The best Michitaka Tsutsui’s drama movies

The time: 1814. The place: Edo, now known as Tokyo. A much accomplished artist of his time and now in his mid-fifties, Tetsuzo can boast clients from all over Japan, and tirelessly works in the garbage-loaded chaos of his house-atelier. He spends his days creating astounding pieces of art, from a giant-size Bodhidharma portrayed on a 180 square meter-wide sheet of paper, to a pair of sparrows painted on a tiny rice grain. Third of Tetsuzo's four daughters and born out of his second marriage, outspoken 23-year-old O-Ei has inherited her father's talent and stubbornness, and very often she would paint instead of him, though uncredited. Her art is so powerful that sometimes leads to trouble. "We're father and daughter; with two brushes and four chopsticks, I guess we can always manage, in a way or another."

This movie is a political/espionage thriller, based on a real kidnapping incident of Korean politician, Kim Dae-Jun.

In 1943, as Japan's WWII effort falters, a vice-admiral proposes training squadrons of "volunteer" flyers to crash their armed planes into Allied warships. Yarn follows the lives of kamikaze pilots, as remembered by an aging Kyushu restaurateur who cherishes their memory. Honoring the dead and multiple military anthems may stir the soul of some Japanese, but elsewhere auds will make a one-way trip for exits. Battle scenes are well-executed and script delivers some memorable scenes, but overall competent helming and thesping are powerless over writer-cum-Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishiara's repetitive storytelling. A post-war postscript adds considerable length to an already over-extended narrative. Tech credits are good quality.

Every night, Master (Kaoru Kobayashi) is busy with customers at the restaurant he runs. He has a worried face, looking at the funerary urn which someone left at his restaurant. His customers also talk about the funerary urn.

Based on the plot of an award-winning Crayon Shin-chan animated movie from 2002, a boy named Shinichi (Takei) does the time-traveling and meets a feared general named Ijiri Matabei (Kusanagi). Ijiri is in love with Princess Ren (Aragaki) who subsequently rejects an arranged marriage to Okura Itakatora (Osawa), a powerful daimyo of northern Kanto. Enraged by the rejection, Okura sends a large army to Ijiri's smaller state and it's up to Shinichi to change their destiny.

Bem, Bela and Belo arrive at a new town plagued by a series of mysterious, unsolved cases which, as they discover, are caused by another youkai, one more powerful than they have ever encountered. The story will also focus on Belo's first love, and his increasing desire to become human. In the meantime, Bem and Bela have found a way to become human, but are conflicted about whether to let just Belo turn human, or along with Belo, become humans themselves.

Two sets of parents divorce and marry each other, while their children Miki and Yuu are caught in the middle and start falling for each other.

Shoko and Mutsuki get married to satisfy their worried parents, but she is well past the age at which a 'good' Japanese woman should marry, and he is in love with a young male college student. The film is less a realistic exploration of gay life than a fairy tale of three young Japanese trying to construct an alternative to the sexual and familial roles given to them by a society turning increasingly emotionally barren.L.

A visibly pregnant Yuko returns home to find her family still grappling with the recent passing of her mother, Emiko, while her father becomes increasingly withdrawn and her older brother hopelessly combative.