Rie Nakahara

Music Station

MUSIC STATION (ミュージックステーション) is a popular weekly music variety show that has been on the air since 1986. It airs Fridays at 8pm on TV Asahi and usually has 5-8 J-Pop artists and groups as guests on each show. The two hosts: タモリ (Tamori) and Hironaka Ayaka chat with each artist for a couple minutes before they hit the stage and perform their latest song. The show also runs specials from time to time, along with a yearly 3+ hour (now 4) live performance bonanza around Christmas time called MUSIC STATION SUPER LIVE. The show also features Ward E. Sexton as the english announcer voice for introducing the guests and announcing the CD Single Hit Ranking (usually every week) and CD Album Hit Ranking (usually every month). Sexton is known for providing voice over to the Resident Evil (called Bio Hazard in Japan) video game series.

Marriage Counselor Tora-san

In Shibamata, Tokyo, Tora-san's family prepares for a wedding. Meanwhile, the traveling Tora-san meets an old acqaintance in Iwate Province. Tora-san refuses to drink with him, afraid that the acquaintance, now settled and married, will again become attracted to Tora-san's wandering existence. Tora-san becomes attracted to a female barber, but must break off their relationship so that she too can live a secure life. She instead gets into an abusive relationship with a motorcyclist.

Railroad Man

A railway stationmaster at a dying end-of-the-line village in Hokkaido is haunted by memories of his dead wife and daughter. When the railroad line is scheduled to be closed, he is offered a job at a hotel, but he is emotionally unable to part with his career as a railroader. His life takes a turn when he meets a young woman with an interest in trains who resembles his daughter.

Lonely Heart

A police procedural surrounding murder at a bookstore and the private lives of the cops trying to solve the case.

Those Swell Yakuza

Ryo, a young former banker, gets beaten up over a debt from gambling. A yakuza boss saves him, and Ryo decides to train to become a yakuza under him.

The Return of the Newshound and the Lady Cop

A jewelry broker is killed and a large amount of money is stolen. A female detective from the Metropolitan Police Department transforms into a geisha to catch the criminal.

Kigeki kazoku dōmei

Himawari no Uta

Since his wife's death from illness, Oki Eisuke (Utsui Ken) has been working as a lawyer at the Oki Law Office, raising his high school-aged daughter, Kaori (Hayashi Norie). His late wife's father, Kimura Genkichi (Ban Junsaburo, Matsumura Tatsuo), a former Metropolitan Police Department detective, is in charge of accounting, while Ono Toshiko (Nakahara Rie) is in charge of typist and secretary. Also among the investigators are Sakamoto Ryu (Nakamura Masatoshi), who claims to be serving a two-year prison sentence, and Suzuki Masao (Okita Hiroyuki), who is on probation. These are the members of the firm that Eisuke trusts. A die-hard feminist, Eisuke throws himself wholeheartedly into the cases of female clients, regardless of legal fees, but...