Asian Drama

The 63rd work of NHK Taiga Drama depicts the life of Murasaki Shikibu, a Japanese female poet who wrote "Tale of Hikaru Genji". This story is set in the mid-Heian period.

(Source: nhk.or.jp)

Episodes: 40

The 63rd work of NHK Taiga Drama depicts the life of Murasaki Shikibu, a Japanese female poet who wrote "Tale of Hikaru Genji". This story is set in the mid-Heian period.

(Source: nhk.or.jp)

Episodes: 40

Hiroto Miyama is a poor lawyer who takes on criminal cases, but unable to make money. He pursues the truth for the 0.1% out of Japan's 99.9% conviction rate. One day, Hiroto is scouted by Haruhiko Madarame. Haruhiko Madarame is the head of Madarame Law Firm which is one of the biggest law firms among the 4 big law firms. Hiroto Miyama begins to work with Atsuhiro Sada. Atsuhiro Sada is a lawyer specializing in civil cases and makes lots of money for the law firm. He doesn't have any interest in criminal cases which can not make money.

Hiroto Miyama is a poor lawyer who takes on criminal cases, but unable to make money. He pursues the truth for the 0.1% out of Japan's 99.9% conviction rate. One day, Hiroto is scouted by Haruhiko Madarame. Haruhiko Madarame is the head of Madarame Law Firm which is one of the biggest law firms among the 4 big law firms. Hiroto Miyama begins to work with Atsuhiro Sada. Atsuhiro Sada is a lawyer specializing in civil cases and makes lots of money for the law firm. He doesn't have any interest in criminal cases which can not make money.

Yabushita Yoriko and Taniguchi Takumi takes another step into their relationship. Yoriko propose semi-cohabitation to Takumi before proceed to contract marriage. During this time, many incident occurs between them.

Episodes: 1

Duration: 2 hr. 18 min.

Aired On: Monday

Taro Sato (Yusuke Kamiji) has been poor all his life. Since the death of his wife, his situation has become even more desperate as he has to raise his three kids by himself and has no real marketable skills. So when he applies for a job that he doesn't expect to get, as a chauffeur to a rich young woman, he's surprised when he does. His employer is Alice (Aya Ueto), your usual spoiled rich kid. Her father is a hotel magnate and her mother a popular actress. She's never wanted for anything her whole life and expects to get everything she wants. She and Taro have nothing in common, and, at least in the beginning, all they do is get on each other's nerves.

ER doctor Tsuyoshi Matsuoka receives a patient with a virus unlike anything he's seen before. His symptoms include high fever, convulsions, vomiting of blood and multiple organ failure. Could this be a new form of influenza or is it some other variety of virus? As the situation worsens and more cases begin arriving, a medical officer from the World Health Organization named Eiko Kobayashi is dispatched to the area. At the rate the virus is spreading, the entire city's transportation system and infrastructure would be brought to a halt within 3 months. Within 6 months it could spread to tens of millions of people--reaching a death toll far worse than any war.

Yoriko Yabushita (Anne Watanabe) works at a Yokohama research laboratory. She tracks trends in relation to macroeconomics. She is 29-years-old and enthusiastic about her work. She also enjoys efficiency and having a regular life. Although she doesn't excel in social settings with other people, her next goal is getting married and having a baby. Yoriko believes that she marry by the age of 30, because everyone around her did including her late mother. If Yoriko finds a man who fills 24 items listed on her ideal husband list, she will marry him. Meanwhile, Takumi Taniguchi (Hiroki Hasegawa) is 35-years-old and unemployed. He did graduate from college, but he spends his days reading books and listening to music. He's not interested in dating or getting married, because he knows he lacks a source of income. He lives with his mother and knows that when she passes away, he can't continue his current lifestyle. Takumi Taniguchi then decides to find a woman who is capable of supporting him financially. Yoriko Yabushita and Takumi Taniguchi, who both think of marriage as a contract, begin to date with the goal of getting married.

Twenty years ago Onodera Fuyuha went missing on a school trip. One day her former classmates Inoue Keiko, Akiyoshi Miya and Kawano Takako receive an email which is supposed to be from Onodera. With two other classmates Sabashima Yutaka and Higashihagi Koji they try to find out more. Before long, misfortune starts to befall the reunited classmates.

Hotaru works for a famous interior design company. It's a glamorous job but Hotaru's private life is totally the opposite of glamorous. She lives alone, and when she isn't working she's mostly lazing about her rented house in training wear. She's not interested in men. In fact, she isn't interested in anything. "I'd rather lay around than fool around," is her motto. Her landlord is a bar owner, and one day his son, who has just separated from his wife, comes to inspect the rental property, not knowing that someone is living there. He is shocked at the mess, but not as shocked as Hotaru. He turns out to be her boss, Takano.

Mitamura Yukio is the founder and president of a rapidly growing apparel company. However, it is actually a company that exploits its employees. Mitamura places priority on the company’s profits and has been overworking his employees but he sees nothing wrong. Instead he believes that hard work is necessary to achieve results.

Therefore, demanding work is justified. He does not think his beloved company exploits its employees. Mitamura has delegated work to his subordinates and has time to enroll in a university to study company management from the basics. This is where he meets a new lecturer Akiyama Kyoko. Although he feels attracted to the intellectual Kyoko, the complete differences in their environment and way of thinking results in frequent clashes. Then there are the young people called the “pressure-free generation”. Mitamura looks down on this bunch who would never get a job with his own company. But in an unexpected turn of events, he has interactions with these university students, and because of that, he gets inspired and learns a lot of things. On the other hand, the attempt to oust Mitamura is gathering strength within his company. Mitamura himself soon realises that his company exploits its employees and a power struggle begins inside.

Sugimura (Koizumi) works as an editor at the public relations department in the Imada Konzern. One day, the chairman, and his father-in-law, Yoshichika (Mikijiro Hira), asks him to support the daughters of his personal driver who died in an accident. The driver was killed in a hit-and-run accident by a bicycle, but the criminal hasn't been caught yet. The younger daughter Riko (Nao Minamisawa) is eager to find the suspect by writing a book about her father's life. But the older daughter Satomi (Kyoko Fukada) opposes the idea, and explains why by telling Sugimura about her father's dark past...

TBS

Kaido published "Madonna Verde" in 2008 as a sequel to "Gene Waltz," continuing the story around the controversial issue of surrogate pregnancy in Japan. Kuninaka plays the doctor Rie Sonezaki, known as the "Cool Witch" by her colleagues in the obstetrics department. The character was previously played by Miho Kanno (33) in the movie version of "Gene Waltz." In "Madonna Verde," Rie and her husband (played by comedian Jin Katagiri) want to have a child, but Rie lost her uterus due to an earlier illness. She decides to ask her own mother Midori (Matsuzaka) to be the surrogate mother, and the three of them proceed with their plan in secret. However, a man named Maruyama (Kyozo Nagatsuka), who is in love with Midori, finds out about their plan. Later, a professor at Rie's university hospital (Hirotaro Honda) receives an accusatory letter, and Midori and Rie are desperately forced to pretend that the child in Midori's womb is her own. --

A quirky story of a Japanese woman and an American man as they enter into a relationship and eventually marry. Saori is a manga artist. She meets language geek Tony, who has arrived in Japan after falling in love with the language. As the couple become closer, Saori is inundated with strange questions about the language from Tony. Are these weird questions a trait of his foreign background? Or is it because of his linguist preoccupation? More importantly, can their relationship survive?

Robot maker, Kronos Heaven, finally develops "Night Tenjo", the perfect male humanoid programmed to be devoted and completely loyal to his lover. The company chooses temp worker Izawa Riko to take part in a 5-day free trial. At first, Riko only sees Night as a household appliance. But when she finds out how deep Night's devotion to herself is, Riko finds herself falling in love with him. Joining the love triangle is Asamoto Soshi, a distinguished young executive at her company who has feelings for her.

Filming began on 2008-April and finished 2008-June.

Kuryu Kohei is an unconventional prosecutor at the Josai branch of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office. One day Kuryu is asked to take on a case which his colleague, Shibayama, prosecuted. The case looks simple with a confession by the accused, but the accused changes his plea at the first hearing and now claims his innocence.

Kuryu is faced with Gamo Kazuomi, an attorney who prides himself with the highest number of winning acquittals for criminal cases in Japan. While Kuryu is puzzled by the appearance of such a high profile attorney for a relatively minor case without publicity, Gamo steadily drives Kuryu into a corner with his unperturbed and varied tactics.

Meanwhile, Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office is conducting the special investigation on the a bribery case of Hanaoka Renzaburo, a major Diet member. Unbeknownst to Kuryu, it turns out that the adjudication of the case holds the key to a bribery case of Hanaoka Renzaburo. Kuryu and Hanaoka had an encounter in the past, but Kuryu concentrates on bringing out the truth of his case and with his legal aide Amamiya.

"Say Hello for Me" is a love story and talks about three people's childhood friendship and their reunion after 15 years of separation.

Eri and her family face a new crisis as they discover that the Kohaguras' life savings have been depleted by their father, Keibun. Keibun, a good-natured but often unreliable man, refuses to confess the truth on his spending and his wife Katsuko leaves him out of frustration. Meanwhile, the grandmother, Obaa, suddenly falls ill.

Shinsuke Kuwano (Abe Hiroshi), a successful architect at 40, enjoys living by himself. He doesn't like people but somehow is able to design wonderful houses for them.

He has a routine of making himself a delicious dinner and then relaxing to classical music in his easy chair. (He likes to pretend he is the conductor.) One night, he plays the music loud enough to make his next door neighbor, Michiru Tamara (Kuninaka Ryoko) knock on his door to complain. When Kuwano answers the door, he suffers a terrible stomach pain and collapses to the floor. Lucky for him, his neighbor Michiru is nice enough to accompany him to the hospital, where he is treated by Dr. Natsumi Hayasake (Natsukawa Yui). He is really rude to Natsumi, but she is still determined to treat him.

Afterwards, Michiru and Natsumi become part of Kuwano's life. They make friends with Kuwano's colleagues Eiji (Tsukamoto Takashi) and Maya Sawazaki (Takashima Reiko). They all enjoy talking about how strange and eccentric Kuwano is. Is it possible that someone would ever want to marry him?

Tanaka Misako stars as a woman struggling to raise her three sons - played by Tamayama Tetsuji, Hayami Mokomichi and Nakao Akiyoshi - after her husband dies. Kuninaka Ryoko will appear as Tamayama's girlfriend, Chisato.

They don't know when to stop, and live life to the full—meet the never-a-dull-moment Sakurai family, where nobody holds their feelings back. Returning to serial drama for the first time in five years, Misako Tanaka and the three hyperactive sons provide a story with a heartbeat. Sakurai Harue who has brought up her sons alone after her husband died, is absolutely hopeless at running a household. Her eldest, stickler Tatsuya, does the job in her place while keeping younger brothers Riku, and Junpei firmly in line. The sparks are constantly flying, but that's the way it goes in this home. Tatsuya, a serious-minded advertising agency worker, and his brothers, an easy-going swimming instructor and rather naïve student, are three good-lookers who, along with their useless live-wire of a mother, keep getting into all sorts of scrapes—in love and at work. This is the Sakurai household, where everything hangs loose and everyone always speaks their mind. Tanaka says she really loves this 'perfect family.' They are sure to win your hearts too!

Eri could not understand what Keitatsu was thinking when he disappeared before his wife Shoko gave birth. Fumiya becomes unusually harsh when talking to Eri. Mihoko who is seriously ill asks Eri if there's a good place that can look after her daughter Aiko. Eri decides to take Aiko to Ippukan. Aiko is welcomed by the folks at Ippukan and eats the food cooked by Mizue; Aiko beings to cry. Suddenly, she rushes out to see her mother.

Ever since they moved to Eri's hometown Kohamajima, Eri and Fumiya have been running a small makeshift health center from their home. Doing so has brought Fumiya and Eri a step closer to their dream of operating a certified local clinic, and fuels Fumiya's desire to pursue further training and perfect his skills in the medical field. Determined to be certified, Fumiya confesses to Eri his plan of moving back to Tokyo to gain the necessary experience. Eri, who holds Kohamajima close to her heart, hesitates with this idea at first, however, agrees to move back to Tokyo with Fumiya. Upon their return to Tokyo, Eri coincidentally discovers new ambition in life; she decides to return to the nursing field and learn about home nursing.

Shu is a senior at a low-ranked university. Kotomi is a struggling model. Keiko has a desk job at a small company. All of them are former classmates from junior high school. All of them are not satisfied with their current lives and want to find something better but can't seem to. Reflecting many of the conflicts and anxieties of today's youth, these three turn to each other for support to find the meaning in their lives for which they are searching.

The 64th NHK Asadora Renzoku Drama is Churasan, a story of a young woman, Kohagura Eri, who was born in Kohamajima Island, Okinawa on May 15, 1972, the day when Okinawa was returned to Japan from the U.S. Eleven years later, Kamimura Shizuko and her two sons, Kazuya and Fumiya, come from Tokyo to stay as the guests of a small inn run by Eri’s family. Eri’s fun-loving, yet eccentric family welcomes them warmly.

However, Eri is shocked to hear one of the sons, Kazuya is terminally ill and Shizuko and her sons came to Okinawa to spend his last moment together in beautiful nature. Fumiya, Kazuya’s younger brother, and Eri promise to marry each other someday. However, after Kazuya’s death, Fumiya and his mother leave the island to go back to Tokyo. Years later, they are reunited, Eri as a nurse and Fumiya, a doctor, working at the same hospital in Tokyo.

The story's settings include Okinawa, Naha, and Tokyo.

In 30th Television Academy Awards, the Drama won awards for Best Scriptwriter, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress.

A love story between a young man who has been forced to grow up too quickly, and a young woman with an ailment that has placed restrictions on her life. Natsuo has been looking after his younger brother and sister since the death of their parents. He has also been running the family bicycle shop. Yuki becomes the only person in the world in whom he can confide. For Yuki, Natsuo becomes the catalyst that has her trying to break out of her cocoon. -- KIKU-TV