25 Great Live-Action Japanese Films
A list of exceptional live-action Japanese films. Honorable mention to the films Three Outlaw Samurai (1964), Ping Pong (2002), Hula Girls (2006), and Tokyo Sonata (2008).
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- DirectorSuzuki MatsuoHideaki AnnoStarsRyûhei MatsudaWakana SakaiSuzuki MatsuoLive-action adaptation of a madcap manga about art, opposites, love and a whole lot of cosplay.
- DirectorIsamu NakaeStarsYutaka TakenouchiKelly ChenMichael WongA man is studying abroad in Italy, and while he does well, he yearns for his true love. After promising to meet her in Florence, they reconnect after not seeing one another for 10 years.
- 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.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneTakashi ShimuraKeiko TsushimaFarmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.
- DirectorNagisa ÔshimaStarsTakeshi KitanoRyûhei MatsudaShinji TakedaThe new member of a samurai militia unit causes disruption as several of his colleagues fall in love with him, threatening to disturb the rigid code of their squad.
- DirectorTakeshi KitanoStarsTakeshi KitanoKayoko KishimotoRen ÔsugiNishi leaves the police in the face of harrowing personal and professional difficulties. Spiraling into depression, he makes questionable decisions.
- DirectorKatsuyuki MotohiroStarsEita NagayamaYoshiaki YozaDaijirô KawaokaA sci-fi club concocts a plan to repair a remote by using a time machine that suddenly appears.
- DirectorShinobu YaguchiStarsJuri UenoYûta HiraokaShihori KanjiyaA tale of delinquent and lazy school girls. In their efforts to cut remedial summer math class, they end up vitiating and replacing the schools brass band.
- DirectorHirokazu KoreedaStarsArata IuraErika OdaSusumu TerajimaAfter death, people have a week to choose only one memory to keep for eternity.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneEijirô TônoTatsuya NakadaiA crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.
- DirectorTakashi MiikeStarsKoji YakushoTakayuki YamadaYûsuke IseyaA group of assassins come together for a suicide mission to kill an evil lord.
- DirectorTetsuya NakashimaStarsTakako MatsuYoshino KimuraMasaki OkadaYuko, a teacher of middle-school, is shattered to see her four-year-old daughter dead. She returns back to the school and finds out that her students are responsible for her daughter's murder.
- DirectorYôji YamadaStarsHiroyuki SanadaRie MiyazawaNenji KobayashiAs the feudal Japan era draws to a close, a widower samurai experiences difficulty balancing clan loyalties, 2 young daughters, an aged mother, and the sudden reappearance of his childhood sweetheart.
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiAkira IshihamaShima IwashitaWhen 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.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsKen WatanabeKazunari NinomiyaTsuyoshi IharaThe story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
- DirectorShinobu YaguchiStarsSatoshi TsumabukiHiroshi TamakiAkifumi MiuraIn a Japanese high school, a class of adolescent geeks joins the new synchronized swimming teacher and takes up the challenge to take part in the competition, in spite of the mockeries of the "real sportsmen".
- DirectorTakashi MiikeStarsKenji SawadaKeiko MatsuzakaShinji TakedaA family moves to the country to run a rustic mountain inn when, to their horror, the customers begin befalling sudden and unlikely fates.
- DirectorNobuhiro YamashitaStarsBae DoonaAki MaedaYû KashiiA music group of girls need to learn to play a song before the school festival.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMachiko KyôMasayuki MoriThe 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.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChishû RyûChieko HigashiyamaSô YamamuraAn old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city, but receive little attention.
- DirectorSeijirô KôyamaStarsTatsuya NakadaiKaoru YachigusaToshirô YanagibaThe true story about a dog's loyalty to its master, even after his death.
- DirectorSion SonoStarsRyo IshibashiMasatoshi NagaseMai HôshôA detective is trying to find the cause of a string of suicides.
- DirectorNaoto TakenakaStarsNaoto TakenakaMiho NakayamaNobuyoshi ArakiThis is a biographical film about the late Yoko Araki, who was the wife of Japan's leading photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki.
- DirectorSatoshi MikiStarsJoe OdagiriTomokazu MiuraKyôko KoizumiTakemura has no friends and no family. He's a law student but he doesn't have any particular ambitions. A thug offers to pay Takemura's considerable gambling debt if the student accompanies him on a trip across Tokyo.
- DirectorHideta TakahataStarsTsuyoshi KusanagiMiki NakataniJung-Woo ParkIn a strange alienated world there is a secret hotel in a shabby diner called the Venus Café, harboring some unusual people where compelling secrets lie in each resident's heart. Torturing secrets that have broken their emotional boundaries in the past. In this bittersweet, heart-wrenching story, there lives a man by the name of Chonan (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) who lives in the attic and works as a waiter or handyman at the hotel. Room 1 is shared by two residents; an incapable alcoholic and an illegal doctor named Doctor (Teruyuki Kagawa) and Wife (Miki Nakatani) who used to be a nurse but now works as a hostess living in the hopes of Doctor's recuperation. In Room 3 lives a bubbly girl by the name of Soda (Jo Eun Ji), who came from a deserted town where no one flowers flourished and has a dream to open her own flower shop. Finally, Room 4, occupied by a challenging young boy by the name of Boy (Lee Joon Gi), who carries around a gun longing to become a strong man and wishes to some day become a hitman. Then there is the owner of the café, Venus, who is a mysterious transvestite and has only one able leg. Later one day, a drifter by the name of Gai (Park Jung Woo), a quiet man who would avoid verbal communication, walks into the Venus Café with a little girl named Sai (Heui Ko To) who never smiles. He tells Chonan the secret password to entering the hidden hotel and then they became the residents to Room 2. Gai later gets a job at a construction site, while Chonan preserves in comforting Sai to open up her heart and in the process finds his own heart slowly opening as well. Boy, who wants to become a strong man doesn't like Gai staying at the hotel and in the mist of things gets into fight with Gai challenging him to show his worth as a strong man. But in the progress ends up shooting Sai in the leg rendering her feeble. In addition, Soda who is usually bubbly later becomes sad due to the illegal errands she has run for her boss at the flower shop. But Chonan eventually discovers Soda's illegal errands and confronts her to preach to her the differences in right from wrong. In the mean while, Doctor and Wife are constantly fighting over their petty differences and Doctor's alcoholism, which later causes Wife to leave in depression.