Asian Drama

"Shogun" is set in feudal Japan in the 1600s at the dawn of the Battle of Sekigahara. As the enemy's siege approaches Lord Yoshii Toranaga, the strongest military commander in the Sengoku period, a British navigator called James Blackthorne, who comes bearing secrets that could save him from his predicament, drifts ashore into his territory.

Toranaga orders Mariko, a mysterious religious noblewoman who can speak English, to translate for Blackthorne (who later becomes known as Anjin) and a bond begins to form between the two. As the war rages on, their fates intertwine as they navigate among this treacherous political landscape while caught in a power struggle between two of the most powerful daimyōs.

(Source: Drama-Otaku.com)

Adapted from the novel "Shogun" by James Clavell.

Episodes: 10

Airs On: Tuesday

Michelle Yeoh and her police colleagues thwarting an airline hijacking. Identified as heroes by the news media, they become the targets of vengeance by a group of military veterans responsible for the failed hijack. The gang then proceeds to attack the police officers as individuals, resulting in the death of relatives and colleagues. Yeoh races to solve the case, she is required to sidestep unwanted romantic overtures as well as shoot it out with the gang. (hkcinemagic.com)

Michelle Yip of the Hong Kong police is a mild-mannered Kung Fu expert; Michael Wong from air security is happy-go-lucky, stuck on himself, constantly talking, and smitten by her; Yamamoto is quiet, hard-boiled, leaving the Tokyo police to spend time with his wife and daughter. They form an alliance when they foil a hijacking on a plane flying a mob prisoner from Tokyo to Hong Kong. The mobster and his would-be rescuer die; this sets off two avengers who were their blood brothers. Our three cops become the targets. A high-speed chase, a car bomb, the destruction of a nightclub, a spectacular suicide, dead bystanders, and a flying coffin litter the landscape by the end.

A 19th-century samurai tries to protect a battered wife. Seibei Iguchi, a low-ranking samurai, leads a life without glory as a bureaucrat in the mid-XIX century Japan. A widower, he has charge of two daughters (whom he adores) and a senile mother; he must therefore work in the fields and accept piecework to make ends meet. New prospects seem to open up when Tomoe, his long-time love, divorces a brutal husband. However, even as the Japanese feudal system is unraveling, Seibei remains bound by the code of honour of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedences. The consequences are cruel. Written by Eduardo Casais . In the Nineteenth Century, in Unasaka, Province of Yamagata, in the Feudal Japan, the widow samurai Seibei Iguchi works in the warehouse of the local Commissioner during the day and handicraftsman building cages in the night to have an income of 50 koku (meaning "a quantity of rice, historically defined as enough rice to feed one person for one year"wink.gif. Seibei raises alone his two daughters, the five year-old Ito and the ten year-old Kayano and his senile mother in a simple property, and has a debt of 20 koku due to the expensive funeral of his wife, who died of tuberculosis, imposed by her family and can not afford to have another wife. His colleagues in the warehouse pejoratively call him "The Twilight Samurai" to express his life without glory. When Seibei meets Michinojo Iinuma, his childhood friend tells him that his sister Tomoe Iinuma has just divorced from he brutal husband Toyotarou Kouda. Seibei reencounters Tomoe, for whom he has been in love since he was a child, but Tamoe is member of a family of 400 koku and Seibei believes their difference of classes makes their marriage impossible. When Kouda challenges Iinuma to a duel, Seibei accepts to replace his old friend and needs to use his skills of swordsman again.

A week or so has passed since Sadako's body was discovered and the police have been making efforts to find the victim's family and locate Reiko and her son, Yoichi, who have disappeared. They have been questioning Takano Mai over the shocking death of her boyfriend, Ryuji and Reiko's father. They believe that Reiko has something to do with these events and soon Yoichi turns up, now a mute child after witnessing the tape.

Mai decides to take up an investigation of her own, which leads her to Reiko's old newspaper office where she meets a reporter who is also interested in the story concerning the tape. They visit the mental hospital where Masami is still being kept and learn that she has developed some interesting abilities and is being studied by Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma who has a theory about psychic powers that he wishes to carry out in due course.

Two teenagers, Masami and Tomoko, talk about a videotape recorded by a boy in Izu which is fabled to bear a curse that kills the viewer seven days after watching. Tomoko reveals that a week ago, she and three of her friends watched a weird tape and received a call after watching. Tomoko goes downstairs and witnesses her TV turn on by itself. She later hears startling noises and turns around, only to be killed by an unseen force.

Days later, Asakawa Reiko, a reporter investigating the popularity of the video curse, discovers that her niece Tomoko, and her three other friends, mysteriously died at the same time, on the same night, with their faces twisted in fear. She also discovers that Masami became insane from witnessing Tomoko's death and is institutionalized in a mental hospital. After stumbling upon Tomoko's photos from the past week, Reiko finds that the four teenagers stayed in a rental cabin in Izu.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Suzuki Koji (鈴木光司).

Two teenagers, Masami and Tomoko, talk about a videotape recorded by a boy in Izu which is fabled to bear a curse that kills the viewer seven days after watching. Tomoko reveals that a week ago, she and three of her friends watched a weird tape and received a call after watching. Tomoko goes downstairs and witnesses her TV turn on by itself. She later hears startling noises and turns around, only to be killed by an unseen force.

Days later, Asakawa Reiko, a reporter investigating the popularity of the video curse, discovers that her niece Tomoko, and her three other friends, mysteriously died at the same time, on the same night, with their faces twisted in fear. She also discovers that Masami became insane from witnessing Tomoko's death and is institutionalized in a mental hospital. After stumbling upon Tomoko's photos from the past week, Reiko finds that the four teenagers stayed in a rental cabin in Izu.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Suzuki Koji (鈴木光司).

Harashima Shuichiro (Sanada Hiroyuki) is a wealthy but lonely businessman who succeeded his father's company after his death. Reputed to be cold, merciless, and corrupted in his dealings, he seeks only to expand his company and profit at the expense of others. One day, he experiences some painful seizures and decides to secretly visit a clinic. To his horror, he finds out that he has an incurable case of cancer and only has three months left to live. There, he is asked by a working-class man, Konosuke Shimodaira (Tamaki Koji) to lend him 30 cents. Unknowing of Harashima's plight, Konosuke cheerfully promises to pay Harashima back. Happy yet poor, Konosuke is the direct foil of Harashima - a man living an empty existence with money.

From this moment onwards, Konosuke invites Harashima into his world - a world without money, but brimming with compassion and friendship, alien concepts to Harashima's cold heart. Although Harashima at first resists Konosuke's attempts to become friends, he eventually gravitates towards Konosuke and his friends' warmth, even finding love in the innocent Kaori (Matsushima Nanako). However, they have no idea that Harashima is the same man who is planning to demolish their homes in order to build a business center. How will his newfound friends react, and what will Harashima do with his last remaining months left to live?

The 35th NHK Taiga Drama is Hideyoshi, the story of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle. He is noted for a number of cultural legacies, including the restriction that only members of the samurai class could bear arms. Hideyoshi is regarded as Japan's second "great unifier".

The drama won 11th Television Drama Academy Awards (1996-Dec-20) for best drama.

The life story of Ashikaga Takauji, the founder and the first Sei-I-Tai-Shogun of Ashikaga Shogunate. He was born in the late Kamakura Period, during the time of discontentment with the Hojo clan's monopoly in the Shogunate administration. Emperor Go-Daigo took this opportunity to restore back Emperor's power. After some failed earlier attempts, he succeeded eventually with the help of a few independent Samurai Lords and Takauji's betrayal of the Hojo clan. However, it was not long before the Samurai class revolted due to unfair treatment and discontentment with the Nobles' domination in the new government. As the head of Minamoto descendants, Takauji took responsibility to confront Go-Daigo and establish Ashikaga Shogunate.

Adapted from the novel "Shihon Taiheiki" by Yoshikawa Eiji.