Drama Recommendations for #AFSM!
Beach Boys (1997)
Starring: Takenouchi Yutaka, Sorimachi Takashi, Hirosue Ryoko, Inamori Izumi
Comedy/Drama
Having nothing to do, ex-Olympic candidate swimmer, Hiromi, decides to go to the beach after being thrown out of his girlfriend's house. While there, he meets Kaito, an elite salaryman of a big company, who comes with the purpose of cooling himself down. Both arrive at an inn where they stay on for their summer vacation ... and unknowingly, they grow to like the place very much.
Bijo ka Yajuu / Beauty or Beast? (2003)
Starring: Matsushima Nanako, Fukuyama Masaharu
Drama
Makoto is brought in to be the savior of the News Department, Nagase gets transferred from the Variety Department. Although Nagase had done everything he possibly could to ensure his programs were a success, his boss just could not could take any more of Nagase's behavior. So now the News Department has Makoto, who thinks high ratings are the meaning of life, and Nagase, who values the success of a program as just a tool for the full enjoyment of life. These two totally different personalities mix it up and somehow reach a mutual understanding, creating a delightful "light comedy" for adults.
Aoi tori / Bluebird (1997)
Starring: Toyokawa Etsushi
Drama
A tale of tragic love between Yoshimori, a station employee at a quiet, rural station, and Kahori, the wife of the heir to a family fortune. When Kahori's husband uncovers their affair, the star-crossed lovers try to flee with Kahori's daughter. Their search for safety and happiness takes them across the nation, from Hokkaido to Kagoshima. Filmed on location, this is an unforgettable story of romance told against the backdrop of some of the most beautiful scenery in Japan.
Otousan / Dad (2002)
Starring: Tamura Masakazu, Iijima Naoko, Hirosue Ryoko, Fukada Kyoko
Comedy
Shiro is the widower father of four beautiful daughters, whom he has raised entirely on his own. He owns and operates a respected soba restaurant and is famous for belittling customers who can't properly appreciate the subtle wonders of his creations.
Double Kitchen (1993)
Starring: Yamaguchi Tomoko, Takashima Masanobu, Nogiwa Yoko
Family Drama/Comedy
Double Kitchen is a heartwarming situation comedy about a newlywed couple sharing a house with the husband's parents in a suburb of Tokyo. Ordinary situations become hilarious cross-generational battlegrounds, as the wife and her mother-in-law pursue vastly different images of the ideal family.
Engine (2005)
Starring: Kimura Takuya, Koyuki
Family Drama
Jiro Kanzaki is an F3000 test driver blessed with acute sensitivity and breathtaking driving techniques. He's a daredevil who feels no fear driving at speeds that even top racers dare not attempt. But unexpected trouble forces this world-famous racer to leave his team and return to Japan for the first time in years. Until he finds a new job as a racer, Jiro decides to stay with his parents. What awaits Jiro there is his hardheaded father, his nagging sister, the 12 children of the foster home his father runs, a snobbish male nurse, and a stubborn female nurse who likes to daydream about her life.Jiro's return home brings a breath of fresh air that influences the people around him. However, he is still unaware that he too will eventually be influenced to change the way he thinks and lives.
Majo no Jouken / Forbidden Love (1999)
Starring: Matsushima Nanako, Takizawa Hideaki
Drama/Romance
Michi, 26, a high school teacher, tentatively accepts her boyfriend's proposal of marriage, uncertain of her love for him but feeling pressure from her father and society to do what is expected of her. Hikaru, 17, is frustrated by his home life and having been expelled from many high schools for bad behavior, enters Michi's class as a new transfer student. As their relationship grows they realize that they both feel that they have lost themselves to the pressures of those around them, and it is this common bond that draws them dangerously close.
Garasu no Kamen I / Glass Mask Season 1 (1997)
Starring: Adachi Yumi, Tanabe Seiichi, Nogiwa Yoko, Fuji Mariko
Drama, subbed by ME
Based on the popular comic book saga of the same name created by Suzue Miuchi.
Its central figure is Maya Kitajima, an average high school girl with one remarkable talent--impersonating TV actors and actresses. Maya is "discovered" one day by Chigusa Tsukikage, a well-known actress who retired from the limelight after an accident that left her face terribly disfigured. The ailing actress sees Maya as her successor, who will one day perform the title role in a legendary play called "Kurenai Tennyo" (The Crimson Goddess), to which she owns the production rights. Having decided to pursue acting as a career, Maya leaves her mother and joins Tsukikage's company. The transition does not go smoothly, however, as Maya soon becomes the target of practical jokes at the hands of her jealous colleagues...
Garasu no Kamen II / Glass Mask Season 2 (1998)
Continuation of GM I
Golden Bowl (2002)
Starring: Kaneshiro Takeshi, Kuroki Hitomi
Drama/Comedy
Welcome to Golden Bowl bowling alley, stockbroker Shu Akutagawa's favorite haunt. A regular, he likes nothing better then the rumble of the bowl running down the alley and crash and crackle of the pins tumbling down. When a woman named Hitomi Sakura - who shares the same first name as his ex, makes an appearance at the Golden Bowl things start to heat up as Shu teams up with her to challenge some pro bowlers. Will Shu be as lucky with Hitomi as he is with the pins?
Koukou Kyoushi 2003 / High School Teacher 2003 (2003)
Starring: Ueto Aya, Fujiki Naohito, Sonim
Drama/Romance/Teen
Hina, a student at Nikko High School, goes out one evening with Beniko, a girl from her year. 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 recognise Hina but the wheels of fate are slowly moving to reunite them in what is a passionate and tragic story of forbidden love.
Koori no Sekai / Ice World (1999)
Starring: Takenouchi Yutaka, Matsushima Nanako
Suspense
Investigations on a mysterious woman Toko started when Sonoe, a teacher, was found dead. Eiki, sent by the insurance agency, and Takeshi, an ambitious police detective, found links between this case and the deaths of Toko's 3 fiances...
Mama no Idenshi / Mama's Genes (2002)
Starring: Yakushimaru Hiroko
Drama
Nanami, a 35-year-old wife and mother, tries to come to grips with her wants and needs--a job, a better relationship with her mother-in-law; good schools for her children. She and her husband Wataru live in a suburb of Tokyo with their three little children. Wataru's father offers them a chance to save some money by moving in with him and his wife. Although Nanami doesn't get along very well with her mother-in-law, she lets the prospect of having Wataru's mom look after the kids so that she can go out and find a job persuade her to agree to the move. Little does she realize the host of problems that move would create.
Orange Days (2004)
Starring: Tsumabuki Satoshi, Shibasaki Kou, Konishi Manami
Drama/Romance
Kai Yuuki is in his senior year at university studying social welfare psychology. One day, he meets a girl who is playing violin in the campus. She is Sae Hagio, who lost the most important thing for a violinist - her hearing, four years ago. As a result Sae closed off her inner self from the outside world.
Seikei Bijin / Plastic Surgery Beauty (2002)
Starring: Yonekura Ryoko, Konishi Manami
Romance/Comedy
Honami Saotome seems to have the ideal life, working as a fashion model. Actually, behind her perfect face is a unfortunate girl, born into a family that has a long history of "the ugly bug." During her childhood, she was bullied for being ugly, and dumped tragically by the boy she liked. To bid farewell to all that and start a new life, she decides to have plastic surgery on her entire body. Nobody knows that behind her glamorous lifestyle, is a girl afraid that her secret may be found out, or that her face may fall apart. She struggles with her ugly personality that just won't wash away.
Pride (2004)
Starring: Kimura Takuya, Takeuchi Yuko
Drama/Romance
Haru is the captain and star player of an ice hockey team, which fully occupies his mind, while he treats romance as if it were a game. Aki is a typical businesswoman. One day, Aki's friends invite her to watch an ice hockey game. After the game, Aki and her friends join the players for a party celebrating their victory. When she leaves, she bumps into Haru and they exchange e-mail addresses and part, only to meet up again as they realize there are sparks between them. Will Aki get caught up in Haru's "game" of love, or will she change his opinion of it forever?
Aishiteiru to ittekure / Say You Love Me (1995)
Starring: Toyokawa Etsushi, Tokiwa Takako
Drama/Romance
This delicate love story transcends the spoken word as it depicts the lives of an aspiring young actress and a painter who lost his sense of hearing during childhood. As their relationship develops, the audience learns the true power of sign language and experiences the couple's growth first-hand through the progression of their visual communication.
Nemureru Mori / A Sleeping Forest (1998)
Starring: Nakayama Miho, Kimura Takuya
Drama
Nakayama plays a soon-to-be-wed woman who cannot remember her past due to a tragic incident that killed the rest of her family. One day, she finds a letter that directs her to a forest where she meets a man (Kimura) who knows everything about her.
Trick Season 1 (2000)
Starring: Nakama Yukie, Abe Hiroshi
Comedy/Drama
About a renowned physicist and her magician sidekick who investigate people claiming to have super powers.
Trick Season 2 (2002)
Continuation of Trick 1.
Trick: The Movie (2003)
Continuation of Trick 2.
Trick: Season 3 (2003)
Continuation of Trick: The Movie
Trick: New Special (2005)
Continuation of Trick: Season 3 / subbed by ME
Kougen he irasshai! / Welcome to the High Plains! (2003)
Sato Koichi
Drama
As a former manager of a top hotel, Seiji has been entrusted with the reopening of a hotel in the high plains that has been boarded up and closed for years. However, his attempts to get a top chef to draw customers fail. The staff members begin to worry about the hotel's future and try to leave, but at precisely that moment, an elderly man who used to be a chef at a top hotel pays a visit. Will this mean success for Seiji or just add to his troubles?
Ame to yume no ato ni / With Ame After a Dream / After the Rain, After the Dream (2005)
Starring: Kurokawa Tomoka, Sawamura Ikki
Supernatural Drama
Based on a novel by Akutagawa Prize-winning author, Yu Miri, 'Ame to yume no ato ni' is a story about the supernatural and the bonds between a father and daughter. Sakurai Tomoharu is a single parent who has an extremely close relationship to his daughter. One of his hobbies is catching and collecting butterflies, and he has traveled to Taiwan to catch a very rare butterfly, the Troides magellanus. It's so rare it's been called the "phantom butterfly." The legend goes that whoever catches this butterfly will become a phantom themselves. Back in Japan, Tomoharu's daughter, Ame, hasn't received a phone call from her father in days and begins to worry. However, when Tomoharu does return, he has no recollection of how he got back to Japan, or what happened at all. Ame notices strange things beginning to happen all around her . . . With the help of his neighbor Akiko, Tomoharu begins to piece together what happened back in Taiwan, and comes to a horrifying conclusion.
Onsen he ikou Season 1 / Women of the Onsen 1 (literally means Let's go to the Onsen!" (1999)
Starring: Kato Takako
Romance/Comedy
Kaoru sees her vacation at a hot-spring inn as a chance to get over her heartbreak after her fiance breaks off their engagement. But she soon finds herself caught in a position between her birth mother, the proprietor of the inn, and Kaoru's sister-in-law, whose position as the "next-in-line" at the inn was practically guaranteed. The loyalties of the employees are also tested, as the proprietor manipulates the younger women to her ends.
Onsen he ikou Season 2 / Women of the Onsen 2 (2000)
Continuation of Season 1
Onsen he ikou Season 3 / Women of the Onsen 3 (2000)
Continuation of Season 2
Kimi wa petto / You're My Pet (2003)
Koyuki, Matsumoto Jin
Drama
Smart, successful and good-looking Sumire Iwaya works for a big newspaper. However she is dumped for being a “perfect woman” followed by degradation. Then she finds Takeshi Goda in a box out the front of her home and takes him in. He looks like a dog she used to own called Momo. She dubs him Momo and decides to “keep him as a pet.’ It’s the start of an unexpected life together as they overcome obstacles and gradually deepen their feelings for each other.
