Bringemovies
← Browse Movies
Emi-Abi
TITLE DETAILS

Emi-Abi

2016-09-03 · 88 min · Not rated

Drama · Comedy

Up-and-coming manzai stand-up comedy duo Emi-Abi has lost consummate funny man Unno (a surprisingly touching Tomoya Maeno) to an accident, leaving conceited straight man Jitsudo (Ryu Morioka) to contend with his diminished career prospects as a bland, pretty face entertainer. Guided by his manager Natsumi (Haru Kuroki), who demonstrates stronger comedy chops than her own star, Jitsudo comes to learn the circumstances of his friend's passing, as well as the life-and-death stakes of a career in comedy. Demonstrating a careful balance of tone across tragedy and deadpan and gross-out humor, writer/director Kensaku Watanabe expands "Emi-Abi"'s hilarious premise into a strikingly assured meditation on artistic rivalry and self-actualization.

Open detail page

Trailers are previews, not full movies.

No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.

Production details

Directors
Kensaku Watanabe
Production companies
Bitters End
Countries
Japan
Status
Released

Top Cast

Ryu MoriokaRyu MoriokaKenji Sanemichi
Tomoya MaenoTomoya MaenoKazuya Unno
Haru KurokiHaru KurokiNatsumi Takahashi
Hirofumi AraiHirofumi AraiTakuma Kurosawa
Mari YamachiMari YamachiHinako Kurosawa
Hako OshimaKaoru Murata
Kenta KunaiTairo Murata
Jyo Hyuga
Yuya MatsuuraYuya Matsuura
Yoshiki SaitoYoshiki Saito

Title information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.

Where to watch

Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.

Availability not listed for this country.

Recommendations

Landline
★ 6.2
Landline2017Drama · Comedy

A teenager living with her sister and parents in Manhattan during the 1990s discovers that her father is having an affair.

The House of Tomorrow
★ 6.8
The House of Tomorrow2019Drama · Comedy

The film tells futurist, architect, and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller's incredible story through two teens hoping to get laid, become punk gods, and survive high school.

Lady Windermere's Fan
★ 6.9
Lady Windermere's Fan1925Drama · Comedy

A society woman believes her husband is having an affair, a misconception which may have dire personal consequences for all involved.

Don't Think Twice
★ 6.4
Don't Think Twice2016Drama · Comedy

An improv group deals with several crises, including the loss of their lease and one member hitting the big time.

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
★ 7.5
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl2024Drama · Comedy

On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family.

Code 3
★ 7.1
Code 32025Drama · Comedy

A burned-out paramedic tries to survive his last 24 hours on the job while training a new recruit.

Almost Friends
★ 6.3
Almost Friends2017Drama · Comedy

A man in his mid-20s, still living at home with his mother and stepfather, puts all his eggs in one basket: the girl who works at his local coffee shop. The problem is, she has a serious boyfriend. As they become closer, the line between friendship and intimacy is blurred, and the situation forces both to examine where they are in their lives.

Family Weekend
★ 6.3
Family Weekend2013Drama · Comedy

A 16-year-old girl takes her parents hostage after they miss her big jump-roping competition.

A Futile and Stupid Gesture
★ 6.5
A Futile and Stupid Gesture2018Drama · Comedy

In a life full of triumph and failure, "National Lampoon" co-founder Doug Kenney built a comedy empire, molding pop culture in the 1970s.

Poster unavailable
★ 6.1
Hello2013Comedy

The film tells the story of three best friends named Ako, Aki and Awang, who are well-known in their village for their mischievous and humourous pranks. The trio work for Pak Man. One day, they are assigned to pick up his daughter Misha, who has just returned from overseas and dreams of becoming a doctor. The trio have been in love with her for a long time but she does not pay them any heed. When Misha is robbed by a snatch thief one day, she is rescued by a doctor named Shafiq. Her face reminds the doctor of his late wife, and he begins to pursue her, which annoys the trio.

SubUrbia
★ 6.2
SubUrbia1997Drama · Comedy

A group of suburban teenagers try to support each other through the difficult task of becoming adults.

Small Apartments
★ 5.9
Small Apartments2012Drama · Comedy

When a clumsy deadbeat accidentally kills his landlord, he must do everything in his power to hide the body, only to find that the distractions of lust, the death of his beloved brother, and a crew of misfit characters force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him.

CQ
★ 5.9
CQ2001Drama · Comedy

A young filmmaker in 1960s Paris juggles directing a cheesy sci-fi debacle, directing his own personal art film, coping with his crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, and a new-found infatuation with the sci-fi film's starlet.

Achilles and the Tortoise
★ 7.0
Achilles and the Tortoise2008Drama · Comedy

Machisu is a painter. He never had the success he thinks he is entitled to. Regardless of this, he always remains trying to be successful. His wife Sachiko keeps supporting him, despite all setbacks.

My Own Love Song
★ 6.2
My Own Love Song2010Drama · Comedy

A wheelchair-bound singer and her best friend embark on a roadtrip to Memphis.

Chang Can Dunk
★ 6.7
Chang Can Dunk2023Drama · Comedy

Chang, a 16-year-old, Asian American, bets the high school basketball star that he can dunk by Homecoming. The bet leads 5' 8" Chang on a quest to learn to dunk—not only to impress his crush, Kristy, but to gain the respect of his high school peers too. But before he can rise up and truly throw one down, he'll have to reexamine everything he knows about himself, his friendships and his family.

John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City
★ 7.9
John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City2018Comedy

John Mulaney relays stories from his childhood and "SNL," eviscerates the value of college and laments getting older in this electric comedy special.

Savage House
★ 7.0
Savage House2026Drama · Comedy

Against the backdrop of 18th century England, a massive pox outbreak, and Jacobite uprising – Sir Chauncey Savage and Lady Savage blindly pursue a better life. It's not without a tinge of irony that their family name is the Savages, for this is a Savage House indeed, filled with duels, decadence, and bloodshed.

Glory to the Filmmaker!
★ 6.3
Glory to the Filmmaker!2007Drama · Comedy

Takeshi Kitano plays a version of himself in which he's a struggling director cycling through a number of different genres in an effort to complete his latest project.

Brotherly Love
★ 7.0
Brotherly Love2015Drama

West Philadelphia basketball star Sergio Taylor deals with the pressures of fame while his brother and sister have their own issues with ambition.

Similar titles

The Bleep Brothers
★ 9.0
The Bleep Brothers2002Comedy

Tatsuo and Ikuo have been raised by hard-working parents who run a funeral home. For relief, they practice games of manzai, a Japanese comic vaudeville. Tatsuo grows up to be a handsome chick magnet, while Ikuo is nerdy and unappealing. He spies on his brother to get material for their reality porn show. The show is bleeped heavily, and their bleep language becomes trendy and makes them stars.

Tomorrow's "Tarinai Futari" Special Edition
★ 8.0
Tomorrow's "Tarinai Futari" Special Edition2021Comedy

The popular comedy duo "Tarinai Futari" draws the curtains on their legacy in their final "manzai" performance.

Father and Son
Not rated
Father and Son2019Comedy

This is a story about a son who pursue his career as a comedian by forming a comedy duo with his demented father. "Kazuki, are you still doing comedy?" "Yes, I am. Right now!" The Abe family is a rice farmer in Nishikan Ward, Niigata. The first son, Kazuki is unemployed, living at his parents' house, and writing comedy plot everyday. One day, his father Yoji fell down from a stroke while he was practicing for the local comedy competition. While facing the severe reality of becoming a home helper to his demented father, his companion, Masakazu told him he is giving up on comedy. Struggling between his dream and the reality, childhood and adulthood, he decides to enter the competition as a comedy duo with his demented father. Can miracle happen on stage for the father who lost his memory and the son who finally made up his mind?

Asakusa Kid
★ 7.0
Asakusa Kid2021Drama

Before he hit it big, Takeshi Kitano got his start apprenticing with comedy legend Fukami of Asakusa. But as his star rises, his mentor's declines.

What's Manzai?!!!
★ 3.7
What's Manzai?!!!2016Comedy

Captivated by the classic form of Japanese comedy known as manzai, Stephen, an American, sets out to break into Japan's entertainment world.

MANZAI Conflict
Not rated
MANZAI Conflict2021

Tsukaguchi, a comedian, is disliked by the public for his bad behavior and vile style, and shows no signs of selling at all. He and his partner, Kunimatsu, spend their days doing MANZAI (comedy dialogue) at a small theater. One day, the two receive an offer to appear on TV. However, Tsukaguchi has a big problem with his girlfriend, and in the midst of the mixture of reality and delusion, he soon finds himself involved in an irreversible situation as a comedian.

漫才協会 THE MOVIE 舞台の上の懲りない面々
★ 8.0
漫才協会 THE MOVIE 舞台の上の懲りない面々2024

Slapstick Brothers
★ 6.0
Slapstick Brothers2011

Tobio Kurosawa (Ryuta Sato), who has been part of a manzai (stand up comedy) duo for ten years, finds himself in trouble after his partner Tamotsu Ishii (Yuji Ayabe) quits due to their declining popularity and mounting debts. Tobio then attempts to drink his problems away, but the next morning finds himself locked up in a detention center. At the detention center Tobio meets tough dreadlocked Ryuhei Onizuka (Yusuke Kamiji) who has an uncanny knack for comedy. Tobio attempts to recruit Ryuhei to become a partner in a new comedy duo. Once on the outside, they start practicing ...

Prebz og Dennis: The Movie
★ 3.4
Prebz og Dennis: The Movie2017Comedy

The YouTube-stars Prebz and Dennis get a warning from a fortune teller that something horrible is going to happen, and Prebz takes on his biggest challenge ever.

Goodbye Boys
★ 6.0
Goodbye Boys2006Drama

What happens when a gang of Form Five Ipoh boys embark on a 100km hike to fulfill a King Scouts requirement but come back on the road to becoming men? Goodbye Boys is a simple journey with complicated realizations. Set in 1990, Malaysia, it is about a gang of pimply guys with raging hormones, undecided ambitions and formative identities. They set out on a grueling 5-day journey through the Kinta Valley – once the richest tin deposit in the world, now an abandoned plain - that changes friendships and selves.

Claws
Not rated
Claws1987Comedy

A tale of cat lovers, the social circle they inhabit, and the power struggles between them. Sukey is a beautiful Albanian Brown kitten, the sort that anyone would fall in love with. Sylvia Mortimer does – and so enters into the blue-rinsed world of pedigree cat-breeding, where competition is cut-throat and corruption knows no bounds.

Betrayed Women
Not rated
Betrayed Women2024Drama · Comedy

Two married people fall in love and everything else breaks apart. A infidelities story told in a female voice.

Ilai
★ 5.0
Ilai2017Drama

A school girl in a village that doesn’t believe in women empowerment faces innumerable hurdles on the day of her final exam.

Leyla’s Prayer
★ 5.5
Leyla’s Prayer2002Drama

A story about the blows inflicted on Kazakhstan by soviet government.

The Chop
★ 6.8
The Chop2015Comedy

A comedy about Yossi, a charismatic Kosher butcher who loses his job, cannot find work at other Kosher butchers, and decides to pretend to be Muslim in order to get work at a Halal butchers.

Thunderbirds
★ 6.1
Thunderbirds2014Drama

Antonin and Leonor are hunting larks. He is as submissive as his sister is voracious. One day, a dog attacks them.

Patricio Looked at a Star
Not rated
Patricio Looked at a Star1935Comedy

A haberdashery clerk lives solely for the cinema. His obsession runs so deep that his platonic love is a movie star.

The Cider House Rules
★ 7.1
The Cider House Rules1999Drama

Homer is an orphan who was never adopted, becoming the favorite of orphanage director Dr. Larch. Dr. Larch imparts his full medical knowledge on Homer, who becomes a skilled, albeit unlicensed, physician. But Homer yearns for a self-chosen life outside the orphanage. What will Homer learn about life and love in the cider house? What of the destiny that Dr. Larch has planned for him?

The Last Metro
★ 7.2
The Last Metro1980Drama

In occupied Paris, an actress wed to a Jewish theater owner must keep him hidden from the Nazis while doing both of their jobs.

Your favorites

Recently viewed

Watch

Choose an authorized server.

Full video from an operator-configured authorized source. Official trailers use a separate player. If a server fails, retry or select another authorized server.

Legal watch options

Official trailer

Trailer preview only. Press Play to start.

Privacy choices

Favorites stay in your browser. Movie images load from TMDb. YouTube trailers contact YouTube only after you allow external media and choose a trailer. Advertising consent, if ads are enabled, is managed separately by the operator’s certified CMP.

Privacy policy

After allowing external media, choose the trailer button to load its player.