Atsuko Joraku

A grifter and her loose-cannon brother get their hands on a massive amount of money, but their ill-gotten gains puts a huge target on their back.

Screen icon Sayuri Yoshinaga stars in this historical melodrama about geishas in the southern city of Nagasaki set during the 1920s. Though she was sold to a geisha house at a young age, Aihara (Yoshinaga) has since become a master samisen player and woman of great elegance. Though not especially rich, she doles out money to street kids, in particular, a pretty young flower vendor named Oyuki, who becomes Aihara's godchild of sorts. Yet when a geisha (Reiko Takashima) from a rival red-light district insults Aihara and her brethren, she fights back. Soon an all-out geisha war looms. Dapper businessman and amateur scholar Tojiro Koga (Tetsuya Watari) appears on the scene and defuses tempers -- suggesting that difference be settled through a competition of artistic abilities. Smitten with her talent and mature beauty, Koga invites Aihara to record Nagasaki folk songs before they disappear forever

The hardened veteran detective Rena and bright-eyed rookie Sato take on a menial investigation. The job goes well until a thug named Dobu steals their evidence. Disheartened, they take a job looking into the life of a taxi driver named Odokawa in hopes of redeeming themselves. They wind up in the middle of a missing girl case, with gangsters, aspiring students, and surprises around every corner.

An enthusiastic 28-year-old detective Yasunaga is assigned to work with a notoriously geeky 43-year-old rookie, Totori. Totori became a detective because of a secret "motivation," despite his previous outstanding career as an animal ecologist. Together with Yasunaga, the unusual rookie detective uses logical thinking and experiments to solve seemingly perfect crimes. Detective Totori and the Perfect Crimes uses a reverse format where the crime scene is presented at the start of each episode. This entertaining human crime drama, created by a talented young Japanese scriptwriter is masterfully filled with cunning suspects and witty conversation.