Asian Drama

Since he was in his 20's, Natsume Shunpei was a world famous maestro and lived abroad, while working with renown orchestras. He was always passionate about music and his passion inspired other musicians. But, Natsume Shunpei has zero abilities outside of music. He is unable to do simple things like housework. His life has been focused on himself and his music. Something happened that changed Natsume Shunpei's life. Due to that incident, his family, including his daughter Natsume Hibiki, left him and he left the music field.

5 years later, Natsume Shunpei returns to Japan for the first time in decades to conduct an orchestra in a province. He meets his daughter Hibiki that he hasn't seen in 5 years and they begin to live together. Unlike her father, Natsume Hibiki hates music and lives her life without it. Her father's genius ability in music clouds his view outside of music and he is unaware of his daughter's feelings. Natsume Shunpei faces Hibiki as her father and her life, that stopped 5 years ago, slowly begins to move again.

(Source: AsianWiki)

Episodes: 10

Duration: 54 min.

Airs On: Sunday

In the year 1990, Muranishi is now at the top of his game, with his company raking in billions in annual sales. He and Kaoru Kuroki are more outspoken about porn, constantly conducting TV interviews and publicly advertising. Learning about satellite Television channels, Muranishi dives head-first, wanting to use this new innovation to broadcast porn all over Japan and the world. ~~ Adapted from the non-fiction novel "Zenra Kantoku Muranishi Toru Den" (全裸監督 村西とおる伝) by Motohashi Nobuhiro (本橋信宏).

Set in China, during the Warring States Period. The powerful neighboring country of Zhao suddenly attacks Qin. Shin, who dreamed of becoming a great general, fights against Zhao.

(Source: Asianwiki)

Adapted from the manga series "Kingdom" (キングダム) by Hara Yasuhisa (原泰久).

Duration: 2 hr. 9 min.

Content Rating: G - All Ages

Mima Taro is a writer who has hit a slump. Tired of city life, he moves into the house he inherited from his father in the mountainous Hayabusa. When he joins the fire brigade, he becomes involved in a series of arson cases and suspicious incidents. As Taro searches for the truth, a huge conspiracy comes to the surface.

Adapted from the novel "Hayabusa Shobodan" (ハヤブサ消防団) by Ikeido Jun (池井戸潤).

Akira Yamazaki and Akira Kaido are new employees at Industrial Central Bank. They are both outstanding at their jobs and fierce rivals, but they come from totally different backgrounds. When Akira Yamazaki was a child, his father's factory went bankrupt, and his family ran away in the middle of the night. Because of that experience, Akira Yamazaki wants to work as a banker to save people. On the other hand, Akira Kaido was born into a family that runs a large company. He works with a calm demeanor.

Due to a case, Akira Yamazaki receives a demotion. Akira Kaido continues to be successful at work, but his family's company is on the verge of bankruptcy due to their family-oriented management style. The employees there and their families are all in a crisis situation. With this desperate situation unfolding, the reversal of fate of these two men begins.

Adapted from the novel "Akira and Akira" (アキラとあきら) by Ikeido Jun (池井戸潤).

A story about a high school full of delinquents, and its elite class that has clones of famous warlords from Japan's Warring States period fighting it out.

Born in a family of delinquents, Nanba Tsuyoshi is expected to succeed as the strongest delinquent in school. Unbeknownst to his family however, he decides to enroll in the top high school in town to live as a normal high schooler. Can he maintain his double life as the strongest delinquent in town and as a normal high schooler?

Adapted from the manga "Number MG5" (ナンバMG5) by Ozawa Toshio (小沢としお).

N/A

A comedy based on Hiroyuki Ohashi's manga "ZOKKI A" and "ZOKKI B", co-directed by Naoto Takenaka, Takayaki Yamada, and Takumi Saitoh, who are among Japan's leading actors and creators.

Shibusawa Eiichi was born in 1840 to a farmer’s family. He grew up helping his family with work, which was to manufacture and sell indigo production and also silk farming. He left his hometown at the age of 23 and began working for the government. He later traveled to Paris and learned about banking. Upon his return to Japan, he helped build up the first modern bank in Japan. He eventually became a founder or supporter to about 500 companies and was involved with about 600 public services, including education for women.

A fantasy in which three young people who visit the only remaining cinema in Onomichi, which closes tonight only, are time-leaped to the world of cinema with the final all-night screening of Japanese war films.

Amasawa Yoichiro was abandoned by his parents and has been wandering the world alone. Some trouble leads to his encounter with a shy university student Suzuki Nita who hopes to become an artist. A penniless and homeless Yoichiro makes Nita buy him curry on the grounds that he saved him, and mutters briefly about his family. Kiyokawa Kaoruko who runs Kiyokawa Realty has been keeping the ashes of Yoichiro’s late father because she used to be the caretaker of his apartment. There appears to be some significant reason why Yoichiro tries out curry every day.

Murata Jo is a ruthless criminal. On the surface, he is cheerful and lively. But he emotionally controls other people, milks them for money, and makes them commit brutal crimes.

Based on a real criminal case, named Kitakyūshū Serial Murder Incident, taking place between 1996 and 1998, and the main culprit of it, Futoshi Matsunaga.

Arimura Kasumi suddenly gets a break from filming and returns to her hometown for the first time in a long while. Her mother Yumiko comes to the train station to pick her up and they head for the family home. She is idly chatting with her mother at home when a male stranger comes to visit. His name is Ueshima Makoto. He puts his hands together in front of Kasumi’s father’s tablet. Then her mother asks him to repair a bicycle. At Yumiko’s invitation, the three of them have dinner together.

Murata Jo is a ruthless criminal. On the surface, he is cheerful and lively. But he emotionally controls other people, milks them for money and makes them commit brutal crimes.

Based on novel by Yamasaki Toyoko, screenplay by Habara Daisuke and directed by Tsuruhashi Yasuo. The era setting is changed from the Showa 30's to the year 2019.

Follow up the story of 52 years and covers three editions of 1912 Stockholm Olympics, 1936 Berlin Olympics and 1964 Tokyo Olympics where it features the two lead characters Kanakuri Shisou as the first Japanese man to participate in the Stockholm Olympics' and achieved a world record and Tabata Masaji who was credited with bringing the Olympics to Japan.

Spring, 1969, 21-year-old Megumi goes to Wakamatsu Production. The company makes films popular with young people. Pink film director Wakamatsu Koji gathers there with young talented people who are all fascinated with movie making. When they are not making movies, they spend their time smoking, drinking alcohol, scouting for actresses and looking for material for their next film. When filming begins, everybody immerses themselves into the production and will do everything on the filming set from running, shouting to acting.

The Bastard and the Beautiful World is an omnibus film consisting of four episodes. (1) Fujiko is running as fast as she can, being chased after by a creepy masked man called Mad Dog. They meet a talented pianist on the way. (2) A mysterious relationship between a little girl, Utagui, who eats songs to live, and an artist who can't sing anymore. (3) A married couple sets off on a journey to find the right arm of their dead son. They finally reached a beach in Okinawa and find...? (4) Bastards comes together on a night dance floor for a show.

Spring 1941. Toshihiko shows up at the home of his aunt in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture. He entertains a crush on his tubercular cousin Mina while reveling in "depraved" adolescence with the girls and indulging in bravery-testing escapades with his school buddies. Meanwhile, the Pacific War erupts.

Following the showdown with his arch nemesis Ando, Detective Ango Ishikawa takes on a new case with his uncanny ability to communicate with the dead.

Attempted murder, fraud and embezzlement, illicit drugs, tax evasion and even murder? Five women convicted of various crimes and a crime-loathing female warden put aside their differences to hatch a grand plot of revenge against a handsome but crooked company CEO. But the revenge plan keeps hitting snags. All of these mature women with interesting back stories meet in a female penitentiary and band together to clear each other of unjust sentences in this blockbuster female crime story rich in laughter and tears, brilliantly merging the comedy and cheerfulness of Kudo Kankuro storytelling with serious deeper questions of why we’re all here and what constitutes true happiness.

It is a warring period in feudal Japan. The warlord, Oda Nobunaga, is rapidly vanquishing his foes on a quest to pacify and unify the country under his rule. However, there is one domain that he forbids to lay a hand on, that of the Iga ninja, whom even the great Nobunaga fears most. The Iga are known to wield extraordinary and supernatural powers as invincible weapons of war who will assassinate anyone for money, and money only. They don’t think of people as human and are dubbed “the killer clan”. But there is one Iga ninja, Mumon, who while peerless inability is indolent and taken to task for an inability to earn much of an income. In the fall of the year Tensho 7, Nobunaga’s second son, Oda Nobukatsu, decides to ignore his father’s orders and attack the Iga country, partly encouraged by Taizen Heki, a man who had once turned on his master and was now employed as a vassal of Nobukatsu. Shimoyama Heibe, whose brother had been killed by Mumon also seeks revenge on the 12 Iga ninja core, including Momoji Sandayu and Shimoyama Kai. Amid various colliding interests and schemes, ultimately, a major bloody showdown is coming between Oda’s army and the Iga ninja.

Manami is targeted by vampires on her 22nd birthday and K, who possesses tremendous power, tries to save her in a raging battle. On that day, young men and women are invited to Hotel Requiem where a huge nationwide matchmaking convention is being held by the mysterious Yamada. He lives and runs this ornately beautiful, palatial hotel with a bizarre empress and Elizabeth Báthory. Then Yamada suddenly declares to the gathered crowd that tomorrow will be the apocalypse and only the people inside this hotel will be saved.

Makoto Masaki and Haruko Kogetsu are both 29 years old and single. Since they were children, they have passed each other at various places like on the beach and shrines. Yet, the two are not aware of each other at all. One day, a man appears in front of Makoto Masaki and introduces himself as God. He tells Makoto Masaki about his destined soul mate and that she works next door. When he faces Haruko Kogetsu, he tells her "I'm your destiny."

Eto Haru and Hayase Riichiro met through fate and got married four years ago. They were happy, but a sad incident led to their divorce after marriage of a mere one year and five months. Although they have been divorced for two year and a half years, Haru and Riichiro continue to be on good terms. They have a strange relationship in which the two of them would have dinner together on their wedding anniversary and sing duets at karaoke. But one night, they happen to meet at a restaurant and a trivial quarrel leads Riichiro to make the sudden, explosive statement, “I’ll find someone for you to remarry!” From then on, Haru introduces a new partner to Riichiro, thinking that the person will make him happy. Riichiro does the same for Haru. All sorts of candidates are introduced: the son of a distinguished family, a single mother, a university associate professor who is living apart from his wife, and a first love. At first, there is a slight clash of wills. And yet, the more the two of them take action, the more they get entangled in the threads of destiny. Each of them moves rapidly towards remarriage while turning a blind eye to the other’s romance. But what is their future … …?

Eto Haru and Hayase Riichiro met through fate and got married four years ago. They were happy, but a sad incident led to their divorce after marriage of a mere one year and five months. Although they have been divorced for two year and a half years, Haru and Riichiro continue to be on good terms. They have a strange relationship in which the two of them would have dinner together on their wedding anniversary and sing duets at karaoke. But one night, they happen to meet at a restaurant and a trivial quarrel leads Riichiro to make the sudden, explosive statement, “I’ll find someone for you to remarry!” From then on, Haru introduces a new partner to Riichiro, thinking that the person will make him happy. Riichiro does the same for Haru. All sorts of candidates are introduced: the son of a distinguished family, a single mother, a university associate professor who is living apart from his wife, and a first love. At first, there is a slight clash of wills. And yet, the more the two of them take action, the more they get entangled in the threads of destiny. Each of them moves rapidly towards remarriage while turning a blind eye to the other’s romance. But what is their future … …?

Ichinose Ryo works as a salesperson for Hashiba Sales Service, a subsidiary of the mid-sized electronics manufacturer, Hashiba Electronics, which prides itself on its long history. One day, he is ordered to transfer to the company’s headquarters. Why him when he has no strong points? Hashiba Electronics designs products which its subsidiary is responsible for manufacturing. The group’s share of the market is now being lost to emerging foreign companies and it is in financial difficulty. The new company president, Matsumoto Kiyoomi, who has come from America, has his eye on Ichinose’s perseverance as a salesperson and intends to make a five-member team contemplate strategies to improve the management of the group. Ordered to submit a proposal, Ichinose and the members head to Vietnam in search of ideas for cost-cutting measures. He finds out about a new business plan, a license business in Vietnam. However, that is when he learns of the ongoing bribery behind the contract work between headquarters and subsidiary as a result of the license business. Ichinose’s former boss, Taki Shinsuke, is aware of this bribery, and had promised to keep quiet about it in exchange for a director’s position at Hashiba Electronics. Determined to push through reforms in order to correct company’s way of doing things and fulfil his own and the other members’ dreams, Ichinose gets close to but a series of big hurdles stand in his way.

Yukiko Makabe works at the #3 Special Investigation Team of the Metropolitan Police Department. She has excellent negotiation skills. Yukiko then attempts to negotiate with a hijacker on a bus, but something unexpected happens and her mission fails. Yukiko takes full responsibility and takes a transfer to a special interrogation team "Kintori". Her boss is Katsutoshi Kajiyama and Yukiko has had a difficult working relationship with him in the past. Her other coworkers include Susumu Hishimoto, Zenjiro Nakata and Haruo Koishikawa.

A man with leather gloves asks a girl to place a can of cookies in the police substation. Because of this, a police officer dies. Tetsuji Watanabe and Daijiro Kenmotsu, detectives from the #1 investigation team, finds out the identity of the man in leather gloves. They believe the culprit is famous attorney Fujishiro who only takes on miscarriage of justice cases. Fujishiro vehemently denies his involvement in the cookie incident during his interrogation by the Kintori team. Around this time, a man turns himself in and takes responsibility for an explosion at a police substation.

Rinka Umezawa is a housewife who pursues things that will bring her small happiness in life. Her husband Masabumi holds a stern belief that he will support his wife Rinka. The couple do not have children.

Rinka begins to work part-time at a bank. She visits her clients' homes. Sometimes, she even helps her elderly clients' with their house chores. This builds a strong level of trust with her clients.

One day, she visits client Kojo Hirabayashi's. At his home, she meets his grandchil Kota who came to ask for money. Her encounter with Kota changes her. Soon, Rinka embezzles one hundred million yen from her bank and runs away.

Two years later, Rinka's former high school friends Yuko Okazaki and Aki Nakaji trace her embezzlement case and face their own darkness.

Rinka Umezawa is a housewife who pursues things that will bring her small happiness in life. Her husband Masabumi holds a stern belief that he will support his wife Rinka. The couple do not have children.

Rinka begins to work part-time at a bank. She visits her clients' homes. Sometimes, she even helps her elderly clients' with their house chores. This builds a strong level of trust with her clients.

One day, she visits client Kojo Hirabayashi's. At his home, she meets his grandchil Kota who came to ask for money. Her encounter with Kota changes her. Soon, Rinka embezzles one hundred million yen from her bank and runs away.

Two years later, Rinka's former high school friends Yuko Okazaki and Aki Nakaji trace her embezzlement case and face their own darkness.

11 mysteries, 11 actors. Japan's favorite mystery author, the world of Higashino Keigo comes to life on screen through an assortment of short stories.

For every episode, there will be a different lead actor and story, it's themes varying from mystery to comedy to horror to human drama. Nakai Kiichi is the navigator as he takes you on a journey through each episode, seasoned with Higashino's authentic spices, failing your assumptions with vivid story composition and an even bigger betrayal before the finale. It's a weekly drama that will keep you hungry from episode to episode, like a special holiday event each and every time.

Koike Minami returns from USA to Japan to accomplish her deceased twin sister's wish to win a competition and sing with Avril Lavigne on the stage in a concert in Tokyo.

Adapted loosely from the comic "Make 5 Wishes" by Camilla d'Errico.