The Last Town We Saw

The prequel to the TV series "Tiger and Dragon" broadcast as a two-hour special before the series.

The film is set in Edo period. As an orphan child Mio starts working at a restaurant in Osaka where she learns how to cook. When she turns 18, she moves to Edo (today's Tokyo) where she opens her own restaurant.

Next door to Chuo TV's offices is "Manhattan," a coffee shop for aficionados. The owner's passion for coffee is almost a sickness and all he wants is for his customers to enjoy their coffee. He is a man of few words. If he has to say something, he gets his waiter Shinobu Gamo to speak on his behalf. Owner's real name is unknown. He would prefer to be addressed as the shops' "Master" rather than its owner - not that anyone is aware of this. He gives his all to coffee. Despite his wishes, his regular customers don't really come to taste the coffee. They are there because of love. They use his shop as a place for dates, marriage proposals and break-ups. He doesn't show it, but it saddens him that his customers are so preoccupied with affairs of the heart and not the coffee.

Yumi, a 23-year-old office worker, is fired from her job out of the blue. A few days later, coming from a friend's wedding and having no time to change out of her kimono, she is rushing to an interview for a job at a publishing company. Yumi stumbles into the room, looking for somewhere to change out of her kimono, and finds popular comic book writer Reijiro Sakurai is having an editorial meeting with some staff. He is planning to lock himself away at a hot spring for the next three months to concentrate on his next project. Sakurai comments that if Yumi were to join him he wouldn't mind being away for so long..., and so their adventure begins.

It is the Spring of 1814. The restaurant “Tsuru-ka” is gaining much popularity after its chef, Mio, won the prestigious cooking competition. One day, the owner of “Tsuru-ka”, Taneichi, employed young Fuki to be the attendant for customers’ shoes. Mio could fully empathize with young Fuki, who was an orphan and yet was courageous enough to survive on her own. Around the same time, the famous novelist Seiemon started coming to “Tsuru-ka”. Even though Seiemon criticized Mio’s cooking each time, he always returned to the restaurant daily.

Minare Koda, a floor manager at a small restaurant in Sapporo, tries to deal with her bad breakup with an ex-boyfriend. In the process, she drunkenly vents her frustrations to an older man sitting next to her at a local bar. The following day, she discovers that the man works as a producer at a nearby radio station, which broadcast her drunken ramblings over the airwaves. As Minare's voice gains her more attention than her work at the restaurant, she ends up becoming a late-night radio talk show host at the same station, trying to balance her talk show with her daytime life to make ends meet.

A gang of underground street fighters calling themselves "Guilty" think they've hit the mother load when they mug a thief and discover he's carrying a bag filled with cash, unaware it's been ripped off the notoriously ruthless Yakuza who'll stop at nothing to reclaim what's theirs.

Michi, a 26 year old high school math teacher, tentatively accepts her boyfriend’s proposal of marriage, uncertain of her love for him but feeling pressure from her father and society to do what is expected of her. Hikaru, a 17 year old boy frustrated by his home life with his single mother and having been expelled from many high schools for bad behavior, enters Michi’s class as a new transfer student. As their relationship grows they realize that they both feel that they have lost themselves to the pressures of those around them, and it is this common bond that draws them dangerously close. What follows is a heart-wrenching story of forbidden love where Michi must face society’s judgement for corrupting a minor, abandoning her fiance, and disappointing her parents and co-workers.

At 55, Kan-ichi Kanzaki is the old-fashioned and overbearing father of the Kanzaki family: his wife Miyako, his son Tadashi, and his two daughters Sayuri and Suzu. Being an “oyaji,” a stubborn middle-aged man that cannot keep his opinion to himself, Kan-ichi is particularly bothered when he views what he believes to be a failure in the public’s morals. But unlike the occasional stranger, his kids have to live under his scrutiny every day, and there are plenty of family crises to draw his ire. Although he can be strict, his actions are driven by his love for his family, and one can’t help but be touched and amused by the loving efforts of such an “oyaji.”

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.

Nasuda Ayumi is a young travel nurse who gives a bad first impression. In fact, he had been an excellent nurse practitioner in the US. He has the qualifications to carry out certain medical procedures and assist doctors in surgeries. However, some circumstances trigger his return to Japan where nurse practitioners are relatively unknown and nurses are still expected to do what doctors order. Ayumi ends up working at Amano General Medical Centre where he encounters a mysterious, legendary nurse Kuki Shizuka who will become his partner. Shizuka cleans “quietly” just like his name suggests and gets mistaken for a cleaner by the hospital staff including Ayumi. But he is actually a super nurse with boggling skills.

A young yakuza thug apprentices with an indebted comic "rakugo" performer, whose not-so-fashionable son runs a clothes shop in the Harajuku backstreets.

The show is based on the "Jiu" suspense novel series by Honda Tetsuya. Motoko (Kuroki) is a fierce, physically capable investigator with a strong battle instinct, while Misaki (Tabe) is more intellectual, kind-hearted, and naive. The two of them are both working to track down Jiu, the ringleader responsible for a series of brutal crimes.

Ren Kamijō is the director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Criminal Investigation Liaison Division. His father is a former police officer. An incident in Ren's childhood triggered his thirst for power, and he has his sights set on heading the police force by becoming its Superintendent General someday. Ren believes topping the faction that he belongs to is the shortcut to fulfilling his aspiration. He is driven by ambition and has no qualms carrying out work, no matter how dirty it is. His childhood friend Sawa Mizuki, a senior detective in the First Investigation Division, often opposes his stance and mindset as a detective but is the only one who knows about his past.

Upon return from Paris, Sasakura Ryu spends some time wandering amiss, but after some time he decides to start anew by becoming a bartender. On a daily basis as a bartender, he helps solve the various problems burdening his customers, including work and love and family troubles, one cocktail at a time. Furthermore, what will happen to the romantic relationship between Ryu, who seeks the best cocktail, and Kurushima Miwa, who ispertinent to his growth as a person. Also in the drama you'll see the fateful showdown between Kuzuhara Ryuichi, referred to as Mr. Perfect, and Master Kase Goro. -- TV Asahi

When 21-year-old Kohei learns he has six months to live, he recruits his friends to form a group of cat burglars who steal for the good of the community.