Sadao Abe

In a small town in Japan, Kirie comes upon her boyfriend's father silently videotaping a snail. He seems unaware of her presence and she thinks no more of it. Later, the mans obsession with spirals becomes more and more bizarre, ending in his suicide in a washing machine which turn his body into a spiral. Soon other inhabitants become possesed with different forms of spirals, one student seems to be mutating into a snail, another's hair becomes strangely medusa-like. The entire town becomes possesed. (imdb)

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Kamikaze Girls, where two girls from utterly different fashion universes -- one a "Lolita," the other a "Yankee" -- cross paths and discover they have far more in common than at first sight. Kamikaze Girls is the latest pop-culture phenomenon to take Japan by storm. (Viz Media)

After people die, they spend a week with counselors, also dead, who help them pick one memory, the only memory they can take to eternity... (imdb)

An anthology featuring ten dreams.

A man seeks revenge for the kidnapping and murder of his young daughter and finds that like the killer, he too has a dark side. (reelmoviecritic.com)

A woman is abducted by scientists taking part in a secret project to crossbreed humans with aliens. (eofftv.com)

A young scientist named Eiji decides to follow in his father's footsteps to help humanity by developing a drug that converts pain into pleasure. To test it out, he secretly adds his drug to a contraceptive that his mother has been performing clinical trials on with three young women at a local clinic.

Kimihiko Onizuka (Sadao Abe) is a salaryman infatuated with Maiko (apprentice geisha) and whose greatest goal in life is to play a party game called "yakyuken" with one.

Every week, toy-shop owner Gan and his cute assistant Ai battled the evil Doronbo gang. The gang led by femme fatale Doronjo and her assistants-pig-nosed muscleman Tonzra and rat-faced mecha genius Boyacky-for pieces of the mystical skull stone, and every week the Doronbo gang failed (usually due to incompetence). Then there was a mushroom cloud, Gan and Ai did their Yatterman dance and the gang regrouped the following week to do it all over again. (imdb)

The story of the apartment where many influential manga writers worked in the 1950s.

A little girl named Paco (Ayaka Wilson) has a memory that only lasts one day to due a brain injury caused by a car accident which killed both her parents. While in the hospital she meets a selfish old man named Onuki (Koji Yakusho). He's mean at first, but when he learns more about her he decides to something special for her involving her picture book. (nipponcinema.com)

After losing their restaurant in a fire, a husband and wife come up with a strange plan to rebuild their shattered finances: marrying the husband off to a series of lonely women and defrauding them. (tiff.net)

Despite being diagnosed with a terminal brain-tumor, a young musician is determined to live life to its absolute fullest during his final year by partying with his friends, playing with his band, and solving a perplexing crime. Bussan has been given less than a year to live, but he's not the type to simply lie down and die. On the contrary, Bussan is about to squeeze a lifetime of fun and experience into just a few short months. As the day of his death draws near, Bussan spends quality time... (Amazon)

Bussan refuses to accept his death and returns to Kisarazu as a ghost to make peace with his friends. Unfortunately his reappearance brings unforeseen consequences. (imdb)

Ryoro Kurojima (Sadao Abe) is the director of a Tokyo apology center. His job is to teach others how to apologize. Ryoro Kurojima solves problems by using his apology techniques on anything from simple arbitration to a national crisis. (asianwiki.com)

In addition to churning out crowd-pleasers like Crows Zero, Like a Dragon, and Sukiyaki Western Django, maverick director Miike Takashi also found time to return to theater in 2007. Following 2005's Demon Pond, the ever prolific Miike tries his hand at directing a stage play again, and this time his focus is none other than the most iconic of samurai, Zatoichi. Miike regular Sho Aikawa (Dead or Alive), in his first theatrical leading role, stars as the titular blind masseur with a deadly cane... (filmaffinity.com)

A man strives against all odds to find a way to grow apples without the use of chemicals or fertilizer. Impossible, he is told. And it seems so, for a long while.... The lessons imparted are certainly vital in this age of industrial agriculture, in the face of the need to eliminate fossil fuels from all aspects of our lives, including how we feed ourselves.

Tawako's boyfriend is not her kind, but she puts up with it in exchange for shelter. Her old boyfriend of almost a decade ago is long gone, and was also not nice, but like most girls she still reminisces about him and is attracted to his bad ways. Enter Mizushima who reminds Tawako of her old boyfriend, but soon more transpires to remind the girl of her old relationship. (imdb)

Takeharu Takami is a bank teller, but he becomes allergic to money. He decides not to use money at all. Takeharu decides to move to a small village in the Tohoku region. There, he encounters residents who are not so easy. (asianwiki)

Shing is a rock star. He has an amazingly loud voice with a range of four octaves. His secret is that he has created his voice through a method of vocal cord doping. His voice is now teetering on the edge, due to side effects from the vocal cord doping. Around this time, Shing meets Fuuka who is a street musician. When Fuuka sings, her voice is so small. Due to Fuuka, Shing looks back upon his past. (imdb)

Shinichi Sakurai is married to Kanako and they have a daughter named Kaori. Both, Shinichi and Kanako received only a middle school level education. Even though they don't have much money, they are a happy family. At work though, Shinichi experiences effects of only having a middle school education. One day, Shinichi sees Kaori's poor score for a national test. He freaks out and decides to improve Kaori's education. Thus, 41-year-old Shinichi begins studying with Kaori and instructs. (imdb)

Akiko (Masami Nagasawa) is a single mother and her son is Shuhei (Sho Gunji). Akiko casually has sex with other men, including Ryo (Sadao Abe). Akiko is the only person whom Shuhei can rely on. One day, Shuhei kills his grandparents. (imdb)

Hosted by veteran comedian Tamori, "Bizarre Tales 2007 Fall Special" presents five tales. 1. Mirai Dousoukai - starring Ishihara Satomi. 2. Countdown - starring Abe Sadao. 3. Jihanki Otoko - starring Joshima Shigeru. 4. Gomi Onna - starring Matsushita Yuki. 5. 48% no Koi - starring Shiraishi Miho.

Masahiro Nishiki is a veteran bank clerk, working at the Nagahara branch for Tokyo Daiichi Bank. One day, a cash-lost incident takes place at the Nagahara branch. Masahiro chases after the truth behind the cash-lost case with his colleagues Airi Kitagawa and Yoji Tabata. A fact behind the incident is discovered.

A single father desperately tries to return to 1986 after somehow arriving in 2024, where his Showa-era ideas come across as completely inappropriate. (netflix.com)

Offshore, shrouded in fog, there is a mysterious island that is said to be the home of a family of monsters. It is strictly forbidden to approach it. But one day a human child, Mushroom, it loses and coming face to face with the mysterious creatures that live there. The arrival of Mushroom, makes panic on the island because the monsters are actually terrified of living humans.

The show revolves around Rakugo, a traditional Japanese comedy that can look back on a 400 year long history. It tells about a Yakuza who goes to a Rakugo performer to collect debts, and a talented comedian who tries to change his destiny. (imdb)