Asian Drama

Eight men and women with heavy debts, are trapped in a situation where they cannot survive. The eight people are invited by a mysterious man named Ninomiya, an agent of Mr. X, to play a "lottery game" at a permanently closed hotel. The game involves risking their lives and their money. Who is Mr. X and what is the purpose of the game?

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Kasugai Ken has been deserted by his wife, because he was absorbed in a game. One day, missing child robot Tang appears in front of him.

Adapted from the novel "A Robot in the Garden" (ロボット・イン・ザ・ガーデン) by Deborah Install (デボラ・インストール).

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Using her stage name, Oka Erika works as an entertainer and a program reporter. She is in her 30's and her real name is Okabayashi Eriko. Erika loves to travel. Her program "Chobit Tabi" is also about traveling, but the show is stopped due to a mistake by Erika. At that time, a letter is delivered to her management company. The letter asks if Erika can go on a trip instead of her sick daughter.

Adapted from Harada Maha's novel of the same name.

Adapted from the manga series "Gibo to Musume no Blues" (義母と娘のブルース) by Sakurazawa Rin (桜沢鈴).

Rekihiko Tokiya is an excellent detective in Kyoto. While chasing a suspect, Rekihiko Tokiya falls into a water storage pool at an abandoned factory. He wakes up in a hospital room, stunned that he cannot remember anything from the last 20 years. Although he is 51 years old, he cannot recall anything past the age of 31 when he first started working as a detective. He is a divorcee, but he does not remember his ex-wife. His personality also changes, once confident but now meek and timid. His sense of justice is still strong. Rekihiko Tokiya resumes work as a detective, but he deals with cases differently than in the past.

Hasumi Kyoko is a former lawyer who quit her job when she became a mother. Her husband is an elite prosecutor who works as the leader of a special investigation department at the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office. However, he is charged with corruption and gets arrested. A scandal with another woman is also revealed. Kyoko's life as a "good wife" begins to change. To protect her children, she decides to work again as a lawyer. She is hired temporarily at a law office and begins to work as a lawyer for the first time in 16 years.

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.

Salaryman Fukase Kazuhisa graduated from a famous university but his life is very ordinary and unremarkable. His only hobby – if it can be called that – is drinking coffee. Coffee, in fact, leads him to Mihoko Ochi, who becomes his girlfriend. Then one day, Mihoko receives a mysterious letter which consists of a single line, “Kazuhisa Fukase is a murderer.” Fukase’s instinct tells him that the time has finally come to face “that incident” 10 years ago. One winter 10 years ago, his good friend Hirosawa Yuki died in an unfortunate accident during a snowboarding trip with his university classmates Tanihara Yasuo (Ichihara Hayato), Asami Kosuke , Murai Takaaki and Murai’s younger sister Asuka. However, there is a big secret hidden in that accident. Letters are also sent to Tanihara, Tanihara and Murai who also share in this secret, and even they are hit by a series of incidents. Fukase decides to confront the truth of the past in order to protect the people dear to him.

Based on Reverse by Minato Kanae.

Kyota Numazaki (Kotaro Koizumi) is the director of a TV program production company. He discovers a female body in a forest in Fuji. The autopsy concludes that the female froze to death, but a kidney from the body was removed. Detective Shiroi (Kosuke Toyohara) doubts the conclusion of the autopsy report. Meanwhile, female patient Haruko Takakura receives an artificial dialysis. Her daughter appeals to Dr. Seiichiro Hino (Tetsuya Takeda) to give her kidney to her mother, but Dr. Seiichiro Hino opposes. An injured man and woman are brought to the hospital. Director of the Hospital, Isamu Ota (Shigemitsu Ogi), learns from the scars of the injured persons, that a kidney transplant was carried out between the man and woman. He also learns that the kidney was sold and bought. He reports his discovery to the police. Dr. Seiichiro Hino performed the kidney transplant and is asked to go to the police station. TV program director Kyota Numazaki decides to cover the story between the female body and the organ trade.

Tokuzo Akiyama is a young man from a rural area who is married with a child along the way. One day, he eats a delicious breaded cutlet which inspires him to strive to become a chef, specializing in Parisian cuisine. He travels to Tokyo, then Paris, France to learn the culinary arts. Despite facing discrimination and prejudice, he becomes a chef at the Hotel Ritz in Paris. At the age of 26, he becomes the Emperor of Japan’s personal chef.

The 45th NHK Taiga Drama is Komyo ga Tsuji.

Kazutoyo lived during the end of the Sengoku period (1546-1605). He was the first feudal lord of the fief of Tosa on the island of Shikoku. He served Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Chiyo (1557-1617) was his wife, and was known in history for her dedication and devotion to her husband (like Matsu was to Toshiie in Toshiie to Matsu). She is the daughter of a samurai who served the feudal lord Asai.

Kusunoki Taketo is a single 30-year old dentist. A playboy, he will hit on all his female patients. Chigusa is a 24-year old typical OL, her only objective in life is to snare a wealthy and good-looking man for a husband. However, Chigusa's reputation precedes her, and is looked down upon by other OL, for being so obvious and tenacious in her search for a man. On one of her date with a eligible man from the company next door, she wins a holiday for two to Bali. It is here in Bali that she has a one night stand with Taketo.

After their one night together, while sightseeing in Bali, Taketo is reunited with his first love, Aya. She is a famous model, and is in Bali, holidaying with her latest boyfriend. Taketo had loved Aya deeply, but she was more interested in pursuing her dream of becoming a model. She had left him for another man, who had promised to launch her modelling career.

Upon their return to Tokyo, everyone goes their separate way. However, Chigusa is one day reunited with Taketo, when she goes to his clinic to fix her terrible toothache.

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.

I first saw this film at the Hong Kong International Film Festival in 1981 and have often looked for it since (without any luck). Of the 50 films I saw in those 16 days (including masterpieces by Angelopoulos, and Syberberg's Hitler, A Film From Germany), Yamada's simple story turned out to be my favorite. When it recently turned up in a 5-disk Yoji Yamada box set, I immediately ordered it. Well, the disk is very poor quality, a murky transfer with the widescreen compositions butchered by a truly wretched pan-and-scan job -- and yet the quality of the film still manages to shine through.

On its surface, there's nothing particularly remarkable about A Distant Cry From Spring. A widow struggles to maintain a small farm in a remote area of Hokkaido, fighting the elements and raising her young son. One brutally stormy night, a stranger appears at the door looking for shelter. Though wary, the widow offers him her hospitality. He leaves, but then returns in the spring and asks for work, desiring only room and board in return. What follows is the depiction of a slowly developing emotional bond set against a beautifully observed portrait of daily life on the farm, an endless round of backbreaking chores which constantly threaten to overwhelm the lonely woman.

There is nothing terribly surprising in the revelations which eventually emerge about the characters, but they are so finely drawn and their emotional lives resonate with such authenticity, that only a cold-blooded viewer could fail to be moved by the film's resolution.

Yamada is a master of emotional nuance and a brilliant observer of the small details of ordinary lives, which he obviously holds in some kind of awe, and in which he finds a kind of magic. He makes you feel for the characters without ever stooping to sentimentality or easy manipulation. His work deserves to be more widely known, and he certainly deserves better treatment from DVD distributors.