We Make Antiques! Osaka Dreams / Uso happyaku: naniwa yume no jin (2023)
Drama
A treasure appears in front of antique dealer Norio Koike and potter Sasuke Noda. The treasure is Hideyoshi Toyotomi's porcelain tea bowl called Houou, that has been missing.
Starring: Kiichi Nakai, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Shôta Yasuda, Yuri Nakamura, Tomochika, Aoi Morikawa
Director: Masaharu Take
We Make Antiques! Kyoto Rendezvous / Usohappyaku Kyomachi Rowaiyaru / We Make Antiques 2 (2020)
Comedy
The central Kansai region of Japan is the setting for the historic cities of Sakai and Kyoto. Noda and Koike from We Make Antiques are back and together for the tea ceremony by Furuta Shigenari who is the master of the ceremony. Enter a mysterious new woman named Shino about whom the two have a feeling.
Starring: Kiichi Nakai, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Ryôko Hirosue, Tomochika, Aoi Morikawa, Toshio Sakata
Director: Masaharu Take
Hit Me Anyone One More Time / Kioku ni gozaimasen! (2019)
Comedy | Drama
Keisuke Kuroda wakes up in a hospital bed and he is unable to remember who he is. He sneaks out of the hospital and happens to see the news on TV.
Starring: Kiichi Nakai, Dean Fujioka, Yuriko Ishida, Masao Kusakari, Kôichi Satô, Eiko Koike, Yuki Saitô, Yoshino Kimura, Yô Yoshida
Director: Kôki Mitani
We Make Antiques! / Uso happyaku (2018)
Comedy
Sakai is a city near Osaka by the bay famous for its swords in the old days and kitchen knives today. Norio is an antique dealer in the city. Sasuke is a potter in the city. Seventeenth century tea master Sen No Rikyu appears before them one day.
Starring: Kiichi Nakai, Kuranosuke Sasaki
Director: Masaharu Take
Railways / Reiruweizu: 49-sai de densha no untenshi ni natta otoko no monogatari (2010)
Drama
Hajime Tsutsui worked for the electric company and recently received a promotion. Due to his mother's illness and the death of a close friend Hajime decides to return to his hometown of Izumo, Shimane to work as a rail car driver.
Starring: Kiichi Nakai, Reiko Takashima, Yuika Motokariya, Shirô Sano
Director: Yoshinari Nishikôri
Good Morning Show / Guddo môningu shô (2016)
Comedy
An experienced entertainment show host was asked to interview a kidnap at a coffee shop by the kidnapper. It's a threat on personal safety, but also a good chance to save the show from shutting down.
Starring: Kiichi Nakai, Masami Nagasawa, Mirai Shida, Saburô Tokitô, Gaku Hamada
Director: Ryôichi Kimizuka
Again / Agein 28 Nenme no Koshien (2015)
Drama
Mie's (Haru) father died during the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. One day, she finds a bundle of unsent New Year's cards, which languished there for 28 years. To find out why the cards were never sent, Mie tracks down Haruhiko Sakacho (Kiichi Nakai). Haruhiko played on the same high school baseball team with her father. Mie eventually gathers together her father's former teammates to play in the Masters Koshien (a senior league baseball tournament). Mie also uncovers a truth about her father and the baseball team.
Starring: Kiichi Nakai, Haru, Emi Wakui, Toshirô Yanagiba, Mugi Kadowaki, Taiga, Asuka Kudô
Director: Sumio Ohmori
Snow on the Blades / Zakurozaka no adauchi (2014)
Action | Drama | History
Shimura Kingo fails his duty to protect the life of the Shogun's chief minister, and spends his life tracking down the assassins. However, all but one of the assassins die before Kingo can reach them. Still, Kingo presses on.
Starring: Kiichi Nakai, Hiroshi Abe, Ryôko Hirosue, Masahiro Takashima, Sei Matobu, Eisaku Yoshida, Yoshikuni Dôchin, Yôichirô Ohmi, Yuria Kizaki, Tatsuya Fuji, Kichiemon Nakamura
Director: Setsurô Wakamatsu
When the Last Sword is Drawn / Mibu gishi den (2003)
Drama
Yojira Takita's excellent 2003 samurai epic takes place in Meiji-era Japan, when the few remaining samurai were forced to choose sides and fight for either the Emperor or the Tokugawa Shogunate (a time period familiar to American audiences from THE LAST SAMURAI, but explored with more complexity and nuance here). Kiichi Nakai stars as Kanichiro Yoshimura, a principled Bushido warrior whose difficult decisions and complicated path are skillfully revealed through flashback.
Starring: Kiichi Nakai, Kôichi Satô, Yui Natsukawa, Takehiro Murata, Miki Nakatani, Yûji Miyake
Director: Yôjirô Takita
Warriors of Heaven and Earth / Tian di ying xiong (2003)
Action | Adventure | Drama
In the tradition of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero, Warriors of Heaven and Earth weaves a thread of battle, comradeship and honor. Set in the ferocious Gobi Desert, the story follows Lieutenant Li (Jiang Wen) and Japanese emissary Lai Xi (Nakai Kiichi), both first-class warriors and master swordsmen. After decades of service to the Chinese Emperor, Lai Xi longs to return to Japan, but is instead sent to the west to chase wanted criminals. His only passport back to Japan is to capture and execute Lieutenant Li, a renegade soldier wanted for leading a violent mutiny when he refused orders to kill female and child prisoners. Li and Lai Xi battle, but finally agree to delay their final personal fight until the caravan carrying a Buddhist monk is brought to safety. The monk, however, is carrying a sacred and powerful pagoda that attracts the attention of the region's ruthless overlord, Master An (Wang Xueqi). Lai Xi and Lt. Li, accompanied by Li's former posse of soldiers, who have forsaken their peaceful new lives to return to his side, must face the cruelty of the desert, the region's barbaric bandits and the brutality of the overlord's men before they can finally faceone another.
Starring: Kiichi Nakai, Wei Zhao, Bagen Hasi, Wen Jiang, Xueqi Wang
Director: Ping He
Priceless / PRICELESS~Aru Wake Nedaro,n namon!~ (TV Mini-Series 2012)
Comedy
Originally a mid-level manager (Kimura Takuya) with a promising future in a big corporation and loved by his subordinates, the life of this elite employee changes dramatically one day. Having for some reason attracted the attention of the senior management, he is framed for a crime which he knows nothing of and forced out of the workplace. Even after that, he is assailed by a series of surprises and in one day, he loses his house, wealth and handphone until he is without a cent to his name. At his wits end, he comes to a park where he encounters two children. Learning from them how to survive even if he does not have money, he somehow weathers this crisis and discovers the truly important and priceless things in life. The good thing about him is that his carefree personality amazingly does not shift. It is not resentment and bitterness that become his driving force, but the love and help.
Starring: Takuya Kimura, Kiichi Nakai, Karina, Taisuke Fujigaya, Misako Renbutsu, Takeshi Masu, Ohshirô Maeda, Kanau Tanaka, Issei Ogata, Mari Natsuki, Naohito Fujiki
Creator: Kazunao Furuya
Tenchi: The Samurai Astronomer / Tenchi meisatsu (2012)
Drama
A chronicle of the life of Yasui Santetsu, a 17th century master of go who turned his attention to astronomy and created a new calendar for Japan.
Starring: Jun'ichi Okada, Aoi Miyazaki, Kiichi Nakai, Kojiro Matsumoto, Ryûta Satô
Director: Yôjirô Takita
A Ghost of a Chance / Sutekina kanashibari (2011)
Comedy
Emi Hosho (Eri Fukatsu), a not so successful lawyer, is assigned to the one of the most unusual of cases. Her client is accused of murdering his wealthy wife and he his alibi is that he was staying at an inn while suffering from "kanashibar" (sleep paralysis). The only witness able to corroborate his alibi is the 500-year-old ghost of the Sengoku period military commander Rokubei Sarashina (Toshiyuki Nishida) – who sat on the accused's chest all night long. Attorney Emi Hosho travels to the inn to investigate further. Emi Hosho also falls into "kanashibar" and soon discovers the 500-year-ghost sitting on her chest. Knowing that the ghost is the only witness who can support her client's alibi, she grabs his hand and pleads with him to testify in court….
Starring: Toshiyuki Nishida, Kyôko Fukada, Eri Fukatsu, Hiroshi Abe, Yûko Takeuchi, Kiichi Nakai, Tadanobu Asano, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi
Director: Kôki Mitani
The Warring State / Zhan Guo (2011)
Action | Drama | War
Set during China’s Warring States Period (475 BC – 221 BC), "The Warring States" centers on the rivalry between military strategists Sun Bin (Honglei Sun) and Pang Juan (Francis Ng).
Starring: Honglei Sun, Francis Ng, Tian Jing, Hee-seon Kim, Kiichi Nakai, Jiang Wu
Director: Chen Jin
