Hard Petting

Japanese horror film with four segments.

WOWOW brings acclaimed author Toyoko Yamasaki's 1999 literary tour de force to life on the small screen for the very first time. Audiences have already received television adaptations of Yamasaki's other works – The Ivory Tower (白い巨塔), The Grand Family (華麗なる一族), The Waste Land (不毛地帯), A Son of the Good Earth (大地の子), and My Destiny (運命の人) – and can now add The Unbroken (沈まぬ太陽) to that list with this long-awaited production. Features a star-studded cast and additional filming on location in Africa and the Middle East.

Yoshizaki Kaoruko, who had been a clinician at a university hospital, takes up a post at a medical examiner’s office after she is told by her professor to try to get experience. However, everyone from the supervising doctor Akita Shinya, director Yanagida Shuhei and assistant Yamashita Mieko are all individualistic characters. This does not bode well for the future. Meanwhile, Akita and Kaoruko are put in charge of the dead body of a popular model who fell to her death. The police consider it to be a suicide, but Akita is drawn to a subtle point .

20 years ago a half-frozen boy was rescuded in the mountains after his parents apparent sucide. He gets released from a mental institution and his girlfriend notices him talking about a dark mountain shadow. Meanwhile a murder happens in a residential area in Tokyo. Assistant Inspector Goda Yuichiro takes on the investigation. Soon an official of the Ministery of Justice gets murdered in a similar fashion pointing towards a serial killer. Yet, Goda receives a strange order from above: he's not to further investigate in this direction. He senses a huge mystery behind the case and starts chasing after the psychopath killer called Marks. Somehow a journalist's research about a corrupt construction magnate and another unsolved murder that happend in the mountains 13 years ago are also linked to the case.

Deaths in Tokimeki tells the story of a nondescript hitman, in a remote country villa, waiting to carry out a job: the assassination of the leader of a religious cult.

Kohei’s company holds the patent of an engine valve system required to develop a space rocket. Will he finally be part of a successful rocket launch?

Voyeurism, eavesdropping, stalking, and sexual assault. Yuki, a newlywed living in a housing complex, finds her daily life gradually corrupted by abnormal sexuality... What kind of sex hell does this married woman fall into?! Yuki's past. A chance encounter with a man she met at the scene of a suicide attempt. After getting married, Yuki sealed that day away in her body and moved to a huge housing complex. However, the man from that time, Saito, appears and Yuki is embraced once again. Saito strangles Yuki. Yuki feels an abnormal excitement in the ecstasy of heading towards "death". But there was a man watching them. In exchange for a recording tape, Yuki is forced to undress and descends into a life of sex and degeneracy...

After seeing her husband off to work, the young author identified only as Yoshiko sets off to read the large collection of letters she received from other young authors. These are often letters containing samples of their work for critique. One large envelope contains a letter. The letter-writer does not provide his name. The letter is a confession of crimes. The letter-writer has no family or friends, and claims to be "ugly beyond description". He is a chair maker and loves his work and all the chairs he creates, even going so far as to claim some sort of intangible connection to his work.

The suicide of a female teacher 15 years ago was actually a murder. A new investigation team, spearheaded by Mizorogi, is formed based on new information turned in to the police. Obsessed about cracking cases right up till the statute of limitation, Mizoguchi has a bitter thought about a 300 million yen case that has reached the statute of limitation... When he goes to investigate the male high school student(s) whom the woman had taught and other persons related to the deceased, he sees an unexpected connection with another case...

The story begins in April 1986 and is set during the days of the bubble economy. Kaidou Akira comes from a wealthy background and is the heir of a large company Tokai Yuusen. On the other hand, his genius classmate from the University of Tokyo, Yamazaki Akira had a tough life due to the bankruptcy of his father's company and having to run away from creditors but overcomes the odds to graduatefrom the top-notch school. The two are employed at the same bank and get caught in a battle lasting over 10 years which causes upheavals in their lives.

Erika Ichinose, a clinical psychologist, is recruited by the National Police Agency in an attempt to stay one step ahead of a bomb terrorist.

Ai is a call girl that makes good money for what she does but there’s always at risk no matter how good the money is.

When a married woman (Yuki) living in a large housing complex is tracked down by a dangerous lover from her past (Saito), her peaceful life unravels into a web of taboo encounters, voyeuristic neighbors, and hidden infidelities.