15 best Japanese films

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Classic masterpieces by renowned masters and wonderful films by contemporary directors - for those who want to get acquainted with the world of Japanese cinema.

Rashomon

• Drama, crime, detective.
• 1950 year.
• 88 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 3.

It was this film about a mysterious crime that introduced the foreign public to Japanese cinema in the distant 50s. And gave rise to a powerful cinematic technique: one story is told from different points of view, each character has its own truth, and each subsequent episode completely changes the perception of the plot.

Battle royale

• Science fiction, thriller, drama.
• year 2000.
• 114 minutes
• IMDb: 7, 7.

Long before the Hunger Games and other teenage dystopias, there was Battle Royale, a brutal story of schoolchildren forced to kill each other to survive. Surprisingly, despite the abundance of various violent deaths that you will see on the screen, the film is quite encouraging. The bright role of Takeshi Kitano adds zest, and this film is also in the personal top of Quentin Tarantino.

Be with you

• Fantasy, drama, melodrama.
• 2004 year.
• 119 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 0.

Mio's husband and young son consider themselves guilty for her death and are grieving at the loss. One day, on a rainy day, they meet a woman who looks exactly like Mio - but remembers absolutely nothing about herself. Could this be the real Mio and how is the book that his mother left to the boy before her death related to these events?

Fireworks

• Thriller, drama, crime.
• 1997 year.
• 103 minutes
• IMDb: 7, 9.

Takeshi Kitano's crime drama, in which he played the main role. Police officer Yoshitaka Nishi takes care of his wife with leukemia and quits her job after a tragic accident: his partner was killed, and another detective was seriously injured. To help the widow of the deceased and disabled colleague, Nishi commits a bank robbery and clashes with the yakuza.

Shadow Samurai

• Drama, history.
• 2002 year.
• 129 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 1.

This film begins the samurai trilogy directed by Yoji Yamada. Seibei, the lowest-ranking clerk, takes care of his mother and daughters, and he is so poor that he had to sell his samurai sword to pay for his wife's funeral. The Japanese view of the "little man" is about the collision of cruel circumstances with the feelings and principles of the individual.

Umimachi's diary

• Drama, comedy.
• 2015 year.
• 128 minutes
• IMDb: 7, 6.

A film about family ties based on the manga of the same name. Three girls come to the funeral of their father, who left the family for another woman when they were still children. Here they first meet their half-sister, find out that she has no other relatives left, and offer the girl to move in with them.

Heaven and Hell

• Thriller, drama, detective.
• 1963 year.
• 143 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 4.

Akira Kurosawa's film based on the novel by American writer Ed McBain. A tense detective story about the abduction of a child turns into a philosophical story in the spirit of Dostoevsky's works - about the nature of good and evil and about the choice between “heaven” and “hell” that a person has to make.

Nobody will know

• Drama.
• 2004 year.
• 141 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 1.

The mother leaves the four children some money and a note in which she asks her eldest son Akira (he is only twelve) to look after the others - she needs to leave for a while. Month after month, the mother does not return, and the children are left to their own devices. The story is based on real events.

Kagemusha: Shadow of the Warrior

• Drama, military, history.
• 1980 year.
• 180 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 0.

Another film by the legendary Akira Kurosawa in our selection. A beggar thief, sentenced to execution, is suddenly granted pardon, and then he is taken to the palace: it turned out that outwardly he is indistinguishable from the ruler of Takeda Shingen, a domineering and strong man. Soon the ruler dies from an enemy shot, and the Takeda clan, in order not to lose influence, decides to hide his death and put a double on the throne.

Son to father

• Drama.
• year 2013.
• 120 minutes
• IMDb: 7, 8.

The shocking news completely changes the life of a young family. It turned out that six years ago two babies were confused in the maternity hospital and the biological son of the architect Ryota and his wife Midori is growing up in a different family, while they themselves are raising a step-child. Despite the tie in the style of Brazilian TV series, the creators of the picture avoided melodramatic clichés, and the story turned out to be very subtle and touching.

Departed

• Drama.
• 2008 year.
• 130 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 1.

A philosophical drama that tells about death beautifully - as about the natural completion of the earthly path and about what one should not be afraid of. The young cellist is left without work and returns to his hometown, where, by coincidence, he gets a job at a funeral agency: now his duty is to prepare the bodies for burial. The film won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Kwaidan: A Narrative of the Mysterious and Terrible

• Horror, fantasy, drama.
• 1964 year.
• 163 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 0.

An anthology film consisting of four stories (Black Hair, Snow Woman, Earless Hoichi, In a Cup of Tea), each of which originates from Japanese fairy tales and legends. Heroes encounter a world of the supernatural, alien and frightening, and the mystical atmosphere of the events is remarkably conveyed by an inventive approach to scenery and special effects.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

• Drama, military.
• 1983 year.
• 123 minutes
• IMDb: 7, 3.

An exception to our selection is an English-language film directed by Nagisa Oshima. Major Jack Selliers (David Bowie), a fearless rebel who is not going to obey the strict rules of the camp commander, young Captain Yonoi, ends up in a Japanese POW camp. In parallel, other peculiar relationships develop: between the cruel sergeant Hara (Takeshi Kitano) and Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence - the only prisoner who knows Japanese.

On foot

• Drama.
• 2008 year.
• 115 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 0.

On the anniversary of the death of their eldest son, in order to honor his memory, an elderly couple gathers adult children at home, each of whom has been living his own life for a long time. The viewer is presented with a complex history of family relations, woven from table conversations and memories.

Linda, Linda, Linda

• Comedy.
• 2005 year.
• 114 minutes
• IMDb: 7, 7.

The girls in the high school band are eager to perform covers of the songs of Blue Hearts, a Japanese punk rock band from the 80s, at the music festival. But their venture is close to failure when the vocalist leaves the group a few days before the performance. The girls' only hope is a Korean exchange student who barely speaks Japanese.