The best Yoriko Douguchi’s drama movies

Two Jesuit priests travel to seventeenth century Japan which has, under the Tokugawa shogunate, banned Catholicism and almost all foreign contact.

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.

Swallowtail Butterfly takes place in an alternate Japan, in a ghetto where immigrants from all over the world have come to live and make their fortune. The city is called Yentown, and it is much like Tokyo. Sixteen-year-old Ageha, a young girl whose mother has just died, is passed on from person to person until a prostitute named Glico finally takes pity on her. Under Glico's care, Ageha has many experiences with the other poverty-stricken immigrants in Yentown. Eventually, due to a sudden twist in fate, the immigrants are given a chance to realize their dreams. But in doing so, they destroy their solidarity, and have to face their problems separately.

A seasoned detective is called in to rescue a politician held hostage by a lunatic. In a brief moment of uncertainty, he misses the chance for action. Leaving his job and family without explanation, he makes his way to a mountain forest, encountering a peculiar tree called Charisma.

The film stars two of Itami's regular actors, Nobuko Miyamoto as a geisha who brings luck to the men with whom she sleeps, and Masahiko Tsugawa as her unfaithful, sometimes partner. As well as showing her relationships with the man she loves and the men who employ her, it satirizes corruption and the influence of money in Japanese politics.

Kyohei Nagashima (Masaki Okada) has shut away the world. During his high school days he was the target of bullying and experienced horrifying moments. Now as a young adult Kyohei takes a new job. He works for a company that specializes in cleaning out the homes of recently deceased individuals. With his new job Kyohei meets co-worker Yuki (Nana Eikura). Yuki has also experienced a traumatizing event as a teen and has also shut herself away from the world. These two young people form a bond as they go through the homes of the recently departed people. They gradually open up to each other and in the process to the world. Yet, their fragile psyches may or may not be ready for such changes ...

In a small backwater in Northern Japan, self-assured Shigeru and shy Shinji are best friends since childhood. Shigeru, an aspiring hobby painter, adores the seemingly unapproachable flutist Haruyo Kikuchi from afar, and secretly paints her portrait for a national contest. His friend Shinji has a crush on Hitomi, the daughter of the local grocery shop, who, for her part, likes Shigeru since he once cared for her in a critical situation, while they were kids. When Shigeru learns that his shy friend doesn't dare to talk to Hitomi, he decides to help him, asking Hitomi to go out with Shinji. But when Hitomi admits her love for him, Shigeru's youthful hormones are beginning to run wild, with a disastrous outcome.

Yutaka was fourteen years old when he was run over by a car and fell into a coma. Now, ten years later, he wakes up and realizes that his family is not intact anymore: father, mother and sister live at different places. Yutaka decides to re-open the pony farm that his family once ran.

Ryoko Itakura returns as the government tax agent willing to tackle the toughest cases. This time she takes on a fanatical but lucrative religious cult run by a vile lecher.

An old man falls into a coma and dreams about his childhood during WWII.

A quiet killer is looking for a room. The real state agent, shy and expressionless, guides him through Tokyo, towards the ruins the decadent economy has left behind, in hopes of finding The Room.

Maki Yoshioka is a novelist and mother. She has been experiencing writer's block. One day, she gets into a disagreement with her neighbor Miwako Wakata over a futon. Maki gets harassed by Miawako increasingly more as the days pass. She decides to write about Miwako Wakata in a novel, but this has unexpected consequences. The small quarell becomes a media sensation.

After Japan's defeat in WWII, "Pandora no hako" follows a young man named Risuke (Shota Sometani) who has contracted tuberculosis. He travels to the countryside to a unique nursing facility to receive treatment for his disease. At the sanatorium all the patients and nurses go by nicknames and Risuke decides to reinvent himself as Hibari. During his stay, Hibari develops realationships with other patients and nurses. After Hibari's friend Tsuikushi (Yosuke Kubozuka) gets discharged from the nursing facility, Hibari writes to him about his relationships with Dakesang (Mieko Kawakami) the chief nurse and Mabo (Riisa Naka) another nurse that is bright and seems to like him.