Best movies & TV Shows like Winter Sakura

On a trip to the countryside to pick safflowers, a young Japanese woman recalls her life when she was ten years old.

Mika is a fresh high school student who starts texting a mysterious boy. She is shocked when he reveals who he is - Hiro, a delinquent attending her school. What she doesn't know is that Hiro isn't as bad as he seems.

Based on a popular manga, the film is a tender coming-of-age love story set deep in Japan's countryside. When eighth grade cool guy Hiromi transfers from Tokyo to a small elementary/middle school with only six kids enrolled, wholesome and honest Soyo becomes enthralled with his sophisticated world.

Risa Onodera, played by Miyazaki, had a groom runaway on the wedding day four years ago. Her father, Shusaku (Matsushige) and her mother, Machiko (Matsuzaka), built a large two-family house to live with their daughter and her new family. One day, Risa says that she has been proposed to, Shusaku is surprised to see that face. This is because Kotaro (Nagayama) was a former subordinate of his workplace and was now his boss. Although he wants to congratulate his daughter's marriage, Shusaku wonders if he can live with his boss. Where is the love between Risa and Kotaro? Can the two get married? Can Risa and Kotaro, Shusaku and Machiko become a family?

A psychic housewife and her husband accidentally find a kidnapped girl. But instead of informing the police, they hatch a scheme to get famous by working with the police as a psychic consultant to "find" the girl. And then, things start to go terribly wrong.

A serious-minded policeman plays the role of robber in a police training operation against bank robberies. He's so good his fellow policemen can't catch him. TV networks begin to broadcast the operation nationwide. TV audiences are amused and root for the runaway robber and police grows desperate to arrest him to save their face. However the robber remains at large.

Part 1 of a 2-part romance based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan. The central character here is Toyomi (played by Takako IRIE, star of Mizoguchi’s "Water Magician), a rich young woman in love with Shintaro (Minoru TAKADA), a rich young man. Unfortunately, Shintaro’s father is in the process of arranging a marriage for him with Yurie (Chieko TAKEHISA), the scion of an even wealthier family. In order to avoid this, the two young lovers flee to Tokyo to live together. When Shintaro comes back to proclaim his intent to marry Toyomi, his father browbeats him into attending the long-arranged marriage meeting with Yurie. While Shintaro is back home, Toyomi goes on a vacation trip with her closest chum, Michiko (Yumeko AIZOME). At a class reunion, Toyomi is to distressed (at not having heard from Shintaro for so long), she doesn’t go out on the town with her classmates. Michiko, however, runs into Shintaro and Yurie (also out on the town), and pulling him aside, demands an explanation.

Daisuke is in the 2nd grade of high school and he plays on his school's baseball team. Daisuke then takes part in a gourmet contest with 3 of his friends and 2 girls, including Miki, from a nearby girls' high school. The gourmet contest is held to revive the village.

39-year-old Nagasato Daisuke is a bachelor who works for a stationery manufacturer. Although he is attuned to trends and interacts with other people flawlessly, he hates being hurt by love. Daisuke is not disatissified with living alone. On the day he moves to his new apartment, he meets his neighbour Hanako for the first time due to an unpleasant situation. 32-year-old Kumagai Hanako is a divorced office lady. She has the clear intention not to remarry and is already preparing for old age. For some reason, Daisuke and Hanako keep quarreling right from the time they meet. But the two of them actually have many similarities. One day, Daisuke’s father Yozo suddenly visits for the first time in five years. He had secretly remarried in this time and has a step-son in tow. Meanwhile Hanako’s mother Ritsuko starts living separately from her husband and comes to live with her beloved daughter without consulting her. Daisuke and Hanako’s lives as swinging singles get disrupted because of parents who have no hesitation about enjoying their own lives.

The murder of a young girl shocks a small Japanese village, and the victim's mother is distraught when the classmates her daughter was playing with all claim not to remember the identity of the killer. In her anger, she puts a curse on them.

Moriyama plays a temp worker who has never had any luck with women. One day, he suddenly starts getting invitations from several beautiful women, and he finds himself confused about how to deal with this new experience of having a "moteki" (a period when one is very popular and attractive to others).

A sudden encounter between a gracefully attractive but mysterious woman, Saki, and an ordinary housewife, Eriko, who has a happy family, causes Eriko's serene daily life to fall apart. Eriko's husband, Shinji becomes the target of Saki's advances and finds himself caught between her and his wife.

Yoo Jin falls in love with Joon Sang as a young girl. After losing him in an accident, she decides to marry her childhood friend. However, Yoo Jin meets someone looking exactly like her lost love, putting her in a bind.

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.

Virgin 24 year-old Fuguno Masuo is desperately in love with Shiozaki Nagisa, a 22 year-old kindergarten teacher. He is popular among the women, but he truly only has eyes for Nagisa. However, he is a clumsy, thickheaded and gentle man and gets into trouble a lot. He ends up in situations where it is easy for poor Nagisa to misinterpret what really happened.

Sakura is a single 39-year-old woman who works as the assistant manager at a beauty salon. She spends her days making her customers look beautiful but doesn’t pay much attention to her own appearance. All of that changes when she goes to a party and meets Hiroto, a much younger man who is a biker. Will Sakura revel in the attention of the handsome but dangerous Hiroto or notice the constant interest of her hard-talking and hard-drinking salon manager, Rintaro?

From the 2011 drama, Utsukushi Rinjin, Nakama Yukie reprises the character Saki. This time round, as Saki Amihama, she will be targeting men. With the facade of an angel, she draws men to her, only to lead them to a destructive end. Like a moth to the flame... but where is the line drawn between the saint and the devil?

Full-time homemaker, Serina, is madly in love with her elite securities manager husband, Takefumi. But ever since they got married two years ago as two incurably infatuated lovers, her husband has changed. He has begun to find her unmitigated affection towards him to be “over the top” and “irksome.” As a result, he has begun to avoid her. Then one evening returning from a dinner party, Serina finds herself caught up in a little incident where she encounters a private detective named Haruki. She ends up taking a job working at his office. Though somewhat clumsy and wielding no particular talent to speak of, Serina gradually realizes that she was made for detective work. And in the process of striving for the affection of the husband she loves, she too finds herself changing and growing into a beautifully strong and independent woman.

As Haru emigrates from Japan with her family to the coffee plantations in Brazil, Natsu is left behind in the care of spiteful relatives. Losing all contact, each must make her own way in an unforgiving world. Hardships abound in the struggle to survive in war-torn Japan and in the face of anti-Japanese sentiment in Brazil, financial ruin, familial pressure, abandonment and lost love. However they also experience the precious joy of survival and success. Now, after 70 years, Haru comes back to Japan to find her estranged sister.

Yoshizaki Kaoruko, who had been a clinician at a university hospital, takes up a post at a medical examiner’s office after she is told by her professor to try to get experience. However, everyone from the supervising doctor Akita Shinya, director Yanagida Shuhei and assistant Yamashita Mieko are all individualistic characters. This does not bode well for the future. Meanwhile, Akita and Kaoruko are put in charge of the dead body of a popular model who fell to her death. The police consider it to be a suicide, but Akita is drawn to a subtle point .

A dad who is popular with the ladies and a mom that continues to love the dad without any doubt like a young girl. The four sisters that the unbelievably ironclad husband and wife raised includes, an unmarried and divorced, a marriage hunter, a boyfriend-less, and one that has no luck with men. Out of them all, the second daughter Takemi, was the problem child, having divorced multiple times and has 3 kids. Because Takemi lives true to herself, she often ends up standing out from everyone, and gets called "the femme fatale with many lovers," problem child," and "devil." Will she end up causing many humorous troubles!? -- TBS -- DramaWiki

Fuyu no Semi is a Japanese anime OVA loosely based on the manga series, Embracing Love, which also aired on the Logo cable channel in the US. The story, set in historical Japan, follows two samurai from opposing political groups, one protectionist and the other globalist, who fall in love with each other.

Kohei Kamishiro (Masaharu Fukuyama) worked as a musician in his past. He only had one hit song and his recording contract was eventually canceled. He became devastated and left the field of music. Twenty years later, Kohei Kamishiro keeps his distance from music, but his passion for music hasn't faded away. He leads a boring life. Due to his past experience, he finds it difficult to have a relationship with women. One day, a woman appears in front of him. She has a complex and because of this leads a solitary life. The woman though has an amazing singing voice. By meeting her, Kohei begins to think he wants to make music again.

Hoshino Mitsuko is the talented three-star chef of famous French restaurant, La Cuisine de La reine, in Ginza, Tokyo. She has drawn attention not just from Japan but also the world for the new recipes she continuously conceives with her delicate palate and unrivalled creativity. Gourmands around the world visit the restaurant for her cuisine and there is a three-year wait for reservations. One day, trouble occurs between Mitsuko and the restaurant owner Shinoda Shogo and she is fired. She has difficulty finding a new restaurant due to Shinoda’s interference and her over-inflated pride, and ends up creating school lunches for a popular variety programme by a hotshot producer. It was believed to be something easy for Mitsuko, but she meets many obstacles and keeps failing. Moreover, this is aired on TV and made known to the world. Even so, Mitsuko does not give up and starts to create school lunches in order to hear children say her food is delicious and also regain her lost stars.

An incident is talked about all over Japan. The case involves the Doizaki couple that killed their 15-year-old daughter and hid her body under their house for 16 years. One day, housewife Toshiko Hagitani visits Shigeko Maehata who works for a small editing company. Toshiko tells Shigeko that her 12-year-old son Hitoshi might have a special ability to see other people's memories. She pulls out a picture drawn by Hitoshi. The picture has a girl with a grey colored face lying in a house that has a bat shaped weather vane on its roof. The picture seems to depict the incident involving the Doizaki couple. Shigeko decides to do some research, but Hitoshi dies in a car accident. Meanwhile, the attorney for the Doizaki couple tells their second daughter Seiko that the couple has cut off all ties with her. Around that time, a female high student is confined.

Asuka Takanashi is a twenty-something woman who works for a megabank and holds various professional qualifications in finance. Despite her successful career, she is extremely eager to get married and become a stay-at-home housewife. One day, she suddenly gets damped by her boyfriend of five years. Desperate to find her next potential husband, she immediately starts searching to find the "love of her life." Then she meets Ryu Nanami, a very popular TV newscaster. He appears to be the most ideal man for Asuka, except that Ryu is 100% against the idea of marriage and determined to never get married. However, despite their different views on marriage, they eventually fall in love and start their relationship. It seemed as though everything was going so well, but this was the beginning of their “Battle of Values.” Where is their romantic relationship headed? Will Asuka be able to announce her marriage and make her dream come true?

Tsutsui Hikari (a.k.a "Tsuttsun") is a high school student who is content with his virtual life of anime and video games. One day, he gets stuck cleaning the pool with Iroha, a real live girl who is stylish, sassy and known to be easy with boys ... and she aggressively approaches him! Tsuttsun, who has few friends and lives in his own world, finds himself smitten by the confident and wild Iroha ... and his whole world is turned upside down!! It's the awkward and pure love story of a boy who experiences relationship for the first time.

Based on true story of the wife of Ando Momofuku, the businessman who founded Nissin Food Products Co. Ltd. and the inventor of instant ramen, the 99th Asadora follows the life of Tachibana Fukuko, a young woman who tries to survive tough times in Osaka with her husband from before WWII to the rapid economic development era. Together they overcome various setbacks before they succeed in creating instant noodles. (Source: MDL)

A love story between Risa Shiroki and Hiroto Fukami. Twenty year old Risa Shiroki comes to Tokyo from her hometown in the countryside to attend university. Pretty and popular with male students, she has never had a boyfriend and dreams of having a sweet love. One day, thirty year old Hiroto Fukami appears in front of her. He is business man who appears to be gentle and looks perfect. As romance blossoms between them, Risa discovers Hiroto's dark past.

Although admired at school for her amiability and academic prowess, high school student Kyouko Hori has been hiding another side of her. With her parents often away from home due to work, Hori has to look after her younger brother and do the housework, leaving no chance to socialize away from school. Meanwhile, Izumi Miyamura is seen as a brooding, glasses-wearing otaku. However, in reality, he is a gentle person inept at studying. Furthermore, he has nine piercings hidden behind his long hair and a tattoo along his back and left shoulder. By sheer chance, Hori and Miyamura cross paths outside of school—neither looking as the other expects. These seemingly polar opposites become friends, sharing with each other a side they have never shown to anyone else.

Due to an accident, Sakura Hiraga gave up on her dream. She is now married and her husband runs a hair salon. They live in a luxurious penthouse apartment. Her life seems glamorous and she is envied by everyone. What everyone does not know is that Sakura Hiraga is abused physically and verbally by her husband. She is unable to leave her situation. Sakura Hiraga considers herself a goldfish in a fishbowl. One day, due to a goldfish, she meets a man.

The story features two people who experience their first love late in life. Maruya Kosuke is a 29-year-old employee in the sales department of his family's brewery. Thanks to his good looks he was always popular, receiving many love confessions from women since his youth. However, he experiences a rude awakening the moment he realizes his cuteness has an expiry date. Sanada Izumi is a researcher at the brewery. Past experiences have led her to believe she is inferior to others.

Takara Shun, a high school student who belongs to a popular group in the class, and Taichi Amagi, a pure boy who is not a conspicuous type but is liked by people, realize their love for each other. Even though they start dating in secret, it is difficult for them to be honest.

Jinbē is a romance manga by Mitsuru Adachi. It appeared irregularly in the manga magazine Big Comic Original from 1992 through 1997, and was collected in one tankōbon volume in May 1997. In 1998, it was adapted as an 11-episode television drama series by Fuji TV.

Adapted from a popular webtoon. Toriyama Michiru, an ordinary housewife who has never thought about adultery before gets addicted to a subscription affair service that allows you to have a “safe affair.” Her married life with her husband (Kimura Ryo), who she’d met through work, began to deviate from the ideal she had originally envisioned. One day, at the recommendation of a friend, she learns of an app called “Buffet,” a subscription service that allows married people to have affairs safely and confidentially. After signing up for the service, she encounters photographer Junya, and Kentaro, the heir to a major hospital, and as a result, she becomes unable to break free from the never-ending loop of desire for self-approval and paying for more services. A new and exciting “swamp” suspense drama centered around love, money and greed begins!