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'
Smuggler (2011)
6.4/10
Director: Katsuhito Ishii
Starring: Masatoshi Nagase, Masanobu Ando, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Yasuko Matsuyuki, Hikari Mit...
Down on his luck actor Kinuta (Satoshi Tsumabuki) is gambling himself into debt when the mobster casino owners make an offer he can't refuse: become a... Read more
Arrietty (2010)
7.6/10
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Aka "The Secret World of Arrietty". Mary Norton's novel "The Borrowers" gets an anime updating in this fun family tale co-written by Hayao Miyazaki. A... Read more
Arrietty ( Blu-ray ) (2010)
7.6/10
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Aka "The Secret World of Arrietty". Mary Norton's novel "The Borrowers" gets an anime updating in this fun family tale co-written by Hayao Miyazaki. A... Read more
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
Norwegian Wood (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
Mutant Girls Squad (2010)
5.8/10
Director: Yoshihiro Nishimura, Noboru Iguchi, Tak Sakaguchi
Starring: Naoto Takenaka, Yumi Sugimoto, Yuko Takayama, Suzuka Morita
Rin is a seemingly normal Japanese high school girl, but on her sixteenth birthday, everything in her life changes. After witnessing her mother's face... Read more
Gantz (2010)
6.5/10
Director: Shinsuke Sato
Starring: Kazunari Ninomiya, Kenichi Matsuyama
Kei Kurono (Kazunari Ninomiya) and his friend Masaru Kato (Kenichi Matsuyama) attempt to save a man in the subway but are hit by an oncoming train. Ho... Read more
13 Assassins (2010)
7.6/10
Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Koji Yakusho, Yusuke Iseya, Takayuki Yamada, Tsuyoshi Ihara
Acclaimed cult director Takashi Miike's remake of the 1963 Japanese film delivers a bravado period action piece set at the end of Japan's feudal era.... Read more
Space Battleship Yamato (2010)
6.1/10
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Starring: Takuya Kimura, Meisa Kuroki
In the year 2194, alien marauders, the Gamilons, bombard the Earth with planetary bombs sent from space. Humanity fights back but is defeated and esca... Read more
Outrage (2010)
6.8/10
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Renji Ishibashi, Ryo Kase
AKA "Outrage: Way of the Yakuza". After an absence of over a decade, OUTRAGE signals Takeshi Kitano's triumphant return to the gangster genre. In a r... Read more