Furuhata Ninzaburo
Furuhata Ninzaburō is a Japanese television series that ran periodically on Fuji Television from 1994 until its final episodes in 2006. It was written by Japanese playwright Kōki Mitani and is often referred to as the Japanese version of Columbo. The series is a police detective drama starring actor Masakazu Tamura as Furuhata Ninzaburo and Masahiko Nishimura as his stereotypically bumbling sidekick, Shintaro Imaizumi. The program aired weekly and featured a guest villain each time, usually a famous talent in Japan. Pop-stars like SMAP, television hosts like Sanma Akashiya and even sports figures like Ichiro Suzuki have been featured on this program. It was one of the most popular television dramas in the history of Japanese television, having spawned several seasons and TV specials.
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Cast
Masakazu Tamura
Masahiko Nishimura
Takashi Kobayashi
Masanori Ishii
Yosuke Eguchi
Isao Sasaki
Mao Daichi
Yasuko Sawaguchi
Masao Kusakari
Toshiaki Karasawa
Masachika Ichimura
Sanma Akashiya
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Seasons
1.Message from the Dead
8.313-04-199447mOn a dark and stormy night, Chinami kills her business partner in her remote manor house in the hills. Then the doorbell rings. As luck would have it, it's none other than Inspecto...
2.The Moving Corpse
9.020-04-199447mAfter killing a woman in a hit and run, a famous Kabuki actor decides to kill the only witness, a theatre security guard, and stage it to look like an accidental fall. Only Furuhat...
3.The Laughing Corpse
9.027-04-199460mFuruhata is called to a scene where a woman has just killed a burglar but a chicken in the oven and a cigarette in the bin make the wily inspector suspicious.
4.The Killing Fax
10.004-05-199460mAn action-packed night is in store for the police department after a famous writer's wife is kidnapped and he is tasked with delivering the money by the fax-using kidnapper. Howeve...
5.The Dirty King
9.011-05-199460mShogi 8-dan Yonezawa is no match for Furuhata Ninzaburo after murdering the overseer at the Ryujin Tournament.
6.The Piano Lesson
10.018-05-199460mFuruhata Ninzaburô gets involved in the drama surrounding an elite musical academy when he begins suspecting a fierce piano teacher of murdering the school's headmaster.
7.Rehearsal for Murder
10.025-05-199460mDuring a rehearsal, a beloved samurai movie star kills the despised studio executive. Was it an accident or murder? Furuhata Ninzaburo investigates.
8.Murder Express
9.001-06-199460mA trip should be enjoyable but Dr Nakagawa's trip was ruined when he realized he was being tailed by his wife's private eye. He decides to kill the nosy gumshoe on the train home b...
9.Broadcast Murder
9.008-06-199460mDuring a live broadcast, a TV psychic desperately in need of validation pretends to find a corpse of a man he himself had killed earlier. The only person in the audience not convin...
10.The Contradictory Corpse
9.015-06-199460mA politician's secretary murders his boss and the boss' mistress staging the scene to look like a murder-suicide. However, one of his victims survives and is taken to the hospital...
11.Sayonara DJ
10.022-06-199460mFuruhata and Shintaro are assigned to bodyguard a radio DJ who's been receiving threatening messages. However, the DJ turns out to be the killer with a devious plan and a watertigh...
12.The Final Greeting
9.029-06-199460mWhat happens when the killer you are hunting is your superior? Furuhata is about to find out after he begins suspecting the legendary Superintendent Kogure of murdering the man who...