Best movies & TV Shows like Karin

A documentary film showcasing life in postwar Japan as seen through the eyes of a bar hostess.

Ryosuke lives in a small house in Toshima, Tokyo. Since his wife died, he has adjusted to living alone. He used to teach at a university and he now works as a translator. Meanwhile, Ryosuke has one child, Yuriko. She is married to Shigeyuki, who works as a teacher. Yuriko and Shigeyuki live in Azumino, Nagano Prefecture. One day, Yuriko visits her father Ryosuke without advance notice. Ryosuke is surprised by her sudden visit. Yuriko doesn't give any reason for the visit. Ryosuke only learns that Yuriko isn't sure how long she will stay. They haven't talked as father and daughter in a long time. They begin to live together in a nervous, but warm atmosphere.

Anzukko (Little Peach) is the daughter of a successful writer. She turns down each one of her suitors, until she marries a beginning writer named Ryokichi. Their life quickly sinks into despair.

Three patients of different backgrounds, illnesses and stages are being treated at a psychiatric clinic in Nagano Prefecture. Their cases range from the criminal to merely asocial. That should be that, but soon matters take a darker turn when a corpse turns up and a murder has occurred. The culprit fingered is one of the patients.

A high school girl, Sei Saotome, unexpectedly is transferred to an elite high school in Nagano prefecture due to her parents' house-moving. One day, she meets Mizuki and Taiyo, and is invited to join astronomy club with them. The personalities of two boys are completely opposite from each other. Sei, Mizuki and Taiyo struggle with sorrowful and impatient love-triangle...

The seven secretaries who consist of the "Shadow Army" enjoy peaceful days. They receive a new request from Koichi Ogata, who runs a ramen restaurant in Nagano prefecture. He is furious at land development that is carried out by Alps Raicho Group. The Alps Raicho Group and their Alps Raicho Resort are run by the Tsukumo family. That family exerts tremendous influence around the region. The Tsukumo family seem like a well mannered family, but, in reality, they are a vicious family who will do anything for their own interests.

Ohisama is a Japanese television drama that aired on NHK in 2011 in the Asadora time slot. Set in Nagano prefecture, "Ohisama" covers the life of Yoko Sudo (Mao Inoue) through World War II. Yoko Sudo with her smile is able to bring brightness to those around her & she follows her mother's motif to laugh through the hard times. During the onset of WW II, Yoko is a high school student and "Ohisama" follows her as she eventually becomes a teacher and then gets married and has a child. Yoko then opens a soba restaurant with her student. --asianwiki

Hyuga began his career with a website he built out of interest. Later, he developed an IT company and became a billionaire while Makoto encountered a lot of hardships in job hunting. Their personalities were radically different. Even though they faced a lot of conflicts ever since they first met, they were gradually attracted by each other and went through a lot of things together.

Amachan is the 88th 2013 NHK asadora written by Kankuro Kudo (Tiger and Dragon, Unobore Deka). It's about Amano Aki (Nounen Rena), a 16 year old girl from Tokyo who goes to her mother's former home in Sodegahama, a fishing village in Kitasanriku, Iwate prefecture for the summer break. She falls in love with the sea and its people, and decides to stay on to become an Ama (women divers who fetch clams and sea urchins for tourists) just like her grandmother, Natsu (Miyamoto Nobuko). Her decision is welcomed wholeheartedly by Natsu and the other locals. However, her mother Haruko (Koizumi Kyoko) does not like the idea at first. She has a strained relationship with Natsu, and her extreme dislike of the sea, diving and the countryside is one of the reasons why she left her hometown 24 years ago. Eventually, she decides to stay in Sodegahama with Aki, considering that she is contemplating on getting a divorce anyway and does not want to go back to her husband in Tokyo. She also notices that it might be good for Aki for she seems livelier and happier in Kitasanriku than in Tokyo. The road towards becoming a full-fledged Ama-san is tough for Aki as she encounters tests and hurdles. One day, a video of her as an Ama gets uploaded in the city's tourism website, transforming an ordinary high school girl into an overnight Internet sensation. Suddenly she is called upon to use this opportunity to attract tourists to a city suffering from depopulation.

Saburo Sugimura works for the PR department of a company which his father-in-law Yoshichika Imada runs. One day, Yoshichika Imada tasks Saburo Sugimura with work regarding a man named Nobuo Kajita. A complicated story unfolds from the request.

Mare is an elementary school student. She lives with her family in the city, but, right before her father goes bankrupt, they run away and settle down at a fishing village in Noto. The family rents a couple's home who run a salt pond. Mare's father starts a new business, but it also fails. Her mother supports the family by working at the salt pond. 8 years later, Mare, about to graduate from high school, decides to work for the Wajima local government. She wants to have a steady job, unlike her father. Her job is to support people who move to Noto.

Taeko, works at a foreign-affiliated financial firm. Takeo finds herself rebuilding a small company that was recently taken over. She soon encounters conflicts with the workers there, who are working to develop geothermal power as a future energy source. Takeo at first views her assignment as a demotion, but she devotes her in making the small company profitable. The drama is based on the novel "Maguma" written by Jin Mayama.

Towards the end of the Edo era, in the town of Kyoto, there lived a wealthy merchant by the name of Imai Tadamasa. He was blessed with 3 children, Hatsu, Asa and Kyutaro. His eldest, Hatsu, was a traditional girl who loved to play the koto and sew. Whilst his second daughter, Asa, was an impish hoyden who loved sumo wrestling. Asa was engaged to be married to the second son of a distinguished family who ran a money changer business in Osaka, Shirooka Shinjiro. Although Asa was furious when she had first heard about the betrothal, when she met up with Shinjiro for the first time, his charisma greatly attracted her and she fell in love with him in no time.

In 1930 and as a young child, Tsuneko Kohashi lives at Enshu in Shizuoka Prefecture. She has a happy life with her parents and two younger sisters. Things change after her father dies from tuberculosis. Her father asked Tsuneko Kohashi to take care of the family in his place. Due to financial difficulties, her mother Kimiko decides to move the family to Tokyo where Tsuneko's grandmother lives.

The 77th NHK Asadora is Chiritotechin. Location includes Fukui prefecture. This renzoku is about Wada Kiyomi (referred to as Kiyomi-B), a girl brought up in Fukui who moves to Osaka in search of her soul. In Osaka, Kiyomi-B becomes enchanted with rakugo, a Japanese traditional form of comic storytelling, and pursues a career in rakugo. In the summer of 1982, Kiyomi-B and her family move to Obama of Fukui, her father's hometown. Kiyomi-B's grandmother and uncle welcome the family, but Shotaro the grandfather does not allow Masanori to take over the Wakasa lacquer chopsticks making. One day, Kiyomi-B listens to rakugo at Shotaro's factory and becomes fond of it. Shotaro and Kiyomi-B become close through rakugo.

The 69th NHK Asadora Drama, based on Rei Nakanishi's novel, is about the Iwata family living in Ikeda, Osaka City between 1950s and 1960s. The story is told through the eyes of the youngest daughter, Fuyuko. The family runs a bakery. The mother, Teruko, is a very energetic woman who is determined to make her dreams come true. Responding to Teruko's expectations, the eldest daughter becomes a figure skater and the second daughter becomes a very famous professional singer. In contrast, Fuyuko finds her joy in bread making.

Koichi Miyazawa runs a small, but longstanding company which makes tabi (traditional Japanese socks). He is the CEO of the fourth generation company with about 20 employees. Due to a decrease of demand for tabi, the company is struggling to keep afloat. Koichi Miyazawa thinks about launching a new product line. The new product is running shoes. For the company's surival, Koichi Miyazawa begins to develop running shoes using their accumulated knowledge for making tabi.

When Keisuke Nakamura was a high school student, his mother was accused of killing a girl and then his mother committed suicide. 12 years later, Keisuke Nakamura tries to find the girl's real killer and also take revenge upon those responsible for his mother's suicide. He targets people from the media who covered the case and he crosses paths with sisters who hold a key to what happened. Keisuke Nakamura falls in love with one of the sisters.

The setting of the drama takes place 10 years after the F4 graduated from Eitoku Academy. Edogawa Oto is the daughter of a former company president. Her life completely changed after their family business went bankrupt. Her fiance is Hase Tenma, the popular student council president of the rival school. With declining enrollment due to a recession and the rise of a rival school, Eitoku Academy is now ruled by the Correct5 whose leader is Kakuragi Haruto. The group seeks out, then runs out, any students whose families haven’t made appropriate donations to the school. When Haruto and Oto discover each other’s secrets — that Haruto buys self-help items to get stronger, and that Oto is poor and works at a convenience store – they promise to keep each other’s secret.

Suzume is a girl born to a family running a small restaurant in Gifu Prefecture. She loses her hearing in one ear from a disease. Encouraged by her loving parents and childhood friend, she lives through an eventful life with a tenacious spirit.

18-year-old Urano Suzu marries Hojo Shusaku and moves from Eba City to Kure City in Hiroshima Prefecture in the middle of the Pacific War. As Japan slides into a war it cannot get out of, the townspeople go on with their “ordinary” lives. Supplies are short, and family and friends get sent to the battlefield. Suzu and the Hojo family battle such anxieties as they try to live positively.

In a local shopping street in Nano prefecture, far from the metropole, young Tokino Mitani runs a clocksmith that she inherited from her grandfather all by herself. Her main job is to repair watches and clocks, but she is about to start a side business, a service to break alibis for a fee of 5000 yen per case with a guarantee that the fee is billed only when the alibi is broken. . One day, Tokino meets Yoshiyuki Saji, a detective who is newly assigned to the prefectural police department. Saji cannot break a very solid alibi at a case he is working on and secretly asks Tokino to break it. The case is very challenging, but will Tokino lead him to solve the case!?

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.

Takamine Hana is a super ace employee at a traditional confectionary company. Despite her elite look and high performance, Hana only has love skills of a fifth grader. Hana has recently fell in love with Yowaki Tsuyoshi, a young employee who always gets scolded. Can Hana make Tsuyoshi like her back? Will a love bloom between the two?

Haruto Narusawa, the president of a video game company, enjoys life in the affluent seaside town of Kamakura with his wife and daughter, who attends an elementary school. However, tragedy befalls this happy family when his daughter is kidnapped. Haruto must now face numerous hardships as he navigates through the complex web of human nature that begins to show its ugliness. The only way to save his beloved daughter is to take matters into his own hands without the police's involvement and, together with his wife, stand against the kidnappers. Can this family's story reach a happy ending? Or will theirs be a tragedy? This non-stop family suspense-thriller tests the bonds of a family facing life's worst nightmare.

The 57th NHK Asadora Renzoku Drama. Story's settings include Kobe and Sasayama. It is a story about the conflicts between generations and the relationships within families. A strong mother-daughter theme and a sister-brother theme exist.

This drama is the tale of one high spirited, strong-willed young woman and her struggle to fulfill her lifelong ambition of becoming a carpenter and building homes. The story takes place from the later part of the Showa era to present day Heisei rule. The heroine of the story, Kawashima Urara, lost her father at the tender age of seven and this drama depicts her life as she grows from a young school girl, through puberty and adolescence and on into her adult years as an independent woman who owns her own carpentry business. As Urara grows into a beautiful and strong woman and a talented carpenter, her family around her goes through many difficult and trying times. This story of becoming an independent businesswoman in the male-dominated world of carpentry accurately reflects the lives and struggles of the young women in present day Japan who are trying to make a career for themselves in addition to balancing the demands of family obligations, friends, and lovers.

Fight is a story about fifteen year old Yuu, whose family becomes separated after an incident involving her father's spring factory. With her undying spirit to "fight" off every obstacle arising in life, Yuu maintains her positive attitude and moves forward in hopes of the day when her family will reunite again.

Natsumi is the 23 years old daughter of a master baker in Yokohama and in training with her father to become a pastry chef. She lives with her parents and younger brother in Yokohama. One day she travels to Iwate Prefecture with her boyfriend Masaki for his grandmother Katsuno's 77th birthday. While they are there, Katsuno, head okami of a famous ryokan in Morioka City, becomes ill and asks Masaki to return to run the ryokan. Natsumi returns to Yokohama and later Masaki visits, asking her to disregard their earlier plans to get married because he will return to Morioka as requested by Katsuno. However, Natsumi surprises him with a vow to become the ryokan's okami. Is Natsumi in for clear skies as suggested by the series name?

The story is about a young woman who becomes a landscape gardener following her father's wishes. Wakaba, born and brought up in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, lived happily with her parents and younger brother until the Great Hanshin Earthquake shook and destroyed the city in 1995. In the disaster, Wakaba loses her father, who was an architect and moves with her mother and brother to Obi, old castle town in Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture, where her grandmother lives with her uncle and aunt. Living in Obi's rich natural environment, Wakaba learns that plants can heal people's hearts. She makes a resolution to return to Kobe and reconstruct the city abundant in greenery.

The 61st NHK Asadora Drama is Asuka. Set in Kyoto in the home of a traditional Japanese candy-maker, Asuka is the story of one young girl's dream to one day walk in her father's shoes and become a top candy-maker in the male-dominated world of wagashi (Japanese confectionery). Asuka grows to be a healthy, adventurous young girl with a deep curiosity and, a desire to become a candy-maker like her father. This NHK drama is one of the best in years with an excellent cast, a well-developed story based on extensive research into the traditional worlds of candy making and the tea ceremony in Kyoto, and beautiful scenery and settings in Kyoto and the surrounding areas.

The 12th NHK Asadora. Set in Amakusa, Kumamoto Prefecture, at the end of the Pacific War. Maki is the heroine, married to Shuichi who must go to war. She stays home and takes on the role of other war widows, managing business and a Chinese restaurant.

Starring Yōko Minamida as a woman who supported her family during and after World War II. All episodes are missing from the NHK archives, though a brief clip does survive as part of a contemporary news segment documenting the drama's production.

The 26th NHK Asadora. Shimazaki Kayo is a woman from Hagi, Yamaguchi, who joins the Takarazuka Revue, a Japanese all-female musical theater troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyougo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of Western-style musicals, and sometimes stories adapted from shoujo manga and Japanese folktales.

The story follows the Nakamori family in Yokote, Akita Prefecture, where half of the year is buried by deep snow.