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© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 32 movies from Bungeishunju
Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director, still unable, after two years, to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, accepts to direct Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, appointed to drive his car. In between rides, secrets from the past and heartfelt confessions will be unveiled.
Aug 2021
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.
Nov 2022
Seiji Hasumi is a popular English teacher in a private high school. He is also a violent and sociopathic killer who concocts an extreme plan to deal with the rise of bullying and bad behavior among the student body.
Nov 2012
Hamaji, a young huntress from the mountains, stumbles into the middle of a shogun’s vendetta against a group of human-dog hybrids, the Fusé. Rumors of Fusé murdering innocent people in the bustling city of Edo have sparked a bounty for their heads. Along with her brother, Hamaji joins the hunt for this dangerous quarry, but after accidentally befriending one of them, Hamaji is torn between two worlds: her life as a self-reliant huntress, and the young woman her new friend has helped her to uncover.
Oct 2012
Shun Fujishiro is a psychiatrist and works at a university hospital in Tokyo. He is engaged to Yayoi Sakamoto. One day in April, when he is about to marry Yayoi Sakamoto, he receives a letter from his first love Haru Iyoda. They dated 10 years ago. Suddenly, his fiancé Yayoi Sakamoto disappears.
Mar 2024
A group of boys and girls, twelve in total, gather at an abandoned hospital to die for various different reasons. There, they find the body of a dead boy. The group of twelve attempt to find the person who killed the boy. During their search, the reasons why they want to die are revealed.
Jan 2019
The year is 1987 and Japan is just reaching the peak of its economic success. Eighteen-year old Yonosuke Yokomichi arrives in Tokyo from Nagasaki. Ordinary in every way possible, he lives in a suburb far from the excitement of the big city and commutes to a university in the center of Tokyo.
Feb 2013
Masaharu Fukuyama reprises his role from 2008's "Suspect X," playing the physicist-cum-detective Manabu Yukawa. The scientist-sleuth arrives in an oceanside town to speak on a panel. But when a man turns up dead outside the inn where he's staying, Yukawa begins to unravel the connections that tie the victim to the activist daughter of the innkeepers, and a precocious boy who first appears on a train—and keeps popping up. It's a Sherlock Holmes mystery with an environmental twist, and one that should please fans of a classic whodunnit.
Jun 2013
Set in Shizuoka and Tokyo, Japan in the late 1980's. Takkun is a university student in Shizuoka attempting to find a job. Mayu is a dental hygienist. They meet through a blind date and begin to date, but Takkun finds a job in Tokyo and goes there. They begin a long distance relationship, but their relationship breaks down.
May 2015
The story centers on a man who loves movies, having once worked at movie studio in pursuit of his dreams, surrounded by great directors and famous actors. In this tale of love and friendship spanning a lifetime, the "god of cinema" that Go has worshipped since he was young will transcend time, and work a miracle in the lives of one family.
Apr 2021
Set within the fictional city of Mahoro, Keisuke Tada runs a "benriya" - a general problem solver for hire. His assistant is his former high school classmate Haruhiko Gyoten. A big crisis then occurs for them.
Oct 2014
Diagnosed with dementia, Yuriko's mind quickly begins to fade. Yet, for her son Izumi, memories of the mother feel as vivid as when he lived them. One in particular, when he believed she had disappeared, haunts him terribly.
Sep 2022
After losing their restaurant in a fire, a husband and wife come up with a strange plan to rebuild their shattered finances: marrying the husband off to a series of lonely women and defrauding them.
Sep 2012
From coworkers to close friends, Konno and Hiasa drift apart. When Hiasa goes missing, Konno must face what he didn’t say in time.
Dec 2019
High school student Naoki Tomura grew up in a remote area in Hokkaido. He meets piano tuner Soichiro Itadori in school and eventually decides to work at Itadori’s musical instrument store. Tomura gradually grows as a piano tuner through his interactions with the other tuners and musician clients
Jun 2018
A man is immobile and incapacitated, but has professional and nonprofessional volunteers serve and help him. Though, he takes full advantage of the situation and uses and abuses the volunteer crew.
Dec 2018
A recently widowed writer whose wife died in a bus crash comes to terms with his grief—or lack of it—in caring for the children of a working man who also lost his wife in the same accident.
Oct 2016
6 months after the earthquake disaster in Sendai City, Nakagaki Kazumasa is a young man who has lost his job. He encounters a dog named Tamon on its dog tag, who lost its owner in the earthquake disaster. Kazumasa decides to take Tamon in, and the dog becomes attached to him and his family, but Tamon always seems concerned about something in the south direction. One day, while Kazumasa is involved in a dangerous incident, Tamon disappears. Later, in Shiga, Tamon is with Sugai Miwa, who has a sad secret. Kazumasa reunites with Tamon, and they start a new life together. Nevertheless, Tamon heads south because Tamon has a promise it wants to keep to a boy.
Mar 2025
Physicist Manabu Yukawa returns to Japan from America. Detective Kaoru Utsumi visits him and talks about a case. The case is about a popular girl in a town who disappeared and, several years later, her body was found. A suspect was arrested for her murder. That suspect was previously arrested for another girl's murder, but he was released due to a lack of evidence. Detective Shunpei Kusanagi investigated the prior murder case. The same suspect was then released due to a lack of evidence for the most recent murder case. The released man returned to his town, where everybody hated him. On the day of the autumn festival parade, the man was killed. Physicist Manabu Yukawa, Detective Kaoru Utsumi and Detective Shunpei Kusanagi work together on his case.
During the Heian period, Abe no Seimei trains in magic but lacks interest, until a collaboration with Minamoto no Hiromasa arises to solve a strange phenomenon.
Apr 2024