Tsutomu Yamazaki

High and Low

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

Kagemusha

A feudal epic presenting the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. The impostor becomes comfortable living his life among nobility, but his responsibilities to his station grow more demanding the longer he occupies it.

Departures

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.

Red Beard

Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.

The Honest Realtor

Hotshot Nagase Saichi is Tosaka Real Estate’s top realtor. He lies through his teeth and will stop at nothing to seal a deal. One day, he disturbs a monument located at a construction site. Cursed with the inability to tell a lie, he is forced to run his mouth off with things that are better left unsaid. With so many angry clients, he's got no hope of surviving as an honest realtor.

Three Sisters

The Story is about three daughters of a "Hatamoto" during the end of the Edo period and the Meiji Restoration.

Tasukenin Hashiru

Roosevelt Game

Based on the same-titled novel by Ikeido Jun (the writer of Hanzawa Naoki series), the drama unfolds against a backdrop of economic recession. Hosokawa Mitsuru is the current president of the core-precision tools manufacturing company, Aoshima. He was personally recruited from another company by the company's founder, Aoshima Takeshi. Needless to say, this move was not well-favored by the existing management who themselves were vying for the job. Not long after Mitsuru joined the company, the global financial crisis caused the economy to slump, and Aoshima was certainly not exempted from the ill-effects of the slump, which was accentuated by fierce competition within the industry. Realising that he needs to stem the company's cashflow crisis, Mitsuru proposes to sell the company's baseball club. However, his proposal is opposed by all the other top management, especially Sasai Kotaro, a long-serving employee who feels that he should have been promoted to President instead of Mitsuru. Mikami Fumio, who is the baseball club's manager, also tries to foil Mitsuru's plans of selling the club. Amidst all the enmity of the long-serving management, and also sabotage from a rival company, Mitsuru has to find a way to save the company from its downfall...

The Black Swindler

Kurosaki is a vigilante who scams criminals to rectify their misdeeds, driven by his father's attempted suicide after being deceived by criminal mastermind Toshio Katsuragi, who cost Kurosaki his family.

Tampopo

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.

Blade of the Immortal

Manji, a highly skilled samurai, becomes cursed with immortality after a legendary battle. Haunted by the brutal murder of his sister, Manji knows that only fighting evil will regain his soul. He promises to help a young girl named Rin avenge her parents, who were killed by a group of master swordsmen led by ruthless warrior Anotsu. The mission will change Manji in ways he could never imagine.

A Taxing Woman

Intrepid tax investigator Ryoko Itakura sets her sights on the mysterious and philandering Hideki Gondo, a suspected millionaire and proprietor of a thriving chain of seedy hourly hotels, who has for years succeeded at hiding the true extent of his assets from the Japanese authorities. Itakura and Gondo soon find themselves engaged in a complicated, satirical battle of wits.

Sketchbook of Early Spring

A home drama questions the modest happiness of the ordinary petty bourgeoisie through the life of a salaryman and his family.

The Funeral

When Wabisuke's father-in-law unexpectedly dies, the family goes through a series of random events and occurrences as the funeral unfolds over three days in their home.

Samurai Kids

With the help of a six-inch-tall ancient samurai warrior, a lonely young environmentalist finds self-confidence and new companionship in protecting Japan's beautiful naturality from human mismanagement.