Bright Sea

Famed onnagata (a man who plays women's parts in Kabuki) Tamasaburo Bando follows up on the success of his directorial debut, Gekashitsu, with this soft-focused romance about love and obligation, based on a novel by Kafu Nagai. Set during the Meiji period (1868-1912), Kaede (Sayuri Yoshinaga) is the former mistress of a wealthy merchant. When he dies, she is forced out on the street and forced to give up her young daughter to the merchant's family. The film opens with her working in a high-class brothel abutting Tokyo Bay. Though she has passionate affection for a drug wholesaler, whom she loves as well, Kaede is swamped with not only debts to the bordello and family obligations -- she is expected to support her parents and her sister -- but also guilt over losing her child. This pain is only increased when Kaede learns that her daughter is being abused. She does the only thing she can: She buys back her child by signing on at the brothel for a longer stint.

Nobuko (Sayuri Yoshinaga) works in Nagasaki, Japan as a midwife. Her son died 3 years earlier from the atomic bomb. On August 9, 1948, her son appears in front of her again. Since that time, Koji (Kazunari Ninomiya) appears in front of her and they reminiscence about pleasant times. These happy, but bizarre moments seem eternal.

A story of a shopkeeper and his ex-wife, lives full of tragedy.

A bookish college student dismissive of athletics is compelled to try out sports to win the affection of the girl he loves.

Aspiring to be admitted to a good university and to become a lawyer, Tasiro Yuusuke, a tenth-grader from Kyushu, enrolls in a prestigious high school in Tokyo. Plans are made for him to live in his uncle's house, part of which is rented out while his uncle is abroad on business. A realtor's mistakes leaves Tasiro sharing the house with Kei Yamaba, the most beautiful girl in the school, who is also his classmate. There is the risk that their unexpected 'co-habitation' will be discovered by the school authorities.

A well-respected professor who is a celebrated novelist and loving husband loses himself when he becomes obsessed with an ambitious and talented student.

This bittersweet comedy tells the tale of a group of college roommates attempting to cheat their way through their exams. As the title goes, things don't work out for our roguish main character, but his classmates soon find themselves in a similarly sorry state...

From a true incident that happened in 1960s Japan. This drama is contemporary in setting but medieval in its characters and emotions as it focuses on a tangled web of murder and deceit encountered by a beautiful woman, Kayo (Sayuri Yoshinaga) after her abusive husband is murdered.

In the years after his graduation Allen Shepherd has become a successful novelist and has married Jane Anderson. A firm proponent of traditional sex roles, Shepherd leaves Jane when she accepts a teaching post at Oxford. He later changes his views, and the couple is reunited.

Sawako worked as an emergency physician at a university hospital. Due to to a situation, she returns to her father Tatsuro's home in Ishikawa Prefecture. She then begins to work at the local Mahoroba Clinic. She works with the clinic director Toru, Nurse Mayo and staff Seiji. Seiji, who worked with Sawako at the university hospital, followed her and works with her again. Mahoroba Clinic provides home healthcare to patients. Sawako visits the patients' homes and provides treatment there. At first, she has a hard time due to the different system. She becomes acclimated to the different system and finds a way to deal with the patients, their lives, and their families. --asianwiki

Final part of epic drama about war and its effects upon human beings, follows the fortunes of the Godai family through the Sino-Japanese War through the Soviet Union's sudden attack upon Japanese troops at the end of the war.

During his idle journey on the Izu Peninsula, a university student, Kawasaki, encounters a group of traveling entertainers – including Kaoru (Sayuri Yoshinaga), one of the “odoriko”. Kawasaki is taken and cannot take his eyes off her. When he is invited to stay at the same lodgings, the two grow closer. In time, the two come to learn the pain of love.

Takanosuke Ushio and Tae Horikawa are unable to forget each other, even though they met and fell in love 20 years ago. They had promised each other that they would build a retreat in Shiguretei, but Ushio was hospitalized after a stroke a few days later, and when his wife, Takako, rushed to the hospital, she discovered their love affair, which in reality had not gone beyond kissing. Now, 20 years later, against the advice of her ikebana mentor, Tae rushes to meet Ushio at Shiguretei, only to see him clutching his chest in pain. Eventually, the design and plans for the dream retreat are seen by Tae, but she has to visit Kyoto alone... or maybe she's heading for somewhere else.

A high school boy and girl in the midst of their youth try to get their parents to remarry.

Seiji (Yasuyuki Sakurai), who dropped out of high school, was aiming for high school graduation and university entrance exams, thanks in part to his private tutor Chieko (Sumire Nagai). Chieko is an active female college student, and Seiji's age and home environment are close, so her mother, Fumie (Handa Sasa), pours her excessive interference into her son. It made me hate. One day, Fumie discovers that her classmate Midori (Miu Kiritani), who likes Seiji, is about to have her first experience with Seiji, and she is furious. She even ripped the two apart with her insane protests to Midori's parents. A few days later, Seiji, who has cut off his relationship, promises to meet Midori in the park at night, but Fumie quietly follows Seiji, who has left home...

After spending graduation night together, Emma and Dexter go their separate ways — but their lives remain intertwined.

Follow the lives of a group of teenagers living in the upscale, star-studded community of Beverly Hills, California and attending the fictitious West Beverly Hills High School and, subsequently, the fictitious California University after graduation.

Laura Hollis, a newly enrolled college student at Silas University, shares a room with Betty, who mysteriously disappears all of a sudden. Little does Laura know that after this fateful night, nothing will be the same in her life, starting with meeting her new roommate from hell, Carmilla Karnstein. "Carmilla" is a single-camera, scripted transmedia series that puts a modern spin on the cult classic Gothic vampire novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. It's a story of a young woman’s susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire.

Itsuki Hashima is a light novelist obsessed with little sisters, strictly focusing on them when he writes his stories. Despite his personality, he's surrounded by a tight circle of friends, including a beautiful genius writer who loves him, a big-sisterly college classmate, a fellow male writer, a sadistic tax accountant, his editor, and Chihiro, his perfect younger step-brother who takes care of the housework and cooking. As the story progresses, the underlying conflicts of dreams and goals surface, as each character attempts to achieve their dreams, in their own way.

Dr. Dylan Reinhart, a gifted author, university professor and former CIA operative is lured back to his old life by tenacious top NYPD Detective Lizzie Needham. Though Dylan and Lizzie initially clash, when it comes to catching killers, they make an ideal team.

With the first place in a university business competition and a father running a time-honored leather bag store, Yusuke Tsuruta is in the "outstanding" category among university students. After graduation, Yusuke decides to start a business with his classmate Kengo Sato. After declaring that "Company is not school!", he works hard every day to make his business successful.

It is said that "the style of work reflects a person's way of life." This documentary program closely follows top-notch professionals and thoroughly delves into their work. Since its premiere in January 2006, it has observed individuals at the forefront of their respective fields, such as Ichiro (Major League Baseball player), Sayuri Yoshinaga (film actor), Haruko Niitsu (janitor), Ken Takakura (film actor), Kasumi Ishikawa (table tennis player), Hikaru Utada (singer-songwriter), Kumamon (local government employee), and Yoshiharu Habu (professional shogi player).

Hitori Bocchi, a girl with extreme social anxiety, has had only one friend throughout elementary school. When Bocchi learns they'll be split up after graduation, she makes a promise to her: "By the time of my middle school graduation, I'll make friends with everyone in my class." And if she can't... they won't be friends anymore?! But Bocchi has a hard time talking to people. When she gets nervous, her legs cramp. She can't look other people in the eye. She doesn't even know how to make friends! Every way she thinks of to make friends ends up failing. Will her friend-making plan pay off?!

Fourteen-year-old Suzuki Iruma has just been abandoned and sold to a demon by his irresponsible parents! Surprisingly, the next thing he knows he's living with the demon who has adopted him as his new grandson and has been transferred into a school in the Netherworld where his new demon grandfather works as the principal. Thus begins the cowardly Iruma-kun's extraordinary school life among the otherworldly as he faces his true self, takes on challenges, and rises to become someone great.

A young man has college and a failed business behind him. Unemployed and planning his next steps he is lodging with is mother, a small business owner. His sister and her family also move in with the two, albeit temporarily. She sees him as a loser and a lush and wants him out. She also whispers in their mother's ear to ask him to leave the house in order to find his own way and begin the rest of his life. She probably has noble intentions, but is she right and will she succeed?

After college, Rikuo Uozumi, a boy without much ambition in life, takes on a job at a convenience store. The days pass by uneventfully for Rikuo until he meets his former girlfriend and classmate, but especially thanks to the unusual Haru Nonaka, and her pet raven...

Two college students, Frances and Bobbi, forge a strange and unexpected relationship with a married couple.

Author Tarō Obika is an obsessed single father who loves his daughter so much, he decides to go to the same college. Nicknamed Gatarō, he was widowed when his wife died of an illness and has raised his only child Sakura all on his own. Things are about to change drastically as Sakura prepares to enter a coeducational university after going to an all-girls school all her life. Worried sick, Gataro enrolls not only in the same school, but also in the same department, and the madness begins! Unable to control his anxiety, he sticks his nose in her every business, from classes to extracurricular activities, parties, dating events, cultural festivals, part-time jobs, and everything else college kids do. But as the 40-year-old middle-aged dad gets involved in the youthful pursuits of Sakura and her colleagues, he finds himself enjoying life even more than them.

Depicting Date clan’s internal strife that occurred during a peaceful Edo period governed by the 4th Tokugawa shogun.

The 24th NHK Asadora. Starring Senri Yamazaki as a woman who makes her life at a fishing port.