Movies: Takashi Sasano

While on a cigarette break in between sets, Koji, a jazz musician, witnesses a murder and runs into a girl, Linda, who is being pursued by the killers. Mistakenly identified as prime suspects, they have to solve the crime but time is running out: Koj...

Several years after Shuzo settled his wife’s birthday-surprise divorce proposal (What a Wonderful Family, 40th), the Hirata family faces new problems. Ignoring his family’s worry that he is too old to drive, Shuzo takes his old schoolmate for a spin ...

During his travels, Tora-san comes across a traditional theater he used to visit, and discovers that one of his old friends has died. Tora-san and his family help the friend's daughter, who becomes romantically involved with an aspiring artist....

Three murder cases take place in Tokyo. Numbers are left at the murder scenes, possibly hinting at where the next murder will take place. An investigation begins of the serial killer and Detective Kosuke Nitta works on the case. He believes the next ...

Sequel to The Rainbow Seeker where Ryo meets Katsu on a small island in the south of Japan. There, he falls in love for a single mother....

A husband and wife have been married for 50 years. For her birthday, the husband asks the wife what she wants for her birthday present. She replies that she wants a divorce. The wife's divorce announcement sends the entire family into chaos....

Haruo has a dream to become the best magician, but, so far, he is only a marginal magician. Haruo also doesn't have parents. He then goes back 40 years in time to Asakusa, Tokyo. There, he meets his parents when they were young and he learns the secr...

Yasuo Furuhata directs this romantic yakuza flick based on a book by popular romance novelist Tomiko Miyao. Set in 1932, the film centers on Peony (Yoko Minamino), a geisha who was forced into the business at a young age by her dissipated father....

In the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, a journalist arrives in Nagaoka, a city decimated during a WWII air raid and by the 2004 Chūetsu earthquakes, to report on the disaster; there, she learns about the experiences of its inhabi...

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In 16th century Japan, a young man has to choose between becoming a master steel maker like his father and grandfather before him, or becoming a samurai so that he can help protect his village from attacks by the various clans which want the high-qua...

There was a tragedy that began at the end of the '69 war. The sad story about the lives of the orphans of Manchuria refugee camp who had to struggled against perpetual cold and hunger....

A woman was killed by a truck wheel, which flew off while the vehicle was in motion. As the freight company which owns the truck becomes the target of the public and the media’s wrath, Tokuro Akamatsu, the president of the freight company, realizes t...

Shiro Kaieda is appointed the captain of Japan's first nuclear submarine, jointly built by Japan and the United States in top secret. However, he and his 76 crew members go rogue in this story that delves into themes of nuclear war, international pol...

A freelance writer is given a bizarre assignment by the sexy editor of "Black Book Monthly": find a bug with the power to bring humans back from the dead, in order to report on the afterlife. With his trusty companion Endo in tow, he sets off on a qu...

Two historical incidents that deepened the friendship between Japan and Turkey are connected in this story of friendship and compassion: In the night of 16 September 1890 the Turkish frigate Ertuğrul is caught up in a typhoon and sinks off the Japane...

During his wandering throughout Japan, Tora-san meets a suicidal man. He travels with the man to Vienna, but winds up homesick for Japan....

Tora-san's family's neighbor, Akemi, who had been married in Marriage Counselor Tora-san (1984), runs away from her husband, who is only interested in work. Tora-san follows her to Shikinejima, and attempts to bring her back to her home. In doing so ...

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. ...

Based on the comic by Tatsu Kariya. Featuring journalist Shiro Yamaoka who works for Touzai Shimbun. He is a cynical food critic who is tasked by the newspaper's owner, along with the young Yuko Kurita, to provide recipes for the "ultimate menu"....