Kosuke Mukai

Writing

Kosuke Mukai

Born

1977-01-17 (49)

Known for

Writing

Credits

37 titles

Known for

Film credits

Behind the camera

Linda Linda Linda poster
7.6

Only three days before the school festival, a newly formed high school band rushes to put together a set for their big show — including a hit single by '80s by the Japanese punk rock band The Blue Hearts.

Linda Linda Linda

2005

Crows Explode poster
6.1

A month after Genji Takiya graduates, a new battle for supremacy at Suzuran All-Boys High School begins. Transfer student Kaburagi Kazeo combats Kagami Ryohei for the coveted top spot, amidst a brewing inter-school conflict with Kurosaki Industrial High.

Crows Explode

2014

A Man poster
7.1

Akira works as a lawyer. One day, he meets with his former client Rie, who asks Akira to perform a background check on her late husband Daisuke.

A Man

2022

BAKA's Identity poster
7.5

To get by, Takuya and Mamoru pose as women in an online scheme, but when they try to leave this life, they must rely on their dangerous mentor for help.

BAKA's Identity

2025

Traces of Sin poster
6.6

A year has gone by without any progress on the Tako family's murder, in which an elite businessman, his beautiful and perfect wife, and adorable daughter were brutally killed. Weekly magazine journalist Tanaka gives the case another shot and digs for the truth, but people connected with the case describe a family far-flung from the seemingly picture-perfect couple, and then he discovers a reality more terrifying than anyone had imagined.

Traces of Sin

2017

Bungo: Stories of Desire poster
6.5

Omnibus film "Bungo Sasayakana Yokubo" features 6 different short stories set under 2 different themes ("Mitsumerareru Shukujotachi" & "Kokuhaku Suru Shinshitachi").

Bungo: Stories of Desire

2012

The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky poster
6.7

Based on the award-winning novel of the same name, this portrait of a group of vulnerable, variously wounded people — a depressed housewife, her high-school-aged lover, and his best friend, who is struggling to provide for himself and his senile grandmother — whose intersecting lives yield both sorrow and a fragile, yet enduring, hope for a brighter future.

The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky

2012

The Girl in the Sun poster
6.6

A new salesman named Kosuke Okuda happens to meet Mao Watarai, a friend from his middle school days. Back then, Mao was called stupid and bullied, but now she is an attractive woman. Kosuke and Mao fall in love and decide to marry, but Mao has a secret.

The Girl in the Sun

2013

A Bad Summer poster
8.1

Sasaki is a sincere civil servant, working at city hall. Due to his timid personality, he can't properly deal with nasty people, including a single mother on the verge of giving up her own child, another civil servant pressing him to have a physical relationship, and a person who receives welfare benefits unfairly. His passivity leads him to get caught up in a terrible crime.

A Bad Summer

2025

The Swan and the Bat poster
7.0

A kind-hearted lawyer is found stabbed to death. One man emerges as the prime suspect. With his confession the case should have been solved. But the suspect's son, Kuraki Kazuma and the victim's daughter, Shiraishi Mirei, both sense that something about their fathers' words and actions doesn't add up. When the suspect's son and the victim's daughter join forces, the very notion of the truth begins to unravel.

The Swan and the Bat

2026

My Broken Mariko poster
7.1

Shiino one day finds out that her best friend Mariko has committed suicide. After snatching Mariko's urn from her abusive father, Shiino heads to Marigaoka Cape, a place Mariko always wanted to go.

My Broken Mariko

2022

Hard-Core poster
6.2

The life story of a treasure hunter who lives in the countryside of Gunma in Japan. He is pure and kind, but has no communication skills and has a mind of his own. His sole friend is his co-worker. This man has never had sex. The friends find a robot one day. The robot wants to stay with the men. A bond is formed. The men resolve to change their lives.

Hard-Core

2018

My Back Page poster
5.1

In 1969, Sawada is filled with idealism that permeated that era and starts working as a gonzo journalist for a weekly magazine. Two years later, Sawada interviews activist Umeyama with senior reporter Nakahira. Umeyama boasts that his group will steal arms and take action in April. Sawada doubts Umeyama's claims but is attracted to his personality. An incident occurs... Sawada hears news that a man was killed at a army post...

My Back Page

2011

Oh, My Buddha! poster
6.0

Based on the semibiographical novel by Jun Miura, Oh My Buddha is the classic summer coming-of-age story that is burned to a crisp with teenage angst, youthful dreams and that warm sense of folk zeitgeist of the 70s. The narrator is a first-year student at an all-boys Buddhist school. Jaded by his dull, ordinary life, he longs for the type of creative, liberal and forward life his idol Bob Dylan leads, writing rock songs alone in his room, imitating his hero's signature croon, until one day he got invited on an island trip of sexual liberation with his fellow liberal friend.

Oh, My Buddha!

2009

Piece of Cake poster
5.0

Shino Umemiya readily dates guys interested in her, because she believes that's better than being alone. She breaks up with her violent boyfriend after he discovered that she cheated on him. She moves to a new area to get a fresh new start on her life. There, Shino Umemiya meets her neighbor Kyoshiro Sugahara. He is also her manager at her new job. Shino Umemiya becomes interested in him, but he lives with mysterious woman Akari.

Piece of Cake

2015

Prodigy poster
7.4

Naruse Uta is a "unique" 13 year old child. She possessed the talent to read sheet music even before she could speak, but has now come to the point where she hates playing the piano. Her father was also a piano virtuoso, but mysteriously disappeared from her life at a young age. Because of her father's disappearance Uta's mother had to move out of their posh home and into a far modest working class neighborhood. In this working class neighborhood there is a local grocer. The grocer's son Kikuna Oto happens to be a budding musician, but lacks the drive to truly succeed. That is until Uta Naruse comes into his life...

Prodigy

2007

Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow poster
6.5

Satoshi Murayama, the shogi (Japanese chess) master known as the arch-rival of Yoshiharu Habu, the shogi genius of the century, died of an intractable disease at age 29. Satoshi devoted his life to fighting not only the disease but also his rivals, feverishly pursuing the highest title, at risk to his life. Director Yoshitaka Mori (Hyakuhachi (2008), Space Brothers (2012)) depicts Murayama's true struggling life, full of love from his parents and teacher, based on the non-fiction novel written by Yoshio Osaki. Kenichi Matsuyama intensely portrays Satoshi and physically embodies the character.

Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow

2016

Ain't No Tomorrows poster
6.4

17 year-old Hiruma is desperate to get laid and takes out his sexual urges on Anpai, a fat boy who has "boobs." His classmate Tomono, a sickly loner, is in a serious relationship with their married teacher.

Ain't No Tomorrows

2008

A Moon in the Ordinary poster
7.7

Kensho Aoto reunites with Yoko Sudo, whom he had feelings for in junior high school, for the first time in 35 years. On the second floor window sill of a small apartment. Yoko was leaning against the window and looking up at the moon in the night sky, then Kensho was watching her from outside. Kensho “What were you thinking back then?” Yoko “...Something like a dream. Just about something like a dream.” The two of them are naturally attracted to each other for the first time at the age of 50. They eventually start talking about the future...

A Moon in the Ordinary

2025

The Matsugane Potshot Affair poster
5.0

When a gold ingot and a severed human head are discovered in a small provincial town, the rush to solve the curious case wavers between tragic and darkly humorous.

The Matsugane Potshot Affair

2007

Cream Lemon poster
4.6

Based on the cult adult anime OVA of the same title, this film depicts the passionate love between a stepbrother and sister, discovered one weekend when their parents go away. Their relationship soon must come to an end, but not before it changes their lives forever.

Cream Lemon

2004

Tamako in Moratorium poster
6.0

Tamako graduated from a university in Tokyo, but she now lives with her father back in Kofu. Tamako doesn't help her father or tries to get a job. She spends her time just eating and sleeping throughout the four seasons of the year.

Tamako in Moratorium

2013

My Name Is Yours poster
7.2

At midnight, in a residential area of Osaka, a middle aged man is murdered. The person who killed the man is a high school student. En is a 2nd grade high school student. She spends her boring days with her friend Kotoko, who tends to change boyfriends frequently. Kotoko falls in love with Narihira at first sight. Narihira is a soccer player at their high school. Since then, the relationship between En and Kotoko changes.

My Name Is Yours

2020

A Blue Automobile poster
4.6

Richio, a young DJ, is as emotionally non-existent as no other man on the planet. He uses his tough exterior to avoid attachments to people and society.

A Blue Automobile

2004

Counterfeit poster
NR

Kageko, a teacher in a small mountain village with a thriving Japanese paper industry, is visited by a former student, who proposes a plan to manufacture counterfeit money. She initially refuses, but eventually decides to join the project for the sake of the poor children in the village and her own mentally handicapped child.

Counterfeit

2009

Ramblers poster
6.8

Two young men arrive at a deserted countryside train station. They are Tsuboi and Kinoshita, amateur filmmakers on their way to a meeting with a genuine film star who might be interested in appearing in their next production.

Ramblers

2003

Girls in the Psychic Club poster
6.3

Nobuhiro Yamashita shoots the adaption of the City Lights manga by Hiroyuki Ohashi with three members of the Nogizaka46 idol pop band. The story is told on three levels: Documentary-style on-set where we see the film being made and the idols struggling with their roles, the resulting movie which revolves around three girls in a psychic research club discovering a classmate with super powers who turns out to be an alien and a stage adaptation of the film with the same characters.

Girls in the Psychic Club

2014

No artwork available
NR

This is one of the films from the second installment of "Cinema☆Impact," a practical film workshop produced by director Masashi Yamamoto and featuring 13 up-and-coming film directors. Directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita of "The Drudgery Train," this mockumentary captures the lives of students making a film. The students lose the data for their graduation film. While helping a woman who has come from the Philippines searching for her mother, they decide to document her journey, but the filming takes an unexpected turn.

Just Another Live Tape

2013

Redder Than Yesterday, Bluer Than Tomorrow: Cinema Fighters Project poster
NR

The fourth instalment of LDH Pictures, Cinema Fighters project. This time with all the main characters of the six short stories being portrayed by the members of Generations from Exile Tribe.

Redder Than Yesterday, Bluer Than Tomorrow: Cinema Fighters Project

2021

No One's Ark poster
6.4

Daisuke and his girlfriend have failed at selling a smelly health drink named Akajiru in Tokyo, amassing five million yen in debts. In order to recover financially, they retreat to Daisuke's island hometown.

No One's Ark

2003

No One's Ark poster
6.4

Daisuke and his girlfriend have failed at selling a smelly health drink named Akajiru in Tokyo, amassing five million yen in debts. In order to recover financially, they retreat to Daisuke's island hometown.

No One's Ark

2003

Hazy Life poster
5.8

Tsutomu meets Kee outside a Pachinko hall. The two strike up an unlikely friendship.

Hazy Life

1999

Ryuko, in the Unfaithful Evening poster
NR

Autumn, 1997. Ryuko, her brother Syuwa and their father Matsuo live in a small apartment. Matsuo loses his job after a quarrel and the Kato family's livelihood depends on young Ryuko, who secretly poses nude for various pornographic magazines. Matsuo ends up discovering his daughter's secret activity and throws her out of the house. Despite this, Ryuko continues working in the world of pornography and supporting her little brother and father.

Ryuko, in the Unfaithful Evening

2001

The Unknown Person poster
NR

Low-budget corporate PR videos and a small company that only produces local commercials. A video production company receives a request to create a promotional video for an acting school called "Tetsuo Juku." The director immediately begins filming, but hears some unsavoury rumours about the school's headmaster, Funaki Tetsuo, from one of the students. Suspicious, the director begins interviewing other students about the rumours, and criminal facts such as harassment and exorbitant tuition fees are revealed one after another. 'The Road' was produced alongside 'The Unknown Man' and were both released together on the same DVD.

The Unknown Person

2006

That Person, That Day poster
NR

Two brothers are born into a kiln-owning family in Arita Town, Saga Prefecture. Though they both honed their craft, it was the younger brother, not the elder who inherited the family kiln. Their father, a skilled overglaze painter, lived selfishly and paid no attention to his family. Will these three estranged men ever reconnect? The traditional kiln now faces a crisis. Amid this, a mother and daughter, victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake arrive at their doorstep. Through Arita-yaki (Arita porcelain), emotional connections, conflicts, and reflections arise, eventually leading to new realizations.

That Person, That Day

2012

Documentaries Tell Lies poster
NR

Eight years after the shocking documentaries A and A2, which examined the Aum Shinrikyo affair that shook Japan, director Tatsuya Mori finally returned to filmmaking. Documentaries Tell Lies, broadcast on the TV Tokyo network in 2006, was an extraordinarily provocative work that challenged conventional assumptions about television. Watch it and read it, and the way you view television may never be the same.

Documentaries Tell Lies

2006