The Supporting Actors in Byplaywood (2021)
Drama
In a studio at the foot of Mt. Fuji, Gaku Hamada is struggling to shoot a movie with a dog in the lead role. Enter a huge cast of veteran actor who get involved in misadventures while on set.
Starring: Tomorô Taguchi, Yutaka Matsushige, Ken Mitsuishi, Ken'ichi Endô, Gaku Hamada, Nanao
Director: Daigo Matsui
Mio on the Shore / Watashi wa hikari wo nigitte iru (2019)
Drama
20-year-old Mio has lost her parents early and runs a traditional Japanese inn in Nagano with her grandmother. As her grandmother gets sick and hospitalized, Mio is forced to leave the inn and reluctantly comes to Tokyo to live with her father's old friend Kyosuke. Helping him at the bathhouse he runs, she begins to find her way in everyday life. One day, however, she learns the bathhouse is on the verge of demolition for the redevelopment in the district.
Starring: Honoka Matsumoto, Daichi Watanabe, Eri Tokunaga, Kaito Yoshimura, Shûgo Oshinari, Ken Mitsuishi, Fumie Kashiyama
Director: Ryûtarô Nakagawa
Blue, Painful and Brittle / Aokute Itakute Moroi (2020)
Adventure
Neither Hisano nor Kaede are mainstream and average university students. The former is not good company while the latter is an idealist who dreams of world peace and an end to suffering. having met one another they decide to do something about their aspirations. They become the founders of a club. However, Hisano vanishes into thin air one day. The association is no more and the club begins to change. He then determines to take the club back to its root.
Starring: Ryô Yoshizawa, Hana Sugisaki, Amane Okayama, Honoka Matsumoto, Hiroya Sh, Nana Mori, Mizuki Kayashima, Ken Mitsuishi, Tasuku Emotoimizu
Director: Shunsuke Kariyama
Evil and the Mask / Aku to kamen no rûru (2018)
Crime | Drama | Thriller
Kuki Fumihiro is a son from a wealthy zaibatsu (conglomerate) family. His father raises him to become pure evil. Kuki kills his father to protect his adopted sister Kaori. Afterward, Kuki disappears. He undergoes plastic surgery and takes the identity of Koichi Shintani. He watches Kaori and faces the great evil that exists within the Kuki family.
Starring: Hiroshi Tamaki, Yûko Araki, Ryô Yoshizawa, Tatsuya Nakamura, Ken Mitsuishi, Kunio Murai, Akira Emoto, Hiroyuki Onoue
Director: Teppei Nakamura
Pumpkin and Mayonnaise / Kabocha to mayonaise (2017)
Drama
Tsuchida lives with her boyfriend Seiichi. He is an aspiring musician and she supports herself by working at a host bar without her boyfriend knowing. Meanwhile, Seiichi doesn't have a job and has been unable to write any new songs. Seiichi learns that Tsuchida slept with her customer Yasuhara and that she works at a host bar. He decides to get a job. At that time, Tsuchida runs into her ex-boyfriend Hagio.
Starring: Asami Usuda, Taiga, Joe Odagiri, Tatsuya Wakaba, Kôdai Asaka, Ritsu Ohtomo, Kurumi Shimizu, Ken Mitsuishi, Sario Okada
Director: Masanori Tominaga
Outrage Coda / Outrage: Final Chapter / Autoreiji Saishusho (2017)
Action | Crime | Drama
Five years after surviving the all-out war between the Sanno and Hanabishi crime families, former yakuza boss Otomo now works in South Korea for Mr. Chang, a renowned fixer whose influence extends into Japan. A relatively minor incident causes tensions to rise between Chang Enterprises and the faraway powerful Hanabishi. The growing conflict gets out of hand and ignites a ferocious power struggle among the top echelons of the Hanabishi. When eventually Chang's life is endangered, devoted yakuza Otomo returns to Japan to settle things once and for all.
Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Toshiyuki Nishida, Tatsuo Nadaka, Ken Mitsuishi, Hakuryû, Ikuji Nakamura, Sansei Shiomi, Yutaka Matsushige, Kanji Tsuda, Ren Osugi
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Side Job / Her Life is Not at Fault / Kanojo no jinsei wa machigaijanai (2017)
Drama
Based on the novel "Kanojo no Jinsei wa Machigai ja Nai" (literal translation: Her life is not at fault) by Director Hiroki, it is a powerful story of survivors, who are all trying to find their own silver linings in life.
Starring: Kumi Takiuchi, Ken Mitsuishi, Kengo Kôra, Tokio Emoto, Atsushi Shinohara, Misako Renbutsu
Director: Ryuichi Hiroki
Kaiji 2 / Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler / Kaiji 2: Jinsei dakkai gêmu (2011)
Drama
Kaiji erased all of his debts in the first movie. A year later, he's back in the same debt ridden situation. Kaiji then gets a chance to clear himself of his 200 million Yen debt, but he has only 2 weeks.
Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Yûsuke Iseya, Yuriko Yoshitaka, Teruyuki Kagawa, Katsuhisa Namase, Suzuki Matsuo, Hayato Kakizawa, Ken Mitsuishi, Kyûsaku Shimada
Director: Tôya Satô
Kaiji / Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler / Kaiji: Jinsei gyakuten gêmu (2009)
Drama
Kaiji, a young gambler who is constantly in debt, enters a deadly gambling competition in order to wipe away his loans.
Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Yûki Amami, Tarô Yamamoto, Ken Mitsuishi, Suzuki Matsuo, Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Kei Satô, Teruyuki Kagawa
Director: Tôya Satô
Moriyamachu Driving School / Moriyama chû kyôshûjo (2016)
Comedy
Kiyotaka Sato is a university student. He is sociable, but he looks like he doesn't have interest in those around him. During his summer vacation, Kiyotaka Sato plans to get his driver's license to impress schoolmate Matsuda. At this time, a yakuza boss orders Todoroki to get his driver's license. Todoroki doesn't show his feelings outwardly. Later, Todoroki drives a car without a driver's license and he hits Kiyotaka Sato. To cover up the accident, Kiyotaka Sato is placed in a car and taken to away. He arrives at an unofficial driving school. The driving school is run by the Uehara family. There, Kiyotaka Sato and Todoroki learn that they graduated from the same high school. They spend their summer at the driving school.
Starring: Shûhei Nomura, Kento Kaku, Yukino Kishii, Takuma Otoo, Toshie Negishi, Duncan, Kumiko Asô, Ken Mitsuishi
Director: Keisuke Toyoshima
A Cappella / Mubansô (2016)
Drama
Set in the year 1969 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Kyoko Noma is a loving female high school student who takes part in campus protests. One day, she meets university student Wataru Domoto in the tea cafe Mubansou ("A Cappella"). Kyoko falls in love with him, but they get involved in an incident that leads to a shocking ending.
Starring: Riko Narumi, Sôsuke Ikematsu, Takumi Saitô, Nina Endô, Wakana Matsumoto, Tomoko Fujita, Ken Mitsuishi
Director: Hitoshi Yazaki
Lovers / Three Stories of Love / Koibitotachi (2015)
Drama
Atsushi is a civic construction worker who was widowed following a random murder. Toko's husband is neither interested in her nor in how his mother treats his wife. Shinomiya is a lawyer whose homosexuality has lead to mismatched love. The three separate stories tread a thread of hope, love, rejection and abandonment. Three relative cinema newcomers act in roles for which they were auditioned and specially hired.
Starring: Atsushi Shinohara, Tôko Narushima, Ryô Ikeda, Ken Mitsuishi, Tamae Andô
Director: Ryosuke Hashiguchi
Glasses / Megane (2007)
Comedy | Drama
Taeko an stressed out career woman leaves her stressed out life in the city for an island vacation. The vacation does not become what expected, as everyone on the island are rather strange.
Starring: Satomi Kobayashi, Mikako Ichikawa, Ryô Kase, Ken Mitsuishi, Masako Motai, Hiroko Yakushimaru
Director: Naoko Ogigami
The Backwater / Tomogui (2013)
Drama
Set in 1989 in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, 17-year-old Tooma (Masaki Suda) lives with his father and his father's lover. Tooma witnesses his father's sadistic behavior towards his lover and, soon, Tooma finds himself following in his father's footsteps.
Starring: Masaki Suda, Misaki Kinoshita, Yukiko Shinohara, Ken Mitsuishi, Yûko Tanaka
Director: Shinji Aoyama
Homeland / Ieji (2014)
Drama
Jiro has come home. His tiny farming village is now deserted because it lies in the badly contaminated Fukushima zone. Nonetheless, Jiro begins cultivating his land. An old school friend helps him and together they plant rice. "It's like slow suicide", says Jiro's friend. Jiro's half-brother, Soichi, who has evacuated with his family cannot believe that Jiro has moved back into the old home. Soichi's step-mother, who is Jiro's biological mother, had never got over Jiro leaving. Suffused with grief and poetry, the images in this film describes life after the nuclear catastrophe. They also tell us what it means to go home when home will never be the same again.
Starring: Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Masaaki Uchino, Yûko Tanaka, Sakura Andô, Takashi Yamanaka, Yôji Tanaka, Ken Mitsuishi, Renji Ishibashi, Tôru Kizu
Director: Nao Kubota
Gatchaman / Gacchaman (2013)
Action | Sci-Fi
Set in the near future in Tokyo, Japan. The evil terrorist organization Galactor has declared war on the world. The group possesses more advanced technology than governments and occupies over half of the planet. Dr. Kozaburo Nambu of the International Science Organization gathers together 5 superhero ninja agents, known collectively as Gatchaman, to stop Galactor.
Starring: Tôri Matsuzaka, Ryôhei Suzuki, Gô Ayano, Ayame Gôriki, Tatsuomi Hamada, Eriko Hatsune, Shidô Nakamura, Gorô Kishitani, Ken Mitsuishi
Director: Tôya Satô
The Brain Man / Nô Otoko (2013)
Crime | Mystery
A series of bombings occur and police track a lead, where they find the male protagonist Ichiro Suzuki and believe he is somehow involved. After psychiatric evaluation and rigorous questioning, the man is found to be emotionally vacant, highly intelligent with a savant-like photographic memory, physically strong and unable to feel any pain. The female lead who plays psychiatrist Mariko Mashiya is intrigued and attempts to discover what and how he came to this state, fueled by her own past personal tragedy and determination to seek the truth. Is he the psychopath they are all looking for?
Starring: Tôma Ikuta, Yasuko Matsuyuki, Yôsuke Eguchi, Fumi Nikaidô, Rina Ohta, Kensuke Ôwada, Shôta Sometani, Ken Mitsuishi
Director: Tomoyuki Takimoto
LOVE: Masao kun ga iku! / Go, Masao! (2012)
Comedy
"Love, Masao-Kun Ga Iku" describes the relationship between people and their dogs. Comedian Hideki Matsumoto and a labrador retriever named Masao are selected to appear on the travel corner segment of a TV animal program. Until, Hideki Matsumoto and the labrador retriever Masao become popular, they help each other.
Starring: Ryôko Hirosue, Shingo Katori, Riko Narumi, Ken Mitsuishi, Susumu Terajima, Takehiko Ono
Director: Kentarô Ohtani
Shinya shokudô (TV Series 2009- )
Drama
Set in a small restaurant in the corner of a shopping district. The unusual eatery is only open after midnight, and its standard menu consists of just a single choice. However, the customers still come for the amusing chatter and the proprietor's willingness to cook any dish that they request. This drama depicts the lives of the restaurant's patrons, including a yakuza, an unsuccessful actor, a group of office ladies, a newspaper delivery boy, and a stripper.
Starring: Kaoru Kobayashi, Yutaka Matsushige, Yûko Genkaku, Ken Mitsuishi, Narumi Yasuda
Creator: Yarô Abe
Rent-a-Cat / Rentaneko (2012)
Comedy | Drama
An odd woman named Sayoko (Mikako Ichikawa) rents cats to lonely people. Some of the renters include an old woman who lost her husband and her cat, a middle-aged man who moved away from his family for work, a woman at a reception desk who questions her existence and a man who has a connection with Sayoko.
Starring: Mikako Ichikawa, Reiko Kusamura, Ken Mitsuishi, Maho Yamada, Kei Tanaka
Director: Naoko Ogigami
