoo (the Koga Ninja crest) and are found with a throwing knife lying close by.

At the end of World War II, a secret human experiment was being conducted in Manchuria, which was in the sphere of influence of the Japanese military. One man's face was to be transformed into that of a completely different person through plastic surgery. Shortly after operation, Japanese military facility where the man was staying was involved in a battle and collapsed, and he disappeared. In 1948, a letter of warning from the Twenty Faces was posted on the wall of the Japanese Museum. The notice read, “All national treasures will be taken away. The police, aware of the warning letter, rush to the Japanese Museum...

A struggling Japanese neighborhood supermarket manager chances upon an old classmate, who has plenty of ideas for revitalizing his business.

In the midst of a bad economy, Yokoyama, the vice president of Taiyo Real Estate, launches a plan to cut back on his labor force. Fifty employees are segregated into a special assignment division and given an ultimatum: meet a sales goal of 1.5 billion yen within three months or be fired. Spiteful of their unjust treatment, two men, Shinoda and Takigawa, take up the battle against the ruthless Yokoyama.

An upscale Japanese hotel hires Mahiru Inoue, a lawyer adept at dealing with the Yakuza, to help them rid their hotel of the local gangsters so they can get a contract for a meeting of important foreign officials.

The patriarch of a bickering family announces his retirement, stirring competition about who will succeed him as a leading practitioner of Noh theater, his granddaughter or grandson.

Police detective Heiji is assigned to catch the masked Maboroshi gang of robbers who have terrorized all of Edo, leaving few clues as to their leader's identity.

A biographical dramatization about the production of the original Ultraman, the beloved classic special effects fantasy series from Eiji Tsuburaya.

A hard-working section chief, fast approaching retirement and beset by stress from all directions, joins a jazz band and reignites his youthful passion for the music, giving him a chance to set things right in his life.

Ryo, a young former banker, gets beaten up over a debt from gambling. A yakuza boss saves him, and Ryo decides to train to become a yakuza under him.

A detective who shoots and kills the younger brother in a sibling robbery becomes mentally ill because he believes his brother is going to kill him.

Intrepid tax investigator Ryoko Itakura sets her sights on the mysterious and philandering Hideki Gondo, a suspected millionaire and proprietor of a thriving chain of seedy hourly hotels, who has for years succeeded at hiding the true extent of his assets from the Japanese authorities. Itakura and Gondo soon find themselves engaged in a complicated, satirical battle of wits.

A one armed boy wants to become a football (soccer) player.

Film about a pirate radio station.

Kuroiwa, a high school teacher who carries a “Big Magnum 44” gun is sent to a school that is full of violence. Can Kuroiwa reform the students with the gun?

Suspense TV movie adaptation of an original story by Sawako Ariyoshi, starring Yukiyo Toake.

One spring, Tasaka, an elementary school teacher, receives a new class of first graders. While taking the children's attendance, Tasaka is surprised to see a call girl he once had an encounter with standing among the parents in the back of the classroom. According to the school's files, her name is Yukako Sawada, and her child Eisaku has no legal father. The next day, Eisaku gives Tasaka a letter from Yukako asking to meet at the hotel where they first met, and Tasaka sets out with an uneasy feeling...

Oshin comes from a family of poor rice farmers. Her father and brother must work in the fields and her grandmother and mother, who is expecting another child, barely have enough to eat. In order to make ends meet for her family, 7-year-old Oshin gives up school and decides to become a servant in the household of a wealthy family, where she faces trials and tribulation beyond her worst fears.

A yakuza family goes into show business.

The story of a Japanese man who as a 16-year-old went to Maui to work in the sugar cane fields in order to support his family back in Japan. Now 89 and still living in Hawaii he is visited by his granddaughter who brings him a letter from his disinherited and recently dead son. This brings back memories of his life with his wife and family following the attack on Pearl Harbor, in particular of his son who had gone off to join the war for the Americans.

Violent delinquent Shunpei is sent to Totsuka Yacht School, a grueling rehabilitation center. The principal fears that this "half-wolf" is too much. When kids go bad, this school beats them straight. But they've never seen anything like this punk before.

The story of Japan's victory in the battle of Tsushima Strait.

On her wedding day, Makiko is stabbed by a woman in wedding dress. The wound isn't serious but the attacker blows herself up and can't be identified. The attacker is thought to be an ex-girlfriend of Tsutomu, the groom. He gives two names to the police but these two are still alive. But there is still one woman in Tsutomu's mind...

Hideyuki Mitamura, a student at a private school near Osaka, is kidnapped on his way home from school.

Chotaro and Nakanishi, a duo of unemployed advertisers, drifted to Isehama, a port town near Yokohama, but a gang was making its presence felt in the town and the shopkeepers in the shopping arcade were troubled by it. Chotaro poses as a journalist and uses his words of wisdom to suggest that pen is mightier than the sword, so they create a mini-comic magazine and launch a campaign to expel the gang.

The Maccherone organization is out to get a priceless national treasure. But when they see third-generation cat-burglar Lupin as an obstacle, countless assassins are sent to kill him on sight and kidnap his girl Fujiko! Can Lupin get the loot before the Maccherone gang, rescue Fujiko, and stay alive at the same time?

Romantic drama based on the manga published in Young Comic.

Zatoichi is a blind massage therapist and swordsman who finds out that something troubling is taking place on the outskirts of town. After discovering who the guilty parties are -- an accomplished Chinese martial artist named Wang Kang and his youthful attendant -- Zatoichi finds them and discovers that the pair's mixed up with a dangerous bunch of terrorist samurai who murdered the boy's parents. Now, Zatoichi must step in to save the day.

1970 Japanese movie

Comedy directed by Mio Ezaki.

Eleventh film in the long-running series Daiei Studio's Woman Gambler with Kyoko Enami starring where she plays the woman gambler Ogin.

A plot by an evil mastermind to eliminate the lead singer of the Japanese "Group Sounds" rock band, The Jaguars, leads the group through a series of psychedelic, comedic escapades.

Japanese comedy film.