In a Japanese prison camp on Java in 1942, two British officers, John Lawrence and Jack Celliers, encounter camp commander Yonoi and his sergeant Hara. Things had been going pretty well, until charismatic, rebellious Celliers arrived. Yonoi is a devotee of the samurai ideal; neither he nor Hara can understand the stoic way in which the British prisoners accept their situation of defeat. Lawrence speaks Japanese, and ceaselessly tries to mediate between...

Every year, the Yokoyama clan gets together to honor the life of eldest son Junpei, drowned 15 years earlier while saving a man from drowning. Retired physician father Shohei still mourns, while his wife Toshiko has become a passive-aggressive domestic goddess, the two bicker continually. Surviving son Ryota has married at last-his new wife Yukari is a widow with a young son. Daughter Chinami and her car-salesman husband have their two kids in tow....

Dr. Sanada is an alcoholic, in part due to the despair that constantly assails him as he tries to keep the inhabitants of a post-World War II Tokyo slum as healthy as possible. Food and medical supplies are scarce, the neighborhood is around an open sewer, and the only place to buy medicines is the black market-- controlled by the Yakuza. Matsunaga, a young yakuza with a violent temper, seeks Sanada's help to remove a bullet from his hand, but Matsunaga's...

The Mamiya family is seeking a husband for their daughter, Noriko, but she has ideas of her own.

Being Natsuki Subaru is suffering. After being suddenly transported to another world, he discovers a terrible truth-he can't die. Or rather, he can't remain dead. Instead Subaru experiences the pain of death and the reality that he must start life over from a predetermined 'save point.' At first this ability seems like a gift, a way to make things right and save the girl he loves. But the more he dies, the more tragedy he experiences, and the...

The story is based on the tabloid sensation of 1936, the fatal love affair of Sada Abe, a former geisha turned maid, and Kichizo Yoshida, the owner of the Tokyo ryotei (Japanese-style restaurant) at which she worked. Abandoning his wife and his business, Kichizo gives himself up to two weeks of dissipation with Sada at a nearby inn, which climaxes in sadomasochistic love games--and his strangulation and mutilation. Kichizo is tired of life, of the...

A shoe company magnate must decide whether to save his company or his chauffeur's kidnapped son.

"Kagome is an ordinary schoolgirl who finds her destiny linked to the half-demon Inuyasha and the powerful Shikon Jewel. In their quest to restore the shattered Shikon Jewel, Inuyasha and Kagome face their ultimate enemy, the demon mastermind Naraku. Meanwhile, Sesshomaru learns the truth behind his sword Tenseiga, and Kikyo discovers a secret that could defeat Naraku! With the jewel nearly complete and in enemy hands, the race to collect the remaining...