Ayako Kobayashi

Japanese film icon Ken Takakura, who has starred in over 100 films, stars in this elegiac look at war and remembrance. Hideji Yamaoka (Takakura) was a suicide pilot during the war who somehow survived Japan's surrender. After decades of working as a fisherman in ...  (more)

A young girl named Oshin is sent to work for another family, because of her own family's financial condition. Nevertheless, the young girl lives strongly.  (more)

This story is based on the novel "Jo no mai" by Tomiko Miyao which is based on the life of painter Shōen Uemura (1875–1949), the first woman to be awarded the Order of Culture. The title refers to the masterpiece bijinga ("picture of a beautiful woman") that Uemura ...  (more)

Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World" wafts through a hospice recreation room. Sitting at the grand piano is a young girl, Chiori, with a prodigious ability to play any piece of music after one hearing. Keisuke Kisaragi whose career was abruptly cut short ...  (more)

Tatsumura Yusuke, Toho Advertising's deputy sales manager was a childhood friend of Akiko and Katsuya. In fact, there is a secret that cannot be divulged about the relationship between Akiko and her father and the truth behind his death between these three people. ...  (more)

Two historical incidents that deepened the friendship between Japan and Turkey are connected in this story of friendship and compassion: In the night of 16 September 1890 the Turkish frigate Ertuğrul is caught up in a typhoon and sinks off the Japanese coast. ...  (more)

A runaway cat-loving girl begins a love triangle with a reckless older man and a young biker in high school. The film follows their subsequent chaotic relationships.  (more)

Oshin comes from a family of poor rice farmers. Her father and brother must work in the fields and her grandmother and mother, who is expecting another child, barely have enough to eat. In order to make ends meet for her family, 7-year-old Oshin gives up school and ...  (more)

The samurai Akiyama Daijiro is asked to help a young boy who tries to bring the man who murdered his father to justice. In the course of their quest they uncover a plot by one of the clan officials that could change the course of history.  (more)

Master swordsman Akiyama Kohei’s simple life in retirement is jarred into violent sword action when he meets an elderly fencing instructor who may be the target of a group of thieves planning a major armed robbery. At the same time dojo master Daijiro saves the ...  (more)

Chiyo, a 59 year old mother of 4, had lost her husband seven years ago. She will soon lose her home so she is offered by her eldest son, Ryoichi to live with him and his family. But her children are disappointed to hear that Chiyo has decided to become a live-in ...  (more)

The Time of Your Life has an ordinary man at its heart. Desperate to feel different and to find a real human connection in a world consumed by social networks and mass advertising, the man embarks on a journey through rooms representing different milestones in his ...  (more)

Based on a novel written by Sumithra Rahubadda.  (more)

Noushin is a single mother who lives by her girl alone and has a peaceful life but when a foreign guy enters their life everything changes for them and new secrets reveal.  (more)

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A "Goze" is a blind entertainer who travels to various places singing stories while playing the shamisen (Japanese three-stringed lute). Becoming a goze due to her blindness at seven-years-old, Haru was strictly trained with a parent's affection by her once kind ...  (more)

A film adaptation of the great hit memoir of Shimada Yoshichi 'Saga no Gabai Bachan' which sold a total of 6.7 million copies for the entire series. He directed and wrote the script for this film. This tear-jerking and side-splitting work depicts the days of a boy ...  (more)

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At the strong insistence of his father, Ushimatsu Segawa conceals his origins from a “buraku” area of low-class “untouchables,” leaving his hometown to serve as an elementary school teacher where he excels and is loved by his students. But he constantly struggles ...  (more)

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