Masako Motai

Acting

Masako Motai

Born

1952-10-17 (74)

Place of birth

Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan

Known for

Acting

Credits

48 titles

Born in Shibuya, Tokyo. A Japanese actress joined in Shasha Co.. Started acting in around 1972, created an acting band called Gekidan Sanjyumaru with Eri Watanabe in 1979. At the time she was directing, yet she began to act later on. In 1984, she played a role of a teacher in a TV drama called "Takeshi's Gakumon no Susume". In 1985, she started appearing in many TV dramas and shows such as "OH! Takeshi" and "Haru no Hato" etc.

Known for

The Pride of the Temp poster
8.1

Oomae Haruko is an A+ Temp worker who never cracks a smile or minces words, and leaves work on the dot. But her cynical nature indicates she has something painful to hide. Satonaka Kensuke has just been promoted to head S&F's new Marketing Division. Saddled with a rag-tag group of subordinates, he is struggling to lift his division off the ground. When Oomae is placed in Kensuke's department, she finds herself doing more work than she's ever done before. This is a timely drama that examines the different attitudes toward temp workers and regular employees, and the ways to overcome frictions in interpersonal relationships. This follows an October report on labor conditions by the Labor Ministry, which showed that, after regulations were relaxed, the proportion of regular employees to Temps had doubled compared to that of eight years ago.

The Pride of the Temp

2007

Karin poster
NR

A young woman Chiaki whose family runs an old miso company in Nagano Prefecture, the only daughter of old traditional family. For generations, they were making soybean paste for living. Now she needs to take over this business and rebuild it. She lives through the hardships of postwar Japan.

Karin

1993

The Golden Piggy poster
7.5

Shinko (Ryoko Shinohara) is an accounting auditor who chases after tax evaders and embezzlers that hard working citizens needlessly pay for. Shinko has a knack for solving cases without common sense or standards.

The Golden Piggy

2010

Quartet poster
8.0

Maki Maki, Sebuki Suzume, Beppu Tsukasa and Iemori Yutaka happen to meet and form a quartet. They even begin to live together in Karuizawa during the winter, but there is a big hidden secret.

Quartet

2017

Shining Brightly poster
5.0

The job of a medical jurisprudence involves a lot of complicated crimes such as murder and accidents. Hikaru (Fukatsu Eri) is a graduate of a medical university, also focused her discipline on neurology. One night during a student reunion, a dead body was found in the kitchen. Hikaru, who is a little regretting that she choose her focus in neurology was moved by another doctor's words, Dead bodies will not tell us what happened, that is why we have to piece together its last words.(Dramawiki)

Shining Brightly

1998

One-Pound Gospel poster
7.0

Hatanaka Kosaku is a talented boxer who turned pro at the age of 19, winning his debut match with a first round KO. He is talented, but he has no guts. His uncontrollable appetite is an even bigger problem. He can't put himself in the right weight class, he runs out of energy because of hunger, and he gets knocked out while his eyes are set on food at the ringside. However, Kosaku's life changed when he met Sister Angela, a novice nun in the convent near his boxing gym. She became the source of his power, and Kosaku fights only to win her heart.

One-Pound Gospel

2008

Film credits

2010s · 10 titles

Teacher and Stray Cat poster
6.4

Following the death of his wife professor Kyoichi leads a solitary life by the sea. A stray cat called Mii, who was being fed by his wife, not only continues to drop by, but also seems to be visiting the altar Kyoichi has set up for his deceased wife. While uncomfortable with the cat and its visits, he nonetheless takes up a search when Mii goes missing. The endeavour connects him with the town's folk and reveals that he is not alone.

Teacher and Stray Cat

2015

Always: Sunset on Third Street '64 poster
7.2

As the Tokyo Olympics usher in a wave of rapid modernisation, the residents of Third Street face new beginnings as Mutsuko becomes involved with a seemingly perfect young doctor who may not be all he appears, while Chagawa struggles with his stalled writing career and what it truly means to be a father to the boy he has raised as his own.

Always: Sunset on Third Street '64

2012

BECK poster
6.4

Yukio is your average high school student who spends his days going to class and avoiding bullies. That is until he meets Ryusuke, a guitar prodigy. Together with Taira, Chiba, and Saku they form the rock band BECK. As their popularity increases so does the danger as Ryusuke's past catches up with him.

BECK

2010

The Mohican Comes Home poster
5.8

Eikichi left his hometown in Hiroshima for Tokyo. He tried to find success with his music band, but failed. Several years later, Eikichi goes home to tell his father, Osamu, that his girlfriend is pregnant. His father curses him out, but he is also excited to have a grandchild. Osamu has a party to celebrate the news, but, at the party, he collapses and goes to the hospital. Eikichi struggles to make his father happy.

The Mohican Comes Home

2016

Mountain Days with Tom poster
7.0

Hana, Toki and Toki’s daughter Toshi begin to live in the countryside. Hana’s nephew Akira, who just graduated from middle school, also lives with them. Doing farm work everyday, Hana and Toki get used to life in the countryside with help from couple Gen and Shiori. One day, Toshi and Akira decide to raise a cat to catch rats. A cat named Tom then begins to live with them.

Mountain Days with Tom

2015

Mother Water poster
6.3

Set with three central figures, "Mother Water" describes the daily lives of people near the Kamo River in Kyoto, Japan.

Mother Water

2010

Akko's Secret poster
6.1

5th-grader Atsuko Kagami, nicknamed Akko, comes into possession of a magical mirror that lets her transform into anything she wishes. Wanting to grow up beautiful, she gets a job at a cosmetics company, and finds true love. What will Akko do to keep the company afloat and her secrets hidden? Only her technical magical compact can help!

Akko's Secret

2012

Toilet poster
5.6

A 30-something Gundam fan and engineer is forced to live with his recluse brother Maury and younger sister Lisa to take care of their Japanese grandmother after their mother's funeral.

Toilet

2010

Tokyo Oasis poster
6.1

In Tokyo, actress Touko leaves the filming set of her latest project and comes across three people by random chance: she gives a ride to a man named Nagano, whom she has never met before; at a small theater, runs into Kikuchi, a former screenwriter; lastly, meets Yasuko at the zoo.

Tokyo Oasis

2011

Hello, Goodbye poster
7.0

Hazuki and Aoi are classmates but their relationship outside class is fraught, and outside school non-existent. But when both girls are drawn to helping an elderly woman, they're forced to interact, confronting their differences and similarities as well as their deepest secrets.

Hello, Goodbye

2017

2000s · 11 titles

I Just Didn't Do It poster
7.4

A young man is falsely accused of molesting a high-school girl on a train. He is arrested and charged, and goes through endless court sessions, all the while insisting that he is innocent.

I Just Didn't Do It

2007

Always - Sunset on Third Street poster
7.7

In 1958 postwar Tokyo, the residents of a humble Third Street neighbourhood struggle, dream, and grow together as rapid modernisation transforms their lives beneath the shadow of the newly rising Tokyo Tower.

Always - Sunset on Third Street

2005

Kamome Diner poster
7.4

On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her.

Kamome Diner

2006

Always: Sunset on Third Street 2 poster
7.1

A year has passed in postwar Tokyo, and struggling writer Chagawa enters the Akutagawa Prize competition in hopes of securing a better future for the boy in his care, while the Suzuki family unexpectedly take in a new relative who looks down on their humble way of life.

Always: Sunset on Third Street 2

2007

The Choice of Hercules poster
7.2

When radicals from Japan's Red Army took a woman hostage in the resort town of Karuizawa, Nagano in 1972, Officer Atsuyuki Sassa was put in charge of diffusing the situation. But the task had its challenges. Upon arriving in mountainous Nagano, Sassa had to compete with freezing winter temperatures, conflicting opinions between the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the Nagano Prefectural Police, as well as public opinion to gain entrance to the lodge that held the single woman captive.

The Choice of Hercules

2002

Glasses poster
7.1

An overworked career woman leaves her life in the city for an island vacation only to encounter eccentric local inhabitants.

Glasses

2007

Yoshino's Barber Shop poster
7.9

In a small town on the countryside, every young boy is forced to have the same bowl-head haircut known as the "Yoshino-gari" hairstyle. Then one day, a drastic change occurs when a transfer student with bleached hair comes from Tokyo.

Yoshino's Barber Shop

2004

Pool poster
5.9

A story of 6 days with 5 people gathered around a small sparkling pool at Chiang Mai in Thailand. 4 years ago, Kyoko started to live in Thailand and has been working in a Guest house outside in Chiang Mai, leaving her mother and her daughter Sayo, in Japan. Just before the graduation of University, Sayo sets foot on Thailand to visit her mother with mixed feelings. However, emotional experiences with the people living there changes such feelings toward her mother.

Pool

2009

Love Is Five Seven Five poster
7.5

A haiku club comprised of five unlikely students aim to win the national high school haiku tournament.

Love Is Five Seven Five

2005

Nekonade poster
7.5

The highly disciplined human resources manager Taro Onizuka starts to heal and change as he raises the kitten he found in a park.

Nekonade

2008

Hanada Shonenshi the Movie: Spirits and the Secret Tunnel poster
4.5

Ichiro Hanada is a mischievous boy who gains the ability to see and talk to ghosts after a near-death experience. (live-action adaptation of the manga )

Hanada Shonenshi the Movie: Spirits and the Secret Tunnel

2006

1990s · 9 titles

Gemini poster
6.6

When his mother's untimely death quickly follows his father's, a doctor begins to believe a killer may be targeting him and his amnesiac wife.

Gemini

1999

Jubaku: Spellbound poster
6.2

When a major bank is caught paying off a corporate extortionist, the media and prosecutors begin to dig, breaking open a money-and-favours scandal that threatens to rock the entire structure of business and government to its core. While the bank's top executives continue to vacillate, a quartet of middle-management reformers, led by straight-arrow Kitano (Koji Yakusho), decide to stage a boardroom coup and install a new, clean management team. With the aid of a hotshot news anchor (Mayumi Wakamura) and a hard-nosed prosecutor (Kenichi Endo), heads begin to roll.

Jubaku: Spellbound

1999

Round About Midnight poster
7.0

While on a cigarette break in between sets, Koji, a jazz musician, witnesses a murder and runs into a girl, Linda, who is being pursued by the killers. Mistakenly identified as prime suspects, they have to solve the crime but time is running out: Koji has to be back to perform in his club by midnight, as a very special guest will be attending.

Round About Midnight

1999

Many Happy Returns poster
6.9

A young man named Kazuo Takayama runs across a religious group whose founder cures an old woman in a wheelchair, restoring her power to walk by a simple touch. Kazuo grows more interested in this new religion and tries to get more followers.

Many Happy Returns

1993

Last Friends poster
5.5

Following the lives of three college rugby players drafted to serve in the military during WWII. Though they believe their service will help to benefit their loved ones back home, they are unprepared for the hardships of war. Through their shared trials and sacrifices, they grow closer as friends, and hope to return together to better days. This movie was released in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII.

Last Friends

1995

The Exam poster
8.0

Togashi, an enthusiastic marathon runner and his wife are occupied with their daughter Mayumi's grade school entrance examinations, but he becomes jobless when his company folds. To regain his confidence Togashi decides to join the marathon that is taking place on the very day of his daughter's examination and the all important interview.

The Exam

1999

Yamai wa kikara: Byôin e ikô 2 poster
6.0

A comedy about a young woman who has terminal cancer.

Yamai wa kikara: Byôin e ikô 2

1992

After All, I Love Cats the Three Onda Sisters’ Great Kyoto Troubles poster
NR

1990 Original Video

After All, I Love Cats the Three Onda Sisters’ Great Kyoto Troubles

1990

Sharan-Q no enka no hanamichi poster
NR

Comedy feature.

Sharan-Q no enka no hanamichi

1997

1980s · 6 titles

Series credits

The Pride of the Temp poster
8.1

Oomae Haruko is an A+ Temp worker who never cracks a smile or minces words, and leaves work on the dot. But her cynical nature indicates she has something painful to hide. Satonaka Kensuke has just been promoted to head S&F's new Marketing Division. Saddled with a rag-tag group of subordinates, he is struggling to lift his division off the ground. When Oomae is placed in Kensuke's department, she finds herself doing more work than she's ever done before. This is a timely drama that examines the different attitudes toward temp workers and regular employees, and the ways to overcome frictions in interpersonal relationships. This follows an October report on labor conditions by the Labor Ministry, which showed that, after regulations were relaxed, the proportion of regular employees to Temps had doubled compared to that of eight years ago.

The Pride of the Temp

2007

Karin poster
NR

A young woman Chiaki whose family runs an old miso company in Nagano Prefecture, the only daughter of old traditional family. For generations, they were making soybean paste for living. Now she needs to take over this business and rebuild it. She lives through the hardships of postwar Japan.

Karin

1993

The Golden Piggy poster
7.5

Shinko (Ryoko Shinohara) is an accounting auditor who chases after tax evaders and embezzlers that hard working citizens needlessly pay for. Shinko has a knack for solving cases without common sense or standards.

The Golden Piggy

2010

Quartet poster
8.0

Maki Maki, Sebuki Suzume, Beppu Tsukasa and Iemori Yutaka happen to meet and form a quartet. They even begin to live together in Karuizawa during the winter, but there is a big hidden secret.

Quartet

2017

Shining Brightly poster
5.0

The job of a medical jurisprudence involves a lot of complicated crimes such as murder and accidents. Hikaru (Fukatsu Eri) is a graduate of a medical university, also focused her discipline on neurology. One night during a student reunion, a dead body was found in the kitchen. Hikaru, who is a little regretting that she choose her focus in neurology was moved by another doctor's words, Dead bodies will not tell us what happened, that is why we have to piece together its last words.(Dramawiki)

Shining Brightly

1998

One-Pound Gospel poster
7.0

Hatanaka Kosaku is a talented boxer who turned pro at the age of 19, winning his debut match with a first round KO. He is talented, but he has no guts. His uncontrollable appetite is an even bigger problem. He can't put himself in the right weight class, he runs out of energy because of hunger, and he gets knocked out while his eyes are set on food at the ringside. However, Kosaku's life changed when he met Sister Angela, a novice nun in the convent near his boxing gym. She became the source of his power, and Kosaku fights only to win her heart.

One-Pound Gospel

2008

Pension Metsä poster
5.0

Tenko runs a pension alone. The pension is located in a forest in Nagano, that is full of the Japanese larch tree. She interacts with her guests, who come from all walks of life.

Pension Metsä

2021

Sakura Momoko Land: Taniguchi Rokuzo Shoten poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Sakura Momoko Land: Taniguchi Rokuzo Shoten

1993

Bread and Soup and Cat Weather poster
6.4

Akiko lives with her mother, but suddenly her mother passes away. Since then she quits her editing job and takes over her mother's small restaurant. At the restaurant there's only two items on the menu: sandwich and soup.

Bread and Soup and Cat Weather

2013

Fukigen na Gene poster
8.0

Yoshiko Aoi is a budding researcher in ethology, the study of animal behavior. "Men=male" are born unfaithful. But through her studies, Yoshiko learns it's not the males' fault. Rather, it's the fault of their genes, who work to replicate themselves by controlling the males' body. This is the sad, but commonly accepted theory of biology. What's even sadder is that Yoshiko's nickname is "Gene," because her name written in Chinese characters can also be read as "Jinko/Geneko." The love story follows Yoshiko's struggles with research and romance. -- Fuji TV

Fukigen na Gene

2005

Beginner poster
6.3

No synopsis available yet.

Beginner

2003

NonNonBa poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

NonNonBa

1991