Hiromi Kitagawa

Nitobe and Sakamoto are childhood friends who now work at the front desk of a capsule hotel. Nitobe has a particular fondness for philosophy and crustaceans. Sakamoto, meanwhile, is fixated on suicide. The capsule hotel draws a variety of guests, including a Finnish mother who has lost her child, a fugitive woman, and a researcher studying Daphnia. None of their lives ever intersect. They exist, but never cross, like cells in a capsule hotel. The themes of life and death are explored through a fragmentary view of the characters’ lives.

In 1959, a body of a flight attendant of an international airline is found, strangled. Detective Rokuro Fujisawa takes charge of the investigation with a young detective Ichimura and his investigations lead him to Father Tolbeck as a suspect. But the police are forced to move very discreetly as the time was right after the Second World War, when a sensitive situation that involves Western people and religion is likely to become an international issue. The investigation leads to an unexpected discloser of a shadowy business behind the church that reflects the uncertainty of the time.

In 1979, Yuri, an university student, begins communicating with a young man named Yuji via radio, but to her surprise, he is living in the year 2001. As the two talk about their love lives and other things, they gradually become closer.

Hosted by veteran comedian Tamori, "Bizarre Tales 2003 Spring Special" presents five tales. 1. Kao wo Nusumareta (My Face was Stolen) - starring Inagaki Goro 2. Rental Love - starring Iijima Naoko 3. Oikaketai (I want to Chase [Him/Her]) - starring Kyono Kotomi 4. Chozeikin Taisaku Satsujin Jiken (Countering Excessive Taxation Murder Case) - starring Nishimura Masahiko 5. Kage no Kuni (The Country of Shadows) - starring Sakurai Sachiko

An employee of a bank goes missing following his retirement from the bank. Veteran detective Yobuno (Koji Yakusho), who is set to retire himself, is charged with the investigating the missing person case. Det. Yobuno quickly finds more mysterious as he delves into the case, but a woman named Keiko Fukumura (Eri Fukatsu) surfaces who may hold the key to case.

Nobuko Sawaguchi is a surly, unattractive housekeeper in her mid-thirties. However, in actuality, she is a beautiful woman, but she hides this fact using her makeup because of a traumatic past experience. One day Nobuko is sent to housekeep for the Uehara family, known for its tremendous wealth. In the Uehara family, there is a massive quarrel over each member’s future succession and inheritance. In the middle of this hectic situation, Nobuko is asked by the daughter called Akemi to protect her.

A small, out-of-the-way izakaya in Tokyo has become the favorite hangout of people searching for nourishment…for their bodies and their souls. The proprietor of Izakaya Moheji is Heiji, played by Yutaka Mizutani, star of the popular AIBOU series. Izakaya Moheji is a place where regulars and strangers alike can find comfort and comfort food.

An ordinary and somewhat unpopular high school boy joins a surfing club in a nowhere near ocean Tochigi Prefecture, while being oblivious to the fact that him leading a peaceful, ordinary life equals world peace being preserved.

Ueto Aya's is Juri Tatematsu. She's blind like her husband. They give birth to a child, despite fears and opposition from their parents. Raising the child, Juri keeps pushing herself towards her dream of becoming a professional musician. She made her dream come true.

Surrounded by violence for as long as he can remember, Ryoudo Numata has steeled himself into a tremendously tough man, growing to become the very essence of "manliness" himself in order to live his life in peace. When members of a yakuza clan set on fire to his house to facilitate a real estate transaction, Kumada murders them and gets jailed for it. 15 years later, finally free, he will now have to reconnect with his family who clearly are in disarray due his long absence and face the distrust of his children who know nothing of their father except that he had abandoned them.

The fourth in a series of Japanese TV movies about a police detective who has adopted the dress and mannerisms of famous American TV detective Columbo, based on a series of novels by popular mystery author Yasuo Uchida.

Osaka loan shark Ginjiro meets Tomoe, a childhood friend of his friend Ryuichi, but the lonely Tomoe has fallen in love with a man she met online.

In the near future, crime runs rampant in the streets and two major mafia groups are battling for power. In order to eliminate the two mafia groups, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department orders an undercover investigation of their headquarters. However, the ones chosen for the mission are four people known as "losers". Will they be able to successfully solve the case?

An original video yakuza comedy starring Japanese theatre troupe Jovi Jova.

Detective Zura sequel

2002 release

Izumi Sakuragi is a new police sergeant with the Special Investigations Office, which was set up within the Metropolitan Police in November last year. The new investigation team uses DNA analysis and the latest in forensics science to investigate cold cases as well as cases suspected to involve missing persons.

Satoshi Itomura is an assistant police investigator who belongs to the Metropolitan Police Department’s Scientific Investigation Team. Reenactments, fingerprint and voice data collections, profiling... His team collects scientific evidence and pieces together fragments of information in order to help build evidences. However, Itomura often does not care about the scientific approach and instead pays a great deal of attention to the things that the victims always carried with them or treasured. And he focuses on these things because they usually carry the victim’s dying wishes, understanding that last message not only helps solve the cases but also brings closure to the depressed family of victims.

The hosts explore different neighborhoods and izakayas, discussing various snacks and drinks. They share interesting trivia about the food and beverages, often accompanied by lively conversations with female guests and experts.

Dr. Shindo seems cold, but is a competent surgeon. He is also an ER doctor capable of accurate decisions and treatment, who always tries to see things from the patient’s side. Although once retired from his profession, he one day discovers someone in need of help, who he treats and rushes to the Kohoku Medical University Emergency Center. This incident encourages him to once again work as an ER doctor. Confrontation erupts between female doctor Tamaki, and Shindo, now a just-arrived ER doctor. While this human drama depicts the relationships among doctors and nurses, it appeals emotionally to viewers on the subject of life.

Fujisaki Aya is a young college student whose family is 150 million yen in debt after her father's corporation went bankrupt. To earn the money, she enters the Hostess Grand Prix.

Sky High is a live-action, supernatural Japanese television drama series, starring actress and model, Yumiko Shaku. It aired in Japan, first run, from 2003 to 2004, and was popular enough to spawn the 2003 feature film of the same name. Both are based on the Japanese manga, Skyhigh. Shaku stars as Izuko, the Guardian of the Gate to the afterlife. The basic premise of the television series is somewhat similar in concept to the American series, Ghost Whisperer, in which the protagonist must use her powers to guide the dead on their journey to the afterlife by helping them determine the meaning or circumstance of their death. However, in Izuko's case, no matter how hard she tries, her guidance does not always result in a happy ending.

Sakazaki Iwane is a ronin who spends idle days in Edo. Until a few months ago, he was a promising son and successor to a powerful family in Bungo. He has came back to Edo, where he lived for a while for swordplay training with his two best friends, after a tragedy in the three's home domain—both of the two friends died, one of them killed by Iwane by command of the domain lord's chief retainer. Iwane left his home for Edo, leaving behind his fiancée, a sister of the friend he killed. Eventually, Iwane detects the conspiracy behind the deaths of the two friends and struggles to reform his domain.

Sanada plays a salariman who just lost his job. Yonekura, his wife, is a dancer who gave up her career when they got married. In the middle of family crisis, Yonekura leaves to pursue her dream. Sanada is stuck with their only son. Suzuki, his old flame -turn jet set career woman- is forced to take care of them. Will the romance spark again, now that Sanada already has family, and Suzuki has a younger man, Makoto, beside her?

The story revolves around a young woman named Mei, who was rescued as a young girl by someone calling himself her "butler." With only a vague memory, though, the experience seems like just a dream. But one day, after her parents' accidental death, he appears: Rihito comes from a line of outstanding butlers, and he has been appointed to serve her! Now her ordinary life has completely flipped, as she discovers that she's actually the heiress to a fortune, and is forced to transfer to St. Lucia Girls' Academy, where all the students have butlers! As a result, her childhood friend Kento decides to enroll in a butler school so that he can stay close to her.

A young genius surgeon named Mikoto Saijou was born with a serious heart disease. While he was a little boy he got surgery of the leading Japanese heart surgeon Mamoru Shindo and his life was miraculously saved. Mikoto was inspired by the magnificent skill of Dr. Shindo and later he became a world leading pediatric surgeon. With his miracle skill and technique, he challenges difficult surgery and makes them to succeed one after another. Save the lives of children will make the future, Mikoto believes.

With her husband rarely home because of work, Saitou Masako raises her kindergarten son by herself. With a strong sense of what's right, she is never afraid to confront people who violate the rules of society. While her righteousness makes her a heroine among the kindergarteners, their mothers have learned to keep their distance from all the trouble Saitou brings with her. Mano Wakaba, a soft-spoken mother who had problems with her son turning violent at his previous school, soon moves into the neighborhood. Eager to get along with the other mothers at the kindergarten, Mano does her best to please, and pushes her son Takeru to do the same, even if it puts her at odds with Saitou.

Bengoshi no Kuzu is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Hideo Iura about Takeda Masami, a new lawyer and fellow lawyer Kuzu Motohito, who Takeda is teamed up with, and how they deal with different court cases. It was serialized in Big Comic Original. Bengoshi no Kuzu received the Shogakukan Manga Award for seinen/general category in 2007. The manga was adapted into a 12-episode TV drama, which was broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System between April 13, 2006 and June 29, 2006.

Biblia Second-hand Bookstore has been quietly open for business in some corner of Kamakura. Its owner is Shinokawa Shioriko, a young, pretty but introverted girl who is extremely shy around strangers and cannot interact well with people she meets for the first time. However, when it comes to knowledge of old books, no one can to compare to her. Talking about books makes Shioriko forget her shyness. In fact, she becomes eloquent and passionate. She unravels the mysteries and secrets associated with many old books with her vast knowledge and keen eye.

Takenouchi plays an aquarium employee named Kengo, who seems ordinary at first glance but actually possesses a secret that he would sacrifice everything in order to protect. Meanwhile, Ueto plays Risa, a young woman working in the sex trade in order to pay off her brother's debt, though her situation has led her to contemplate suicide. These two characters, both full of despair, meet each other and end up entering a contract marriage purely for its benefits. However, as they overcome various troubles, their relationship begins turning into true love.

A man who appears to have no particular passion for anything ironically proves effective with troubled high school students. Known as a legendary savior of problem schools, he shows up one day to salvage what's left of a class that had fallen apart completely. His highly unpredictable reactions and controversial advice to students shock the teachers and staffs much as they do the problem students themselves.

A high school student’s mother passes away leaving her alone with her grief. The girl, Marimo, discovers the name of a father she never knew. Marimo sets off to meet him, but is completely shocked when she finds someone very different from the father she envisioned. Her father, Shinpei, a 38-year-old would-be private detective, is shocked too, and doesn’t believe her until he sees the paperwork. With Marimo muttering “The worst father in the world” and Shinpei lamenting the loss of his freedom, these two are about to learn how difficult and rewarding a father/daughter relationship can be.

Ayame Tamaru, an office worker living near Zeniaraibenten, a shrine in Kamakura famous for bringing financial luck to worshippers, is absorbed in washing numerous bills spread over a bamboo sieve. It is popularly believed that if you wash money at Zeniaraibenten, the money will grow and multiply. Back home, her room is filled with artifacts showing her peculiar hobby: salt piled up high to bring in good luck, and on the wall, a scroll is hung with calligraphy featuring her motto, "Stinginess is a virtue." Numerous 10,000 yen bills are pasted behind the scroll for additional good luck. Declaring that the goal is to save 10 million yen and believing only in money, Ayame is dedicating all of her waking hours to saving money. One day, a young man suddenly appears before Ayame. Named Shinichi Kaneshiro, he and Ayame used to be lovers. Five years ago, he asked her to marry him but was turned down because he was poor and had no money.

33-year-old Akiyama Satomi is a history teacher at the prestigious all-girls high school she once attended. She has earned the nickname "ohitorisama" (meaning "one person") for her perfectionism and capability to handle any work by herself. At the same time, the name also refers to her lack of romance. One day, a young man named Shinichi arrives at the school as a temporary instructor. He's ten years younger than Satomi, has only worked part-time jobs, and has neither money nor status. Although the other female teachers and students find him cute, he is completely not Satomi's type... or is he? Will love blossom between this unlikely pair?

This psychological mystery is centered around a daughter of the Kanou family, Sayoko, who is said to be a descendant of a goddess. She has a face of a noble goddess and a heart of a most evil woman. She tries to keep her evil side hidden. But, when outsiders threaten to overtake her family fortune, she protect her family by using her charm and seduction to attract them into her trap.