Tamae Ando

An American actor in Tokyo struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese 'rental family' agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients' worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality.

Hirayama is content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Through unexpected encounters, he reflects on finding beauty in the world.

Osanai Kei enjoys a peaceful and happy life with his wife Osanai Kozue and daughter Osanai Ruri, but his wife and daughter die in an accident. Osanai Kei's life suddenly changes. One day, a man named Misumi Akihiko visits Osanai Kei. Misumi Akihiko tells him that on the day Osanai Kozue and Osanai Ruri died, Osanai Ruri, who was a complete stranger to him, was coming to see him. Misumi Akihiko tells him about a woman named Masaki Ruri, who he once loved. These people, who don't seem related, connect under the name of love.

A 21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the process.

After one of their group is caught for speeding a group of trouble-making teenagers decide to prank the local police officer. It starts with simple speeding pranks but gradually moves to more elaborate and bizarre pranks.

As a young child, Hana loses her family to a devastating tsunami that wipes out her town. At a shelter, distant relative Jungo sees her wandering and adopts her as his daughter.

Azusa and Kanami have been best friends since high school. After Kanami dies in an unexpected accident, Azusa despairs yet finds comfort in sending text messages to Kanami’s cellphone. Kanami’s parents wonder about Azusa’s identity, and upon visiting the orphanage that their dead daughter cared about, are moved by her good deeds.

Bound by shared loneliness, Shinya and his classmate Yuka grow close while working on their school newspaper. But after a sudden incident, Yuka vanishes without a trace, leaving Shinya clinging to an unfulfilled promise. Thirty years later, long-buried truths about Yuka’s past finally surface, forcing Shinya to confront what was lost, and what remained unsaid.

After losing their restaurant in a fire, a husband and wife come up with a strange plan to rebuild their shattered finances: marrying the husband off to a series of lonely women and defrauding them.

The Master's late-night diner welcomes a woman troubled by funeral fans, an elderly scam victim, and a noodle delivery man struggling with love.

A group of junior high school must find out the truth of their classmate's death is he was killed by someone or committed suicide.

Orimoto Shinnosuke, a former popular news anchor, was forced to leave the nationwide news program “Showtime 7” for a certain reason. Orimoto, now a negotiator, forcefully goes live on air to negotiate with a bomber. Based on the 2013 Korean film “Terror, Live.”

Meiko and Taneda are a couple graduated from university two years ago. Unhappy with their lives, Meiko quits her job and encourages Taneda to have his band become professional.

A friend of the detective has been is murdered. During the investigation, he comes across a source which tells him that his friend was murdered for involvement with the dark side of the political world. On top of that, a woman approaches the detective with a request.

When easy-going Aoyagi meets an old friend for a fishing trip, he ends up drugged, framed for the Prime Minister's assassination, and on the run from corrupt cops. It's only the beginning of what quickly becomes the worst, weirdest day of his life. But he'll get by with a little help from his friends, who include a famous pop diva, a rockabilly deliveryman, a crippled old gangster, and the world's most cheerful serial killer.

Rei is a freelance writer embattled by personal demons. She hears voices in her head, and has sleeping problems, eating disorders and drinks excessively. On Valentine's Day, she meets truck driver Takatoshi. She joins him on a journey in his bumpy and shaky truck - which vibrates in tune with her uneasy soul.

Although her mother died when she was ten, Noriko still receives yearly birthday cards from her. Her life gets complicated as she grows older but she still finds comfort in her mother's messages.

In a studio at the foot of Mt. Fuji, Gaku Hamada is struggling to shoot a movie with a dog in the lead role. Enter a huge cast of veteran actors who get involved in misadventures while on set.

A restaurant opens at midnight. Both the menu offerings and personality of the owner draw a series of flawed patrons including Tamako, whose boyfriend has passed away, live-in worker Michiru, and ruckus-raising Kenzo.

Adapted from the bestselling Japanese autobiography of the same title, this gentle coming-of-age drama concerns an adolescent boy, Boku - Masaya, torn between the inherited recklessness of his father Oton and the inherited responsibility, wisdom and emotional strength of his mother Okan. Following a period of intensely rebellious behavior, Boku learns that his mom has contracted cancer; suddenly, his mother comes to live with him in Tokyo the entire emotional landscape of his life is altered.

A depressed widower, a bored housewife, and a gay lawyer all intersect in this triptych of love lost.

A teenager named Noriko Shimabara runs away from her family in Toyokawa, to meet Kumiko, the leader of an Internet BBS, Haikyo.com. She becomes involved with Kumiko's family circle, which grows darker after the mass suicide of 54 high school girls.

Based on the novel "Kanojo no Jinsei wa Machigai ja Nai" (literal translation: Her life is not at fault) by Director Hiroki, it is a powerful story of survivors, who are all trying to find their own silver linings in life.

Struggling manga author Satoru Fujinuma is beset by his fear to express himself. However, he has a supernatural ability of being forced to prevent deaths and catastrophes by being sent back in time before the incident occurred, repeating time until the accident is prevented. One day, he gets involved in an accident that has him framed as a murderer. Desperate to save the victim, he sends himself back in time only to find himself as a grade-schooler one month before fellow classmate Kayo Hinazuki went missing. Satoru now embarks on a new quest: to save Kayo and solve the mystery behind her disappearance.

Takeshi Hongo is a promising young man with a passion for motorcycle racing. However, his dreams are suddenly ruined when he gets kidnapped by Shocker, the evil secret organization planning to dominate the world. After being remodeled into a cyborg, Takeshi escapes and swears to protect the world from the inhuman monsters.

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.

Set in a small restaurant in the corner of a shopping district. The unusual eatery is only open after midnight, and its standard menu consists of just a single choice. However, the customers still come for the amusing chatter and the proprietor's willingness to cook any dish that they request. This drama depicts the lives of the restaurant's patrons, including a yakuza, an unsuccessful actor, a group of office ladies, a newspaper delivery boy, and a stripper.

Shūichirō Kiriyama works at the Limitation Task Force, the place where the cases which have reached the statute of limitations are destroyed. Getting bored of his job, he decides to find a hobby, because it seems important to him to have a hobby. So he decides to puzzle out the unsolved cases on his free time, helped by his coworker Mikazuki, who seems to have a crush on him.

26-year-old car mechanic Hibiki Mamiya lives with his high school sweetheart of the same age, Kurumi Ogasawara. Life together feels so natural and filled with the warmth of each other's love. It was a happiness they expected would last a lifetime. Hibiki is secretly preparing his proposal to Kurumi when misfortune strikes. A tunnel collapses, trapping him for four days. Barely making it out alive, he discovers a world completely changed. There is absolutely no one around, communication signals are dead, the transportation network is a wreck, and the only information available is the emergency evacuation order being repeated on the radio. Everywhere Hibiki goes, he sees bloodstains. Just what happened to this town?!

Satoru Matsudo moves to Tokyo in hopes of becoming an actor. He has trouble breaking into the industry, but his luck begins to change when he finds an airplane ticket belonging to a talent agency CEO. Time passes, and Satoru makes a name for himself as an actor. He gets a call from America. Hoping it is a Hollywood offer, he instead hears about his estranged older brother.

In an otherwise mundane diner open from midnight to 7 a.m., there is no menu – but the chef cooks anything his customers want. Each episode is about different a different customer, as they find simple yet profound connections with one another based on their shared love of a particular dish.

Suda Tamio is an ordinary salaryman. He experiences various stress throughout his daily life. His only pleasure is to set out on trips to find "Zetsumeshi." Zetsumeshi refers to endangered meals, that may no longer exist in the future. While his wife Kanae and child go attend concerts by their favourite idol groups, he leaves home on Friday after work and returns home Saturday night.

Yu Takanashi, a former surgeon, joins the Comprehensive Diagnosis Department at Tenikai General Hospital, where he works alongside the brilliant yet eccentric Takao Ameku to solve mysterious medical cases.

Mano Reiji, a man who experienced a gruesome incident, is a forensic researcher at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Investigative Science Research Institute. Under the belief that "appraisal will result in the truth" and with his vast knowledge, Mano approaches cases from a view point that differs from others. On the other hand, Sawaguchi Nonna (Araki Yuko) is a rookie forensic researcher that begins working with the no nonsense Mano. They are forced to work together on a murder case.

Kotone Uemura (played by Haruno Maeda), a secondary school girl with emotional scars, hears a strange cry that sounds like shouting. Realising it is the voice of Isamu Akutsu (played by Seiyō Uchino), a middle-aged man of unknown background living in the flat next door, Kotone becomes suspicious. One day, Kotone follows Akutsu as he goes out and finds him in the park. Upon learning the reason behind his strange cries, her interest in him leads her to discover a community theatre group called ‘Taurus Theatre’.

Onda Kokoro is an oncologist called Dr Onkoro for short by the people around her and teased that she was born for this path. She got married to Takumi, whom she had known since she was a student, and they had a son. Life was going smoothly for her. But three months ago, her husband fell in an accident and remained unconsciousness even though he underwent emergency surgery. Although Kokoro puts on a brave face at work, she still has not been able to accept reality. One day, she meets Kajiyama Kaoru, a competent gastroenterologist who has transferred to work at the hospital. Kaoru understands the need for oncology as a surgeon and gives emotional support with her sunny personality as a colleague. She becomes a dear friend whom Kokoro feels is sudden a ray of light in her personal and professional life…

She looks super competent at work but has no idea what she's doing. He seems like a mess, but he's great at his job. Together — they make quite a team.

Born and raised in Hasami, Aoko works as a porcelain painter, taking pride in the quiet rhythm of her craft and the town’s long tradition of pottery. When a solitary ceramic artist from Finland arrives and dismisses painted decoration, Aoko is initially offended, but as she discovers the beauty of his work, she finds herself increasingly drawn to both his art and the man behind it.

Tamotsu is suspected of murdering his actress wife Shizuka Harada. He flees to Taiwan and commits suicide. Tamotsu’s friend Banji Masuzawa works as a private detective, and has doubts about Tamotsu’s death, but the case is covered up by powerful media mogul Heizo Harada.

Private forensic researcher Nagareda Enishi (Katori Shingo) is usually very sluggish as well as sloppy, and always aloof. However, his entire demeanour changes once he is at a scene and his skills as a forensic researcher are topnotch. He stands up for the disadvantaged by using science and technology to uncover conclusive evidence and solve trivial civil cases which the police will not handle such as adultery, molest and stalking. Enishi used to be a member of the Research Institute of Forensic Science and was called an ace, but he now belongs to Chiyoda Forensic Science Institute due to some incident.

Makoto Kanzaki is a PR man at a university. He is swept up in a series of scandals and is driven into a corner as he tries to make temporary solutions. A satirical comedy about modern society depicting the contradictions of modern society and the sorrows of its people with black humor.

Four renowned Japanese directors each adapt a supernatural short story by Japanese literary masters for the KAIDAN HORROR CLASSICS omnibus series. In his adaptation of Yasunari Kawabata's THE ARM, Masayuki Ochiai reveals the inner world of fetishists in an eerily unsettling tale of a man who convinces a woman to let him borrow her arm for a night. Meanwhile, Shinya Tsukamoto explores death and unrequited love in Osamu Dazai's THE WHISTLER, about a woman who spies on her dying sister's secret love life after her own romance is dashed by her father. After VILLAIN, Lee Sang-Il looks at social outcasts once again in Ryunosuke Akutagawa's THE NOSE. The story follows a priest with a hideous nose who kills a young local boy in a moment of blinding anger. Meanwhile, Hirokazu Kore-eda creates a gentler ghost tale with Saisei Muro's THE DAYS AFTER, about a married couple who thinks the young boy who visits their house daily may be the ghost of their dead infant son.

The story revolves around the 38-year-old Shijimi Usa (Watanabe), who is a high school classical literature teacher. Her students are mean to her, but they do not realize that she has another identity. Outside of school, she lies about her age to be active as the super popular 17-year-old Idol Singer Mayu Watanabe, whom the students adore. The show aired on TV Tokyo on Fridays starting from January 13, 2012 to April 7, 2012 with 12 episodes.

Rinko and Aya, employed in the Philippines in 1944, escape one of the most gruesome battles of the Pacific War. Based on the accounts of actual women survivors, this special depicts the friendship - the joy and sadness - shared by these two women, whose lives remain intertwined in wartime and long beyond.