
Yu Aoi
Actor · b. 1985 · Kasuga, Fukuoka, Japan
Yu Aoi (蒼井優) is a Japanese actress and model born on August 17, 1985. She made her film debut as Shiori Tsuda in Shunji Iwai's 2001 film All About Lily Chou-Chou. She subsequently portrayed Tetsuko Arisugawa in Hana and Alice (2004), also directed by Iwai, Kimiko Tanigawa in the hula dancing film Hula Girls and Hagumi Hanamoto in the 2006 live-action adaptation of the popular Honey and Clover manga series. She has won numerous awards for her performances on screen, including the prestigious Japan Academy Prize and Kinema Junpo Awards for best supporting actress in 2007 for Hula Girls and Rookie of the Year for continued performances in the field of Films in Media and Fine Arts by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan in 2009.
Movies24
Movie7.7ActionAdventureIn 1879, Kenshin and his allies face their strongest enemy yet: his former brother-in-law Enishi Yukishiro and his minions, who've vowed their revenge.
Movie7.5DramaCrimeCharts the troubled teenage years of students Yūichi Hasumi and Shūsuke Hoshino, exploring the shifting and complex power dynamics of their relationship against the backdrop of Yūichi's love for the dreamy and abstract music of pop star Lily Chou-Chou.
Movie7.5AdventureActionIn 1868, after the Bakumatsu war ends, the ex-assassin Kenshin Himura traverses Japan with an inverted sword, to defend the needy without killing.
Movie7.6ActionAdventureKenshin has settled into his new life with Kaoru and his other friends when he is approached with a request from the Meiji government. Makoto Shishio, a former assassin like Kenshin, was betrayed, set on fire and left for dead. He survived, and is now in Kyoto, plotting with his gathered warriors to overthrow the new government. Against Kaoru's wishes, Kenshin reluctantly agrees to go to Kyoto and help keep his country from falling back into civil war.
Movie5.1ActionComedyRecently graduated from high school, 17-year-old Shiro decides to put off college and work at a gas station instead. Shy and introspective, Shiro understands he is at a turning point of his life, but is unsure of what lies ahead. Though his parents disapprove of his decision, he has the support of his flower child grandmother who declares that a gas station is a romantic place for life's drifters. Surely enough, soon a new co-worker, college student Noriko, drifts into Shiro's life. He falls headfirst into a bittersweet first love that ushers him into the world of adulthood.
Movie7.7ActionAdventureShishio sets sail in his ironclad ship to bring down the government. In order to stop him, Kenshin trains with his old master to learn his final technique.
Movie7.2AnimeAnimationA fourth-grader investigates the mysterious reason behind the sudden appearance of penguins in his village, which is somehow related to a power from a young woman working at a dental clinic.
Movie6.9ComedyDramaThree distinct tales unfold in the bustling city of Tokyo. Merde, a bizarre sewer-dweller, emerges from a manhole and begins terrorizing pedestrians. After his arrest, he stands trial and lashes out at a hostile courtroom. A man who has resigned himself to a life of solitude reconsiders after meeting a charming pizza delivery woman. And finally, a happy young couple find themselves undergoing a series of frightening metamorphoses.
TOKYO!
2008 · 275 votes
Movie7.0ComedySeveral years after Shuzo settled his wife’s birthday-surprise divorce proposal (What a Wonderful Family, 40th), the Hirata family faces new problems. Ignoring his family’s worry that he is too old to drive, Shuzo takes his old schoolmate for a spin after carousing. Soon, a new disturbance arises for the Hirata family. Veteran director Yamada Yoji continues his comedy about the “perfect“ Japanese family turned upside down in chaos, laughters and understanding. This time, with an additional taste of death.
Movie7.5AnimeAnimationA daredevil driver is determined to compete in Redline, the most popular race in the galaxy. The race only occurs every five years, but in order to participate he must overcome the mafia, the government and even love.
Movie7.4AnimeAnimationTwo penniless orphans, Black and White, struggle to survive on the mean streets of Treasure Town. When a megacorporation threatens to tear down the town to build an amusement park, Black and White engage in the fight of their life.
Movie6.6AnimeAnimationSpace Pirate Captain Harlock and his fearless crew face off against the space invaders who seek to conquer the planet Earth.
Movie7.1AnimeAnimationRuka is a young girl whose parents are separated and whose father works in an aquarium. When two boys, Umi and Sora, who were raised in the sea by dugongs, are brought to the aquarium, Ruka feels drawn to them and begins to realize that she has the same sort of supernatural connection to the ocean that they do. Umi and Sora's special power seems to be connected to strange events that have been occurring more and more frequently, such as the appearance of sea creatures far from their home territory and the disappearance of aquarium animals around the world. However, the exact nature of the boys' power and of the abnormal events is unknown, and Ruka gets drawn into investigating the mystery that surrounds her new friends.
Movie7.3DramaOne day, taxi driver Koji Usami is tasked with driving 85-year-old Sumire Takano from Shibamata, Tokyo to a senior care facility in Hayama, Kanagawa. Sumire asks Koji to make some detours. Gradually opening up to her, Sumire begins to tell the story of her grand past...
Movie5.4WarHistoryDirected by Junya Sato and based on a book by Jun Henmi, "Yamato" has a framing story set in the present day and uses flashbacks to tell the story of the crew of the World War II Japanese battleship Yamato. The film was never released in the United States, where reviewers who have seen it have compared the military epic to "Titanic" and "Saving Private Ryan."
Movie7.2DramaA 21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the process.
Movie3.3DramaRomanceThe shock of her fiance's sudden dissolution of their relationship causes university student, Miki, to lose her voice. While recuperating in a hospital in her hometown of Hakodate, she learns of the tragic life of her deceased mother, Kaoru, from her grandmother.
Movie6.7DramaWarIt’s 1940, and the population of Japan is divided over its entry into World War II. Satoko, the wife of a fabric merchant, is devoted to her husband but is beginning to suspect he’s up to something. Soon she allows herself to be drawn into a game in which she enigmatically conceals her intentions.
Movie6.8ComedyDramaYoung women in a small Japanese town look to revive their home's declining fortunes by building a Hawaiian village tourist attraction.
Movie9.0DramaRomanceHidenori is a Japanese-Korean man with no sense of belonging, destination or education. He drifts around and meanders through life until a death reminds him of his heritage and so begins a journey to South Korea.
Movie5.3RomanceFamilyTetsumu, an introverted youth, realizes he has a natural ability of communicating with elephants. This prompts him to leave for Chiang Mai in Thailand to become Japan's first elephant trainer. Having found his place in the world, Tetsumu develops into a strong, confident young man. He returns to Japan with the dream of building a green "paradise" for his ivory-tusked friends. Meanwhile, he starts a career as an elephant trainer for touring shows. He meets Emi, a woman seven years his senior and falls in love.
Movie7.0ActionDramaA Tokyo college student is attacked by a ghoul, a super-powered human who feeds on human flesh. He survives, but has become part ghoul and becomes a fugitive on the run.
Movie7.1RomanceDramaIt was a pre-destined love and marriage for Sonoko and Tetsuo. They tied the knot and became husband and wife no questions asked. All is well then. Well, perhaps not. Each holds a secret that even the binds of matrimony cannot untie.
Movie7.6DramaIn this drama set on Shikina Island, a far-flung island of the Japanese archipelago located more than six hours from the Japanese main islands, the young physician Kensuke Goto arrives at the island and has to deal with the island's inhabitants, not eager to accept him, at a clinic lacking sufficient medical equipment. Here's a human drama showing how Dr. Coto values the dignity of human life while unflinchingly facing disease with a serious attitude.
Series19
TV8.2DramaMysteryNarrates the events and cases encountered by Kaoru Utsumi, a rookie detective, and Manabu Yukawa, a university associate professor, while the two pair up to solve many mysterious cases.
TV8.7DramaDr. Goto Kensuke transfers to a remote island clinic after an incident at his Tokyo hospital. His first task: winning over the wary locals.
TV7.4Sci-Fi & FantasyCrimeA death on live TV. A culprit who turns to gas. Behind it, a secret project that used and discarded the vulnerable. One detective pursues the dark truth.
TV5.1DramaMysteryA sudden summer accident shatters the peaceful lives of two couples, dragging a happily married editor into a web of grief, human selfishness, and her husband's hidden secrets.
TV9.1DramaRyōmaden is the 49th NHK Taiga drama. It was shown on NHK from January 3 to November 28, 2010 spanning 48 episodes. The story centers on the life of 19th-century Japanese historical figures Iwasaki Yatarō and Sakamoto Ryōma. It has been announced that the series will be aired in several other countries, for example Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
TV7.0DocumentaryDramaSets in the 1910s, this is the story of Hanada Suzuko, a young girl who grew up in a family that owned a bathhouse in downtown Osaka. From a young age, Suzuko loved to sing and dance, and joined the Umemaru Girls Opera Company (USK) in Dotonbori. Suzuko continued to show her talent for singing and eventually became a star of the postwar era.
TV8.6CrimeAn explosion take place in a street of Tokyo. Many people were killed or seriously injured. One casualty is Chihiro, the wife of Public Security chief inspector Kuraki Naotake. While trying to find why his wife was being implicated in the explosion case, Kuraki comes into contact with Public Security sergeant Akeboshi Miki and Metropolitan Police Department inspector Osugi Ryota who are also investigating this case.
MOZU
2014 · 8 votes
TV7.1DramaComedyA young yakuza thug apprentices with an indebted comic "rakugo" performer, whose not-so-fashionable son runs a clothes shop in the Harajuku backstreets.
TV7.9DramaIn 1979 Tokyo, four distinct sisters uncover their aging father's affair, causing their happy facades and bottled-up emotions to slowly unravel.
TV6.8DramaComedyA psychiatrist, Rintaro Hino, listens closely to the aching hearts of people, relieving them of their pain. His practice is growing but despite his achievements, Dr. Rintaro himself falls short in one department: love.
TV7.2ComedyDramaHe was the pride of his police department as the number one armed robbery buster... until he had his heart broken by the sudden flight of a fiancee from his life. Now "Detective Lovesick" finds his crime-fighting mojo and his chance at rising through the police hierarchy slipping away. Spending his days in a desperate search for the love of his life, Detective Lovesick is a man in love with himself and idolizes his drinking buddy, who is a romance psychologist. He loses himself to love easily, even at work, falling for every femme fatale he investigates and after a lot of hair pulling, ending each case with a marriage proposal. "Marry me or be under arrest." But will any woman accept such a proposal? Suspense, comedy and romance all converge in a libido-rich police drama unlike any you've ever seen.
TV7.6DramaMysteryThe murder of a young girl shocks a small Japanese village, and the victim's mother is distraught when the classmates her daughter was playing with all claim not to remember the identity of the killer. In her anger, she puts a curse on them.
TV6.6DramaMysteryDetective Goro Nanase and his colleagues of "Akatsuka Detective Office" are based in Shimo-Akazuka of Itabashi-ku, Tokyo. The detectives take on a string of challenging cases that no one else wants to take on.
TV8.0DramaFive siblings struggle to live together after their parents have passed away. Arguments are a norm, and each have their own problems with studying, finding a job, marriage, etc. But no matter how dysfunctional their family can be, blood is thicker than water and the ties that bind will keep them together through thick and thin.
TV8.0DramaComedyRosuke Narumi works at a trading company and he is pretty good at his job. He dates Satoko Matsubara. The trading company has a business relationship with a private high school experiencing some difficulties. One day, Rosuke Narumi is appointed as the principle of the private high school. Rosuke Narumi soon discovers how different the work environment is from his previous job. So the school can run in the black, Rosuke Narumi implements cost cutting measures. School staff members including Chihiro Mashiba oppose his plan.
TV10.0DramaHina, a student at Nikko High School, goes out one evening with her classmate Beniko. They get split up and Hina ends up in a strange meeting with a man named Ikumi in a game arcade. The next day, Ikumi turns up as the new teacher at her school. Ikumi doesn't seem to recognize Hina but the wheels of fate are slowly moving to reunite them in what is a passionate story of forbidden love.
TV8.2ComedyHanda Sen is the "okami" (proprietress) of a long-standing restaurant in one of Tokyo's lower districts. Though she is normally airheaded and loves to drink, she has an impressive mastery of a wide range of skills, from cooking to ceramics to calligraphy. While the drama follows various events surrounding the restaurant, one of the series' highlights is its illustration of Japanese food and culture.
TV8.0DocumentaryKids
TV7.3ComedyDramaThe story follows an amateur salaryman named Hiroshi Miyamoto, who works at a stationary company and pushes forward despite his frustration with his own insignificance.