Top 30 must-see Japanese movies
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- DirectorNoboru IguchiStarsMinase YashiroAsamiNobuhiro NishiharaMaimed while seeking revenge, a girl becomes stronger than ever.
- DirectorNoboru IguchiYoshihiro NishimuraTak SakaguchiStarsTak SakaguchiAsamiNaoto TakenakaAfter a high-school girl discovers that she descends from a long line of mutants, she joins other mutants to battle anti-mutants. Ordinary humans that can't run fast get caught in the slaughter.
- DirectorYoshihiro NishimuraStarsEihi ShiinaItsuji ItaoYukihide BennyIn future Tokyo, a young woman in the privatized police force tracks down her father's killer while battling against mutant rebels known as engineers.
- DirectorTakashi MiikeStarsRyo IshibashiEihi ShiinaTetsu SawakiA widower takes an offer to screen girls at a special audition, arranged for him by a friend to find him a new wife. The one he fancies is not who she appears to be after all.
- DirectorKurando MitsutakeStarsJennifer MullaneyMatthew Floyd MillerDean SimoneA brilliant doctor on a quest for revenge buys a young woman and trains her to be the ultimate assassin, implanting gun parts in her body that she must later assemble and use to kill her target before she bleeds to death.
- DirectorNoboru IguchiStarsRina TakedaKentarô ShimazuTakamasa SugaKeiko, the daughter of a legendary sushi chef, runs away from home when his Karate-style regimen becomes too severe. Finding work at a rural hot springs inn, she is ridiculed by the eccentric staff and guests.
- DirectorGô OharaStarsRina AkiyamaRuito AoyagiAsamiAfter her mother is murdered, a girl dresses-to-kill as a Gothic Lolita. Using a deadly umbrella, she seeks revenge by slicing and dicing the wacky assassins responsible.
- DirectorJun TsugitaStarsMiyavi MatsunoiAsamiMinto Suzuki
- DirectorNobuhiko ÔbayashiStarsKimiko IkegamiMiki JinboKumiko ÔbaA schoolgirl and six of her classmates travel to her aunt's country home, which turns out to be haunted.
- DirectorShinji ImaokaStarsSawa MasakiYoshirô UmezawaAi Narita
- DirectorKengo KajiStarsAino KishiDai MizunoAsuka KataokaAS group of young schoolgirls walking through the woods is attacked and raped by a gang of thugs. Only one of the girls survives, but is badly injured. She is found by a scientist who takes her back to his lab, gives her a new robotic body and a female monk gives her magical powers. They send her out to take revenge on her attackers, but as it turns out he has an ulterior motive for his actions.
- DirectorMitsuru MeikeStarsKyôko HayamiKikujirô HondaYukijirô HotaruSachiko Hanai is a call girl. One day she is caught up in a gunfight and is shot in the forehead. Instead of killing her, the bullet in her head gives her psychic powers. She also accidentally comes into possession of a cylinder containing George W. Bush's finger, whose fingerprint is designed to launch a nuclear missile, and international spies are soon chasing her.
- DirectorYûdai YamaguchiJun'ichi YamamotoStarsIssei TakahashiAoba KawaiKenichi KawasakiFull-throttle splatter-ific Japanese cyberpunk science fiction/horror at its most aggressive, this mind-blower about alien parasites that turn their human hosts into slave "Necroborgs" will leave you dizzy and drained - in a good way.
- DirectorNoboru IguchiStarsAsamiKaoriDemo TanakaA raucous teen boy with a feminine face is teased everywhere, so his odd biker father dresses him as a girl and sends him to an all-girl school. The lad introduces himself as Sukeban, and a classmate, Michiko, takes him to after-school activities. Lessons on humility turn violent when a masked hatchet-wielding woman turns up. Jealousy, syringes of hormones, bare breasts, a blood bath, and more figure in the resolution.
- DirectorKôji ShiraishiStarsKotoha HiroyamaHiroaki KawatsureShigeo ÔsakoA doctor kidnaps a young couple and forces them into a game of torment that slowly extinguishes their hopes for survival.
- DirectorYoshihiro NishimuraNaoyuki TomomatsuStarsYukie KawamuraTakumi SaitôEri OtoguroA reconstructed girl is created from the pieces of a vampire girl's mini-butchery. Slaughter abounds as both of them pursue the same boy.
- DirectorKinji FukasakuStarsTatsuya FujiwaraAki MaedaTarô YamamotoIn the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill one another under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
- DirectorHideo NakataStarsNanako MatsushimaMiki NakataniYûko TakeuchiA reporter and her ex-husband investigate a cursed video tape that is rumored to kill the viewer seven days after watching it.
- DirectorTakashi MiikeStarsKen'ichi EndôShungiku UchidaKazushi WatanabeA troubled and perverted family find their lives intruded by a mysterious stranger who seems to help find a balance in their disturbing natures.
- DirectorToshiya FujitaStarsMeiko KajiToshio KurosawaMasaaki DaimonA strikingly beautiful young woman is trained from birth to be a deadly instrument of revenge against the swindlers who destroyed her family.
- DirectorShunji IwaiStarsHiroshi MikamiCharaAyumi ItoThe struggles of a group of immigrant outcasts living in an alternative-future, xenophobic Japanese metropolis.
- DirectorSion SonoStarsRyo IshibashiMasatoshi NagaseMai HoshoA detective is trying to find the cause of a string of suicides.
- DirectorKô NakahiraStarsRika AokiKazuko NagamotoMasami SoudaFirst film of a trilogy following the dramatic life of Rika, a half-Japanese/half-American woman who becomes the tough-as-nails leader of an all-girl crime gang.
- DirectorTakashi MiikeStarsYûta SoneKimika YoshinoShohei HinoA yakuza enforcer is ordered to secretly drive his beloved colleague to be assassinated. But when the colleague unceremoniously disappears en route, the trip that follows is a twisted, surreal and horrifying experience.
- DirectorYukihiko TsutsumiStarsMaho NonamiEiko KoikeMaki TsujimuraTwo actresses who have auditioned for one part, sharing the same apartment with opposite personalities equals a night which either neither of them will forget - if they survive!
- DirectorHideaki AnnoStarsEriko SatôMikako IchikawaJun MurakamiThe adventure of Cutie Honey, a super heroine who can transform into anything using her necklace to switch on and say "Honey Flash!".
- DirectorKatsuhito IshiiHajime IshimineShunichirô MikiStarsAndrew AlfieriHideaki AnnoMoyoco AnnoAn outrageous collection of surreal, short attention span non-sequiturs largely revolving around Guitar Brother, his randy older sibling, and the pair's portly Caucasian brother.
- DirectorNobuhiro YamashitaStarsBae DoonaAki MaedaYû KashiiA music group of girls need to learn to play a song before the school festival.
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsBae DoonaArata IuraItsuji ItaoA life-size blow-up doll develops a soul and falls in love with a video store clerk.
- DirectorHideo TanakaStarsYui AsakaMasatô IbuKeizô KanieNeo-nazi takes over a school, turns it into training camp with attempt to coup d'etat. Sukeban Deka should stop him, but it seems to impossible if she's alone.
- DirectorMinoru KawasakiStarsSeizô KatôTôru FuruyaDaizoBased on the comic strip by Kenji Sonishi. William Thomas Jefferson III, an American Shorthair cat, escapes an abusive relationship with his father, a famous model, to make his own way in the world, becoming master of a ramen shop.
- DirectorMinoru KawasakiStars'Hurricane Ryu' HarikenLee HoEiichi KikuchiTamura is an average divorced salary-man in Japan - and also a man-sized, suit-and-tie wearing, bipedal koala bear.