The best Ryō Iwamatsu’s comedy movies

The story of a teenage boy named Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while working as an "up-skirt" photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing - which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian - dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with the guilt that's a legacy of his Catholic upbringing.

Leading a lazy life, Fumiya has been a university student for 8 years and owes money to loan sharks. One day, a man named Fukuhara comes to collect the loan, which Fumiya cannot pay. So Fukuhara makes a proposition: He will cancel the debt as long as Fumiya agrees to walk with him across Tokyo to the police station of Kasumigaseki, where he intends to turn himself in for a crime he deeply regrets. Not having much choice, Fumiya accepts the deal. Thus begins their journey which will lead them to various unusual encounters, most of all with themselves.

Being a failure as a teacher and a familyman, Shinichi tries to escape everyday live by dressing up as "Zebraman", the superhero. Although the TV series whas canceled after only 6 episodes, this cannot stop him from acting out his escape fantasy in a self made zebra-suit. He get's more then he could ever wish for, when his black-and-white dressed alter-ego seems to be the only thing to stand between absolute (green) evil and a happy ending.

Suzume Katagura is an bored housewife, she spends her days doing chores and taking care of her husbands pet turtle. One day she sees an wanted ad for spies, hoping for some excitement she decides to give them a call.

The life of a student named Kanou is transformed when a tiny man informs him that Earth will soon be annihilated. Kanou decides to do just as he pleases with the time he has left, leading to strange adventures that could be real -- or just a dream.

Ryoro Kurojima (Sadao Abe) is the director of a Tokyo apology center. His job is to teach others how to apologize. Ryoro Kurojima solves problems by using his apology techniques on anything from simple arbitration to a national crisis.

Laid-back baby boomer Yuichi (Ryo Iwamatsu) is a middle-aged manga artist and singer-songwriter when he isn't at his salaryman day job or watching out for his elderly mother. Suffering from increasing dementia since her husband's death, Mitsue (Harue Akagi) is a constant source of comic energy or annoyance for Yuichi, and he and his son must soon decide if they should put her in a home for the elderly. Jumping back in time, we see how Mitsue (played by Kiwako Harada) tracked the tumult of the latter half of the 20th century, being raised as one of 10 brothers and sisters, surviving the war, and having to push her alcoholic husband (Ryo Kase) along in life. "Pecoross" is directed by the oldest active film director in Japan, Azuma Morisaki, who creates an emotionally complex work that is only the more profound and life-affirming for its cartoonish portrayal.

Four strangers (a verbose romantic, a human lie detector, an expert pickpocket, and a woman with a preternaturally precise sense of time) are brought together by chance when they inadvertently team up to thwart a bank robbery. Recognizing the potential of their combined talents, they decide to form a bank-robbing gang themselves, just for the fun and romance of it. Their heists are played out swiftly and coolly, less like robberies than performance art. Eventually, the foursome's good-natured crime streak is interrupted when a man from one of their pasts creates a whirlwind of extortion and double crossing.

After being forced to resign from her publishing company job when her magazine goes out of circulation, office worker Haname Jinchoge (Kumiko Aso) is given the name of her real father-Noburo Jinchoge when her mother (Keiko Matsuzaka) falls into a coma after nearly drowning in a pond while searching for kappa. Unsure if Noburo (Morio Kazama) is her father, Haname decides to visit him but tells him that she is a distant relative, he happens to be the shopkeeper at an odd antiquities shop called Light Bulb Co., working for her father is a punk rocker named Gas (Ryo Kase).

A 20 something girl Yoshiko is having sex with her boyfriend when a shocking telephone call arrives - grandpa has passed away. The lightning from clear sky doesnt derail only the life of Yoshiko but summons the rest of the dysfunctional Haruno family to the ancenstral country house to pay their respects to the deceased - and unleash their quarrels between themselves and with the world at large.

A free-spirited psychiatrist exudes a magnetic attraction for patients with out-of-the-ordinary neuroses and odd conditions brought about by stress.

Six friends, who hanged out together during their high school days, gather again after 5 years for a friend's wedding. The six friends are: Kazuki Yoshio, Tetsuya Akashi, Taku Sogawa, Taisei Tajima, Yusaku Mizushima and Kinichi Fujita. At the wedding, the friends perform an embarrassing dance routine for the bride and groom. The friends reminisce about their high school days and they believe their friendships will last forever, but...

A re-imagining of the classic Japanese comedy "Yaji and Kita's Travel Journey", this is the story of two samurai in Edo period Japan who are in love. One is married, the other is a drug addict. They decide to go on a trip to Ise Sanctuary, where it is presumed everything will be made right. What happens once they get on the road is as wild and wacky as anything your likely to see.

A freelance writer is given a bizarre assignment by the sexy editor of "Black Book Monthly": find a bug with the power to bring humans back from the dead, in order to report on the afterlife. With his trusty companion Endo in tow, he sets off on a quest for the elusive insect and along the way meets the mysterious Sayoko, a former dominatrix and habitual wrist-cutter who delights in rubbing wasabi into her wounds.

Hitomi Takagi (Fumika Shimizu) and Akako Honda (Rena Matsui) are members of comedy duo “Akako to Hitomi.” The created the comedy duo about 5 years ago, but they are still not very popular. Everyday, they perform manzai to a regular audience in a corner of a small theater. One day, Hitomi and Akako catch a middle school student trying to steal Hitomi’s bicycle. Since then, their fate as a female comedy duo begins to change.

Hitoshi Nagano, who works at an electronics store, picks up a cellphone left behind by a customer and goes about a scam. He calls the person's mother and pretends to be her son. He then gets the mother to transfer money to his bank account. Soon, Hitoshi gets a lot more than he bargained for.