Japanese Cinema
Japanese cinema flourished early on and silent films were being made right through the 1930s. Most were accompanied by a 'benshi' or live narrator telling the story as well as live music. Very little survives from this era however; the 1923 earthquake, the bombings of WW2 and the country's high humidity destroyed many of these historical works. Of those that survive, the early works of Kenji Mizoguchi are highly regarded and he went on to make the classic 'The Life of Oharu' in 1952. Of course no discussion on Japanese cinema is possible without mention of their best known son, Akira Kurosawa. With a career spanning 60 years Kurosawa's ground-breaking films (e.g. 'Seven Samurai', 'Kagemusha', 'Ran') influenced film makers around the world. Most recently Japanese cinema hero 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano revitalised the Yakuza genre; and young mavericks like Takashi Miike ('Audition', 'Ichi the Killer) and Hideo Nakata ('Ring', 'Dark Water') have breathed new life into the horror flick, their films often (and promptly!) remade by US production houses.
For Japanime, use the animation link to the left.
Pictured: Kurosawa teamed once more with the incomparable Toshiro Mifune for 'Seven Samurai'
Sword of the Stranger (2007)
7.8/10
Director: Masahiro Ando
Hair-raising anime action featuring Kotarou, a young Japanese boy on the run from China's Royal Army, who happens upon a wandering samurai. He's not i... Read more
Takeshis' (2005)
6.4/10
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Kotomi Kyono, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi, Terajima Susumu, Tets...
Japanese film icon Beat Takeshi writes, directs, edits and stars as himself and his own doppelganger in this surreal, comic fantasy about a convenienc... Read more
Tampopo (1986)
7.4/10
Director: Juzo Itami
Starring: Ken Watanabe, Tsutomu Yamakazi, Nobuko Miyamoto
One of the funniest, most enjoyable, satirical comedies is this treasure of a movie, the plot of which, loosely concerns the quest for the perfect Jap... Read more
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
6.2/10
Director: Ishiro Honda
Starring: Katsuhiko Sasaki, Akihiko Hirata, Tomoko Ai, Katsumasa Uchida
Aliens rebuild Mechagodzilla with the help of a demented scientist who has discovered a creature called Titanosaurus, which they intend to team up to... Read more
Tetsujin 28 (2005)
5.1/10
Director: Shin Togashi
Starring: Ayako Kawahara, Hiroshi Abe, Masato Ibu, Sosuke Ikematsu, Teruyuki Kagawa, Yu Ao...
A throwback to a time when families stuck together, and giant fighting robots didn't need any super-weapons, just their own two fists and a heart of g... Read more
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1991)
6.4/10
Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Starring: Tomoroh Taguchi, Nobu Kanaoka, Shinya Tsukamoto
More of a companion piece to "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" than a sequel, "Tetsuo II: Body Hammer" sees director Shinya Tsukamoto's disturbing vision of a wo... Read more
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
7/10
Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Starring: Kei Fujiwara, Shinya Tsukamoto, Tomoroh Taguchi
Compared to the work of Lynch and Cronenberg, telling the strange tale of a man's gradual metamorphosis into a synergy of flesh and metal. Tomoroh Tag... Read more
Tezuka: The Experimental Films (2007)
6.2/10
Director: Osamu Tezuka
Often considered the father of anime, and the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, Osamu Tezuka created such iconic animated characters as Astro Boy an... Read more
The 47 Ronin ( aka Chushingura ) (1962)
7.6/10
Director: Hiroshi Inagaki
Starring: Yuzo Kayama, Koshiro Matsumoto, Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Mihashi, Yosuke Natsuki,...
One of the most retold stories in Japanese cinema is this historical samurai saga set at the turn of the 18th century, in which 47 loyal ronin seek ve... Read more
The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
8.1/10
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Takeshi Kato, Masayuki Mori
Reflecting his fondness for American crime films and motifs this stylish Akira Kurosawa thriller stars Toshiro Mifune and delves into corporate corrup... Read more