Best movies like A Living Promise

A straight young woman living in Tokyo becomes involved in the lives of a gay man and his married lover.

In Fujisawa, Sakuta Azusagawa is in his second year of high school. Blissful days with his girlfriend and upperclassman, Mai Sakurajima, are interrupted by the appearance of his first crush, Shoko Makinohara.

When Chihaya Ayase was in the 6th grade of elementary school, she met Arata Wataya. Arata Wataya transferred from Fukui Prefecture. Taichi Mashima was Chihaya Ayase's friend since they were little. Arata got close to Chihaya and Taichi from the card game karuta. Four years later, Chihaya is a high school student. Chihaya learns that Arata, who went back to Fukui Prefecture, doesn't play karuta anymore. Believing they will meet Arata again, Chihaya and Taichi starts a karuta club at their high school.

Two brothers are plunged into the realm of psychic horror, one tormented by a stalker, and the other involved with a girl whose home is the site of eerie occurrences.

Several friends travel to Sweden to study as anthropologists a summer festival that is held every ninety years in the remote hometown of one of them. What begins as a dream vacation in a place where the sun never sets, gradually turns into a dark nightmare as the mysterious inhabitants invite them to participate in their disturbing festive activities.

Kisaragi Hazime and Akahata Satomi, workers of Mihara City Hall in Hiroshima prefecture will try to recover the lost popularity of their official city mascot : Yassadaru Man and boost its image again.

Jiro Sawada is a sophomore in high school when a false accusation drives him out his hometown: a small village in Fukushima Prefecture. The entire village is abandoned after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, but Jiro returns there to live. Before long, members of his family come and join him.

Minako (TANAKA Yuko), begins her day running up and down the hills of her hometown delivering milk door to door. When that's done, she heads to her day job as a supermarket cashier. Minako is 50 and single. In one of the houses to which she delivers milk is a man with whom she has secretly been in love since high school. The man, Keita (KISHIBE Ittoku), lives with his wife Yoko, who is terminally ill. Caring for her at home, he works in the children's affairs section of the local municipal office. Though he insists that he wants nothing more than an "ordinary" existence, his life is in turmoil below the surface. The director uses a variety of narrative devises to portray the loneliness, isolation, and hope of these people who have seemingly allowed their goals and dreams to slip away, whilst keeping them agonizingly close to hand.

Clannad is set in a high-school located in some Japanese town. Okazaki Tomoya is a third-year student who doesn't take his studies seriously. Always late for class, he's seen as a delinquent by the rest of his classmates who are busy preparing for their entrance examinations. Needless to say, he hasn't too many close friends either.

Kurumi suddenly gave up opening a cafe with her friend. She hears that her grandfather Takeshi collapsed and goes to visit him in her hometown of Sendai. Takeshi entrusts Kurumi to open a cafe which closed temporarily due to the earthquake, but Kurumi doesn't know what to do. Takeshi hopes Kurumi finds her own way to live. There's not much time left for Takeshi and Kurumi.

Izumi (Kento Hayashi) was abandoned by his parents. He now commits burglary, targeting women and the elderly. He is chased by the cops. While on the run, in the mountains of Miyazaki Prefecture, he helps an injured elderly woman, Suma (Etsuko Ichihara). Izumi then stays at Suma's home. At first, Izumi keeps an eye for money that he can steal. The people though in the village think Izumi is Suma's grandson and take care of him. A change takes place in Izumi.

High school student Jinta is a hikikomori and lives in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. One summer day, when Jinta is absorbed in a video game, a girl suddenly appears in front of him. The girl is Jinta's childhood friend Meiko, but it seems impossible because Meiko died on a summer day. Meiko wears the same white dress when she died, but she looks a little taller. She tells Jinta that she has a wish and that's why she came back as a ghost, but Meiko can't remember what her wish was. To grant Meiko's wish, Jinta along with his friends Atsumu, Naruko, Chiriko, Tetsudo and Meiko gather together for the first time in 7 years. Jinta soon realizes that he is the only one able to see Meiko.

Melody, high powered corporate workaholic for a retail conglomerate, is happy to spend the holidays jet-setting with her girlfriends. However, she's in for an unpleasant surprise when her boss sends her to her sleepy hometown to convince the reluctant townspeople to allow them to build a new discount store. Now, forced to reconnect with her family and her childhood sweetheart Carter, her task is not so simple, as all are vehemently opposed to everything Melody's company stands for. Desperate to get out of town and back to her real life, Melody takes a spill and wakes up in an alternate universe where she never left home and is married to Carter! Once determined to leave her small town life behind, Melody must make sense of her new life and decide if you truly can go home again. - Written by ABC

Tatsuhiko Shiratori works as a scout, recruiting girls to work in the adult entertainment business. He movies to Yokohama from Shinjuku, Tokyo. He comes into conflict with Masaki Taki who is the CEO of a scout company.

In 20XX, Japan is full of Cyborgs. Human developed Artificial Intelligence JUDA to protect the Earth. However, JUDA started to attack humans since humans were planning a nuclear war and they are the real enemy of Earth. The fight between Human and Cyborgs flattened Japan. A military company started developing a secret weapon. Before its completion, the weapon was stolen. If the weapon is completed, there would be a final war. Vigilante “Resistance” sensed the danger and stood up. Meanwhile, people were turned into a Murder Weapon after their death. Those cyborgs include Chris had lost their memories. One day Chris has a fateful meeting with a mysterious girl Sara. However the mysterious girl Sara was the final weapon SARA.

Walküre and Delta Flight used music to save people from the Vár Syndrome, a previously unknown disease that made humans and others go berserk. However, they find themselves facing a new threat.

Inspector General Kanjuro Sano conspires with the future shogun twin brother. They replace Ieyoshi Tokugawa with his twin, but it becomes a problem when suspicion arises and Nemuri Kyoshiro gets involved.

Finally, the day of Mai's high school graduation has arrived. While Sakuta eagerly waits for his girlfriend, an elementary schooler who looks exactly like her appears before him. Suspicious, and for all the wrong reasons... Meanwhile, Sakuta and Kaede's father suddenly calls, saying that their mother wants to see her daughter. She was hospitalized because Kaede's condition had been too much for her to bear, so what could she possibly want now?

Akinori Kimura (Sadao Abe) and his wife Mieko (Miho Kanno) opens an apple orchard in their hometown of Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture. Due to Meiko's allergic reaction to pesticides, Akinori Kimura has to grow his apples without the aid of chemicals. Because of this challenge, his family endures hardships and suffers severe financial difficulties. Akinori Kimura even contemplates suicide. A miracle then happens...

A beginning editor, Odamachi, slips back in time to the year 1973 and meets Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka, then, is out of luck. He has failed in animation business. His company has gone bankrupt. He has declined in popularity. Tezuka in front of Odamachi is in the miserable situation. Still Tezuka never loses his energy for creation. He cuts out sleeping and continues drawing manga. Odamachi is gradually involved in such Tezuka’s energy and encounters various people who support Tezuka, including Kabemura, an editor who trusts and waits for Tezuka till he finally receives manuscripts. Fun and excitement of creation are surely in Tezuka’s atelier. Focusing on how “Black Jack”, the watershed work for Tezuka, is created, and how Tezuka challenges to make animations again. The drama depicts Tezuka’s way of life. ~~ Based on manga series "Black Jack Sousaku Hiwa - Tezuka Osamu no Shigotoba kara" by Yoshimoto Koji and Miyazaki Masaru.

Tamao Hatenashi is a 26 year old actor. Due to his unhinged imagination however, he gets an erection each time he acts, rendering him virtually unhireable. In spite of his problem, his luck takes a turn for the better when a fellow actor friend by the name of Maebari introduces him to Gonza, the CEO of a pink movie production company, and who immediately takes a shine to him. Buoyed by seeing his name printed on a movie script for the first time, Hatenashi immediately makes his way to the pink movie set. Upon arriving, he meets Yumika, the movie’s lead actress. Smitten by her kindness, he soon falls head over heels in love with her. As such, Hatenashi is horrified when he discovers that Yumika has been abducted from the set by a suspicious group of men, leaving only her panties behind. In order to track her down, Hatenashi immediately heads to Shimbashi, Tokyo in search of a legendary detective.

Hiwa Natsunagi is a high school student living in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture. Worried about what to do with her life after graduation, she spots a poster for Spa Resort Hawaiians the “Hawaii of Tohoku” the place where her sister Mari used to work and applies to their new dancer (hula girl) campaign on a whim. Despite her lack of experience, Hiwa is accepted for the job, and starts on the path towards becoming a Hula Girl with her classmates, Kanna, Ranko, 'ohana and Shion. However, unable to keep in step with one another due to their differing personalities, their first stage ends in disaster. Called the “most pitiful rookies ever” the girls are disheartened, but they learn to share the good and bad...and strengthen their bond despite the occasional fumble. With their hearts and minds firmly set, the girls grace the stage once more.

Eiji Akutsu is a newspaper reporter. He is working on unsolved case that took place 30 years ago.The case involved a group of people extorting several companies for money. The group sent cassette tapes to the companies. Eiji Akutsu comes across a mysterious cassette tape. Meanwhile, Toshiya Sone lives in Kyoto and runs a tailor shop. He discovers a cassette tape among his late father's possessions. He plays the cassette tape and hears his voice from his childhood days.

Shunsuke Kawamura works for a real estate company. He is usually first at first when it comes to sales. He is respected by his boss and colleagues. Shunsuke is also set to marry the daughter of the CEO of his company. His life is going great by every metric one can think of. On the day before his wedding, his colleagues hold a surprise party for him. On his way home from the party, Shunsuke falls into a deep manhole. When he wakes up, it is late at night and he struggles to get out of the manhole. His wedding is also fast approaching.

A man is involved in a fatal car accident, and though he is blameless, his company transfers him to a remote branch in a small town. Before he leaves, he gives the man's widow a large sum of money that she uses to move back to her hometown.

I is a university, who came to Tokyo from his hometown. I lives alone and doesn't have friends or a girlfriend. I's university life is boring and he doesn't have a dream. I supports himself by working as a day laborer at a construction site. I meets two people at a hide-and-seek club. One is his Senior and the other person is Black Suit. By meeting them, I's boring life changes. They start the "Midnight Maiden War," which is their plan to destroy Tokyo.

Ito Marika stars as the lead in this 2022 SP that tells the story of a group of friends, who run a food wagon serving sandwiches made with local produce, and their interactions with a farming family that they meet in Takasaki City in the Gunma Prefecture. TV Tokyo has teamed up with Takasaki City, Gunma in order to showcase a series of programs and dramas that are part of its efforts towards creating programs aimed at regional development in Japan. This will be its third production, following “Hatake Sono Manma Restaurant” in 2020 and “Nouka no Mikata” in 2021.

Won Jury's Special Award at the Turin International Film Festival of Young Cinema 1993

A large, dinosaur-like monster has risen from Tokyo Bay and attacked the city. As the government collapses into chaos, the people of a rural town in Fukui Prefecture, from whose perspective we see the entire movie, watch as the events unfold on TV. Some decide to run for their lives, some take it as a sign of the apocalypse, some go completely crazy, but most of the townspeople wait and watch, and wonder where the monster will head next.

Yasuko Matsuyuki heads the cast of this drama about a 40-something woman who is happy with her single life but nevertheless starts dating a man who is 24 years her junior.

Sachi Hamano's Yurisai (Lily Festival) is about a man (Mickey Curtis) in his seventies who comes to live in an apartment building that also houses seven elderly women. The film examines the ladies' sexual desires as the man proceeds to woo each of them. Kazuko Yoshiyuki portrays one of the female residents. The film was adapted from a novel by Houko Momotani and was screened at the Montreal World Film Festival.

Acclaimed director of Summer of Chirusoku, Half a Confession and Yunagi City, Sakura Country Kiyoshi Sasabe casts Rin Takanashi and Takumi Saitoh as members of the farming industry. The Sowing Traveller 3 tells a universal story of the cherished act of growing fruit. Ayane is conflicted about coming back home because she feels it’s a setback. Filming took place in Akaiwa, Okayama prefecture, a peach growing area with lots of sun and fertile soil. Along with the harmony of daily life that the local people have with nature, an important feature of the film is its beautiful landscapes.

Shinichi Tsuda, a Naoki Prize winning author, is working to publish his newest story. It revolves around Tsuyama, a driver for a call girl business in Toyama Prefecture, who comes across a mysterious counterfeit bill and has his life targeted by underworld kingpin Kurata. Is his story fact or fiction? His editor, Nahomi Torikai, decides to verify whether his latest work is mere fiction based on real-life experiences. She looks into a family that vanished, a post office worker who went missing, a shady load of cash, the whereabouts of the doves, and the fateful encounter from that night... A series of shocking facts are revealed from Tsuda’s stories. Why did the counterfeit money end up in Tsuda’s hands? What is the “ending” that Tsuda wished to portray?

Chief Detective KIMURA Denbei, fondly referred to as Smoky Denbei, is a legendary figure at the Metropolitan Police Department. Transferred to Denbei's Criminal Investigation Division 1, Detective KUMADA Tomekichi arrives from the Toyama Prefectural Police. KUMADA is disconcerted by Denbei's position that murderers nowadays do not need a plausible motive, but gradually adapts to Denbei's unusual methods of investigation.

Masaru Okunishi is a prisoner who has been on death-row for over 40 years. In 1961, 5 women died from drinking poisoned wine in a small village gathering in Nabari City in Mie Prefecture. After his arrest, he appealed his innocence on the grounds that the police coerced his confession. He was found not guilty in the first trial. However, it was overturned and he received a death sentence in the second trial, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1972. Since then, Okunishi has continuously appealed for retrial, fighting against the horror of capital punishment. This TV dramatization of the Nabari Poisoned Wine Case depicts Okunishi in an isolated cell, his mother’s unwavering belief in his innocence, and the effort of people who have rallied to Okunishi’s defense.