Asian Drama

A strict but loving grandma solves a myriad of issues for the people around her!

Doumeki Miki lives in a small rural village surrounded by abundant nature and beautiful scenery. After becoming a widow at an early age, she’s spent many years working as a leader in her village. A beautiful, intelligent woman in her 70s, she’s incredibly spry, with perfect posture.

Whenever a problem arises, her neighbors all rush to Miki for advice.

When faced with two bickering villagers:

“Your plum tree is ruining my view!”

“Well, your cherry blossom tree is an eyesore, too!” Miki’s response is simple.

“Then, I’ll cut down both of your trees!” Strangely enough, after being reminded of how joyful it is to watch the seasons change through the blossoming of different trees, both neighbors cease their arguing and calm down.

One spring, Miki’s son moves himself and his family back to the village after living in the city and she comes face to face with her 6 year old granddaughter, Ako. Despite Miki’s severe personality and intimidating presence, the little girl seems intent on befriending her...

Adapted from the manga series "Grandma no Yuutsu" (グランマの憂鬱) by Takaguchi Satosumi (高口里純).

Yumeaki Hirayama’s horror manga gets another adaptation. This movie consists in five different stories set in Tokyo, where the desires are swirling, random women are overwhelmed by unimaginable fear due to human madness.

A large-scale film by a famous director will be done at a rural village, Ishimaru Village and the heroine will be selected among the local actresses by a mysterious lady called Yurizono Rinko. "Soyokaze" is the only theater group in Ishimaru Village and Tamano Kumi is one of the members. Kumi and the other members get along very well and treat acting as just a hobby. However, things change after the arrival of Rinko as the theater members start to see each other as rivals. The rivalry not only involves their acting abilities, but also their status in the village and their pride as a woman.

Suzuki Mitsu is a talented contract engineer working for an IT company, but it wasn't their benefits package that attracted her. She's working for the company that drove her late husband to suicide, and she won't rest until she exacts her revenge on each and every person responsible.

Maezaki Family Court is located in a suburban city about an hour away from Tokyo by shinkansen. A newly appointed judge arrives at the court. This man is Kuwata Yoshio, the rumoured oddball who snubbed career advancement after turning down a transfer to Tokyo due to his attachment to the family court. On the day that Kuwata takes up his new post, he shows up carrying a huge plant on his back. Higuchi Hinako, a legal apprentice who wants to become a lawyer, and the probation officers are astounded. Kuwata says he happened to pass by a garden where trees were being felled and he decided to take this plant because he felt sorry for it. He immediately starts to plant the tree in the small garden within the court’s compound while everyone watches him in a daze. ~~ Original Work: Kasai no Hito by Mouri Jinpachi

Mitari Yo is a career woman who works for a shoemaker. She finds her work rewarding and has successfully advanced in her career. But she keeps having her heartbroken and her romantic life has not gone very well lately. Ishida Ren works for a developer and is Yo’s best friend. An ex-classmate from both high school and university days, he understands her the best and is the only person she pours her heart out to. On Yo’s 29th birthday, the two friends place a wager to give 300,000 yen as a congratulatory gift to the one who is the first to get married by the last day they are 30. Although they declare that it is impossible for them to fall in love with each other, this wager, as well as advances by Ren’s junior in the company and Yo’s reunion with her ex-boyfriend Mizusawa Ryusei, lead to gradual changes in the relationship of the two best friends.

"Poison Daughter” & “Holy Mother”

Yumika is an actress. Since she was a child, she has had to endure her mother Yoshika controlling her life. Yoshika is a “poison mother” to Yumika and Yumika cannot tolerate her mother anymore. Yumika appears on a talk show and criticizes her mother. Her criticism causes a sensation.

Meanwhile, people around Yoshika state that she is not a poison mother and she is actually a good mother.

“Tsumibukaki Onna”

She blames herself for everything and feels like terrible.

“Best Friend”

A screenwriter gets nervous because her rival is doing good.

“Yasashii Hito”

A woman is too nice to commit murder.

“My Dearest”

A middle aged woman opens her mind only to a cat.

Tachibana Haruka is a rookie nurse with a bright personality. Mihara Natsumi is 34-year-old veteran nurse. She is struggling at work and with her love life. While Tachibana Haruka and Mihara Natsumi work as nurses at a place that deals with life and death, they laugh and cry. The two women grow as persons in the process.

Fujita Yoko is a single mother who goes through a divorce. Afterwards, she returns to her parents' home and struggles to raise her child, also attempts to revive her parents' gyoza restaurant. She falls in love with pro golfer Ryo Iwahara.

Ayamecho Complex is a public housing complex that was built in the suburbs of Tokyo in the 1970s. Back then, it was a lively place and a desirable address for people. But now the number of residents have declined and both the building and people have steadily aged. One day, 62-year-old Terauchi Seiji and his 6-year-old granddaughter Honoka move to Ayamecho Complex. Terauchi tells residents curious to know why he has relocated here now, that he adopted Honoka after his son and daughter-in-law died in a fire a year ago. He believes it will be good for her to live in the place where he spent a happy childhood. Terauchi’s elderly father Hitoshi also lives with him. The arrival of the family of three stirs the stagnant air of the complex. Terauchi immediately visits housewife Sakurai Eriko and her husband Takashi who live next to him, to give his greetings and enthusiastically declares, “We’re starting a new chapter of our lives in this “dream new town” from today”. He politely goes around to every unit in the complex and even proactively shows up at a gathering of the residents association where he seeks interactions within the place. However, it does not work out as intended with an unmotivated chairman, Kaneda Teppei, and residents who show no regard for rules and greetings. Terauchi gets into action in an attempt to steer Ayamecho Complex back to the good old times for the sake of his granddaughter. However, is he a savior who will save the public housing complex? Or is he a devil?

Mai (Rika Adachi) is a high school student. She attends a new school and there she meets her classmate Shino (Manami Enosawa). Shino was bullied by Mai's friends back in their middle school days. Table have now turned.

Kouno Etsuko loves fashion and dreams of working at the editorial department of the company which publishes the fashion magazine ‘Lassy’. She has been taking the employment exam for several years. However, she is constantly rejected because the editorial department has not been hiring for some time. Even so, Etsuko perseveres and goes for the interview every year to the extent that she is now a famous person in the company. One night a week later, Etsuko receives a phone call from the human resource department about a job offer and is overjoyed. And so, she heads to Lassy’s editorial department in high spirits on her first day of work. She is told that she has got the department wrong and is designated to the very unglamorous proofreading department, which checks for misspelling, missing characters, errors or inconsistencies in the content of manuscripts before these go to print. Furthermore, Morio Toyoko, her junior from high school days, is a fashion editor. Under the assumption that she had been assigned to the editorial department, Etsuko vehemently protests to Takehara Sho-on, the head of the proofreading department. Takehara tells her that she may be able to transfer to the department of her choice if her work here is recognised. So Etsuko decides to work hard at proofreading with the goal of transferring to the editorial department. Although she starts learning the basics of proofreading, she does not have sufficient knowledge of kanji. Her exasperated seniors find her unsuitable for the job of proofreading and Etsuko pours out her frustrations about her work to Toyoko and company receptionist, Imai Seishiru. Then Etsuko gets assigned to proofread the manuscript of popular leading mystery writer, Hongo Daisaku, because she is the only one in the department who is free. Dressed in flashy clothes, she enthusiastically tackles her first job, going beyond her proofreading work to get into actual locations to verify facts. She tries to do her job to perfection for a transfer to the editorial department, but her unorthodox approach to proofreading infuriates Kaizuka Hachiro, the editor in charge. Then Hongo asks to see the person who proofread his manuscript. Meanwhile, Toyoko is told by her editor, Kamei Sayaka, to look for candidates to be the magazine’s first exclusive male model. She scouts a guy called Orihara Yukito through photographs of handsome men she found on the internet. A fourth-year university student who intends to be a writer, Yukito flatly rejects Tokoyo’s invitation to be a model since he has no interest. At the same moment, Etsuko happens to encounter Yukito …

Despite Etsuko’s worries about the gap between her ideal job and reality, she dedicates herself to the work of proofreading in her own unique way and gradually starts to realise its allure.

Shima Yuka works as an OL at a large general trading company. Suddenly, she is transferred from her office to an aquarium that is affiliated with her company. She now works as a keeper at the aquarium and her senior is Kaji. Yuka Shima struggles with her new job and marine animals, but with her bright personality, she is able to grow as an aquarium keeper.

Sara, a young actress, is able to land the leading role in big theater play, but soon learns that somebody or something is trying to end the production at all cost, which puts Sara in deadly danger.

Jun Hashimoto is a sci-fi novel writer, but he isn't popular at all. He lives off of his savings. One day, his editor Tateyama assigns him a job: he is to write a "love" themed short story for a web magazine oriented towards youths. At first Jun refuses, because he has never written a love story before, but Tateyama pushes him to write one. The deadline is imminent. Jun's childhood friend Keisuke Murata then appears in front of him. Jun complains to Keisuke that he can't write, but while talking to him, he comes up with an idea.

Makita Takahiro works in the Public Relations (PR) Department of Nagawara Seiyaku, a major pharmaceutical company in Japan. One day, on his way to work, he witness someone committing suicide by jumping onto the railway tracks, into the path of an oncoming train. A few days later, he is called into the Vice President, Anjo Takao's office, where he is told that the suicide may have something to do with one of the drugs manufactured by the company. Anjo then assigns Takahiro to work with the police on their investigations. As Nagawara Seiyaku is currently undergoing talks with a major foreign equity group on a possible merger, any bad publicity will put an end to that. The company will definitely go under then, as they are in the red due to the economic crisis. Takahiro has been told to not breathe a word about the investigations to anyone, not even his fiancee, Morita Mayumi, who is working as Anjo's secretary.

When the autopsy records the said drug to be found in the deceased's body, Anjo instructs Takahiro to approach the family, to persuade them on an out-of-court settlement, while they are writing up reports for the Ministry of Health. Torn between his obligation to the public and to the company, Takahiro approaches the company lawyer, Takafuji Tatsumi, for advice and help.

In the end, will Takahiro ignore his conscience in order to protect the company's profit?

Adapted from the 2014 novel "Godan" by Dōba Shunichi.

“A hole suddenly opened in the darkness. A huge tongue appeared and my face was licked. That was the first memory of my life … …” 19-year-old Fujiwara Rihito (Suda Masaki) works for a restaurant chain, but finds employment with Rescue Dogs Association, a non-profit organisation that he chanced upon after his company goes bankrupt. This non-profit organisation led by Baba Akio (Honda Hirotaro) has been training dogs for disaster relief and working to popularise it. When Rihito inadvertently falls asleep in a park, he is awakened by a big dog that licks his face. This is his fateful encounter with the disaster rescue dog, Kyu, and he somehow sets his sights on being a rescue dog handler. However, the combination of Rihito, who is intending to work temporarily until he finds his next job, and the foolish Kyu just does not turn out well. One day, Rihito is confined in the training yard for rescue dogs and gets out because of Kyu’s frantic barking. He is reassured to have Kyu as his partner following this first-hand experience of the feelings of a person calling for help. Then he learns that his first recollection of life is connected to the earthquake disaster 20 years ago. He lost his parents in the Hanshin Awaji Earthquake when he was a little child and was raised by his grandparents, Hiroshi (Kobayashi Kaoru) and Fumiko (Fubuki Jun) who run a shop for custom-made men’s shoes. Baba himself went through the earthquake as a firefighter and witnessed the loss of many lives. He made the decision to rear disaster rescue dogs whose existence was virtually unknown at that time because he reckons that there is no other way to save lives. This is the story of moving steadily forward toward dreams and hope as well as the people and towns that have recovered from the earthquake.

Kurata Kenta lives with his father, Taichi, his mother, Keiko, and his younger sister, Nana in an isolated home in the suburbs. He works as an unpopular commercial designer. Kurata Kenta possesses a timid personality, which he picked up from his father. Kenta doesn't like his father. One day, while waiting for the train, Kenta warns a man who pushed a woman and cut in line. Kenta is surprised that he spoke out with his normally timid personality. After that incident, Kenta's family home is targeted by an unknown person with flowers from their garden being pulled out and the seat of a bicycle being torn. Also, Kenta's younger sister Nana is stalked by her ex-boyfriend. Kenta and his family try to find out who is responsible.

Based on the novel "Yokoso Wagaya e" by Jun Ikeido.

Drama version of the live action movie Kinkyori Renai based off the manga Kinkyori Renai by Mikimoto Lin. In high school, Sakurai Haruka, Mirei and Kanata are good friends whom everyone envies. The three of them believed their relationship would remain like this forever. Then Haruka’s stepsister Ririko suddenly returns from overseas. After several years away, she has become beautiful to the extent that classmates call her “goddess”. Although Haruka has often built walls around other people, Ririko deliberately gets close to him. One night, she barges in all of a sudden and starts to cry against his chest. “I have no where to go. You’ll let me stay here, right?” Haruka is baffled by his pushy stepsister, Mirei secretly loves Haruka and Kanata has become aware of Mirei. The distance between Haruka, Mirei and Kanata who had taken it for granted that they would always be close, starts to change little by little.

Mei Tachibana is a high school student. Due to a traumatic incident when she was a kid, Mei has been unable to make friends or have boyfriends. By mistake, Mei then injures the most popular male student named Yamato Kurosawa. Somehow, Yamato Kurosawa likes Mei Tachibana and tells everyone unilaterally that Mei is his friend. One day, Yamato Kurosawa saves Mei Tachibana from a stalker by kissing her. From that kiss, their love story begins.

Amano Aki goes with her mother Haruko to her hometown in Kitasanriku during a summer vacation. There, she meets her maternal grandmother, Natsu, for the first time. Natsu is a woman diver aka "ama", and Aki thinks that is just so cool. Aki is a second-year high-school student, and she struggles to keep up with the fast-paced life in Tokyo. Having been confined indoors most of the time, everything she sees in the rural town is exciting to her. But most of all, seeing her grandmother diving under the fierce surf along the coastline, leaves a huge impact on her. "I think I would like to be a diver too..."

Two prisoners managed to escape after the police truck carrying them crashed. One of them ,is a gangster. The other called "Otowa YonKo" - our protagonist - is a con artist whose cheats money from criminals or terrorists. Accidentally, "Otowa Yonko" then becomes the new teacher for the nearby high school, under the new name "Hachisuka Goro", and according to a deal of "Hammer Session" with the headmaster.

Adapted from the manga series "Hammer Session!" (ハンマーセッション!) written by Koganemaru Yamato (小金丸大和) and Yatsu Hiroyuki (八津弘幸) and illustrated by Tanahashi Namoshiro (棚橋なもしろ).