Top 200 Japanese Films
by minalex | created - 20 Sep 2011 | updated - 2 days ago | Public[D] Most films are directed by Ak. Kurosawa (17), Mizoguchi (13), Koreeda (9), Miyazaki (9), Ozu (9), Imamura (7), Oshima (7), Kitano (6) and Naruse (6).
Page 1 (1926-1984), Page 2 (1984-2023).
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1. A Page of Madness (1926)
Not Rated | 70 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A man takes a job at an asylum with hopes of freeing his imprisoned wife.
Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa | Stars: Masuo Inoue, Ayako Iijima, Yoshie Nakagawa, Hiroshi Nemoto
Votes: 4,574
2. I Was Born, But... (1932)
Not Rated | 90 min | Comedy, Drama
Two young brothers throw a tantrum when they discover that their father isn't the most important man in his workplace.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Tatsuo Saitô, Tomio Aoki, Mitsuko Yoshikawa, Hideo Sugawara
Votes: 6,213
3. Sisters of the Gion (1936)
95 min | Drama
Two geisha sisters lead a hard life in the Gion district of Kyoto. After one of them feels obliged to support a bankrupt businessman, the other sister sets up various schemes to get rid of him.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Isuzu Yamada, Yôko Umemura, Benkei Shiganoya, Namiko Kawashima
Votes: 3,014
4. The Only Son (1936)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama
A widow sends her only son away to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him, finding him a poor school teacher with a wife and son.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Chôko Iida, Shin'ichi Himori, Masao Hayama, Yoshiko Tsubouchi
Votes: 4,041
5. Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)
86 min | Drama
The lives of two slum neighbors, one of a happy-go-lucky gambler and the other of a poor ronin, converge when the two get involved with the affairs of a powerful samurai official and his gangsters.
Director: Sadao Yamanaka | Stars: Chôjûrô Kawarasaki, Kan'emon Nakamura, Tsuruzô Nakamura, Chôemon Bandô
Votes: 2,299
6. The Straits of Love and Hate (1937)
108 min | Drama
A young couple of lovers want to travel to Tokio to work and form a family there, but the parents of him want his son to regent their hotel. Finally, he does what his parents want him to, and her finds herself abandoned in the big city.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Taizô Fukami, Akira Harue, Kiyoshi Katô, Seizaburô Kawazu
Votes: 230
7. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939)
Not Rated | 148 min | Drama, Romance
The adopted son of a legendary actor, and an aspiring star himself, turns to his infant brother's wet nurse for support and affection - only for her to give up everything for her beloved's glory.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Shôtarô Hanayagi, Kôkichi Takada, Ryôtarô Kawanami, Kinnosuke Takamatsu
Votes: 4,396
8. The 47 Ronin (1941)
241 min | Drama, History
The legendary Forty-seven ronin plot to avenge the death of their lord, Asano Naganori, by killing Kira Yoshinaka, a shogunate official responsible for Asano being forced to commit seppuku.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Chôjûrô Kawarasaki, Yoshizaburo Arashi, Utaemon Ichikawa, Kan'emon Nakamura
Votes: 2,675
9. Late Spring (1949)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama
Several people try to talk 27-year-old Noriko into marrying, but all she wants is to keep on caring for her widowed father.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Chishû Ryû, Setsuko Hara, Yumeji Tsukioka, Haruko Sugimura
Votes: 19,343
10. Stray Dog (1949)
Not Rated | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
During a sweltering summer, a rookie homicide detective tries to track down his stolen Colt pistol.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji, Eiko Miyoshi
Votes: 18,940
11. Flame of My Love (1949)
96 min | Drama, Romance
A woman's struggle for equality in Japan in the 1880s. Eiko Hirayama leaves Okayama for Tokyo, where she helps the fledgling Liberal Party and falls in love with its leader Kentaro Omoi, ... See full summary »
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Mitsuko Mito, Kuniko Miyake, Ichirô Sugai
Votes: 480
12. 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: 180,509 | Gross: $0.10M
13. 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: 9,682
14. Miss Oyu (1951)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Romance
Shinnosuke is introduced to Shizu as a prospective wife, but he falls in love with her widowed sister Oyu. Convention forbids Oyu to marry because she has to raise her son as the head of ... See full summary »
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Nobuko Otowa, Yûji Hori, Kiyoko Hirai
Votes: 1,893
15. The Life of Oharu (1952)
Not Rated | 133 min | Drama
Follows a woman's fight and survival amid the vicissitudes of life and the cruelty of society.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Tsukie Matsuura, Ichirô Sugai, Toshirô Mifune
Votes: 7,645
16. 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: 87,577 | Gross: $0.06M
17. 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: 68,625
18. 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: 25,821 | Gross: $0.01M
19. Gate of Hell (1953)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama, History
A samurai pursues a married lady-in-waiting.
Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa | Stars: Machiko Kyô, Kazuo Hasegawa, Isao Yamagata, Yatarô Kurokawa
Votes: 4,278
20. Anatahan (1953)
PG | 91 min | Drama, History, War
From June 1944, twelve Japanese seamen are stranded for seven years on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Akemi Negishi, Tadashi Suganuma, Kisaburo Sawamura, Shôji Nakayama
Votes: 1,349 | Gross: $0.05M
21. 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: 366,900 | Gross: $0.27M
22. Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
Not Rated | 124 min | Drama
In medieval Japan, a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyôko Kagawa, Eitarô Shindô
Votes: 18,234
23. A Story from Chikamatsu (1954)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
Ishun is a wealthy but unsympathetic master printer who has wrongly accused his wife and best employee of being lovers. To escape punishment, the accused run away together, but Ishun is certain to be ruined if word gets out.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Kazuo Hasegawa, Kyôko Kagawa, Eitarô Shindô, Eitarô Ozawa
Votes: 4,947
24. Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
101 min | Drama
What is the life of a Geisha like once her beauty has faded and she has retired? Kin has saved her money, and has become a wealthy money-lender, spending her days cold-heartedly collecting ... See full summary »
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Haruko Sugimura, Ken Uehara, Sadako Sawamura, Chikako Hosokawa
Votes: 1,194
25. Godzilla (1954)
Not Rated | 96 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
American nuclear weapons testing results in the creation of a seemingly unstoppable dinosaur-like beast.
Director: Ishirô Honda | Stars: Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Akira Takarada, Momoko Kôchi
Votes: 39,668 | Gross: $2.42M
26. Floating Clouds (1955)
123 min | Drama, Romance
A tragic social drama set in post war Japan and concerns a lonely woman trying to find purpose and stability in a devastated Tokyo.
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Mariko Okada, Isao Yamagata
Votes: 3,146
27. The Eternal Breasts (1955)
106 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Fumiko, mother of two children and wife of an unfaithful man who shows a low self esteem, shares her family life with her asleep vocation as a poetess. The beginning of her successful ... See full summary »
Director: Kinuyo Tanaka | Stars: Yumeji Tsukioka, Ryôji Hayama, Junkichi Orimoto, Hiroko Kawasaki
Votes: 635
28. Yôkihi (1955)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, History, Romance
In 8th-century China, the Emperor is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their influence over the ... See full summary »
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Sô Yamamura, Eitarô Shindô
Votes: 2,062
29. The Burmese Harp (1956)
Not Rated | 116 min | Drama, Music, War
A conscience-driven Japanese soldier traumatized by the events of WWII adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.
Director: Kon Ichikawa | Stars: Rentarô Mikuni, Shôji Yasui, Tatsuya Mihashi, Jun Hamamura
Votes: 6,463
30. Street of Shame (1956)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama
The personal tales of various prostitutes who occupy a brothel.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Machiko Kyô, Aiko Mimasu, Ayako Wakao, Michiyo Kogure
Votes: 4,869
31. Flowing (1956)
117 min | Drama
Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mothers trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta ... See full summary »
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Isuzu Yamada, Hideko Takamine, Mariko Okada
Votes: 1,188
32. 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: 55,970
33. The Hidden Fortress (1958)
Not Rated | 126 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Lured by gold, two greedy peasants unknowingly escort a princess and her general across enemy lines.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Misa Uehara, Minoru Chiaki, Kamatari Fujiwara
Votes: 42,253
34. Good Morning (1959)
Not Rated | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Two boys begin a silence strike to press their parents into buying them a television set.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Keiji Sada, Yoshiko Kuga, Chishû Ryû, Kuniko Miyake
Votes: 11,055
35. Floating Weeds (1959)
Not Rated | 119 min | Drama
The head of a Japanese theatre troupe returns to a small coastal town where he left a son who thinks he is his uncle, and tries to make up for the lost time, but his current mistress grows jealous.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Ganjirô Nakamura, Machiko Kyô, Haruko Sugimura, Ayako Wakao
Votes: 8,979
36. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (I) (1959)
Not Rated | 208 min | Drama, History, War
A Japanese pacifist, unable to face the dire consequences of conscientious objection, is transformed by his attempts to compromise with the demands of war-time Japan.
Director: Masaki Kobayashi | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Chikage Awashima, Ineko Arima
Votes: 9,362
37. Fires on the Plain (1959)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama, War
In the closing days of WWII, remnants of the Japanese army in Leyte are abandoned by their command and face certain death by starvation.
Director: Kon Ichikawa | Stars: Eiji Funakoshi, Mantarô Ushio, Yoshihiro Hamaguchi, Osamu Takizawa
Votes: 5,322
38. Late Autumn (1960)
Not Rated | 128 min | Comedy, Drama
A widow tries to marry off her daughter with the help of her late husband's three friends.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Setsuko Hara, Yôko Tsukasa, Mariko Okada, Keiji Sada
Votes: 6,180
39. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960)
Not Rated | 111 min | Drama
A middle-aged bar hostess, constantly in debt, is faced with numerous social constraints and challenges posed to her by her family, customers and friends.
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Hideko Takamine, Tatsuya Nakadai, Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan
Votes: 4,830
40. The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
Not Rated | 151 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A vengeful young man marries the daughter of a corrupt industrialist in order to seek justice for his father's suicide.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kyôko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi
Votes: 14,024
41. The Naked Island (1960)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama
A family of four are the sole inhabitants of a small island where they struggle each day to irrigate their crops.
Director: Kaneto Shindô | Stars: Nobuko Otowa, Taiji Tonoyama, Shinji Tanaka, Masanori Horimoto
Votes: 6,183
42. The End of Summer (1961)
103 min | Drama
The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Ganjirô Nakamura, Setsuko Hara, Yôko Tsukasa, Michiyo Aratama
Votes: 4,504
43. 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: 131,382
44. Harakiri (1962)
Not Rated | 133 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
When a ronin requesting seppuku at a feudal lord's palace is told of the brutal suicide of another ronin who previously visited, he reveals how their pasts are intertwined - and in doing so challenges the clan's integrity.
Director: Masaki Kobayashi | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita, Tetsurô Tanba
Votes: 68,695
45. An Autumn Afternoon (1962)
Not Rated | 113 min | Drama
An aging widower arranges a marriage for his only daughter.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Chishû Ryû, Shima Iwashita, Keiji Sada, Mariko Okada
Votes: 10,710
46. Pitfall (1962)
Not Rated | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Fantasy
A man wanders into a seemingly deserted town with his young son in search of work. But after a bit of bad luck, he joins the town's population of lost souls.
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara | Stars: Hisashi Igawa, Sumie Sasaki, Sen Yano, Hideo Kanze
Votes: 4,332
47. High and Low (1963)
Not Rated | 143 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An executive of a Yokohama shoe company becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Yutaka Sada, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyôko Kagawa
Votes: 53,220
48. The Insect Woman (1963)
Not Rated | 123 min | Drama
Life story of a woman born in poverty trying to succeed. Through her many schemes, she faces her ups and downs in a cyclical nature, fueled mostly by self-interest.
Director: Shôhei Imamura | Stars: Seizaburô Kawazu, Kazuo Kitamura, Tanie Kitabayashi, Teruko Kishi
Votes: 2,502
49. Woman in the Dunes (1964)
Not Rated | 147 min | Drama, Thriller
An entomologist on vacation is trapped by local villagers into living with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara | Stars: Eiji Okada, Kyôko Kishida, Kôji Mitsui, Hiroko Itô
Votes: 22,709
50. Kwaidan (1964)
Not Rated | 183 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A collection of four Japanese folk tales with supernatural themes.
Director: Masaki Kobayashi | Stars: Rentarô Mikuni, Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe, Kenjirô Ishiyama
Votes: 19,996
51. Onibaba (1964)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Two women kill samurai and sell their belongings for a living. While one of them is having an affair with their neighbor, the other woman meets a mysterious samurai wearing a bizarre mask.
Director: Kaneto Shindô | Stars: Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Satô, Jûkichi Uno
Votes: 21,864
52. Yearning (1964)
98 min | Drama, Romance
After a bombing raid destroys the family store and her husband, Reiko rebuilds and runs the shop out of love stopped short by destruction.
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Hideko Takamine, Yûzô Kayama, Mitsuko Kusabue, Yumi Shirakawa
Votes: 2,069
53. Pale Flower (1964)
Not Rated | 96 min | Action, Crime
A gangster gets released from prison and has to cope with the recent shifts of power between the gangs, while taking care of a thrill-seeking young woman, who got in bad company while gambling.
Director: Masahiro Shinoda | Stars: Ryô Ikebe, Mariko Kaga, Takashi Fujiki, Naoki Sugiura
Votes: 4,392
54. Red Beard (1965)
Not Rated | 185 min | Drama
In 19th-century Japan, a rough-tempered yet charitable town doctor trains a young intern.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Yûzô Kayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Reiko Dan
Votes: 21,108
55. Tokyo Olympiad (1965)
Not Rated | 170 min | Documentary, Sport
Kon Ichikawa examines the beauty and rich drama on display at the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo, creating a record of observations that range from the expansive to the intimate.
Director: Kon Ichikawa | Stars: Antonio Ambu, Gary Anderson, Gerry Ashworth, Polina Astakhova
Votes: 2,202
56. The Face of Another (1966)
Not Rated | 124 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A businessman with a disfigured face obtains a lifelike mask from his doctor, but the mask starts altering his personality.
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Mikijirô Hira, Kyôko Kishida, Miki Irie
Votes: 10,417
57. Scattered Clouds (1967)
108 min | Drama, Romance
A man falls in love with the widow of a man he killed in a car accident. Eventually she falls in love with him in return.
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Yûzô Kayama, Yôko Tsukasa, Mitsuko Kusabue, Mitsuko Mori
Votes: 1,340
58. Branded to Kill (1967)
Not Rated | 91 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After a botched assignment, a rice-fetishizing hitman finds himself in conflict with his organization, and one mysterious, dangerous fellow-hitman in particular.
Director: Seijun Suzuki | Stars: Jô Shishido, Mariko Ogawa, Annu Mari, Kôji Nanbara
Votes: 10,211
59. Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
Not Rated | 173 min | Drama
An engineer from Tokyo arrives on a drought-ridden tropical island to drill a well to power a nearby sugar mill. He meets the inbred Futori family, hated by the locals for breaking religious customs.
Director: Shôhei Imamura | Stars: Rentarô Mikuni, Chôichirô Kawarasaki, Hideko Okiyama, Kanjûrô Arashi
Votes: 1,948
60. Nihon Kaiho sensen: Sanrizuka no natsu (1968)
108 min | Documentary
Farmers in a collective of ancient villages near Tokyo fight back one summer ,with the help of student activists, against plans by the Japanese government to demolish their homes to make ... See full summary »
Director: Shinsuke Ogawa
Votes: 54
61. Death by Hanging (1968)
Not Rated | 117 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A Korean man is sentenced to death by hanging, but he survives the execution. For the following two hours, his executioners try to work out how to handle the situation in this black farce.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: Kei Satô, Do-yun Yu, Fumio Watanabe, Hôsei Komatsu
Votes: 3,343
62. Eros + Massacre (1969)
Not Rated | 216 min | Biography, Drama
Two interwoven stories. The first is a biography of anarchist Sakae Osugi which follows his relationship with three women in the 1920s. The second centers around two 1960s students researching Osugi's theories.
Director: Yoshishige Yoshida | Stars: Mariko Okada, Toshiyuki Hosokawa, Yûko Kusunoki, Kazuko Inano
Votes: 2,322
63. Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
The trials and tribulations of Eddie and other transvestites in Japan.
Director: Toshio Matsumoto | Stars: Pîtâ, Osamu Ogasawara, Yoshimi Jô, Koichi Nakamura
Votes: 7,281
64. Boy (1969)
97 min | Drama
A young boy reluctantly aids his swindling father in a threatening scam.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: Fumio Watanabe, Akiko Koyama, Tetsuo Abe, Tsuyoshi Kinoshita
Votes: 1,884
65. Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
G | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda, Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph Cotten
Votes: 37,218 | Gross: $29.55M
66. 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: 7,623
67. Minamata (1971)
105 min | Documentary
A documentary about the plight of the victims of Minamata disease, which was caused by the ingestion of fish containing abnormal amounts of mercury released into the sea by a fertilizer factory owned by the Chisso company.
Director: Noriaki Tsuchimoto
Votes: 198
68. Narita: The Peasants of the Second Fortress (1971)
143 min | Documentary
This important film compiles "Magino Story" footage taken by Ogawa for a period of more than ten years after he moved to Magino village.
Director: Shinsuke Ogawa
Votes: 59
69. The Ceremony (1971)
123 min | Comedy, Drama
Upon receiving a shocking telegram from his cousin, a man recounts his early life, as a member of a broad family full of dark secrets that slowly reveal themselves through the clan ceremonies.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: Kenzô Kawarasaki, Atsuko Kaku, Atsuo Nakamura, Kiyoshi Tsuchiya
Votes: 1,231
70. Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1971)
72 min | Drama
Set in a future in which children have overthrown adults, the film does not have a central narrative. It depicts a series of graphic tableaux in which children engage in cruel and abusive acts against the adults.
Director: Shûji Terayama | Stars: Goro Abashiri, Tarô Apollo, Shiro Demaemochi, Mitsufumi Hashimoto
Votes: 772
71. Demons (1971)
134 min | Drama, Horror
After being robbed by a geisha, a ronin warrior carves a bloody path to seek revenge.
Director: Toshio Matsumoto | Stars: Katsuo Nakamura, Jûrô Kara, Yasuko Sanjo, Masao Imafuku
Votes: 2,862
72. Lupin the Third (1971–1977)
TV-PG | 23 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
The adventures of the master thief Lupin III and his cohorts as they dive into various escapades, all the while in pursuit by the tenacious Inspector Zenigata.
Stars: Yasuo Yamada, Richard Epcar, Michelle Ruff, Tony Oliver
Votes: 2,442
73. Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
Unrated | 86 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
After being raped by an evil feudal lord and subsequently getting banished from her village, a peasant girl makes a pact with the Devil to gain magical powers and take her revenge.
Director: Eiichi Yamamoto | Stars: Aiko Nagayama, Chinatsu Nakayama, Masaya Takahashi, Masakane Yonekura
Votes: 7,764 | Gross: $0.11M
74. Lady Snowblood (1973)
Not Rated | 97 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A strikingly beautiful young woman is trained from birth to be a deadly instrument of revenge against the swindlers who destroyed her family.
Director: Toshiya Fujita | Stars: Meiko Kaji, Toshio Kurosawa, Masaaki Daimon, Miyoko Akaza
Votes: 16,307
75. Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama
During the violent chaos of post-War Japanese black market, a young gangster called Shozo Hirono has to keep up with the rapid shifts of power between unscrupulous bosses.
Director: Kinji Fukasaku | Stars: Bunta Sugawara, Hiroki Matsukata, Kunie Tanaka, Eiko Nakamura
Votes: 4,309
76. Pastoral: To Die in the Country (1974)
104 min | Drama, Fantasy
A young boys' coming of age tale set in a strange, carnivalesque village becomes the recreation of a memory that the director has twenty years later.
Director: Shûji Terayama | Stars: Kaoru Yachigusa, Keiko Niitaka, Masumi Harukawa, Kan Mikami
Votes: 2,410
77. Heidi: A Girl of the Alps (1974)
24 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
This animation series follows the childhood "adventures" of a girl named Heidi, who lives with her grandfather somewhere on the Alps.
Stars: Vic Perrin, Randi Kiger, Kazuko Sugiyama, Kôhei Miyauchi
Votes: 6,022
78. Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 (1974)
Not Rated | 98 min | Documentary
In this uncomfortably intimate film, documentary filmmaker Kazuo Hara visits his ex-girlfriend Miyuki and records her new relationships.
Director: Kazuo Hara | Stars: Kazuo Hara, Miyuki Takeda, Sachiko Kobayashi
Votes: 402
79. Space Battleship Yamato (1974–1975)
30 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
In the year 2199, the space battleship Yamato embarks on a voyage to the planet Iscandar, to retrieve a device that will rejuvenate a war-ravaged Earth.
Stars: Kei Tomiyama, Gorô Naya, Shûsei Nakamura, Yôko Asagami
Votes: 703
80. Dersu Uzala (1975)
G | 142 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The Russian army sends an explorer on an expedition to the snowy Siberian wilderness where he makes friends with a seasoned local hunter.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Maksim Munzuk, Yuriy Solomin, Mikhail Bychkov, Vladimir Khrulyov
Votes: 33,526
81. The Shiranui Sea (1975)
150 min | Documentary
Victims in the fishing community by Japan's Shiranui Sea of poisoning by Chisso, a fertilizer and chemical company, reflect on their struggle to survive.
Director: Noriaki Tsuchimoto | Star: Noriaki Tsuchimoto
Votes: 41
82. Graveyard of Honor (1975)
Not Rated | 94 min | Action, Crime
A self-destructive man becomes a powerful member of the Japanese mafia but quickly loses his self control. Based on the true story of Rikio Ishikawa.
Director: Kinji Fukasaku | Stars: Tetsuya Watari, Tatsuo Umemiya, Yumi Takigawa, Eiji Gô
Votes: 1,960
83. 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: 22,810
84. House (1977)
Not Rated | 88 min | Comedy, Horror
A schoolgirl and six of her classmates travel to her aunt's country home, which turns out to be haunted.
Director: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi | Stars: Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Ôba, Ai Matsubara
Votes: 33,740
85. Empire of Passion (1978)
R | 105 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
A married woman and her lover murder her husband and dump his body into a well. After a while, his ghost comes to haunt them while the local gossip grows stronger.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: Tatsuya Fuji, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Takahiro Tamura, Takuzô Kawatani
Votes: 4,933
86. Ringing Bell (1978)
47 min | Animation, Drama, Family
An innocent lamb learns about life and death when he seeks revenge upon the wolf who slaughtered his mother.
Director: Masami Hata | Stars: Hitoshi Takagi, Minori Matsushima, Akira Kamiya, Taeko Nakanishi
Votes: 966
87. Vengeance Is Mine (1979)
Not Rated | 139 min | Crime, Drama
Chronological exploits of Iwao Enokizu, a murderous thief on the run.
Director: Shôhei Imamura | Stars: Ken Ogata, Rentarô Mikuni, Chôchô Miyako, Mitsuko Baishô
Votes: 7,299
88. The Rose of Versailles (1979–1980)
TV-PG | 24 min | Animation, Action, Drama
The story of Lady Oscar, a female military commander who served during the time of the French Revolution.
Stars: Reiko Tajima, Tarô Shigaki, Hisashi Katsuta, Nachi Nozawa
Votes: 2,310
89. Mobile Suit Gundam (1979–1980)
TV-14 | 30 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
In the war between the Earth Federation and Zeon, a young and inexperienced crew find themselves on a new spaceship. Their best hope of making it through the conflict is the Gundam, a giant humanoid robot, and its gifted teenage pilot.
Stars: Hirotaka Suzuoki, Tôru Furuya, Toshio Furukawa, Kiyonobu Suzuki
Votes: 2,779
90. Tatsu no ko Tarô (1979)
75 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
A young boy has to make a voyage to a distant lake to save his mother, who has been turned into a dragon.
Directors: Kiriô Urayama, Peter Fernandez | Stars: Jun'ya Katô, Mîna Tominaga, Kazuo Kumakura, Kazuo Kitamura
Votes: 917
91. Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980)
PG | 162 min | Drama, History, War
A petty thief with an utter resemblance to a samurai warlord is hired as the lord's double. When the warlord later dies the thief is forced to take up arms in his place.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ken'ichi Hagiwara, Jinpachi Nezu
Votes: 38,181
92. Zigeunerweisen (1980)
Not Rated | 144 min | Horror, Mystery
A surreal period film following an university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways.
Director: Seijun Suzuki | Stars: Yoshio Harada, Naoko Ôtani, Kisako Makishi, Akaji Maro
Votes: 1,501
93. Why Not? (1981)
151 min | Drama
Near the turbulent end of the Edo era, a man returning to Japan after exile in America searches for his wife and becomes swept up in the current of revolution in this incisive period drama from the great Shohei Imamura.
Director: Shôhei Imamura | Stars: Shigeru Izumiya, Kaori Momoi, Masao Kusakari, Ken Ogata
Votes: 689
95. Arcadia of My Youth (1982)
Not Rated | 130 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
Space captain Harlock, the latest in a family of proud aerial warriors, begins his journey to free the oppressed Earth from the despotic Illumidas Command.
Director: Tomoharu Katsumata | Stars: Makio Inoue, Kei Tomiyama, Yûjirô Ishihara, Shûichi Ikeda
Votes: 1,020
96. The Ballad of Narayama (1983)
Not Rated | 130 min | Drama
In a poor 19th century rural Japanese village, everyone who reaches the age of 70 has to climb a nearby mountain to die. An elderly woman is reaching close to her cut-off age during her last days with her family.
Director: Shôhei Imamura | Stars: Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto, Tonpei Hidari, Aki Takejô
Votes: 9,136
97. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)
R | 123 min | Drama, War
During WWII, a British colonel tries to bridge the cultural divides between a British POW and the Japanese camp commander in order to avoid bloodshed.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano
Votes: 20,025 | Gross: $2.31M
98. Barefoot Gen (1983)
TV-PG | 83 min | Animation, Biography, Drama
A powerful statement against war, Barefoot Gen is a disturbing story about the effect of the atomic bomb on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.
Director: Mori Masaki | Stars: Issei Miyazaki, Catherine Battistone, Yoshie Shimamura, Iona Morris
Votes: 9,210
99. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
PG | 117 min | Animation, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Warrior and pacifist Princess Nausicaä desperately struggles to prevent two warring nations from destroying themselves and their dying planet.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Sumi Shimamoto, Mahito Tsujimura, Hisako Kyôda, Gorô Naya
Votes: 182,577 | Gross: $0.50M
100. A Japanese Village (1982)
210 min | Documentary
In the very heart of the Japanese mountains, Ogawa discovers a village still dealing with the trauma of global warfare and struggling for survival as their children flee for the cities.
Director: Shinsuke Ogawa
Votes: 63
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