Best of Japan
by erikfish2882 | created - 08 Jul 2012 | updated - 08 Jul 2012 | PublicJapanese movies I have known and loved.
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1. A Story of Floating Weeds (1934)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama
A kabuki actor's mistress hatches a jealous plot to bring down her lover's son.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Takeshi Sakamoto, Chôko Iida, Kôji Mitsui, Emiko Yagumo
Votes: 3,461
2. Rashomon (1950)
Not Rated | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura
Votes: 180,371 | Gross: $0.10M
3. Early Summer (1951)
Not Rated | 125 min | Drama, Romance
A family chooses a match for their daughter Noriko, but she, surprisingly, has her own plans.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Setsuko Hara, Chishû Ryû, Chikage Awashima, Kuniko Miyake
Votes: 9,665
4. Ikiru (1952)
Not Rated | 143 min | Drama
A bureaucrat tries to find meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka
Votes: 87,523 | Gross: $0.06M
5. Ugetsu (1953)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy, War
A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyô, Kinuyo Tanaka, Mitsuko Mito
Votes: 25,804 | Gross: $0.01M
6. Tokyo Story (1953)
Not Rated | 136 min | Drama
An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city, but receive little attention.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama, Sô Yamamura, Setsuko Hara
Votes: 68,559
7. Seven Samurai (1954)
Not Rated | 207 min | Action, Drama
Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki
Votes: 366,711 | Gross: $0.27M
8. Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956)
Not Rated | 80 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
A 400-foot (122-meter) dinosaur-like beast, awoken from undersea hibernation off the Japanese coast by atomic-bomb testing, attacks Tokyo.
Directors: Ishirô Honda, Terry O. Morse | Stars: Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kôchi, Akira Takarada
Votes: 8,820
This is the version with the American bits added on (with Raymond Burr) to the original Japanese classic.
9. Throne of Blood (1957)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama
A war-hardened general, egged on by his ambitious wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become lord of Spider's Web Castle.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura
Votes: 55,921
10. Yojimbo (1961)
Not Rated | 110 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Eijirô Tôno, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yôko Tsukasa
Votes: 131,314
11. Dodes'ka-den (1970)
Not Rated | 140 min | Drama
Various tales in the lives of Tokyo slum dwellers, including a mentally deficient young man obsessed with driving his own commuter trolley.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Yoshitaka Zushi, Kin Sugai, Toshiyuki Tonomura, Shinsuke Minami
Votes: 7,619
12. In the Realm of the Senses (1976)
NC-17 | 109 min | Drama, Romance
A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: Tatsuya Fuji, Eiko Matsuda, Aoi Nakajima, Yasuko Matsui
Votes: 22,794
13. The Funeral (1984)
Not Rated | 124 min | Comedy
When Wabisuke's father-in-law unexpectedly dies, the family goes through a series of events and occurrences as the funeral unfolds over three days in their home.
Director: Jûzô Itami | Stars: Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Kin Sugai, Hideji Ôtaki
Votes: 1,852
14. Ran (1985)
R | 160 min | Action, Drama, War
In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryû
Votes: 136,144 | Gross: $4.14M
15. Tampopo (1985)
Not Rated | 114 min | Comedy
A truck driver stops at a small family-run noodle shop and decides to help its fledgling business. The story is intertwined with various vignettes about the relationship of love and food.
Director: Jûzô Itami | Stars: Ken Watanabe, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Koji Yakusho
Votes: 22,544 | Gross: $0.22M
16. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
R | 120 min | Biography, Drama
A fictionalized account in four chapters of the life of celebrated Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.
Director: Paul Schrader | Stars: Ken Ogata, Masayuki Shionoya, Hiroshi Mikami, Junya Fukuda
Votes: 13,756 | Gross: $0.44M
US/Japan co-production
17. A Taxing Woman (1987)
127 min | Comedy, Crime
If tax evasion is an art, wheeler-dealer Hideki Gondo is Rembrandt. And so, a determined taxing woman gets the tough assignment of trying to catch him.
Director: Jûzô Itami | Stars: Nobuko Miyamoto, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Masahiko Tsugawa, Yasuo Daichi
Votes: 2,242
18. Shall We Dance? (1996)
PG | 136 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A successful but unhappy Japanese accountant finds the missing passion in his life when he begins to secretly take ballroom dance lessons.
Director: Masayuki Suô | Stars: Koji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari, Naoto Takenaka, Eri Watanabe
Votes: 11,730 | Gross: $9.68M
19. Princess Mononoke (1997)
PG-13 | 134 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
On a journey to find the cure for a Tatarigami's curse, Ashitaka finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest gods and Tatara, a mining colony. In this quest he also meets San, the Mononoke Hime.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Yôji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yûko Tanaka, Billy Crudup
Votes: 433,563 | Gross: $2.38M
20. Spirited Away (2001)
PG | 125 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Miyu Irino, Rumi Hiiragi
Votes: 848,981 | Gross: $10.06M
21. Nobody Knows (2004)
PG-13 | 141 min | Drama
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu | Stars: Yûya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura, Momoko Shimizu
Votes: 31,394 | Gross: $0.68M
22. Departures (2008)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama
Soon after buying an expensive cello, Daigo learns that his orchestra is disbanding. He moves back to his hometown with his wife, where he answers an ad for what Daigo thinks is a travel agency but is, in actuality, a mortuary.
Director: Yôjirô Takita | Stars: Masahiro Motoki, Ryôko Hirosue, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kazuko Yoshiyuki
Votes: 54,965 | Gross: $1.50M
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