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'
Norwegian Wood ( Blu-ray ) (2010)
6.4/10
Director: Tran Anh Hung
Starring: Kiko Mizuhara, Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi
Set in 1960s Tokyo, this romantic Japanese drama based on Haruki Murakami's semi-autobiographical 1987 novel concerns a literature student (Kenichi Ma... Read more
When Marnie Was There (2014)
7.7/10
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Twelve-year-old Anna believes she sits outside the invisible magic circle to which most people belong, and shuts herself off from everyone around her.... Read more
Sansho the Bailiff (Sansho Dayu) (1954)
8.4/10
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Starring: Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyoko Kagawa, Eitaro Shindo
One of the great films, 'Sansho the Bailiff' is set in the harsh feudal world of 11th-century Japan and is based on an ancient legend. When a humane l... Read more
Tony Takitani (2004)
7.4/10
Director: Jun Ichikawa
Starring: Issey Ogata, Rie Miyazawa
Tony Takitani is lonely. Since he was kid, bullied for his 'western' name and neglected by his jazz musician father, Tony has been apart from the res... 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
Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011)
7.2/10
Director: Makoto Shinkai
A.k.a. "Journey to Agartha". A coming-of-age anime from director Makoto Shinkai ("5 Centimetres Per Second") following the adventures of a young girl... Read more
Late Spring (1949)
8.3/10
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Starring: Chishu Ryu, Setsuko Hara, Haruko Sugimura, Yumeji Tsukioka
One of the most powerful of Yasujiro Ozu's family portraits, "Late Spring" tells the story of a widowed father who feels compelled to marry off his be... Read more
Our Little Sister (2015)
7.5/10
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Starring: Ryo Kase, Haruka Ayase
Kore-eda Hirokazu (Like Father, Like Son; I Wish) sustains his place as the current master in the great Japanese cinema tradition of exquisitely nuanc... Read more
Boiling Point (1990)
6.8/10
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Masahiko Ono, Yuriko Ishida
When the coach of a junior baseball team is severely injured by gangsters, two members of the team set off to purchase a gun to get revenge. While on... Read more
Samurai Assassin (1964)
7.6/10
Director: Kihachi Okamoto
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Ito Yonosuke, Eijiro Tono
Based loosley on true events, the great Toshiro Mifune plays a masterless samurai in 1860 as the rule of the shogun is coming to an end. A few disgru... Read more