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Browse 52 movies from Mainichi Shimbun
A factory explosion plunges a small town into a timeless freeze, leaving teenage Masamune and his pals to grapple with a quickly collapsing reality.
Sep 2023
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
Goro briefly returns to Japan after a triumphant campaign in the US. He is heading towards Fukuoka where he played baseball when he was a fifth grader. Having just moved into a new town, this is where Goro faced a critical point in his life.
Jul 2008
The background to and depiction of a watershed battle in Japanese history, at Sekigahara in 1600, when Tokugawa Ieyasu's Army of the East defeated the Army of the West of Ishida Mitsunari. The story includes the intrigues and shifting loyalties of the various retainers, family members, and samurai.
Aug 2017
A down-and-out schoolteacher receives the calling to become the real life personification of an old television superhero, Zebraman.
Jan 2004
It is only at their sister's and mother's funeral when a woman meets her niece after many years. The niece is now a grown girl. The sister takes on the task of informing the deceased's friends of the death while the daughter cannot bring herself to symbolically accept the demise of her mother. In the midst of all this an old flame messages the sister to say he is still in love with her, but is he messaging the living sister or the dead one?
Jan 2020
A detective in Toyama is forced to confront his painful past when he takes on a murder case involving his two estranged childhood friends.
May 2017
Hironoshin is a samurai of the Echigo-Nagaoka clan. One day, Hironoshin attends a party at a mansion in Edo where his lord, Tadakiyo is invited to recite poems. Hironoshin is asked to give his opinion and foolishly comments that the piece was plagiarized. Infuriated, Tadakiyo orders Hironoshin to live his life without honor as a ‘cat flea picker', which is in fact a pseudonym for a male prostitute. The honest and straight-shooting Hironoshin convinces himself that he has no other options, and resigns himself to live as a sex worker. Hironoshin becomes an apprentice to a flea-picker boss who encourages him, convinced that Hironoshin is exacting revenge in the guise of a prostitute.
May 2018
Moon Child follows a group of childhood friends as they advance in a futuristic criminal underworld. Sho feels he is doomed to walk in his idol Kei's footsteps as a vampire with the gift of eternal life and the curse of blood thirst. Over time, their tight friendship becomes corrupted because of their rivalry and love for the same woman.
Apr 2003
How have you been? Takeshi's letter is delivered one each month to his younger brother, Naoki. Takeshi is serving a life term in prison for the crime that he had committed to save his brother. But the crime's aftereffect extends to Naoki, and, branded as a "murderer's brother," Naoki is deprived of his love, career and dream. His desperate situation gradually changes when he finds true love with Yumiko, who always stands by him. To protect the love that he has finally found, Naoki begins writing a letter to Takeshi... The touching story of a man who was powerless against his irreversible fate, but still tried to overcome it in the quest for his dream.
Nov 2006
When dead people starts returning to the small Japanese town of Aso, government official Kawada is dispatched to uncover the “truth”.
Jan 2003
One day a puppy comes to the house of Akari, who has just turned twelve, and was trying hard to act strong after her mother suddenly fell ill. She immediately falls in love with the puppy and names it "Socks" after the paws which looked like they had white socks on. Akari was together with Socks day and night. However, as Akari grows up, her feelings and interest moves away from Socks. Year by year, their distance grows, which also leads to her physical distance as she moves to a far off city, and must leave Socks behind to a childhood friend. One day, Akari remembers the 10 promises that she had made with Socks and her deceased mother...
Mar 2008
Set in the 19th century, "Moeyo Ken" follows the life of Toshizo Hijikata. He was the vice-commander of the Shinsengumi and fought against the Meiji Restoration.
Oct 2021
Michiko Oshitani, who lived in Shiga Prefecture, is found dead at an apartment in Tokyo. She was strangled to death. Mutsuo Koshikawa is the owner of the apartment and he goes missing. Detectives including Yuhei Matsumiya who is a cousin of Detective Kyoichiro Kaga , have difficulties in solving the case. They can't find a connection between Michiko Oshitani and Mutsuo Koshikawa. They soon learn that Michiko Oshitani came to Tokyo to visit Hiromi Asai . They graduated from the same school, but there isn't a connection between Hiromi Asai and Mutsuo Koshikawa. Detective Yuhei Matsumiya finds something near Michiko Oshitani's body. That something has the names of 12 bridges surrounding the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. Detective Kyoichiro Kaga learns of the clue and becomes agitated. There's a connection with his late mother
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. Risking their own lives, local villagers are able to rescue 69 Turkish sailors. Although being very poor and having hardly to eat, the villagers share what little they have with strangers from a country 9,000 kilometers away. 95 years later, during the Iran-Iraq War, more than 300 Japanese are stranded in Tehran. In the morning of 19 March 1985 a Turkish Airlines aircraft takes off for Tehran to evacuate the Japanese. But the remaining Turks at Tehran Mehrabad Airport still need to be convinced that they won't be able to board their own country's rescue flight.
Dec 2015
Yuzuru Hamura is a university student and a fan of mystery novels. Against his will, he was forced to join the school's mystery club. The club is led by Kyosuke Akechi. Meanwhile, Hiruko Kenzaki appears in front of them. She attends the same university and she is also a private detective. These 3 people attend a summer camp and stay at Shijinso pension in the mountains. On their first day there, they must barricade themselves in the pension. The next morning, they discover a murder has taken place in the pension.
Dec 2019
During the Edo period, a gifted swordsman was exiled from his clan when he questioned the misconduct of his leader. Years after, his dying wife wish was for him to go back to his clan.
Sep 2018
Nobumasa Tsuboi (Yo Oizumi) runs a small factory in a small town. He has a daughter Yoshimi Tsuboi (Riko Fukumoto) who suffers from a congenital heart disease. A doctor tells Nobumasa Tsuboi that his daughter will only live for about 10 more years. Nobumasa Tsuboi is devastated that his daughter won't live past the ago of 20. Nobumasa Tsuboi and his wife Yoko Tsuboi (Miho Kanno) cannot accept the diagnosis. Even though he has no medical knowledge or experience, Nobumasa Tsuboi begins to study about artificial hearts.
Jun 2024
Female students, including Hikari Tomonaga, from a high school cheerdance club follow strict instructions from their teacher Kaoruko Saotome. They compete at the USA Cheerdance Championship.
Mar 2017
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