Perfect Days (2023)
Drama
Hirayama cleans public toilets in Tokyo, lives his life in simplicity and daily tranquility. Some encounters also lead him to reflect on himself.
Starring: Koji Yakusho, Min Tanaka, Tokio Emoto, Tomokazu Miura, Yumi Asô
Director: Wim Wenders
Father of the Milky Way Railroad / Ginga Tetsudo no Chichi (2023)
Drama
Masajiro Miyazawa owns and runs a pawn shop for generations. His first son is Kenji and his daughter is Toshi Miyazawa. Kenji is supposed to take over the pawn shop as the first son, but he refuses. Masajiro is soft on his son. Meanwhile, Toshi is smart and wise. She gives advice to her father and her older brother. One day, Toshi gets sick.
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Masaki Suda, Nana Mori, Yûdai Toyoda, Min Tanaka, Maki Sakai
Director: Izuru Narushima
Famiria / Família (2023)
Drama
Widowed potter Kamiya Seiji lives alone in a mountain village. His only son Manabu, who works as an engineer in Algeria, comes to visit with fiancé Nadia. Manabu wants to quit his job and take over the family pottery business after getting married, but Seiji objects. However, tragedy strikes when Manabu and Nadia return to Algeria. Meanwhile, Marcos is a young Brazilian resident who lives in a neighboring town. Seiji once helped Marcos when he was being chased by thugs, and Marcos becomes interested in pottery work afterwards.
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Ryô Yoshizawa, Lucas Sagae, Fadile Waked, Takeo Nakahara, Miyavi, Kôichi Satô
Director: Izuru Narushima
The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai / Tōge saigo no samurai (2020)
Drama | History
The last samurai who lead an army of 690 against an enemy of 50 thousand – In 1867, political power returned to the Emperor and 260 years of the Tokugawa Shogunate came to an end, resulting in the domains being divided either into the Eastern Army or the Western Army. In 1868, the battle of Toba-Fushimi started the Boshin War. Tsuginosuke Kawai, the chief retainer of a small domain in Echigo called Nagaoka, decided not to belong to either army and practice "armed neutrality." Battle was the norm in the samurai era, but he strongly felt that war was not the answer and that it could not protect the citizens. Kawai tries to peacefully negotiate but it goes south, and being a hereditary feudal lord of the Tokugawa Shogunate, he eventually decides to stick to his duties and decides to exchange gunfire with the Western Army. Kawai was a man who loved his wife deeply and wished for nothing but the best for his country. The last battle of a man who hoped for a world without war begins now.
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Takako Matsu, Min Tanaka, Kyôko Kagawa, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Tatsuya Nakadai
Director: Takashi Koizumi
Cure / Kyua (1997)
Crime | Horror | Mystery | Thriller
A frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Masato Hagiwara, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Anna Nakagawa, Yoriko Dôguchi, Yukijirô Hotaru
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Lost Paradise / Paradise Lost / Shitsurakuen (1997)
Drama | Romance
Rinko, the wife of an easily irritable, reputable doctor and Sholchiro, a veteran newspaper reporter have made choices in the course of their lives so that their future seems to have been fully established. Both are stuck in a little job that appeals to the imagination and a blissful marriage. Everything changes on the day they meet by chance and fall in love immediately. Together they find the passion no longer present in their marriages. The fire in their hearts has been extinguished and has given way to chill. They forget all grayness in each other's arms and the more often they come together secretly, the stronger their desire becomes. The hours they can not spend together seem like days. However, the intrusive moral laws of Japanese society do not offer a place for their passion. With every kiss, the shame increases, after every banned love night the blame is greater again, until they finally have only one way left to be together.
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Hitomi Kuroki, Akira Terao, Toshio Shiba, Tomoko Hoshino, Yoshino Kimura
Director: Yoshimitsu Morita
Subarashiki sekai / Under the Open Sky (2020)
Crime | Drama
A middle-aged former yakuza is released from prison after thirteen years where he was placed for murder. He is struggling to adapt to society and freedom, find a job and communicate normally, but he is also preoccupied by the quest for his mother from whom he was separated as a child. He finds allies in his search for his parent and a place in mainstream society, but the process is not seamless or smooth.
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Taiga Nakano, Isao Hashizume, Meiko Kaji, Seiji Rokkaku, Yukiya Kitamura
Director: Miwa Nishikawa
Wings Over Everest / Bing feng bao (2019)
Action | Crime | Thriller
When a plane carrying important documents crashes in the Death Zone of Mount Everest, two men claiming to work for India's research and analysis department offer a large sum of money to Team Wings to take them up to recover them.
Starring: Jingchu Zhang, Kôji Yakusho, Po-Hung Lin, Victor Webster, Noah Dalton Danby, Graham Shiels, Babak Haleky
Director: Fay Yu
Mirai / Mirai no Mirai (2018)
Adventure | Animation | Drama | Family | Fantasy
A young boy encounters a magical garden which enables him to travel through time and meet his relatives from different eras, with guidance by his younger sister from the future.
Starring: Haru Kuroki, Moka Kamishiraishi, Gen Hoshino, Kumiko Asô, Kôji Yakusho, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Masaharu Fukuyama
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
The Blood of Wolves / Korô no chi (2018)
Crime | Drama
Hiroshima Police detective Ogami Shogo and his partner Hioka Shuichi are investigating the disappearance of a company's employees amidst an escalating yakuza turf war in 1988. Blood, shooting and death is everywhere. At the same time, there is a suspicion that the former man has his own ties to the thugs. Certainly many of his methods and actions are thuggish, violent and should be illegal.
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Tôri Matsuzaka, Yôko Maki, Ken'ichi Takitô, Takuma Otoo, Tarô Suruga
Director: Kazuya Shiraishi
The Third Murder / Sandome no satsujin (2017)
Drama | Mystery
Misumi has a criminal record dating back many years and is now under the spotlight again. It looks like an open and shut case, for Misumi has confessed to the new charge. Enter prominent lawyer Shigemori, who harbours other ideas, which could mean the difference between life and death.
Starring: Masaharu Fukuyama, Kôji Yakusho, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, Mikako Ichikawa, Izumi Matsuoka
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Sekigahara (2017)
History | War
A depiction of Japan's 17th Century Battle of Sekigahara where the Army of the East takes up arms against the Army of the West.
Starring: Jun'ichi Okada, Kasumi Arimura, Kôji Yakusho
Director: Masato Harada
Babel (2006)
Drama
Pain is universal… but so is hope. From acclaimed Director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) comes the third film in his trilogy, Babel, a critically celebrated and emotionally gripping film about the barriers that separate humankind. A tragic accident in Morocco sets off a chain of events that will link four groups of people who, divided by cultural differences and vast distances, will discover a shared destiny that ultimately connects them. Brad Pitt (Mr. And Mrs. Smith, Oceans 12), Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett (The Aviator, The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy) and Gael García Bernal (Y Tu Mamá También, The Motorcycle Diaries) lead an outstanding international ensemble cast in this breakthrough film.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal, Rinko Kikuchi, Adriana Barraza, Koji Yakusho
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
The Boy and the Beast / Bakemono no ko (2015)
Action | Adventure | Animation | Fantasy
The latest feature film from award-winning Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children): When Kyuta, a young orphan living on the streets of Shibuya, stumbles into a fantastic world of beasts, he's taken in by Kumatetsu, a gruff, rough-around-the-edges warrior beast who's been searching for the perfect apprentice. Despite their constant bickering, Kyuta and Kumatetsu begin training together and slowly form a bond as surrogate father and son. But when a deep darkness threatens to throw the human and beast worlds into chaos, the strong bond between this unlikely family will be put to ultimate test-a final showdown that will only be won if the two can finally work together using all of their combined strength and courage.
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Aoi Miyazaki, Shôta Sometani, Suzu Hirose, Kazuhiro Yamaji, Mamoru Miyano
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
The Emperor in August / Japan's Longest Day / Nihon no ichiban nagai hi ketteiban (2015)
Drama | History | War
On August 14th, 1945, at an Imperial conference, the Showa Emperor, Hirohito (Masahiro Motoki), finally decided to accept the Potsdam Declaration. However, some young firebrand Army officers insisted on continuing the war and conspired to launch a coup. Anami (Koji Yakusho), the Minister of War, was pressed to make an extremely difficult decision.
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Tôri Matsuzaka
Director: Masato Harada
A Samurai Chronicle / Higurashi no ki (2014)
Drama
Towards the end of the Edo period, Shozaburo Danno (Junichi Okada) receives an order from Nakane, the prime minister at the han. The order is to keep watch over Akiya Toda (Koji Yakusho), who has been in confinement for killing a boy servant who had an affair with his concubine 7 years ago. Akiya Toda is expected to commit hara-kiri within 3 years. In the meantime, Akiya Toda works on an order from the previous daimyo to write the daimyo's family tree into a book. Soon, Shozaburo Danno becomes touched by Akiya Toda, Akiya Toda's wife Orie (Mieko Harada) and his daughter Kaoru (Maki Horikita). Specifically, Shozaburo Danno is moved by Akiya Toda's enthusiasm for making the daimyo's family tree book and Orie's love and trust for her husband and daughter. He finds it difficult to believe that Akiya Toda killed a boy servant. Shozaburo Danno decides to investigate the case which occurred 7 years ago.
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Jun'ichi Okada, Maki Horikita, Mieko Harada, Haruto Yoshida
Director: Takashi Koizumi
Rengô kantai shirei chôkan: Yamamoto Isoroku / Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet (2011)
Biography | Drama | War
Admiral Yamamoto was the mastermind behind the attack on Pearl Harbor 1941. The strategy was crystal clear – to strike as hard and as unexpectedly as possible. With the element of surprise as their primary weapon, they succeeded in doing the impossible, taking the U.S. by surprise and knocking out one of the world's most powerful navies. Yamamoto was marked for death by radical Japanese nationalists for his outspoken opposition to any attack on the United States. What dramatic turn of events could have possibly compelled him to orchestrate the infamous early morning raid?
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Hiroshi Abe, Shûichi Azumaya, Mitsugorô Bandô, Akira Emoto
Director: Izuru Narushima
The World of Kanako / Kawaki (2014)
Crime | Drama | Mystery
Kanako, a beautiful girl and one of the best students at school, goes missing with all the belongings left behind in her room. Her father Akikazu is now asked by his ex-wife to look for their daughter. He starts a desperate search of Kanako using any means, in the hope of getting his "ideal" family back in place despite the fact that the very reason of the family breakup was because of his problematic personality and behaviors. Following tracks of her past and present and talking to her "friends," he starts to get to know his daughter whom he never knew or didn't even attempt to know. When Akikazu is led to one clue, he realizes the world Kanako was facing beyond his imagination… Can the father find his daughter, and get back his perfect happy family he has dreamed of after all these years?
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Nana Komatsu, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Hiroya Shimizu, Fumi Nikaidô, Ai Hashimoto, Aoi Morikawa
Director: Tetsuya Nakashima
The Kiyosu Conference / Kiyosu kaigi (2013)
History
After the forced suicide of Nobunaga Oda at the Incident at Honnō-ji, powerful figures Katsuie Shibata (Koji Yakusho), Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Nagahide Niwa and Tsuneoki Ikeda meet to decide on a successor. The conference would become Japan's first group made political decision. The meeting was known as the Kiyosu Kaigi.
Starring: Fumiyo Kohinata, Kôji Yakusho, Yô Ôizumi, Kôichi Satô, Eisuke Shinoi, Kyôka Suzuki, Yûsuke Iseya, Miki Nakatani, Kankurô Nakamura, Ayame Gôriki
Director: Kôki Mitani
Retribution / Sakebi (2006)
Horror | Mystery | Thriller
While investigating the gruesome death of a woman found in a puddle with her stomach inexplicably full of seawater, Detective Yoshioka begins to wonder whether he himself is actually the killer he's been looking for. He doesn't remember committing the crime, but the murder scene is littered with his belongings – and his fingerprints are all over the body.
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Manami Konishi, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Jô Odagiri
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
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