9 Movies Starring Ko Shibasaki

Drive

Drive

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2002-08-24

Languages:

Japanese

Countries:

Japan

Runtime:

102 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.2 (690 Reviews)

Director:

SABU

Genres:

Crime

Fullplot:

A salaryman is hijacked by bank robbers.

Go

Go

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2001-10-20

Languages:

Japanese, Korean

Countries:

Japan

Runtime:

122 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.7 (2072 Reviews)

Director:

Isao Yukisada

Genres:

Drama

Cast:

Writer:

Kazuki Kaneshiro (novel)

Kankurè Kudè (screenplay)

Fullplot:

Crying Out Love in the Center of the World

Crying Out Love in the Center of the World

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2004-05-08

Languages:

Japanese, English

Countries:

Japan

Runtime:

138 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.4 (2107 Reviews)

Director:

Isao Yukisada

Genres:

DramaRomance

Cast:

Writer:

Kyouichi Katayama (novel)

Yèji Sakamoto (screenplay)

Chihiro Itè (screenplay)

Isao Yukisada (screenplay)

Fullplot:

In 1980s Kyushu, two teenagers fell in love, and exchanged their secrets and thoughts by way of sending tape recordings to each other. More than a decade later, the boy (now grown-up and bittered) rediscovers the last recording of his long-dead lover's voice. Her words trigger a series of flashbacks illustrating the joyful beginning and tragic end of their relationship.

Japan Sinks

Japan Sinks

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2006-07-15

Languages:

Japanese

Countries:

Japan

Runtime:

135 min

Rated:

PG-13

IMDB Ratings:

5.7 (1155 Reviews)

Director:

Shinji Higuchi

Cast:

Writer:

Sakyo Komatsu (novel)

Masato Kato (screenplay)

Fullplot:

In the aftermath of a major earthquake under Suraga Bay, Misaki (a young girl) and Toshiro (a pilot of a deep sea submarine) are rescued from a ruined city street just as leaking gasoline ignites. Reiko Abe arrives just in time, lowered from a helicopter. Scientists predict that Japan will sink within 40 years, due to subduction of a tectonic plate to the west. However, Dr. Tadokoro, who leads an oceanic scientific team that includes Toshiro, calculates that this will happen far sooner, in only 338.54 days. He presents his findings to Prime Minister Yamamoto who decides to create a new department for impending disaster relief assigning Saoro Takamori to cover the new duties, since of all his ministers she will take it seriously but also bring "heart" to the process. As further earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions devastate Japan, the government pleads with other countries to take refugees. Yamamoto flies to China to negotiate relocations there, but his plane is destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Saoro fills the resulting vacuum in leadership and decides that Dr. Tadokoro's plan to blow holes in the disintegrating tectonic tectonic plate is the best remaining hope to not only save the people, but what remains of the country itself. Ironically it was her career that hastened their divorce 20 years earlier. Misaki becomes orphaned following her mother's death from earthquake injuries, and bonds with Reiko who was similarly rescued from, but orphaned by the Kobe quake. Toshiro is offered a job in England and wants Reiko and Misaki to come with him, but Reiko feels bound to help others and refuses to leave. Fellow submarine pilot Shinji Yuki also turns down Toshiro's offer to work with him in England. Drillships place massive explosives deep in the crust, but the detonator is not placed properly and Yuki dies attempting to place it by submarine.

Dororo

Dororo

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2007-03-15

Languages:

Japanese

Countries:

Japan

Runtime:

139 min

IMDB Ratings:

6.7 (2045 Reviews)

Director:

Akihiko Shiota

Cast:

Writer:

Osamu Tezuka (comic)

Masa Nakamura (screenplay)

Akihiko Shiota (screenplay)

Fullplot:

In the year 3048, the wounded Lord Kagemitsu Daigo proposes a deal to rule the whole world to forty-eight demons in their sealed temple. In return, the demons ask forty-eight parts of the body of his unborn son. When the mutilated baby is born, his mother puts him in a basket in the river flow to save his life. The baby survives and becomes the demon slayer Hyakkimaru that slash demons to retrieve his body parts. During his journey, he meets the female thief Dororo, who was raised as a boy after the death of her parents by the evil Lord Daigo, in a small town and she befriends Hyakkimaru and joins him in his quest seeking revenge against the Daigo's clan.

Maiko haaaan!!!

Maiko haaaan!!!

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2007-06-16

Languages:

Japanese

Countries:

Japan

Runtime:

120 min

IMDB Ratings:

6.8 (460 Reviews)

Director:

Nobuo Mizuta

Genres:

Comedy

Fullplot:

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

Suspect X

Suspect X

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2008-10-04

Languages:

Japanese

Countries:

Japan

Runtime:

128 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.5 (1572 Reviews)

Cast:

Writer:

Yasushi Fukuda (screenplay)

Keigo Higashino (serial story "Yègisha X no kenshin")

Fullplot:

47 Ronin

47 Ronin

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2013-12-25

Languages:

English, Japanese

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

118 min

Rated:

PG-13

IMDB Ratings:

6.3 (106539 Reviews)

Director:

Carl Rinsch

Cast:

Writer:

Chris Morgan (screenplay)

Hossein Amini (screenplay)

Chris Morgan (screen story by)

Walter Hamada (screen story by)

Fullplot:

While hunting in the forest, Lord Asano of Ako and his samurai find a young half-breed and take him with them to live in the castle. Several years later, Lord Asano holds a tournament to welcome the Shogun to Ako. The night after the tournament, Lord Asano is bewitched into hurting Lord Kira of Nagato, and is punished into committing seppuku by the Shogun. Realizing that it was a Lord Kira's evil plot, the samurais and the half-breed sets out for revenge against the Shogun's order.

Over Your Dead Body

Over Your Dead Body

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2014-08-23

Languages:

Japanese

Countries:

Japan, France, China

Runtime:

93 min

IMDB Ratings:

6.3 (360 Reviews)

Director:

Takashi Miike

Genres:

Horror

Cast:

Writer:

Kikumi Yamagishi (screenplay)

Fullplot:

A star, Miyuki Goto (Ko Shibasaki) plays Oiwa, the protagonist in a new play based on the ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan. She pulls some strings to get her lover, Kosuke Hasegawa (Ebizo Ichikawa) cast in the play, even though he's a relatively unknown actor. Other performers Rio Asahina (Miho Nakanishi) and Jun Suzuki (Hideaki Ito) lust after Miyuki. Off stage the cast's possessive love and obsessions exist as reality. Trapped between the play and reality, the cast's feelings for each other are amplified. When it becomes clear that love is not meant to be both on and off stage, love turns into a grudge and crosses the blurred line between reality and fantasy.

Become a Movie Insider

Join our mailing list and get access to expert analysis, trivia, and recommendations that will elevate your movie-watching experience.

View our privacy policy.