Ryoko Hirosue

Acting

Ryoko Hirosue

Born

1980-07-18 (46)

Place of birth

Kochi, Japan

Known for

Acting

Credits

100 titles

Ryōko Hirosue (born July 18, 1980) is a Japanese actress and pop star, best known in the West for her roles in the Luc Besson-produced Wasabi and the Academy Award-winning Japanese film Departures. She also starred in a comedy series Yasuko to Kenji in 2008.

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 9 titles

The Confidence Man JP - Episode of the Hero - poster
6.4

Dako, Boku-chan and Richard commit their next con on Malta Island.

The Confidence Man JP - Episode of the Hero -

2022

Hard Days poster
6.6

After going to extremes to cover up an accident, a corrupt cop's life spirals out of control when he starts receiving threats from a mysterious witness.

Hard Days

2023

The Confidence Man JP – Episode of the Princess – poster
6.4

Set in Langkawi, Malaysia, professional scammers Dako (Masami Nagasawa), Boku-chan (Masahiro Higashide), and Richard (Fumiyo Kohinata) target the Fuu Family for their next heist. Raymond Fuu, who was the head of the Fuu Family, passed away and he left behind 10 trillion yen. Dako, Boku-chan and Richard scheme to gain the inordinate inheritance. --asianwiki

The Confidence Man JP – Episode of the Princess –

2020

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Sherlock the Movie poster
7.0

Based on the feature-length novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles" written by Arthur Conan Doyle, which is the movie version of the TV drama "Sherlock" broadcast on the Fuji TV series in 2019.

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Sherlock the Movie

2022

We Make Antiques! Kyoto Rendezvous poster
7.8

The central Kansai region of Japan is the setting for the historic cities of Sakai and Kyoto. Noda and Koike from We Make Antiques are back and together for the tea ceremony by Furuta Shigenari who is the master of the ceremony. Enter a mysterious new woman named Shino about whom the two have a feeling.

We Make Antiques! Kyoto Rendezvous

2020

2 Women poster
4.0

Modeled on Setouchi Jakucho, Inoue Mitsuharu, and his wife, 2 women depicts the special relationship between a man and two women, based on the novel by Inoue Areno, the eldest daughter of Inoue.

2 Women

2022

Step poster
7.1

Single father Kenichi has raised his daughter Miki alone for the past ten years, from when she attended nursery school until her graduation from elementary school. Kenichi is currently 30 years old. His wife Tomoko died at a young age and he has raised Miki alone since that time. While raising his daughter alone, he has encountered various problems.

Step

2020

The Man Who Can't Defraud poster
7.0

Sakai plays an extremely good-natured businessman. When he attends a marriage activity party in an attempt to start a happy family, he meets a swindler played by Mugi Kadowaki, and ends up being a part of the scam.

The Man Who Can't Defraud

2022

Family Bond poster
NR

Shingo Kawasaki is a master carpenter with consummate skills. He looks somewhat scary but he is full of human warmth and has a weakness for women. Living happily with his wife and daughter, he is known as a hard-worker. One day he encounters an insurance saleswoman, a single mother with a withdrawn son. Shingo becomes attached to the fatherless boy and eventually he decides to build a house for him and his saleswoman mother. Understandably, his wife, daughter and his apprentice are not very happy with his behavior. He seems unable to read the air around his home and business. While devoting himself to build the house, the boy’s father suddenly appears, wanting to come back into his child’s life.

Family Bond

2020

2010s · 22 titles

Detective Conan: The Disappearance of Conan Edogawa - The Worst Two Days in History poster
7.1

Conan Edogawa comes to a bathhouse with Ran Mouri and Ai Haibara. There, he sees suspicious men in the dressing room of the men's bath. However, Conan falls down in the bathhouse and loses consciousness. The two suspicious men, Tatsu and Kondo, take him away in a car. The two belong to the underworld and seem to be working at someone's request. Meanwhile, a woman named Kanae visits the Mouri Detective Agency to request an investigation into her husband's affair. She shows them a picture, and the husband in the picture is one of the culprits who kidnapped Conan.

Detective Conan: The Disappearance of Conan Edogawa - The Worst Two Days in History

2015

Inside Ghibli's Creation: 400 Days of Clash Between Hayao Miyazaki and The New Director poster
9.0

Stepping closer and closer to his retirement, Hayao Miyazaki has no other means, but to choose up a new director. Ghibli's given some creative freedoms in the past, but they hardly lasted. Maro, an animator of 37 years. has done a good deed of works in his prior days. Thus, Miyazaki-san decides to appoint him as a new director for the upcoming feature of 'Arrietty the Borrower'.

Inside Ghibli's Creation: 400 Days of Clash Between Hayao Miyazaki and The New Director

2010

Hana's Miso Soup poster
6.3

Yasutake Shingo is a newspaper reporter whose only redeeming feature is his earnestness. He meets Matsunaga Chie, who attends a music college, and they start dating. Each day becomes all the more bright and enjoyable for Shingo because of the lively Chie. She loves to laugh, sing and eat. After one and a half years, Chie is employed as a music teacher. One day, Shingo is informed that Chie has breast cancer. After thinking about it, he decides to share a lifetime with her and proposes. His proposal gives her the courage to undergo surgery which she had been mulling over. One day, Chie starts to teach 5-year-old Hana the “important things in life” such as laundry, cleaning and cooking. She thinks that even if she is no longer around, her daughter and husband will be able to live.

Hana's Miso Soup

2015

Snow on The Blades poster
6.7

At Sakurada Gate in 1860, the shogun’s chief minister and his retinue of bodyguards are ambushed and annihilated. Bearing the responsibility and shame for this failure is Shimura Kingo, master swordsman and chief of the guard. Forbidden to take his own life in atonement, he is instead tasked with hunting down the remaining assassins; however, fate intervenes and now only one is left. Devoted to his late lord and his duty, he relentlessly pursues the sole remaining assassin for the next thirteen years. But times are changing in Japan and the way of the sword has become outlawed. What does this mean for Kingo?

Snow on The Blades

2014

Key of Life poster
7.5

A failed actor switches identities with a stranger at a bath house thinking it is his way out of his life of misery but only to find himself filling the shoes of an elite assassin.

Key of Life

2012

Mixed Doubles poster
6.5

To get revenge on her ex-boyfriend and to help revive her late mother's tennis table club, a table tennis prodigy decides to take part in a mixed doubles table tennis tournament.

Mixed Doubles

2017

Kamoshirenai Joyûtachi - 2016 - poster
6.5

If actresses Hirosue Ryoko, Igawa Haruka and Saito Yuki chose different paths at the turning point in their lives, what kind of life would they be leading?

Kamoshirenai Joyûtachi - 2016 -

2016

Go, Masao! poster
4.8

Go, Masao! describes the relationship between people and their dogs. Comedian Hideki Matsumoto and a labrador retriever named Masao are selected to appear on the travel corner segment of a TV animal program. Until Hideki Matsumoto and the labrador retriever Masao become popular, they help each other.

Go, Masao!

2012

Legal High SP poster
8.0

Kazuhiko Kogure, who is a 2nd grade student in middle school, falls off from one of the school's rooftop. There were other male students on the roof when Kazuhiko Kogure fell off. According to the other students there, Kazuhiko Kogure tried to jump to another school building, but missed. Fortunately, Kazuhiko Kogure only fractured his leg and ribs. According to Kazuhiko Kogure's mother Hidemi, the school insists it was students playing around and did not involve bullying. Hidemi though, doesn't believe it, because Kazuhiko Kogure has a fear of heights. Hidemi goes to see attorney Machiko Mayuzumi and Machiko decides to take her case, but she asks for fellow attorney Kensuke Komikado's help. Meanwhile, the school hires attorney Teshigahara Isao.

Legal High SP

2013

Snow Jack poster
NR

A blackmail arrives at Appi ski resort. “We demand 30,000,000 yen as consolation money for the destruction of the environment. If you do not respond to the demand, a time bomb set on the ski slope will be detonated.” If the bomb goes off, it will not only hurt the skiers but trigger an avalanche and cause a major catastrophe. The general manager of the ski pistes, Kurata (Ken Watanabe) pleads for an immediate shutdown of the ski site and reporting to the police, but the president of the ski resort gives priority to business interests and decides to negotiate with the blackmailer. And a negotiation process for a despicable ransom case with a massive hostage of all the skiers at the resort begins.

Snow Jack

2014

Love x Doc poster
7.0

Asuka Goda is a 40-year-old pastry chef who runs a sweets store. She works with pastry chef Seiya Hanada, who is younger than her, and Kenichi Gonda, who wants to become a pastry chef. One day, Seiya Hanada confesses to Asuka Goda about his feelings for her. Her situation brings back bad memories to what happened 5 years earlier. At that time, Asuka Goda was in an affair with store owner Junji Awai and also in a relationship with gym trainer Shunsuke Nomura. Asuka Goda decides to go to mysterious "Clinic Love Doc." The clinic lets people know everything about love with a gene test.

Love x Doc

2018

Life in Overtime poster
7.8

After decades of single-minded dedication to his work, a worker with an elite career course at a major bank is transferred or rather relegated to a subsidiary company, where he finds himself at a loos as he reaches retirement age.

Life in Overtime

2018

The Confidence Man JP: Fortune poster
7.0

How much of a role does luck play in a person's life? Some people believe you create your own luck. Kingpin Akutsu Akira relies only on himself to get what he wants. Dako gets a taste of her own medicine when Akutsu cheats her of her money to avenge his friend, who was a victim of Dako's scam. Will Dako give in to her fate? How will she climb out of the rut this time?

The Confidence Man JP: Fortune

2019

Lingering Spirits poster
7.6

Gajirou Honda is a self-centered man who only cares about money and women. When he’s involved in a car accident, he encounters the ghosts of the deceased occupants of the other car, including the driver and three pole dancers. The four ghosts promise him a large sum of money in exchange for his help fulfilling their last wishes, thus allowing their spirits to pass over to the afterlife.

Lingering Spirits

2014

Tales of the Bizarre 20th Anniversary Fall Special: Popular Author Competition poster
6.5

No synopsis available yet.

Tales of the Bizarre 20th Anniversary Fall Special: Popular Author Competition

2010

The Woman Who Took the Local Paper poster
6.2

A man and a woman committed double suicide in Kanazawa City. Immediately after the incident, Yoshiko Shiota, a woman living in Tokyo, contacts the local newspaper of Kanazawa, saying she wants to read the novel serialized in it by Ryuji Sugimoto. How did this woman know the novel is serialized in the newspaper? And why does she want to start reading it in the middle of the story? Which article was she actually interested in? Sugimoto cannot help making his own investigations about Yoshiko, but the more he searches, the more astonishing facts come to light...

The Woman Who Took the Local Paper

2016

Flowers poster
7.0

Flowers examines the lives of six women across three generations, from the Show period all the way through to the present day.

Flowers

2010

An Artist of the Floating World poster
NR

In the face of the misery in his homeland, the artist Masuji Ono was unwilling to devote his art solely to the celebration of physical beauty. Instead, he put his work in the service of the imperialist movement that led Japan into WWII.

An Artist of the Floating World

2019

Bōkyō poster
9.0

Three stories from Shiratsuna Island: "Mikan no hana" Shiratsuna Island is the only remaining island city in Japan, but it is being merged with a city on the opposite shore. Housewife Misato Tomita lives on the island. "Umi no hoshi" Yōhei Hamasaki, who was born on Shiratsuna Island, lives in an apartment in the outskirts of Tokyo with his wife, Tomomi, and their son, Taichi. "Kumo no ito" Popular artist Hirotaka Kurosaki, who is a native of Shiratsuna Island, goes back to his hometown after seven years.

Bōkyō

2016

The Nutcracker 3D poster
4.0

This adaptation of the Nutcracker story (by Tchaikovsky and original choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov) is updated in this stop-motion animation from the original Japanese release of 1979. The new 3-D rendering is complemented by the art direction of Sebastian Masuda who is responsible for much of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's style. She also provides music here.

The Nutcracker 3D

2014

Orpheus' Lyre poster
7.0

Although the situation is universal, Japanese mourning rituals are given solid coverage. The 49th day after death is considered crucial, as the date at which the soul passes from this world to the next and, therefore, the date from when the living are expected to get on with life. But Yoko doesn't move on. The ache of the loss that simply won't heal takes an awful toll on her husband and friends, who try doggedly and unsuccessfully to help her move on, and to guide her away from the misguided and damaging belief that daughter Kanako's spirit has entered another living child.

Orpheus' Lyre

2013

Kekkon Houkoku poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Kekkon Houkoku

2012

2000s · 21 titles

Departures poster
7.9

Daigo, a cellist, is laid off from his orchestra and moves with his wife back to his small hometown where the living is cheaper. Thinking he’s applying for a job at a travel agency he finds he’s being interviewed for work with departures of a more permanent nature – as an undertaker’s assistant.

Departures

2008

Wasabi poster
6.7

Hubert is a French policeman with very sharp methods. After being forced to take 2 months off by his boss, who doesn't share his view on working methods, he goes back to Japan, where he used to work 19 years ago, to settle the probate of his girlfriend who left him shortly after marriage without a trace.

Wasabi

2001

Hana & Alice poster
7.0

Two teenage best pals attracted to the same boy end up scrambling his life after he walks into a door and is knocked unconscious.

Hana & Alice

2004

Goemon poster
6.9

Follow the infamous ninja bandit named Ishikawa Goemon in an epic story. One night while looting treasure from Nanban, Goemon finds a mysterious box hidden inside a secret grave. A forgotten relic from the past containing untold powers.

Goemon

2009

The Whispered City poster
9.0

Director Jun Ichikawa spins this affectionate portrait of the people who populate Shimokitazawa, a bohemian corner of Tokyo filled with small theater companies and smoky coffeehouses.

The Whispered City

2000

Jam Films poster
7.9

Jam Films is a 2002 suite of 7 shorts produced by Sega/Amuse.

Jam Films

2002

Villon's Wife poster
6.5

This enticing period melodrama depicts a long-suffering woman's relationship with her brilliant but self-destructive writer husband in postwar Tokyo. Based on a semi-autobiographical 1947 novel by Osamu Dazai, the story centers less on the womanizing, heavy-drinking, suicidal hero than on the wife who loves him. Written by Palm Springs International Film Festival

Villon's Wife

2009

Miracle of Serendip poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Miracle of Serendip

2007

Toro to Tabi Suru: The Movie poster
NR

Look for Toro with gorgeous cast and alarming family together!

Toro to Tabi Suru: The Movie

2009

Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust poster
5.9

It's 2007 and the Japanese Ministry of Finance have calculated that the economy will collapse in two years' time. They intend to prevent this by sending home appliance designer Mariko back in time 17 years using a time machine she accidentally invented. However, things don't go as planned and Mariko's daughter, Mayumi, is also sent back to find her mother and save Japan's economy.

Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust

2007

Collage of Our Lives poster
6.2

A young cameraman receives a letter from an old girlfriend, announcing that she is to hold a photo exhibition in the United States. Having heard rumors that she has died, he follows his curiosity to New York City.

Collage of Our Lives

2003

Tales of the Bizarre: SMAP Special poster
8.0

Consisting of 5 stories: 1. Extra Synopsis: A man decides to go against a society whose every action and exchange of dialogue has already been prewritten in the screenplay of life. 2. 13-banme no Kyaku (Guest no. 13) Synopsis: A short-tempered man gets his hair cut at a strange barber shop only to find that he cannot leave before going through a certain process. 3. Black Room Synopsis: A son returns home from America to find his hometown shrouded in black and his parents behaving very strangely. 4. Boku wa Tabi o Suru (I'm Taking a Trip) Synopsis: A man’s older sister goes on a trip without realizing the terrifying truth. 5. Otona Juken (Adult Test) Synopsis: A young man must prove that he is truly an adult through a series of real life scenario tests.

Tales of the Bizarre: SMAP Special

2001

Long Wedding Road! Tokyo vs. Osaka Wakeari Kon Monogatari poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Long Wedding Road! Tokyo vs. Osaka Wakeari Kon Monogatari

2007

Zero Focus poster
6.2

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

Zero Focus

2009

Making of "Departures" poster
NR

A documentary about the making and shooting of Yojiro Takita’s ‘Departures’ (2008)

Making of "Departures"

2009

Haruka naru Yakusoku poster
8.0

There is a story of a grand love torn apart by the Russo-Japanese War. It is an incomparable love story, crossing the borders of Russia and Japan and surmounting fifty years time. The true story of one woman who continued to wait because she loved, and one woman who said farewell because she loved. And a man who, bolstered by the love of these two women, struggled through the most extreme of circumstances and survived.

Haruka naru Yakusoku

2006

Arita poster
NR

ARITA is a short film told in pictures and in small moments. It is about a girl whose first friend is a small drawing named Arita, a cute nosed endearment she found everywhere. From her notebooks to her illustrations and school supplies, Arita appeared silently and still. Growing up with such a friend would raise questions and as she became older, she attempted to answer them. Iwai, one of Japan’s most exciting directors, tells a beautiful and dream-like story through the precious eyes of Ryoko Hirosue. The heavenly tint of the picture and the serene piano playing makes ARITA easily an audience favorite.

Arita

2002

Presents Aikagi poster
5.4

Aikagi means "spare key" in Japanese, and this film presents a story of love and remembrance. Even if the owner of the key has left, the memories remain. Yukari (Hirosue Ryoko) and Hiroaki (Tamayama Tetsuji) have been together for eight years. Though they are both constantly busy with work and do not see each other often, Yukari believes that they will always be together. Just before Christmas, the couple finally has a chance to meet up, but Hiroaki tells her that he has found someone else and breaks up with her. The next day, a heartbroken Yukari cuts short her hair. When she sees Hiroaki's spare key, all the past memories come rushing back. Yukari decides to give him one last present.

Presents Aikagi

2006

Little DJ poster
6.5

Taro is a 12-year-old into baseball and radio, especially "Music Express," a song-request show. Sound quaint? But it is 1977 and a small town in Hokkaido, a more innocent, pure-hearted time and place, we are told. Taro, however, has a blood disease that lands him in the hospital where his aunt is a nurse. Rounds of tests, transfusions and injections sap his spirit, despite the kindness and dedication of his young doctor and the Doctor's hospital-director father. The latter, a music buff who broadcasts classics over the hospital's PA system, asks Taro to relieve him as DJ — and soon the boy is ensconced in the hospital director's well-stocked library-cum-studio, spinning popular J-Pop tunes. He also becomes acquainted with Tamaki, a girl he first calls "the mummy" because of her bandages and full body cast — she was injured in a traffic accident. He later changes his tune when she is revealed as a cute 13-year-old — for him, an older woman...

Little DJ

2007

Tales of the Bizarre: 2006 Fall Special poster
NR

***Kyouko-san (Miss Kyouko) A young therapist at a hospital investigates when a spirit appears and kills people who say "Kyouko-san, Kyouko-san, please make me pretty" to the bathroom mirror. ***Buchou OL (Manager-OL) [office lady] An OL and her boss switch bodies. ***Kinou Kouen (Yesterday at the park) Domoto Koichi plays a man who loses his friend due to a freak accident. He then finds that through a time slip, he can return to the previous day and save his friend. ***Neko ga Ongaeshi (Cat Repays a Favor) Kashiwagi Emi (Uchiyama Rina) is unable to get over her grandmother's death. Her cat Kuro decides he will cure her loneliness. ***Kazoku Kaigi (Family Meeting) A family of three meet with a car accident, but strangely wake up in their home the next morning. They are then told that they have to sacrifice one of them so two may live.

Tales of the Bizarre: 2006 Fall Special

2006

Tears of Kitty poster
NR

Eiji Morioka is legendary fighter, he is the 3rd and last Japanese boxing medalist. His life story is told from the eyes of his daughter Haruko, who is involved in checkered life of Eiji. Touching true story full of love.

Tears of Kitty

2008

1990s · 8 titles

Secret poster
6.9

A man is shocked to find out that after a deadly car accident involving his wife and daughter, his wife died, but her mind somehow got transfered into their daughter's body.

Secret

1999

Railroad Man poster
7.0

A railway stationmaster at a dying end-of-the-line village in Hokkaido is haunted by memories of his dead wife and daughter. When the railroad line is scheduled to be closed, he is offered a job at a hotel, but he is emotionally unable to part with his career as a railroader. His life takes a turn when he meets a young woman with an interest in trains who resembles his daughter.

Railroad Man

1999

20th Century Nostalgia poster
7.1

A young student believes that the spirit of an alien from another planet has gone back in time, taking over his body to infiltrate and study humanity in order to find the reasons why our civilization is doomed to future destruction. He replicates the spirit of another alien in a girl that he meets, and together they use their video cameras to document modern urban Japanese society.

20th Century Nostalgia

1997

Bayside Shakedown SP: Year-End Special Alert poster
7.3

No synopsis available yet.

Bayside Shakedown SP: Year-End Special Alert

1997

Because I Am Me poster
8.0

The members of SMAP play former high school classmates who were members of the Ekiden team 6 years ago. This drama depicts the changes in character over the past 6 years and the members future endeavors.

Because I Am Me

1997

Le Secret poster
NR

Making-of movie Himitsu (Secret, 1999).

Le Secret

1999

Infinity / The Making of 20th Century Nostalgia poster
NR

Making of "20th Century Nostalgia"

Infinity / The Making of 20th Century Nostalgia

1997

Beach Boys Special poster
NR

Sakurai Hiromi (Sorimachi Takashi) and Suzuki Kaito (Takenouchi Yutaka) leave Diamond Head behind in search of "my ocean." Three months later, the two coincidentally find themselves staying on the same southern island overseas. Hiromi is in charge of the poolside bar at a large hotel, dating the heiress there, and living a glamorous life. Kaito works for a marine biologist, transporting dolphins to a landlocked country, living a wild life. When Kaito's work takes him to the island as well, they run into each other by chance. The two feel something is off about who they are now. Where is their "true ocean"? Makoto and Haruko now run the B&B back in Japan. One day, they win a trip to the island which will make the reunion complete.

Beach Boys Special

1998

Series credits

Yonimo Kimyou na Monogatari Tokubetsuhen poster
9.5

No synopsis available yet.

Yonimo Kimyou na Monogatari Tokubetsuhen

1990

Ranman poster
7.8

A passionate botanist dedicates his life to his love of plants, overcoming hardship across changing eras with the support of his devoted wife.

Ranman

2023

Galileo poster
8.2

Narrates the events and cases encountered by Kaoru Utsumi, a rookie detective, and Manabu Yukawa, a university associate professor, while the two pair up to solve many mysterious cases.

Galileo

2007

Ryōmaden poster
9.1

Ryōmaden is the 49th NHK Taiga drama. It was shown on NHK from January 3 to November 28, 2010 spanning 48 episodes. The story centers on the life of 19th-century Japanese historical figures Iwasaki Yatarō and Sakamoto Ryōma. It has been announced that the series will be aired in several other countries, for example Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

Ryōmaden

2010

Legal High poster
8.5

A lawyer with a big personality works with an straightlaced recent law graduate on various law cases in Japan.

Legal High

2012

Keigo Higashino Mysteries poster
6.7

11 mysteries, 11 actors. Japan's favorite mystery author, the world of Higashino Keigo comes to life on screen through an assortment of short stories.

Keigo Higashino Mysteries

2012

Keigo Higashino Mysteries poster
6.7

11 mysteries, 11 actors. Japan's favorite mystery author, the world of Higashino Keigo comes to life on screen through an assortment of short stories.

Keigo Higashino Mysteries

2012

Long Vacation poster
8.6

Minami who is dumped by her ex-boyfriend, Asakura, on their wedding day. She later meets Sena, Asakura's ex-roommate and a pianist, and lives with him as she has no other place to stay. What will happen to her during this long vacation?

Long Vacation

1996

Ouroboros poster
7.0

"Ouroboros" is an ancient symbol that depicts a snake eating its own tail - meaning infinity. Based on a popular comic, a clumsy detective and a cool gang stand up to true evil. Ikuo and Tatsuya grew up in a children's orphanage together. When their favorite teacher, Yuiko, is murdered, a policeman wearing a gold watch covers up the incident. Ikuo and Tatsuya promise each other to avenge their teacher someday. Twenty years later, Ikuo is a detective in Shinjuku second police station investigating various cases with elite detective - Mizuki, while smart and handsome Tatsuya has become one of the top members of a gang group.

Ouroboros

2015

MR.BRAIN poster
7.1

Ryusuke Tsukumo is a quirky, yet brilliant neuroscientist working for the National Research Institute of Police Science. Wielding a unique perspective and psychology, Tsukumo tackles the nation's most baffling crimes and scandals, going head-to-head with the most brilliant and twisted criminal minds. But his eccentricities and poor social timing can also aggravate people and circumstances, further complicating matters.

MR.BRAIN

2009

Riding a Unicorn poster
6.6

Determined to revive her startup's dwindling success, an innovative young CEO hires a middle-aged, traditional businessman to join her hardworking team.

Riding a Unicorn

2022

Kagi no nai Yume wo Miru poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Kagi no nai Yume wo Miru

2013

Summer Snow poster
7.2

A love story between a young man who has been forced to grow up too quickly, and a young woman with an ailment that has placed restrictions on her life. Natsuo has been looking after his younger brother and sister since the death of their parents. He has also been running the family bicycle shop. Yuki becomes the only person in the world in whom he can confide. For Yuki, Natsuo becomes the catalyst that has her trying to break out of her cocoon.

Summer Snow

2000

Tower of Justice poster
7.0

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.

Tower of Justice

2021

Beach Boys poster
7.9

Hiromi and Kaito end up in a guesthouse run by an ageing surfer and his granddaughter Makoto. The summer passes amidst the comings and goings of guests, each one gradually discovering the others.

Beach Boys

1997

Heaven's Coin poster
7.4

Aya Kuramoto, a deaf and mute girl from Hokkaido, falls in in love with a doctor named Shūichi Nagai. After Shūichi leaves for Tokyo, he has an accident and loses his memory. Aya travels to Tokyo and encounters Takumi Nagai, Shūichi's brother.

Heaven's Coin

1995

Caution, Hazardous Wife poster
7.9

Nami Isayama met a man through a blind date and married him. She and her husband moved to a quiet, exclusive residential area. Nami is now a housewife and she decides to take cooking classes. She meets other housewives at the cooking class and receives tips from them, while becoming friends. Nami surmises that one of the housewives in her cooking class is the victim of domestic violence. Nami decides to save the victim by herself.

Caution, Hazardous Wife

2017

Shotgun Marriage poster
8.0

Ryunosuke, who directs commercials, receives a phone call. On the other end of the phone is a friend from his college days inviting Ryunosuke to come out to the beach. Ryunosuke first turns down the offer because of his workload, but when he learns that some girls are coming, he says yes. Several months later, he hears from Chiyo – a girl he had met at the beach that day – that she is pregnant with his child. Although the news bewilders Ryunosuke at first, he ultimately decides to raise the baby. However, he will later have to face the strong objections from Chiyo’s father, the ever-changing situation at work, and many other obstacles. With help from friends and family, Ryunosuke and Chiyo take a step forward on their way to marriage and the birth of their baby.

Shotgun Marriage

2001

Grace's History poster
7.7

In her beloved car, "Grace", a wife is on her way to Narita. Following a bus accident that kills her, her husband, Kikuo, gets access to her GPS which contains the history of all the places she travelled to without his knowledge. Suspecting infidelity, Kikuo embarks on a journey to trace the history of the car's GPS in order to solve the mystery.

Grace's History

2023

All About My Siblings poster
8.0

Five siblings struggle to live together after their parents have passed away. Arguments are a norm, and each have their own problems with studying, finding a job, marriage, etc. But no matter how dysfunctional their family can be, blood is thicker than water and the ties that bind will keep them together through thick and thin.

All About My Siblings

2014

Sakanoue Animal Clinic Story poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Sakanoue Animal Clinic Story

2018

King of Sushi poster
6.8

A comic-based comedy about the young and talented Shota (Kashiwabara Takashi) who set a goal of becoming the no. 1 sushi chef in Japan to save his father's sushi shop. To learn the art of making sushi, he became an apprentice at the famous Otori Sushi. Each episode sees him picking up a new skill, and going a step towards his goal. However, many obstacles stood in his way, including a harsh and cold senior who was jealous of his talent.

King of Sushi

1996

Triangle poster
7.2

The series starts with the murder of a 10-year-old girl in 1984. 15 years later, after the case goes unsolved and passes the statute of limitations, a doctor named Goda Ryoji suddenly quits from his hospital and eventually becomes a detective. In 2008, he meets Sachi, a traveling artist in Paris, and shortly after Goda's return to Japan, he becomes involved in the expired murder case when another detective receives an anonymous phone call.

Triangle

2009

Love is Still Necessary poster
8.0

Rage, a pimp who only loves money and himself, is sent to jail for 6 months. While he is in the jail, Rage’s partner, Reiji, dies in a traffic accident. Released from prison, Rage finds himself having lost everything but a debt of 6 million dollars. One day, Rage is visited by a lawyer that mistakes him for Reiji. According to the lawyer, Reiji’s father died and left him a large inheritance. Reiji’s only other living relative is his blind sister. Rage smells money and hatches a plan to pretend to be Reiji and steal his money.

Love is Still Necessary

2002

Slow Dance poster
7.0

A man who constantly applies the brake in his life, a woman who could do with a brake in her life. They have their careers but they are both failures in love. Afraid to face each other directly, instead of focusing on feelings, they choose to focus on their positions, meeting each other, falling in love!? They are already adults but still have some way to go when it comes to putting their foot on the ground. This summer, a feel-good love story...

Slow Dance

2005

Saintly Woman poster
8.0

When I was 17-years-old, Maria was a college student and worked as a private tutor. Her student was me. She left a last message to me, "when you graduate from college and become an adult, can you become my lover?," and then she disappeared. 10 years later, I meet her again. She is now a suspect in a serial murder case and I am a lawyer.

Saintly Woman

2014

Lipstick poster
9.0

Hayakawa Ai commits a crime which lands her in a correction facility for juveniles. There she meets & becomes firm friends with four other delinquents & falls in love with one of the wardens, Ariake Yu, an artist with secrets....

Lipstick

1999

Odd Family 11 poster
6.9

Minoru Sanada is a cameraman with little skills in his profession. His wife Megumi runs a cafe, but the cafe doesn't have any customers. Yet, the couple has 8 chidren.

Odd Family 11

2011

He Is My Ex-Boyfriend poster
7.3

Toji, a manager of a food section in a medium-sized department store, has to put up with a tough boss that makes every day a real struggle. But things start to look up for him though when he meets a pretty elevator girl named Nao. Just as he is starting to enjoy a new-found happiness at work, a new account manager from an advertising agency visits Toji’s division, and it is none other than Toji’s ex-girlfriend from university, Makoto. Toji is surprised to see her again but Makoto treats him as if she has never met him before. Now dealing with a tough job and caught in the middle of a jealous Nao and Makoto who dumped him, things couldn’t get much worse for Toji!

He Is My Ex-Boyfriend

2003

Oyaji poster
7.5

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.”

Oyaji

2000

Tokkai: Furyousaiken Tokubetsu Kaishubu poster
7.4

In 1996, after the collapse of Japan's asset price bubble, Shibasaki Akira works in the loan department for the Yotsubashi branch office of Aoba Bank. One day, he is sent to work at a government-run company, which is a housing financial bond management organization. The company was formed to collect non-performing loans from bankrupt housing loan companies. Workers from different banks, including Akira and ex-employees from housing loan companies, gather at the government-run company. They stand up against vicious debtors and struggle to protect the taxpayers' money.

Tokkai: Furyousaiken Tokubetsu Kaishubu

2021

Starman: A Love Story poster
6.7

Sawako (Ryoko Hirosue) was dumped by her husband and since then she has raised her three sons alone. One day, she happens to meet a young man (Sota Fukushi) who is dying. She falls in love with him at first sight. The young man also suffers from memory loss. Sawako names him Hoshio. Taking advantage of his memory loss, she decides to make him live with her and as the father of her three sons. Now, Sawako, her three sons, her grandmother and Hoshio all live together. Sawako hopes Hoshio never regains his memory. Hoshio also begins to develop feelings for her. Whenever Sawako has troubles, Hoshio helps her out with his mysterious ability. Hoshio's past is also a mysterious. A mystery that is finally revealed.

Starman: A Love Story

2013

The Last Song poster
8.5

Just when about to commit suicide after being deserted by his bride-to-be during the wedding, a man meets a university professor who is also at the point of killing himself. A woman nearby intervenes, one thing leads to another, and the three lost souls move in together. Each episode is a distinct story about the sometimes painful, sometimes warm romances between them and the people they meet while sharing an apartment.

The Last Song

1998

Tokyo Tower ~ Okan and me, sometimes, Oton (SP version) poster
10.0

Adapted from the bestselling Japanese autobiography of the same title, the gentle coming-of-age drama Tokyo Tower - Mom and Me and Sometimes Dad concerns an adolescent boy (Kamiki Ryunosuke), 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.

Tokyo Tower ~ Okan and me, sometimes, Oton (SP version)

2006

Miracle Zoo ~ The Asahiyama Zoo Story ~ poster
6.0

Asahiyama Zoo, in Hokkaido, is facing a financial crisis and the zoo director and keepers try everything to save the zoo from closing down.

Miracle Zoo ~ The Asahiyama Zoo Story ~

2006

When the Saints Go Marching In poster
9.7

Exploring the perception and treatment of mentally-challenged youth and their similarities to juvenile delinquents in Japanese society, this drama series follows the trials and tribulations of a group of adolescents in a work/study program for mentally-challenged teenagers. Although the program's intention is to gently "normalize" them for introduction in society, the group is subject to constant physical and mental abuse unbeknownst to their parents and teacher, Ms Hagawa. However, the friendship between Towa, a naive but unusually articulate member of the program, and Arisu, a rebellious schoolgirl, helps both of them learn to overcome their troubles.

When the Saints Go Marching In

1998

Yasuko to Kenji poster
6.3

The show focuses on a man named Kenji and his younger sister Yasuko, whose parents died in an accident 10 years earlier. Kenji was once the leader of a gang, but in order to support him and his sister, he began making a living as a shojo mangaka. His character normally wears glasses and appears to be a gentle guy, but he throws off his glasses and reverts to his violent side whenever he tries to protect Yasuko from danger. Part of the story follows Yasuko's romance with an intelligent and good-looking man named Jun Tsubaki. Jun's older sister Erika now runs a flower shop, but Erika was once a leader of a female gang, and she used to be in love with Kenji during those days.

Yasuko to Kenji

2008

Father poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Father

2002

Sashow The Last Case poster
8.0

Lady cop (Asano Atsuko) and team leader (Katori Shingo) are lovers and they solve major crimes together, targeting psychos. One day, the team leader suddenly became a criminal as well

Sashow The Last Case

1995

I Love Dad Best in the World poster
NR

The protagonist is a 41-year-old divorced lawyer. 13 years ago, his wife's infidelity led him to abandon his then 5-year-old daughter and leave home. This summer, his wife departed to heaven. The daughter still hates her father for abandoning her, and wants to attend a university in Tokyo so she doesn't have to live with him...

I Love Dad Best in the World

1998