Seicho Matsumoto

The Invisible Wall

Based on the novel of the same name by Seichô Matsumoto.

ドラマスペシャル 松本清張 鬼畜

Death on the Mountain

Three bankers, out on holiday, climb the Japanese Alps. One dies under mysterious circumstances, and later it is suggested that perhaps the man was murdered.

The Castle of Sand

Two detectives are tasked to investigate the murder of an old man, found bludgeoned to death in a Tokyo rail yard.

Amagi Pass

Japan in the 1940s. A high school boy went into a magic encounter with Ozuka Hana, a geisha (pub-girl) when he traveled through Amagi Pass. A mysterious murder took place afterwards, an Ozuka was held responsible. 40 years later, the boy, who became a printing shop owner, was visited by a retired policeman who came from Amagi Pass. The truth then started to reveal itself.

Beast Alley

Desperate to escape her grueling life caring for her paralyzed husband, Tamiko murders him and burns down their home to start anew. She is soon entangled in the dark web of an influential, elderly power broker, becoming his mistress and a pawn in his political schemes. As she descends further into a downward spiral of moral decay, Tamiko realizes that the freedom she sought is merely a new form of entrapment.

Pro Bono

The prominent lawyer Kinya Ohtsuka looks over the case of the falsely indicted man who was sentenced to life imprisonment and then committed suicide while incarcerated. One year ago, the prominent lawyer rebuffed the efforts of Kiriko Yanagida to represent her brother. Kiriko Yanagida now works as a hostess in Tokyo while planning revenge on those responsible for her brother's imprisonment.

The Black Leather Notebook Special: White Darkness

Ginza is a night town filled with ambition and burning desire. How does a plain bank clerk embezzle an enormous amount of money and jump into the underground world? What is her ultimate goal? Her greatest weapon is a black leather-bound notebook.

The Invisible Wall

Based on the novel of the same name by Seichô Matsumoto.

ドラマスペシャル 松本清張 鬼畜

Death on the Mountain

Three bankers, out on holiday, climb the Japanese Alps. One dies under mysterious circumstances, and later it is suggested that perhaps the man was murdered.

The Castle of Sand

Two detectives are tasked to investigate the murder of an old man, found bludgeoned to death in a Tokyo rail yard.

Amagi Pass

Japan in the 1940s. A high school boy went into a magic encounter with Ozuka Hana, a geisha (pub-girl) when he traveled through Amagi Pass. A mysterious murder took place afterwards, an Ozuka was held responsible. 40 years later, the boy, who became a printing shop owner, was visited by a retired policeman who came from Amagi Pass. The truth then started to reveal itself.

Beast Alley

Desperate to escape her grueling life caring for her paralyzed husband, Tamiko murders him and burns down their home to start anew. She is soon entangled in the dark web of an influential, elderly power broker, becoming his mistress and a pawn in his political schemes. As she descends further into a downward spiral of moral decay, Tamiko realizes that the freedom she sought is merely a new form of entrapment.

Pro Bono

The prominent lawyer Kinya Ohtsuka looks over the case of the falsely indicted man who was sentenced to life imprisonment and then committed suicide while incarcerated. One year ago, the prominent lawyer rebuffed the efforts of Kiriko Yanagida to represent her brother. Kiriko Yanagida now works as a hostess in Tokyo while planning revenge on those responsible for her brother's imprisonment.

The Black Leather Notebook Special: White Darkness

Ginza is a night town filled with ambition and burning desire. How does a plain bank clerk embezzle an enormous amount of money and jump into the underground world? What is her ultimate goal? Her greatest weapon is a black leather-bound notebook.

Zero Focus

Spurred by the disappearance of a newly-wed husband, three women in post-war Japan are drawn into a murder mystery.

Sweet Revenge

Masao is falsely accused and jailed for the murder of a loanshark to whom he owed a lot of money. His sister Kiriko makes the long trip to Tokyo, specifically to accost Otsuka, Japan's top criminal defence lawyer, and plead with him to take her brother's case. They live in Kitakyushu which, though a city, she contends that the local lawyers are not up to the job. Otsuka contemptuously brushes her off. A year passes. Masao has suicided in jail, his appeal having failed due to the lack of interest and competence of the local defence lawyer. Kiriko returns to Tokyo, planning revenge on Otsuka for refusing the case and causing her brother's death.

The Face

A notorious abortion doctor fell down from a night train and he was dead. A man who knows the truth of this accident starts to chase a up-and-coming model.

The Demon

When Sokichi stops providing his long-time lover Kikuyo enough money to pay for the care of their three young children, Kikuyo leaves the children with Sokichi - and his very surprised and angry wife Oume - and disappears.

Suspicion

A car going at 25 mph plunges into the sea at Shinko Harbour, Toyama prefecture. Inside is the local business magnate Fukutaro Shirakawa, who perishes. Riding alongside him and surviving unhurt is his second wife, Kumako. It soon comes to light that Kumako’s husband was insured for 300 million yen and she is arrested on suspicion of murdering her husband for the insurance money. The newspapers denounce her as an evil woman, while the public is in no doubt about Kumako’s crime. Ritsuko Sahara is chosen as her defence attorney but the pair clash over almost everything...

Shadow of Deception

It was five years ago when Minako spent a night with Sozo, younger brother of her ex-husband. She now lives in a local town with a rich old man who owns a dry goods store. Minako travels to Tokyo on business every three months, during which time she continues to meet Sozo, who has married the daughter of his respected teacher.

Kikenna onna

Based on the Seichō Matsumoto's story The Woman Who Took the Local Paper.

Amagi Pass

A fifteen year old boy travels through the Amagi Pass, he encounters some strange people, one of them is the geisha Ozuka Hana. After a murder takes place, the police searchs for the culprit.

Points and Lines

Based on Matsumoto Seicho's classic mystery novel of the same name, the story centers around a group of detectives who are determined to find the truth behind an apparent double suicide.

The Street of Desire

A valet at a fancy nightclub hatches a plot to punish those responsible for his father's death.

Towering Waves

A young prosecutor named Takao falls in love with Yoriko, only to discover that her husband is the target of his investigation into a major corruption scandal. Torn between professional duty and their forbidden affair, the couple finds themselves trapped by societal expectations and legal consequences.

Ekiro

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.

Giwaku

Sahara Takako is a lawyer who specialises in civil cases. She hates to lose and will use whatever means necessary to pursue the truth. Despite her competence, she is mocked as a rotten lawyer for defending companies that exploit their employees and winning many of these lawsuits. One day, Takako gets an unexpected request from a veteran lawyer, Harayama Masao. He would like her to take over the defence of a woman because he is in poor health and needs to be hospitalised. This woman is Shirakawa Kumako, who has been in the public eye. Called “Onikuma” by the public, which is a play on her maiden name, Onizuka, she faces charges of killing her husband Fukutaro, the owner of an established Atami restaurant, for insurance money.

Stakeout

Two detectives begin a stakeout based on the slim chance of catching a murderer whom they suspect will try to reunite with an old flame.

Seicho Matsumoto's Black Gospel

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.

花実のない森

Black Leather Notebook

Haraguchi Motoko works as a temp at a bank. To pay off debt that she inherited from her parents, she also works as a hostess at a club in Ginza.

The Black Leather Notebook

Ginza is a night town filled with ambition and burning desire… How does a plain bank clerk embezzle an enormous amount of money and jump into the underground world? What is her ultimate goal? Her greatest weapon is a black leather-bound notebook.

The Castle of Sand

On December 11, 1960 an elderly man is found bludgeoned to death near the Kamata Station in Tokyo. Detective Yoshimura Hiroshi is a rookie detective that has only one clue to go on - the name "Kameda." Detective Yoshimura also has a dark side himself from his miserable experience in the war. Now, Detective Yoshimura places himself in the criminal's dark mind to track down the killer. Based on the 1961 novel "Suna no utsuwa" by Seicho Matsumoto it was also made as a feature film The Castle of Sand (1974).

The Animal Trail

Animal Trail, a natural path made by traffic of wild animals, can sometimes be helpful for people who are totally lost in the wilderness. One day, a woman who is exhausted with her hopeless life unexpectedly meets a gentleman by chance. Out of genuine hope to escape from her misery, she allows her destiny to blindly follow the mysterious instruction given by this stranger. Would this "Animal Trail" ultimately lead her to happiness, or would it lead her to disaster? The life of Tamiko (Yonekura) was miserable, as she had to give up her dream to become a jewelry designer and work for a Japanese style hotel "Hosenkaku" simply to support her physically handicapped husband. One day, Tamiko was approached by a mysterious gentleman Kotaki (Sato) who offers her a unique proposal, "would you be interested in riding a vehicle without a destination?" His words shook Tamiko's desperate soul wanting for a drastic change in her life. In order to free herself from the depressing reality, she cleverly kills her husband by setting her house on fire. Then, through Kotaki's introduction, she becomes acquainted with Kito, a political fixer, and decides to become Kito's mistress. Although she notices that her decision may not be right, she decides to follow her instincts and go for the "animal trail"….

Evil People

Toyomi Terajima (Ryoko Yonekura) chose to become a nurse because she had no interest in marriage and wanted an occupation she could do for the rest of her life. Although she doesn't have a lot of aspirations, she does have a vague idea of wanting to work as a nurse overseas, and so she studies English. Outside of that, her life is less than ordinary and she carries out her job as a nurse without any indifference. That is, until one fateful night when she calls on Dr. Toya Shinichi (Takaya Kamikawa), director of the hospital, for help with a patient suffering from a heart attack. It is this chance encounter that brings the two together and sets the wheels in motion.

Vessel of Sand

Eiryo Waga is well-known musician who has begun a rapid climb to stardom, but he must keep his terrible past a secret. One day someone who knows all about his past confronts him, and Waga kills him in order to protect the fame he has obtained. Unfortunately, as Waga is leaving the scene, he runs into Asami, a budding stage actress. An investigation team is established led by two detectives, but they have difficulty making any headway. Meanwhile, by coincidence Waga bumps into Asami again. She also has her own dark past, and soon they fall in love. But Waga is already engaged to Ayaka whose father is responsible for his rapid ascent to the top of the music world. It looks like Waga’s ambitions are about to confront reality. Based on Seicho Matsumoto’s famous work that was released in 1960-61, this drama illustrates the life of a man burdened with a heavy fate in a contemporary setting.

Kaseifu wa mita!

The legendary suspense series that got one of the highest audience ratings. The main character, Akiko Ishizaki, is a housekeeper dispatched to an upstream family. Her pleasure was to peek into the hidden secrets and misfortunes of an ideal home that seemed to be happy at first glance...

The Wall of the Eye

In 1990, Hagizaki Tatsuo, the accounting department chief of Ukishima Electric Works, was busy negotiating on getting a loan together with Sekino, the company's general manager. However, just as they were about to get the funds, Sekino was involved in a 200 million yen fraud and he later disappeared with the loan. The company decides to cover up the incident to protect its image, but Hagizaki wants to get to the bottom of the matter with the help of his newspaper reporter friend, Muraki. Hagizaki later notices that the case becomes darker and darker as he continues to investigate. He then meets a beautiful woman, Uezaki Etsuko, whom he believes hold the key to the entire incident.

Suna no Utsuwa

Two police investigate the death of a corpse found in a train yard.

Matsumoto Seicho's Black Leather Notebook

Upon finding out about the existence of a huge slush fund, veteran teller Haraguchi Motoko carefully plans for six months and finally succeeds in embezzling 75 million yen, which she uses to open a club in Ginza.

松本清張スペシャル・地方紙を買う女

Kyukei no Koya

Based on novel 1962 "Kyukei no Koya" by Seicho Matsumoto. A serial murder occurs around the heroine Kumiko because she finds evidence that her father, who should have died, was "alive." Set in 1945, near the end of WW II, Kenichiro Nogami is reported to have died in a Swiss hospital. In fact, he is working behind the scenes to save Japan from destruction. For this cause, Kenichiro Nogami has left behind his wife and nation to work in hiding.

Kyukei no Koya

Set in 1945, near the end of WW II, Kenichiro Nogami is reported to have died in a Swiss hospital. In fact, Kenichiro Nogami is working behind the scenes to save Japan from destruction. For this cause, Kenichiro Nogami has left behind his wife and nation to work in hiding. Meanwhile, a murder takes place and detectives Jiro Suzuki & Shoichi Soeda investigate. Clues lead to Kenichiro Nogami ...

Dots and Lines

Jutaro Torikai is a senior detective set to uncover the truth behind an apparent double suicide.

松本清張シリーズ・中央流沙