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Top Japanese Films

by Epoche • Created 12 years ago • Modified 12 years ago
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  • 35 titles
  • Ran (1985)

    1. Ran

    19852h 40mR97Metascore
    8.2 (144K)
    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.
    DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsTatsuya NakadaiAkira TeraoJinpachi Nezu
  • Dersu Uzala (1975)

    2. Dersu Uzala

    19752h 22mG
    8.2 (35K)
    The Russian army sends an explorer on an expedition to the snowy Siberian wilderness where he makes friends with a seasoned local hunter.
    DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsMaksim MunzukYuriy SolominMikhail Bychkov
  • Ikiru (1952)

    3. Ikiru

    19522h 23mNot Rated92Metascore
    8.3 (97K)
    A bureaucrat tries to find meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.
    DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsTakashi ShimuraNobuo KanekoShin'ichi Himori
  • Woman in the Dunes (1964)

    4. Woman in the Dunes

    19642h 27mNot Rated
    8.4 (24K)
    An entomologist on vacation is trapped by local villagers into living with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.
    DirectorHiroshi TeshigaharaStarsEiji OkadaKyôko KishidaKôji Mitsui
  • Setsuko Hara and Chishû Ryû in Late Spring (1949)

    5. Late Spring

    19491h 50mNot Rated93Metascore
    8.2 (21K)
    Several people try to talk 27-year-old Noriko into marrying, but all she wants is to keep on caring for her widowed father.
    DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChishû RyûSetsuko HaraYumeji Tsukioka
  • Setsuko Hara and Chishû Ryû in Tokyo Story (1953)

    6. Tokyo Story

    19532h 17mNot Rated100Metascore
    8.1 (74K)
    An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city, but receive little attention.
    DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChishû RyûChieko HigashiyamaSô Yamamura
  • Toshirô Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai in Yojimbo (1961)

    7. Yojimbo

    19611h 50mNot Rated93Metascore
    8.2 (138K)
    A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.
    DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneEijirô TônoTatsuya Nakadai
  • Toshirô Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Yoshio Inaba, Daisuke Katô, Isao Kimura, Seiji Miyaguchi, Takashi Shimura, and Keiko Tsushima in Seven Samurai (1954)

    8. Seven Samurai

    19543h 27mNot Rated98Metascore
    8.6 (385K)
    Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, and he gathers six other samurai to join him.
    DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneTakashi ShimuraKeiko Tsushima
  • Heroic Purgatory (1970)

    9. Heroic Purgatory

    19701h 58mNot Rated
    7.1 (885)
    An engineer's wife returns home with a lost teenager. A man posing as her dad tries to get her back, causing the engineer to recall his youth as a revolutionary, obscured by dreamlike disruptions of time and space, fantasy and reality.
    DirectorYoshishige YoshidaStarsMariko OkadaKaizo KamodaKazumi Tsutsui
  • Machiko Kyô and Masayuki Mori in Ugetsu (1953)

    10. Ugetsu

    19531h 36mNot Rated
    8.1 (27K)
    A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.
    DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsMasayuki MoriMachiko KyôKinuyo Tanaka
  • The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)

    11. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love

    19593h 28mNot Rated
    8.5 (10K)
    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.
    DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiMichiyo AratamaChikage Awashima
  • The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959)

    12. The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity

    19593h 1mNot Rated
    8.5 (8.2K)
    As a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist struggles to maintain his determination to keep his ideals.
    DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiMichiyo AratamaKokinji Katsura
  • The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)

    13. The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer

    19613h 10mNot Rated
    8.8 (8K)
    His ideals challenged by life as a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist faces ever greater tests in his fight for survival.
    DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiMichiyo AratamaTamao Nakamura
  • The Naked Island (1960)

    14. The Naked Island

    19601h 36mNot Rated
    8.0 (6.5K)
    A family of four are the sole inhabitants of a small island where they struggle each day to irrigate their crops.
    DirectorKaneto ShindôStarsNobuko OtowaTaiji TonoyamaShinji Tanaka
  • Dreams (1990)

    15. Dreams

    19901h 59mPG
    7.7 (31K)
    A collection of tales based upon eight of director Akira Kurosawa's recurring dreams.
    DirectorsAkira KurosawaIshirô HondaStarsAkira TeraoMitsuko BaishôToshie Negishi
  • Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku romantan - Tsuioku-hen (1999)

    16. Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku romantan - Tsuioku-hen

    19994 epsTV-MATV Mini Series
    8.6 (17K)
    In the era of Japan's Meiji Restoration, an assassin regains his humanity.
    StarsMayo SuzukazeJunko IwaoNozomu Sasaki
  • Good Morning (1959)

    17. Good Morning

    19591h 34mNot Rated87Metascore
    7.8 (12K)
    Two boys begin a silence strike to press their parents into buying them a television set.
    DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsKeiji SadaYoshiko KugaChishû Ryû
  • Toshirô Mifune and Machiko Kyô in Rashomon (1950)

    18. Rashomon

    19501h 28mNot Rated98Metascore
    8.2 (190K)
    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.
    DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMachiko KyôMasayuki Mori
  • The Life of Oharu (1952)

    19. The Life of Oharu

    19522h 13mNot Rated
    8.1 (8K)
    Follows a woman's fight and survival amid the vicissitudes of life and the cruelty of society.
    DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsKinuyo TanakaTsukie MatsuuraIchirô Sugai
  • Harakiri (1962)

    20. Harakiri

    19622h 13mNot Rated85Metascore
    8.6 (80K)
    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.
    DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiAkira IshihamaShima Iwashita
  • Onibaba (1964)

    21. Onibaba

    19641h 43mNot Rated
    7.9 (24K)
    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.
    DirectorKaneto ShindôStarsNobuko OtowaJitsuko YoshimuraKei Satô
  • Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyôko Kagawa, and Kinuyo Tanaka in Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

    22. Sansho the Bailiff

    19542h 4mNot Rated96Metascore
    8.3 (19K)
    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.
    DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsKinuyo TanakaYoshiaki HanayagiKyôko Kagawa
  • Kazuo Hasegawa, Kyôko Kagawa, and Yôko Minamida in A Story from Chikamatsu (1954)

    23. A Story from Chikamatsu

    19541h 42mNot Rated
    8.0 (5.2K)
    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.
    DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsKazuo HasegawaKyôko KagawaYôko Minamida
  • After Life (1998)

    24. After Life

    19981h 59mNot Rated91Metascore
    7.6 (15K)
    After death, people have a week to choose only one memory to keep for eternity.
    DirectorHirokazu KoreedaStarsArata IuraErika OdaSusumu Terajima
  • Battle Royale (2000)

    25. Battle Royale

    20001h 54mNot Rated81Metascore
    7.5 (201K)
    In 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.
    DirectorKinji FukasakuStarsTatsuya FujiwaraAki MaedaTarô Yamamoto

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