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'
Death Note / Death Note: The Last Name (2006)
Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Shigeki Hosokawa, Kenichi Matsuyama, Asaka Seto, Yu Kashii
How do you find a serial killer when the killer only needs to know the face and the name of his victims? When Light Yagami, a brilliant college law st... Read more
Death Note: Volume 8 (2007)
9/10
Volume 8 of 9. When Mello realizes that he may be Kira's next target, he bursts into the SPK headquarters to retrieve a picture of himself - and gives... Read more
Death Trance (2005)
5.9/10
Director: Yuji Shimomura
Starring: Tak Sakaguchi, Kentaro Seagal, Honoka Asada, Yoko Fujita
A genre-crossing, time-fusing, fantasy blockbuster from the action director of 'Versus' and starring Tak Sakaguchi as a nameless warrior who attacks a... Read more
Departures (2008)
8.1/10
Director: Yojiro Takita
Starring: Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kimiko Yo, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Ryoko Hirosue, T...
When his orchestra disbands, Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) decides to start over and moves back to his small hometown. Desperate for work, he secr... Read more
Dersu Uzala (1975)
8.3/10
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Yuri Solomon, Maxim Munzuk
Kurosawa's remarkable, personal tale of the friendship between a wise old man and a young Soviet explorer, filmed in the beautiful expanse of Siberia,... Read more
Dersu Uzala (Blu-ray) (1975)
8.2/10
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Yuri Solomon, Maxim Munzuk
Kurosawa's remarkable, personal tale of the friendship between a wise old man and a young Soviet explorer, filmed in the beautiful expanse of Siberia,... Read more
Devilman (2004)
4.1/10
Director: Hiroyuki Nasu
Starring: Hisato Izaki, Yusuke Izaki, Ayana Sakai, Asuka Shibuya, Ryudo Uzaki
An ambitious live adaptation of the popular long-running manga, created in 1972 by Go Nagai ('Cutie Honey'), this sprawling apocalyptic tale begins wi... Read more
Dolls (2002)
7.7/10
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Starring: Miho Kanno, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tatsuya Mihashi, Kyoko Fukada
Cult director Takeshi Kitano weaves together three visually stunning and deeply touching stories of undying love inspired by traditional Japanese Bunr... Read more
Dororo (2007)
6.4/10
Director: Akihiko Shiota
Starring: Satoshi Tsumabuki, Kou Shibasaki, Eita , Mieko Harada, Yoshio Harada, Nakai Kiic...
Based on a manga by anime grandmaster Osamu Tezuka ('Astroboy'), this fantasy actioner features a powerful samurai who makes a deal with 48 demons who... Read more
Drive My Car (2021)
7.6/10
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima
A renowned stage actor and director learns to cope with his wife's unexpected passing when he receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya... Read more