Makiko Watanabe

Before he was a protector, Kenshin was a fearsome assassin known as Battosai. But when he meets gentle Tomoe Yukishiro, a beautiful young woman who carries a huge burden in her heart, his life will change forever.

Yuma, a 23-year-old comic book artist with profound cerebral palsy, has been emotionally stunted by her well-meaning but overprotective mother. As she begins to seek independence and sexual awakening on her own terms, she discovers an unexpected path to love and forgiveness.

The story of a teenage boy called Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while operating for the sake of sin as an upskirt photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing - which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian - dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with the guilt that's a legacy of his Catholic upbringing.

On the Japanese island of Amami, despite lacking parental guidance, Kaito and his girlfriend Kyoko try to find their place in the world. While Kaito suffers from the absence of his father, who moved to Tokyo after his birth, Kyoko must come to grips with her mother’s terminal illness.

In a near-future Japanese city bracing for a devastating earthquake, a group of teenage friends navigate personal struggles and fractured bonds amid rising tension.

This Japanese thriller finds a sexy policewoman becoming entangled in Japan's S&M underground while investigating a gruesome murder. Soon, her investigation has led her to a seductive sadist and his equally appealing masochist victim. Falling prey to her suspects' powerful allure, she struggles to extricate herself from an increasingly torrid affair to solve the mystery she set out to investigate.

The individuals that comprise the Tokyo MER team rush to on-site disasters and accidents, performing life-saving treatment thanks to the OR equipped within their vehicle. Their one mission is simple: leave no one dead. But conflicts arise when an unprecedented event rocks Yokohama after a bomb explodes in Landmark Tower, leaving thousands fighting to escape. Although the chief doctor Kitami believes they should not wait and presses for a quick dispatch, the more level-headed Chief Kamoi of the elite Yokohama MER thinks otherwise — they need to wait until the area is safe to enter, or they won’t be able to save anyone.

Keiko surprises everyone when she overcomes adversity to win her first two boxing fights. But when an unexpected incident threatens the closure of her gym, she is pushed further than she thought possible.

Two 14-year-olds from troubled, abusive homes come together sharing misery and pain. In the aftermath of an earthquake, the classmates learn how to survive while relying on one another for emotional and physical support.

When a woman, able to read the thoughts of others, comes to help survivors of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, she encounters a girl with Multiple Personality Disorder whose dangerous 13th personality, Isola, must be stopped

Masashi is a photographer. He has his parents and an older brother Yukihiro. Through the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Masashi begins to take staged photos of his family.

Based on a 2016 novel by Mana Sakura, “The Lowlife” shows the stories of three women who work in Japan’s adult video industry.

Tourists, foreigners and outcasts converge on the streets of Osaka in this sprawling ensemble drama by Japan-based, Malaysia-born filmmaker Lim Kah Wai. His eighth feature explores the lesser-known aspects of the Asian melting pot city through the eyes and experiences of a dozen characters who struggle to find their place in society: among them a Nepali refugee with dreams of opening a restaurant, a Burmese student struggling to make ends meet while working two jobs, and a Taiwanese sex tourist who travels to meet his favorite adult video actress.

With a contagious sense of abandon, three young adults' lives become intimately entangled over the course of a long summer in Hakodate, Hokkaido.

The intertwined love story of four young people on Christmas night.

A young, temperamental Tokyo beautician struggles to navigate her relationships with lovers, friends, and family.

Perfect Blue: Yume Nara Samete (パーfectブルー 夢なら醒めて, Pāfekuto Burū: Yume Nara Samete) is a 2002 Japanese psychological thriller film directed by Toshiki Satō and adapted from the novel of the same name by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. The story centers on Ai, a teen pop idol transitioning to a recording career, whose life unravels amid fixation from a obsessive convenience store clerk, leading to themes of distorted self-perception, narcissistic delusions, and violent events.

Kenji and Aya spend their summer days in a Hotel. While she is doing her own thing, he tries to work on his novel. But then a few strange hotel guest arouse the curiosity of the couple.

Based on a true story - a true love story of a man and his wife who are at the mercy of fate, but wish to be reunited for 11 years. With thoughts of his wife and his fellows, Yamamoto Hatao never gave up hoping that he'd return home despite hopeless circumstances.

"Daijobu 3 Kumi" depicts the interactions between new teacher Shinnosuke Akao, who was born without arms and legs, and the 28 students in his 5th grade class, told from the vantage point of school board member Yusaku Shiraishi

Eight years after the devastating tsunami, the wounds it left in Japan have still not healed. In her touching search for answers, Haru sets out on a long, eventful journey to her home town, where she lost her family in the flood.

Miyuki Asakawa tells her colleague Etsuko Yamagiwa that she has a ghost in her home. When Etsuko goes to Miyuki's home, there is only Miyuki's father there. Etsuko becomes worried about Miyuki's state of mind, and she takes Miyuki to the psychiatric hospital where her husband, Tatsuo, works. There, Miyuki receives a diagnosis that she lacks the concept of "family." Later, Etsuko tells Tatsuo that she is not comfortable with Dr. Jirō Makabe. Tatsuo introduced her to Dr. Makabe earlier at the hospital. Etsuko has a feeling of unease about her husband working with Dr. Makabe. One day, Etsuko hears Dr. Makabe state "I came to Earth to invade."

A down-and-out schoolteacher receives the calling to become the real life personification of an old television superhero, Zebraman.

A first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat following Jake Adelstein, an American journalist who embeds himself into the Tokyo Vice police squad to reveal corruption. Based on Jake Adelstein’s non-fiction book of the same name.

Yuri Ishikawa and her team try to crack unresolved cold cases in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

Based on true story of the wife of Ando Momofuku, the businessman who founded Nissin Food Products Co. Ltd. and the inventor of instant ramen, the 99th Asadora follows the life of Tachibana Fukuko, a young woman who tries to survive tough times in Osaka with her husband from before WWII to the rapid economic development era. Together they overcome various setbacks before they succeed in creating instant noodles. (Source: MDL)

While the world of wine mourns the death of Alexandre Léger, his estranged daughter, Camille, learns his extraordinary collection is now hers. But before she can claim her inheritance, Camille must best Alexandre's protégé, Issei, in a test of their senses.

Hiroto Miyama is an unconventional young lawyer who dances to his own tune and gets a little obsessive. For one thing, he’s only interested in criminal cases, and he will never give up in his pursuit of the truth even if offers only a 0.1% chance of being discovered. Japan’s 99.9% criminal case conviction rate leads the world, attesting to a “highly reliable” judicial system. In other words, once a crime suspect is indicted, prosecutor arguments tend to be accepted hook, line and sinker. In the face of those 99.9% odds, there’s no money in being a defense lawyer specializing in criminal cases, but for Miyama, that’s where the interest and kernels of truth lie. From unexpected places, the mold-breaking Miyama stakes his reputation on a prayer of a chance as he clashes with hotshot lawyers who’ll go to any lengths to win in this gloriously fun, legal mystery.

Kaoru Mitazono (Masahiro Matsuoka) is a talented housekeeper with an usual secret. Kaoru is actually a guy! Besides cooking, cleaning and babysitting Kaoru Mitazono has the unusual habit of discovering secrets held within the family of her employers.

With two map pieces secured, Sugimoto ans Asirpa continue their hunt for the remaining 22 tattooed convicts whose bodies hold the key to hidden treasure.

Aoi Midori is a pharmacist and in the 8-year span of her career, she has worked according to her strong belief that "One must know the patient well in order to prescribe the correct medication as medicine is the bond that connects the patient's today to his/her daily life henceforth". Due to that, Aoi usually takes a long time in her consultations with the patients, and this causes her to be complained by her colleagues for being too inefficient in her work. Aoi shrugs off the complaints as her goal is to help the patients regain the daily life that they once took for granted.

From thugs to yakuza, Taiza Kujo wields the law to defend society's worst. Fellow lawyer, Karasuma doubts his ethics but joins him in facing the abyss.

TOKYO MER is formed by order from the Governor of Tokyo. The name of the group stands for TOKYO Mobile Emergency Room. The members are emergency care professionals and they are to go to sites of dangerous accidents and disasters by ER car. Their ER car is a large vehicle equipped with the latest medical devices and an operating area. There, TOKYO MER saves lives of the injured. Kōta Kitami is a doctor for TOKYO MER and its leader. He holds a strong conviction that, regardless of the dangers, he will go to accident sites to save lives.

Two brothers become police officers to hunt down their parents' killer, who escaped justice by just two days before the statute of limitations was abolished.

Chiaki Yoshino is a TV producer. She is 45-years-old and single. Chiaki Yoshino worries about her health and her later years rather than dating. She hopes to buy an old house and live there with a friend when she gets older. Chiaki then goes to Kamakura, Japan to look for a house. There, she meets a 50-year-old single man Wahei Nagakura. Wahei's first wife died and he has one child. Their love story begins ...

The story follows Aya from the time she moves to Tokyo at age 23 up until she turns 40. Aya has to adjust to the different values and perceptions of the big city as she struggles with challenging situations. We get to follow Aya’s move from one neighborhood to another as she maneuvers her career and love life.

Thirty-year-old Koume Shingyouji leaves her job at a major building firm to join family-run Marufuku Builders. There she teams up with Gennosuke, the Fukuyama family’s eldest son, and starts working on renovations. Koume and Gennosuke start their renovations by taking the measure not of rooms, but the thoughts and feelings of their clients: What does home mean to them? How do they want to live? What do they value? The team’s empathetic connection is what makes their work, work.

At 14-years-old, Izuna On discovers he and his brother Motoi are both descendents of Tengu (flying goblin-like creatures of Japan folklore). Motoi has wings, which is somewhat rare among Tengu descendants, while On has the ability to communicate with animals. Due to their heritage, the two brothers live together, separated from normal society, and the story focuses on their everyday lives.

In the fictional town of Mahoro on the outskirts of Tokyo is Tada Benriken, a small business which does odd jobs. Its owner is the solemn and level-headed Tada Keisuke, and his unexpected guest, the easygoing but vague Gyoten Haruhiko, a former junior high school classmate who showed up one day and started to sponge on him. The two of them get on like oil and water, and yet are somehow inseparable. They receive queer, dubious incoming odd job requests which they accept, and what comes into view are the friendship between them as well as the backgrounds of their clients.

This drama follows the staff of an Italian restaurant and their everyday struggles. “Roccabianca” is a famous and popular Italian restaurant, but their head chef and owner Tatsumi suddenly collapses and the restaurant loses its unique flavor. The number of customers rapidly declines, but the owner’s daughter and deputy manager Saori happens to find another chef named Ezaki through an online job market who learned cooking at the same place her father did. Ezaki becomes the new head chef of this restaurant and while nobody can deny that he is a gifted chef, it’s his extreme rationalism that doesn’t exactly go well with the restaurants attempt to save its traditional flavor.

Kishibe Midori (Ikeda Elaiza), an editor for a popular fashion magazine, finds herself transferring to the lexicography division following the magazine's discontinuation. The place is filled with a group of quirky characters, led by Majime Mitsuya (Noda Yojiro), a boss with a shaggy hair who is extremely serious. While being tossed about by them, Midori is influenced by their patience and passion for making a dictionary which takes over a decade, and she gradually immerses herself in the work. This drama depicts their struggles in creating and finalizing the dictionary, "The Great Passage."

The story of a teenage boy called Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while working as an upskirt photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing – which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian – dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with Catholic guilt. A ten-episode miniseries extension of Sion Sono's 2008 tragicomedy.

Commemorating the 120th anniversary of Ozu Yasujiro's birth, six up-and-coming filmmakers remade six of his early silent films as a contemporary mini-series.

Assistant Inspector Fukuie does not look like an assistant inspector but once she starts an investigation, she takes no notice of anyone as she searches for the key to find out the truth. She does not care for the hierarchical relationship of the organisation or career advancement. If she has doubts, she will not listen to her superior and will persist in investigating to the end. Fukuie’s boss Inspector Ishimatsu is completely different from her. He places importance on the organisation and discipline, is rigid and strait-laced. Ever since Fukuie became his subordinate, his pride has been in tatters because she loves to disregard his instructions and investigate on her own even though this eventually results in success and he gets credit for her achievements. His principle is to investigate using orthodox methods, but the results that Fukuie delivers goes against this and makes him feel ashamed.

A man killed himself. Due to his death, three of his former classmates from art school, reunite for the first time in a long while. These three people have connections to the man in different ways, including his ex-girlfriend, the manager of a rugby club where the man played, and his ex-boyfriend. While struggling with their own lives, these three people begin to meet and have meals together.

Tokiko’s mother died 20 years ago and her father Tetsuya is now in his 70's. Her father has a free spirit and is cute. Tokiko is in her mid 40's and still single. She has a strong personality. In their past, Tokiko and Tetsuya did not have a good relationship. It got so bad that they almost ended their relationship, but now they occasionally meet. They go out to eat together and have conversations. Tokiko decides to publish an essay about her father Tetsuya. To collect information for her essay, she meets Tetsuya and listens to various stories, but it's not just pleasant memories.