Writing
The story in Ninku is about an odd-looking 12-year-old named Fūsuke (Fūsuke of the wind) who is a powerful warrior from the Ninku school of martial arts, a style that mixes ninjutsu and karate. It is explained that before the present time in the story that those who could use Ninku were targeted by an evil empire and the Ninku corps were formed to combat the menace. The names of the corps were taken from the twelve Chinese zodiac animals (Eto) and each captain of the corps was called the zodiac animal Ninku master (Etonin). When the war was over, the Ninku were defeated and almost all of them were killed since they were useless and were also dangerous for the rulers. At the beginning of the story, three years later, Fūsuke, the young former captain of the 1st Ninku corps and controller of the wind and Hiroyuki, his flatulent penguin, start searching for the other Ninku captains...
No description available.
A motorcycle cop and a freelance photographer, having learned the location of 1 billion yen's worth of the Imperial Navy's gold, team up to salvage it.
Six high school tennis clubmates, including railroad investigator Noriko Hanamura, are going on a day trip to Kawaguchi Lake. However, one of them, Ayako Hirayama, does not show up even after the arranged time for the meet-up has passed. Magazine writer Yumi Tachiki, who planned the trip, calls Ayako but gets no answer, so Noriko and the others, believing Ayako will catch up with them, proceed to their destination. Even though Yumi and Noriko call Ayako many times, she does not answer. Yumi receives an urgent work request after arriving at Tenjozan Park by ropeway, so Noriko and the others return to Tokyo leaving Yumi at the mountain. None of them had any contact with Ayako the entire day. That night, Noriko receives a call from the Yamanashi Prefectural Police informing her that Yumi's body has been found stabbed in Tenjozan Park. One of the ropeway employees happened to witness a mysterious woman wearing a hat and a mask following Yumi down the mountain trail that evening...
A César award nominated short feature.
The secret map of the treasure of Kenzan was stolen out of the house of a former soldier in Awa. A fight over the treasure that the map shows happens among the Rozyu, a Ronin, a thief, and the Hyodo family. Is the treasure there? Who will get it? Masakazu Tamura plays the role of a ronin from Edo, Hayato Arakida, from the Mumyo Tenshin school dojo and a swordmaster working for Lord Awa. The film is based on the original work of Kyotaro Nishimura. A period show with a fierce fight on a raft going down a river and romance.
Katsura Aya (Shiratori Yasuyo), a young and popular actress, is kidnapped. Igarashi (Honda Hirotaro), the president of the production company, calls Totsukawa (Mihashi Tatsuya) and Kamei (Aikawa Kinya) of the police. Totsukawa and Kamei learn that the kidnapper's name is Aoi Hebi (Blue Snake) and that Aoi Hebi is asking for one million yen for ransom.
While returning from a business trip to Hokkaido, Detective Kamei of the MPD greets a middle-aged traveler in the waiting room of Minami-Wakkanai Station but is ignored by him. On the limited express to Asahikawa, the same man happens to entrust Kamei with a floppy disk before dying. The floppy contains his investigative notes on a murder that happened two years ago...
Haneda, the president of a company dealing in gold, is shot to death on the Raicho 9 limited express from Osaka to Kanazawa. Detective Kamei begins an investigation in cooperation with the Fukui Prefectural Police. In the Green Car, Detective Nishimoto had noticed a beautiful woman talking to the victim just before he was killed. Looking into her background, she turns out to be Yumiko Miura, living in Setagaya in Tokyo. An eyewitness who claims that she is the murderer also appears, and she is taken into custody. Before long, the victim's unexpected relationships will be revealed one after another...
The strangled dead body of Hiroshi Hatano, accounting section chief at the longstanding apparel company Edaka International, is discovered in his apartment in Tokyo. At the scene, Inspector Totsugawa and Detective Kamei find out that a mysterious email stating "I'll be riding the Super Ozora 5 tomorrow" was sent to the victim's cell phone the night before. The sender, Manami Furuya, an employee of Edaka International's Planning Section, has strangely terminated her cell phone service and hasn't shown up to work that very morning. Immediately afterwards, Totsugawa is astonished to receive a report from the Hokkaido police stating that the body of a man, stabbed to death, has been found on the Super Ozora 5 limited express. The man is Yuuki Nakamura, a bar employee from Tokyo, who seems to have flown from Haneda Airport to Sapporo and then boarded the Super Ozora 5, which connects Sapporo and Kushiro. Totsugawa has the feeling that this can't be a coincidence...
A student, running late on the day of the University of Tokyo entrance exams, calls in a fake bomb threat in order to arrive on time.
Detective Kamei of the First Investigation Division receives a request from lawyer Shinichi Nakamura, the son of his deceased close friend, to re-investigate a car accident. Akiko, the wife of Yasuo Furuki, a painter from Hakone, died in the accident 5 months earlier by crashing into a guardrail. Nakamura's client, Akiko's younger sister Yuki Izeki, suspects that she was actually murdered by Furuki for insurance money. Overwhelmed by these thoughts, Yuki had sent an email reading "I'll never forgive that man. I'm going to kill him and avenge my big sister," announcing a murder to Nakamura. In the middle of their conversation, Nakamura receives a call from Hakone PD confirming that Yuki had turned herself in that morning...
