Best movies & TV Shows like The Life of Despised Matsuko

Goldie returns from five years at the state pen and winds up king of the pimping game. Trouble comes in the form of two corrupt white cops and a crime lord who wants him to return to the small time.

While combing through the belongings of his recently deceased aunt, Matsuko, nephew Sho pieces together the crucial events that sank Matsuko's life into a despairing tragedy.

Breaking out of prison with a child in her womb and a dream of a normal existence, Arlene Holsclaw (Rebecca De Mornay) resolves to get a job and lead a good, Christian life. But the ghosts from her past -- including an ex-boyfriend (Rob Knepper) who wants to pimp her out and a sadistic mother (Ellen Burstyn) who plots to take away Arlene's baby -- have other plans. This made-for-TV drama is based on Marsha Norman's off-Broadway play.

A fast-paced, dark dramedy following six lovable degenerates, their terrible choices, often hilarious and tragic consequences, and unexpectedly interwoven lives.

Kida and Makoto grew up together because they have it in common that they don't have parents. And a transfer student, Yotchi, also gets along with them because she has a similar background, which is that they come from not such a good home environment. They spent their school life supporting each other. But, at the age of 20, Yotchi disappeared. Then Lisa, the daughter of a politician and a top model, appears in front of the two men. Makoto takes an unusual romantic interest in Lisa, who lives in a different world from them, and asked her out to dinner, but she does not take him up on it at all. Kida warns Makoto to give up on her because they live in different worlds, but Makoto quits his job and vanishes without a trace.

Noah, a farmer and family man, is instructed by an angel to build an ark in the middle of a desert in order to save both his family and the faithful from a devastating flood. A seemingly impossible task, especially when his sons refuse to believe him and help, Noah risks ridicule and humiliation from the degenerate townsfolk as well as his loving but exasperated family, in his quest to carry out his God-given task.

After being injured and doing a bid in prison due to Memphis, her former drug trafficking boyfriend, Sasha comes out into the arms of Malik. Malik spoils her with gifts and gets her a job at his real estate office. However, Malik constantly uses his gifts and her past against her to keep her in his grasp. A love struck Sasha falls head over heels for Malik who slowly attempts to alienate her from her close ones and secretly plots against her. Her therapist and unexpected new friends opens her eyes to her history of relationships and gives her advice on how to deal with them and getting her life back.

Bobby G. lives life on the edge in this real, raw New York street drama. Bobby is a small-time coke dealer, always on the hustle but rarely successful. He lives in Hell's Kitchen with his Puerto Rican girlfriend Lucy, who makes ends meet as a prostitute. A typical day finds Bobby selling $20 bags to neighborhood locals and passing cars. A yuppie kid looking to score a kilo of coke approaches him to broker a deal and Bobby sees the opportunity of a lifetime to make some real money. His rough days may just be over. With the tidy profit he could even leave the business. Playing out of his league, Bobby arranges to get the kilo from Astro, a fearsome, high-level drug dealer. Though Lucy announces that she's decided to go back to Puerto Rico and pleads with him to make a fresh start too, Bobby is sticking to his deal and isn't going anywhere now, convinced he'll be 'livin' large in a matter a' days...

Hana is a normal high school student, unsatisfied in her daily life. One day she had a dream and met a 10-year-old girl living in Sengoku Era. The girl lives hard with poverty and misfortune in that world and the two are going to have a sisterhood friendship. When Hana wakes up, she is taken away by the government special agency and subject to severe scrutiny about her dream. There is something called Akashic Record and the destinies of all humans follow that record. And the future record of all mankind is gone in a month. The key to solving the problem is the girl who appeared in Hana's dream.

Higashiyama Haruto is a 34-year-old Japanese history teacher who combines good looks with an honest and friendly personality. When he has been assigned to Nitaka High School, a school for advanced students, Haruto immediately attracts the attention of his female students. But he has a secret that he cannot tell anyone; he wants to be killed by a beautiful high school girl. Obsessed with such a bizarre desire, Haruto approaches four beautiful girls of different types, Maho, Aoi, Kyoko, and Aika, according to the perfect crime scenario he has devised. Who among the four is the high school girl that Haruto has been longing to be killed by for nine years?

Madison lands her dream job at a publishing company. To her dismay, she must complete a probationary period and will not receive her full salary until the process is over, leaving her in a financial struggle. With a new career and struggling to make ends meet, she works under the demands of her new job while raising two teens on her own. Making matters even more complicated, she finds herself torn between an old flame and a new love interest.

Akiko is a housewife who is bored with her relationship. She lives an adulterous passion with a colleague of her husband, decides to follow him to Hong Kong where he has just been transferred. Akiko's husband goes out looking for them, without success. Desperate, he lets himself be dragged into the underworld of the city by a mysterious Sino-Japanese mongrel who plunges him into drugs and pimping. Until the day he finally learns the terrible truth about his unfaithful wife.

Follow the relationships of a group of husbands and wives that live and love on the same street. While the neighbors come from very different backgrounds, their lives are similar – raising children, dealing with exes, worrying about money and keeping romance in their relationships. But just below the surface — secrets, lies and deception threaten to destroy what they have built.

She has a loving family and best friends, laughs and cries from time to time... Madoka Kaname, an eighth grader of Mitakihara middle school, is one of those who lives such a life. One day, she had a very magical encounter. She doesn't know if it happened by chance or by fate yet. This is a fateful encounter that can change her destiny. This is a beginning of the new story of the magical witch girls.

Beautiful and young, Ayami has a solid reputation as a dedicated and reliable elementary teacher, but her true character is solely clandestine. Ayami does not believe in love and trust, and her values make her oblivious to other people's matters. Almost devious, she is always scheming so she never has to deal with responsibility and troubles that spur around her. One day, a new student Yuiko enrolls in her homeroom class. It does not take long for Ayami to find out that Yuiko has an ability to predict the future through the dreams she sees in her sleep; dreams which are symbolic and require proper interpretation to understand the upcoming occurrences. But when Yuiko begins to have nightmares of people around them, Ayami, though unwillingly, must team up with Yuiko to try to change the tragic fate of those around them... But can they properly assess what Yuiko's nightmares truly mean and change what may already be destined?

Will Freeman lives a charmed existence as the ultimate man-child. After writing a hit song, he was granted a life of free time, free love and freedom from financial woes. He's single, unemployed and loving it. So imagine his surprise when Fiona, a needy single mom and her oddly charming 11-year-old son, Marcus, move in next door and disrupt his perfect world. When Marcus begins dropping by his home unannounced, Will's not so sure about being a kid's new best friend, until, of course, Will discovers that women find single dads irresistible. That changes everything and a deal is struck: Marcus will pretend to be Will's son and, in return, Marcus is allowed to chill at Will's house. Before he realizes it, Will starts to enjoy the visits and even finds himself looking out for the kid. In fact, this newfound friendship may very well teach him a thing or two that he never imagined possible - about himself and caring for others.

Shuji is a young teacher whose confidence and honesty has made him popular with the students. He is engaged to Natsumi, also a teacher at the same high school. At the morning of the new semester, Shuji wakes up with a hangover and no memory of the night before, and a strange young woman in his bed. He feels terrible about possibility of having cheated on his fiancée, but when it turns out the girl is a student in his class Shuji is wrecked with guilt. Things go from bad to worse when the girl, Hikari, makes it clear that she's in love with him and wants to break him and Natsumi apart. Shuji's honest nature makes him want to come clean to everyone about what has happened, but before he has the chance, the secret is out. As his life starts crumbling around him, Shuji still decides to try and save Hikari from herself.

A Japanese take on Notting Hill. Sosuke Nakata, is just your everyday salaried worker. There is really nothing special that stands out about Nakata. He is a serious guy, whose life mostly consists of going back and forth to the office each day. Suddenly one day though, Nakata just happens to meet a certain woman by coincidence-top star, Hikaruko Kirishima. Just by talking to her, Nakata is left standing feeling like he has just seen a dream. Several days later, Kirishima calls an emergency press conference. And there she announces..."I am now dating a gentleman by the name of Sosuke Nakata, a salaried worker, whom I intend to marry." An announcement about their "relationship," out of the blue! More than that, this top star's boyfriend is just your typical salaried worker!! What does Kirishima have up her sleeve as she hides behind her intrepid smile?! Nakata obviously has no idea about what happened at the press conference. He also doesn't know what lies ahead for him at work, and about Hikaruko's true intentions. This story, a somewhat funny, but romantic love story, follows the footsteps of a man and woman from very different worlds, as they experience the painful and sometimes remarkable ups and downs of love.

National tax investigator Matsuko Matsudaira is transferred to Tokyo office for chase Tax evaders. Her new style of chasing the taxe evader with going undercover make some problems with her colleagues and boss.

Life is simple for Sasamoto Sawa, a young housewife, but when the adulteress Takigawa Rikako moves into her neighborhood, so too does a new world of sophistication and sex. After Takigawa is nearly caught in the act, Sasamoto covers for her during the ensuing aftermath, unwittingly involving herself with a handsome teacher named Kitano Yuichi — and discovering her own desires for extramarital passions.

Nathalie Lapointe is in her early forties, a single mother of three with a successful career as columnist at a major newspaper. Just as she’s starting to think she might be able to pay more attention to her own needs, she gets terrible news: the cancer from which she recovered two years previously is back. How can she break the news to her kids? How can the family plan for the future with this sword of Damocles hanging over them? Despite the shock, life goes on. Nathalie must cope with evolving circumstances at the paper as well as at home. She wonders if she can allow herself to fall in love with her daughters’ school principal. As for her children, they must deal with their own teenage life challenges, all the while knowing that their mother may soon be gone. Nathalie’s best friend and neighbor is particularly hard-hit by the news: she’s already suffering from her husband’s infidelity and from the absence of her son, who is overseas. Nathalie’s misfortune also has a powerful effect on her three siblings. They must re-think their priorities at a time when all three are facing crucial choices in their emotional and professional lives. For Nathalie’s parents Janine and Gérard, her illness makes no sense. How do you face the very real possibility that your child will die before you?

Rika Inaba is a beautiful and strong-headed director at the Teito Television Broadcasting Company. Ever since she was young, she had dreamed of becoming the best news reporter in the business, but on into her fifth year with the TV station, she finds to her dismay she's been transferred to a lighter fare, information program where she is assigned to report on the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Meanwhile, Daisuke Sorai had just reached his long-sought goal of becoming an aerobatics pilot only to injure his leg, crushing his chances at ever becoming a member of the elite Blue Impulse flying team. He gets assigned to the force's public relations desk and subsequently finds himself attached to Rika in the role of attendant. Sorai and Rika differ on just about everything; their views, their mindset. But they share one thing: their childhood dreams have been shattered and they've hit a wall in life. From there, a mutual understanding begins to germinate, drawing them toward each other and toward the discovery of a new dream.

Emiri Yoshii begins work at a general trading company. Due to her family's failure in business, she had to give up her dream of earning a MBA in America. Now, she hopes to become an executive of a company. Emiri is sent to the general affairs department at the trading company. She freaks out when she learns that lower level employees have to wear uniforms and she has to deal with everything from changing light bulbs to ordering business cards. Nonetheless, she works hard to pay off her family's debt. Emiri then finds herself in the crosshair of coworkers. Senior female employees are perturbed that she doesn't drink coffee with them and skips their gatherings. Meanwhile, the male employees like working with her, but only when they need an attractive women for matters like entertaining clients. The male employees do not give her serious work. Emiri, who appears popular among the male employees, soon becomes an outcast among the senior female employees. She becomes fed up with her situation and takes action.

Junko Sakuraba dreams of working in New York, but she currently works as an English conversation teacher. She's about to have her 29th birthday. Junko Sakuraba works hard to achieve her dream, but New York seem far away. She has also not dated in a long time. Junko Sakuraba attends a funeral held at a temple. During the funeral, she makes a mistake and throws ashes onto a monk chanting a sutra. She feels apologetic and embarrassment. Later, Junko Sakuraba's family deceives her into going on a blind date. The man she meets on the blind date is Takane Hoshikawa. Her date is the monk whom she accidentally threw ashes on.

Suzuki Kanna is a powerhouse woman with single-minded devotion once she puts her mind to something. Working for a fashion designer, her dream is to someday design clothes that will make women everywhere amazingly attractive.” But her world begins to spin out of control when she discovers that her “loving” hunk of a husband, Rei, is having an affair! Meanwhile, her unreasonable boss dumps loads of work, her husband is a mama’s boy and her mother-in-law drops in unannounced to dote on her son and grandson, and all while Kanna is trying to raise a needy 4-year-old son, Reon. Pushed to a breaking point and battling the world alone, Kanna, however, isn’t one to run, bend or break. Instead, she girds herself for battle, stokes her inner fire and confronts adversity head on, chasing her dream in pursuit of happiness and fulfillment for herself and her son.

Esperanza Guerrero is a single mother working as a teacher at two schools, a state school and an elite school to provide for her two teenagers, Pedro and Patricia. Ricardo Alegría, a married father with two young children, works as an Interpol agent in Los Angeles. Seeking to capture a sleazy jewellery thief known as ‘La Sombra’, he infiltrates the private school where Esperanza is employed and masquerades as the teacher of the criminal’s son. Esperanza and Ricardo are reunited following a 20-year separation and fight to rekindle their love.

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.

University student Sogawa Ichika inherits 5 trillion yen from her father all of a sudden and attempts are made on her life by his siblings. The avaricious family has struck a deal to let the person who kills Ichika first have all the money to himself or herself and tries all means to take her life. Ichika’s housekeeper hires the investigator Chikumagawa Hikaru, who has a perfect record of solving cases before they happen, to protect her.

When Hikari Morimura was 11-years-old, she dreamed of becoming a musical actress. She was close with a musical actress, but the actress was murdered. Her older brother Kunihiko was dating the actress and he was arrested for her murder. Hikari Morimura left her hometown and changed her family name from Morimura to her mother's maiden name of Kitazono. Hikari is now 26-years-old. She still dreams of becoming a musical actress, but her life is tough. She works at a bar and also takes care of her mother. She hears that her older brother Kunihiko has been released from prison. She wants to say goodbye to her brother for the last time as he ruined her life. When Hikari meets her brother, he tells her "I am innocent" and disappears.

26-year-old car mechanic Hibiki Mamiya lives with his high school sweetheart of the same age, Kurumi Ogasawara. Life together feels so natural and filled with the warmth of each other's love. It was a happiness they expected would last a lifetime. Hibiki is secretly preparing his proposal to Kurumi when misfortune strikes. A tunnel collapses, trapping him for four days. Barely making it out alive, he discovers a world completely changed. There is absolutely no one around, communication signals are dead, the transportation network is a wreck, and the only information available is the emergency evacuation order being repeated on the radio. Everywhere Hibiki goes, he sees bloodstains. Just what happened to this town?!

A comedy trio who gave up on their dreams and disbanded. An older sister who quit working in a company and became a shell of her former self. A younger sister who works in the city at night without a goal. 5 people who can't come back from their failures. In their 20s. But these failures are just a "lead up" to success later in life!? It is an ensemble drama that opens with laughter and connects failure to hope! Takaiwa Haruto (Suda Masaki), Minowa Junpei (Nakano Taiga), and Asabuki Shunta (Kamiki Ryunosuke) are members of the unpopular comedy trio, "Macbeth". Nakahama Rihoko (Arimura Kasumi) is a waitress at the family restaurant where the trio always meet to create stories. Tsumugi (Furukawa Kotone) is her younger sister. Every episode begins with the skit of the comedy trio "Macbeth" and as the title suggests, the opening conte* is connected as an important hint to the rest of the episode's story. (Source: @kamikidays)

Onotora Shu does not know that his foster father is a legendary professional killer. However, his daily life dramatically changes after someone murders this professional killer. Onotora decides to take over the family business and become a hitman in order to avenge his foster father. He is well prepared when he approaches Narumiya Mitsuki who is his assassination target. Despite his physical abilities as a hitman, he is not able to kill her because of his terrible timing, no matter how he tries. On the contrary, he ends up protecting her as danger approaches. The two of them who should not fall in love, have an unlikely romance.

Haruyuki Kuranaga, a city hall officer, is a man who lives a stressful life. He is irritated by being between his boss and subordinate, unreasonable orders from the citizens, suspicious behavior of his wife, mysterious harassment…and so on. He only enjoys complaining to his pet arowana and drinking low-malt beer. Many cases and troubles surge against him just like a chain reaction of the misfortune, however, he holds out even though he is involved in troubles. And he becomes aware of his sense of justice! He is awaken to a fight!! The troubles which easily occur for anybody else is described humorous, pathetic and ironic. This is a drama for everybody who lives stressful life and also ones who is far from any stress or thorns. Let’s fight against difficulties together with Haruyuki!

It's Shouko Komi's first day at the prestigious Itan Private High School, and she has already risen to the status of the school's Madonna. With long black hair and a tall, graceful appearance, she captures the attention of anyone who comes across her. There's just one problem though—despite her popularity, Shouko is terrible at communicating with others.

A talk show in which experts from a variety of specialty fields are invited to introduce a surprising and "deep" world unbeknownst to MC Matsuko and viewers.