Yoriko Doguchi

Between the White Key and the Black Key

In an audacious reworking of the biopic, this ensemble drama sees jazz pianist Minami Hiroshi’s memoir cleverly reinterpreted into a surreal and playful story about chasing dreams, disillusionment and the inner lives of professional artists. Closer to playing two sides of the same coin than tackling a dual role, Ikematsu Sosuke embodies two versions of Minami – the naïve upstart and the jaded pro – who magically cross paths as they become entangled with a cast of colourful characters in the seedy alleyways and jazz clubs of Ginza over a single night.

Apple of Sodom

After her ex-boyfriend dies, an editor becomes obsessed with his fiancée, a woman accused of swindling multiple men out of money before killing them.

Shōgun

In Japan in the year 1600, at the dawn of a century-defining civil war, Lord Yoshii Toranaga is fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him, when a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village.

Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself: The Heist

Two petty gangsters get ransomed by a group of Yakuza members, fortunately they are rescued by a kindly Kindergarten teacher.

Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself: The Hero

Yuji and Kosaku become involved with a brother and sister who want to drive a local yakuza gang member out of their neighborhood.

Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself: The Loot

Yûji and Kosaku are hired to track down an old man. But when he suddenly dies, his granddaughter surfaces with a map to his buried fortune, which the yakuza and a dirty cop are determined to find.

Kita no kuni kara '89 Kikyo

Love Exposure

The story of a teenage boy called Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while working as an upskirt photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing – which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian – dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with Catholic guilt.

San-ban Tēburu no Kyaku

A program that uses a script written by Koki Mitani and is produced by a different cast and crew each time. As the narration at the beginning of the show says: "If you think you can create the same work with the same script, you don't know drama". This is a drama that clearly shows how the atmosphere of a work changes depending on the direction, making it ideal for those who aspire to become directors.

Tampopo

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.