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'
In this lauded Japanese drama, the samurai Moritoh Enda (Kazuo Hasegawa) performs a heroic act by rescuing the lovely Lady Kesa (Machiko Kyo) from a v... Read more
Aka "Ugetsu Monogatari". Quite simply one of the greatest of filmmakers, said Jean-Luc Godard of Kenji Mizoguchi. And "Ugetsu", a ghost story like n... Read more
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
Influential Japanese auteur Yasujiro Ozu was the master of subtle elegant films that pack a bittersweet emotional punch. Made during his prime in the... Read more
A brilliant study of a man who finds he is dying of cancer and determines to spend his final months giving meaning to his life by constructing a child... Read more
A poignant, exquisitely filmed portrait of a woman in feudal Japan who, after disgracing the honor of her samurai father, is sold into prostitution. "... Read more
Based on Dostoyevsky's classic novel of love and murder, adapted by Kurosawa himself, the story tells of Kameda, a former soldier whose wartime experi... Read more
Setsuko Hara has been promised an arranged marriage in post-war Japan, but too much in the world has changed for her not to challenge this tradition.... Read more
Ichiro (Toshiro Mifune) is a young painter on holiday in the mountains. By chance he meets Miyako (Yoshiko Yamaguchi) - a famous singer who is staying... Read more
Akira Kurosawa's first huge international success is this superlative study of truth and human nature; four people involved in a rape-murder tell vary... Read more