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'
Three Outlaw Samurai (Blu-ray) (1964)
7.7/10
Director: Hideo Gosha
When poor peasants kidnap a magistrate's daughter to coerce him into reducing taxes, a wandering ronin and two renegades from the magistrate's guard t... Read more
Throne of Blood (1957)
8.1/10
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura
Kurosawa's version of 'Macbeth' spares no effort in creating an atmosphere of obsessive madness and supernatural compulsion. The black and white contr... Read more
Tokyo Chorus (1931)
7.7/10
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
A married Tokyo man faces unemployment after standing up for an older colleague. Read more
Tokyo Drifter (1966)
7.3/10
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Starring: Tetsuya Watari, Hideaki Nitani, Chieko Matsubara
This prime slice of Japanese pulp fiction has Tetsu, a yakuza trying to go straight, roaming the land in his pastel blue suit via a succession of colo... Read more
Tokyo Gore Police (2008)
6/10
Director: Yoshihiro Nishimura
Starring: Eihi Shiina, Itsuji Itao, Yukihide Benny, Jiji Bu, Keisuke Horibe, Ikuko Sawada,...
"Possibly the goriest, craziest, most eye-blowing, chunk-spewing, head-exploding sci-fi movie of all time". So said the New York Post after watching t... Read more
Tokyo Story (1953)
8.2/10
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Starring: Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara
Aka "Tokyo Monogatari". One of the legendary classics of humanist cinema tells the simple, sad story of an elderly couple who travel to Tokyo to visit... Read more
Tokyo Zombie (2005)
6.1/10
Director: Sakichi Sato
Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Sho Aikawa, Erika Okuda, Arata Furuta, Hina Matsuoka
Tokyo's future is overshadowed by a looming mountain of garbage, a stinking blot on the landscape where everything from toasters to cars to corpses ar... Read more
Tomie (1999)
5.3/10
Director: Ataru Oikawa
Starring: Miho Kanno, Yoriko Douguchi, Tomoroh Taguchi, Mami Nakamura
After a past trauma a young girl is trying to recover her memories with the aid of a psychiatrist and the name 'Tomie' keeps cropping up. Meanwhile a... Read more
Tomie Unlimited (2011)
4.6/10
Director: Noboru Iguchi
Starring: Moe Arai, Miu Nakamura, Aika Ohta
A photography student's life takes a turn for the worse when her dead sister is welcomed back into the family home. Read more
Tomie: Rebirth (2001)
5.3/10
Director: Takashi Shimizu
Starring: Miki Sakai, Kumiko Endo, Masaya Kikawada, Satoshi Tsumabuki
She's at it again! In this third installment of the series, based on the popular manga by Junji Ito, Tomie is modelling for an art student. Naturally... Read more