Japanese films
by Lusmio | created - 10 Aug 2019 | updated - 2 weeks ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Seven Samurai (1954)
Not Rated | 207 min | Action, Drama
Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki
Votes: 367,060 | Gross: $0.27M
2. Tokyo Story (1953)
Not Rated | 136 min | Drama
An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city, but receive little attention.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama, Sô Yamamura, Setsuko Hara
Votes: 68,685
3. Rashomon (1950)
Not Rated | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura
Votes: 180,614 | Gross: $0.10M
4. Yojimbo (1961)
Not Rated | 110 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Eijirô Tôno, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yôko Tsukasa
Votes: 131,440
5. Battle Royale (2000)
Not Rated | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill one another under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
Director: Kinji Fukasaku | Stars: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Tarô Yamamoto, Chiaki Kuriyama
Votes: 194,540
6. Pulse (2001)
R | 119 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Two groups of people discover evidence that suggests spirits may be trying to invade the human world through the Internet.
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Stars: Haruhiko Katô, Kumiko Asô, Koyuki, Kurume Arisaka
Votes: 25,630 | Gross: $0.05M
7. Ju-on: The Grudge (2002)
R | 92 min | Horror
A mysterious and vengeful spirit marks and pursues anybody who dares enter the house in which it resides.
Director: Takashi Shimizu | Stars: Megumi Okina, Misaki Itô, Misa Uehara, Yui Ichikawa
Votes: 48,116 | Gross: $0.33M
8. High and Low (1963)
Not Rated | 143 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An executive of a Yokohama shoe company becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Yutaka Sada, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyôko Kagawa
Votes: 53,281
9. Boiling Point (1990)
Not Rated | 96 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Two disquieted junior baseball players seek revenge on the local yakuza for attacking their coach.
Director: Takeshi Kitano | Stars: Takeshi Kitano, Yûrei Yanagi, Yuriko Ishida, Taka Guadalcanal
Votes: 7,502 | Gross: $0.00M
10. Violent Cop (1989)
Not Rated | 103 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A violence prone police officer discovers that his colleague is trafficking drugs.
Director: Takeshi Kitano | Stars: Takeshi Kitano, Maiko Kawakami, Makoto Ashikawa, Shirô Sano
Votes: 13,000 | Gross: $0.00M
11. Still Walking (2008)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama
A family gathers together for a commemorative ritual whose nature only gradually becomes clear.
Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu | Stars: Hiroshi Abe, Yui Natsukawa, You, Kazuya Takahashi
Votes: 18,643 | Gross: $0.16M
12. Audition (1999)
R | 115 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A widower takes an offer to screen girls at a special audition, arranged for him by a friend to find him a new wife. The one he fancies is not who she appears to be after all.
Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki, Jun Kunimura
Votes: 89,312
13. Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985 Video)
42 min | Short, Horror
Late at night, a woman is kidnapped by an unknown assailant and taken back to his blood-spattered dungeon, where he turns her into a "flower of blood and flesh" through a series of dismemberment and evisceration.
Director: Hideshi Hino | Stars: Hiroshi Tamura, Kirara Yûgao, Anja Blagojevic
Votes: 4,492
14. Ichi the Killer (2001)
R | 129 min | Action, Crime, Drama
As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of achieving.
Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Tadanobu Asano, Nao Ômori, Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Paulyn Sun
Votes: 60,081 | Gross: $0.02M
15. Rimeinzu: Utsukushiki yuusha-tachi (1990)
107 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller
Based on a true story. In 1915, a mountain village in Japan was attacked by a giant bear, dubbed "Red Spot", who terrorized the villagers for days, murdering the men and carrying off the ... See full summary »
Director: Shin'ichi Chiba | Stars: Hiroyuki Sanada, Mika Muramatsu, Akira Kurosaki, Takeshi Maya
Votes: 135
16. Floating Weeds (1959)
Not Rated | 119 min | Drama
The head of a Japanese theatre troupe returns to a small coastal town where he left a son who thinks he is his uncle, and tries to make up for the lost time, but his current mistress grows jealous.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Ganjirô Nakamura, Machiko Kyô, Haruko Sugimura, Ayako Wakao
Votes: 8,983
17. 13 Assassins (2010)
R | 141 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A group of assassins come together for a suicide mission to kill an evil lord.
Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yûsuke Iseya, Ikki Sawamura
Votes: 68,642 | Gross: $0.80M
18. We Couldn't Become Adults (2021)
TV-MA | 124 min | Drama, Romance
Prodded by a friend request, a forty-something recalls his past relationships from the 90s onward, looking for his vanished hopes and dreams.
Director: Yoshihiro Mori | Stars: Takehiro Hira, Rich Ting, Masahiro Higashide, Anne Yatco
Votes: 1,040
19. Drive My Car (2021)
Unrated | 179 min | Drama
A renowned stage actor and director learns to cope with a big personal loss when he receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima.
Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi | Stars: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Masaki Okada
Votes: 65,959
20. One Cut of the Dead (2017)
Not Rated | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Horror
Things go badly for a hack director and film crew shooting a low budget zombie movie in an abandoned WWII Japanese facility, when they are attacked by real zombies.
Director: Shin'ichirô Ueda | Stars: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama, Kazuaki Nagaya
Votes: 29,774
21. The World of Kanako (2014)
Not Rated | 118 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
As former detective Akikazu searches for his missing daughter, Kanako, he soon learns she has a mysterious secret life.
Director: Tetsuya Nakashima | Stars: Koji Yakusho, Nana Komatsu, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Hiroya Shimizu
Votes: 5,897 | Gross: $0.02M
22. Shoplifters (2018)
R | 121 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
On the margins of Tokyo, a dysfunctional band of outsiders are united by loyalty, a penchant for petty theft and playful grifting. When the young son is arrested, secrets are exposed that upend their tenuous, below-the-radar existence.
Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu | Stars: Lily Franky, Sakura Andô, Kirin Kiki, Mayu Matsuoka
Votes: 86,535 | Gross: $3.31M
23. Survival Family (2016)
117 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
After a sudden worldwide power cut, a Tokyo family are caught up in the chaos as millions traverse the country in search of electricity.
Director: Shinobu Yaguchi | Stars: Fumiyo Kohinata, Eri Fukatsu, Yuki Izumisawa, Wakana Aoi
Votes: 3,014
24. House (1977)
Not Rated | 88 min | Comedy, Horror
A schoolgirl and six of her classmates travel to her aunt's country home, which turns out to be haunted.
Director: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi | Stars: Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Ôba, Ai Matsubara
Votes: 33,764
25. Flying Colors (2015)
117 min | Comedy, Drama
Fact-based tale of a slacker high-school girl, years behind in her studies, who decides to start working hard and pass the entrance exams to a prestigious university in Japan.
Director: Nobuhiro Doi | Stars: Kasumi Arimura, Nanami Abe, Morio Agata, Atsushi Itô
Votes: 4,008
26. Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)
R | 121 min | Action, Western
A nameless gunfighter arrives in a town ripped apart by rival gangs and, though courted by both to join, chooses his own path.
Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Hideaki Itô, Kôichi Satô, Quentin Tarantino, Yûsuke Iseya
Votes: 15,839 | Gross: $0.05M
27. Love Life (2022)
123 min | Drama
Taeko and her husband, Jiro, are living a peaceful existence with son, Keita. A tragic accident brings the boy's father, Park, back into her life. Taeko throws herself into helping this deaf and homeless man to cope with pain and guilt.
Director: Kôji Fukada | Stars: Fumino Kimura, Win Morisaki, Tomorô Taguchi, Kento Nagayama
Votes: 1,528
28. Cure (1997)
Not Rated | 111 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
A frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Stars: Masato Hagiwara, Koji Yakusho, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Anna Nakagawa
Votes: 23,143 | Gross: $0.09M
29. Muddy River (1981)
105 min | Drama
In post-War Japan, a boy from a noodle store-owning family befriends a neighboring boy living in poverty.
Director: Kôhei Oguri | Stars: Takahiro Tamura, Mariko Kaga, Nobutaka Asahara, Makiko Shibata
Votes: 1,035
30. The Life of Oharu (1952)
Not Rated | 133 min | Drama
Follows a woman's fight and survival amid the vicissitudes of life and the cruelty of society.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Tsukie Matsuura, Ichirô Sugai, Toshirô Mifune
Votes: 7,649
31. If Cats Disappeared from the World (2016)
103 min | Drama, Fantasy
Young mailman finds out he has no time left due to a terminal disease. Suddenly he is approached by a devil that offers him to live more time if he eliminates something from the world. ... See full summary »
Director: Akira Nagai | Stars: Mauro Caiazza, Gaku Hamada, Mieko Harada, Anna Ishii
Votes: 2,932
32. Sanjuro (1962)
Not Rated | 96 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A crafty samurai helps a young man and his fellow clansmen trying to save his uncle, who has been framed and imprisoned by a corrupt superintendent.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiju Kobayashi, Yûnosuke Itô
Votes: 41,164
33. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021)
121 min | Drama, Romance
An unexpected love triangle, a failed seduction trap and an encounter that results from a misunderstanding, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.
Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi | Stars: Kotone Furukawa, Ayumu Nakajima, Hyunri, Kiyohiko Shibukawa
Votes: 9,830
34. Suicide Club (2001)
R | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A detective is trying to find the cause of a string of suicides.
Director: Sion Sono | Stars: Ryo Ishibashi, Masatoshi Nagase, Mai Hosho, Tamao Satô
Votes: 22,233
35. 964 Pinocchio (1991)
97 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Pinocchio 964, lobotomised cyborg sex slave, is thrown out onto the street by his owners because of his inability to maintain an erection. He is befriended by a criminally insane, ... See full summary »
Director: Shozin Fukui | Stars: Haji Suzuki, Onn-chan, Kôji Ôtsubo, Kyoko Hara
Votes: 2,327
36. Rubber's Lover (1996)
Not Rated | 91 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Scientists use a brain-altering drug to conduct experiments, after one such project goes astray, they need to find another test subject in this Japanese splatter-punk film.
Director: Shozin Fukui | Stars: Nao, Norimizu Ameya, Yôta Kawase, Mika Kunihiro
Votes: 1,089
37. Koara kachô (2005)
Not Rated | 85 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Tamura is an average divorced salary-man in Japan - and also a man-sized, suit-and-tie wearing, bipedal koala bear.
Director: Minoru Kawasaki | Stars: 'Hurricane Ryu' Hariken, Lee Ho, Eiichi Kikuchi, Arthur Kuroda
Votes: 677
38. Perfect Days (2023)
PG | 124 min | Drama
Hirayama cleans public toilets in Tokyo, lives his life in simplicity and daily tranquility. Some encounters also lead him to reflect on himself.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Koji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto, Arisa Nakano, Miyako Tanaka
Votes: 38,315
39. Godzilla Minus One (2023)
PG-13 | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Post war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb.
Director: Takashi Yamazaki | Stars: Sakura Andô, Minami Hamabe, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Yuki Yamada
Votes: 59,140
40. Monster (2023)
PG-13 | 127 min | Drama, Thriller
A mother demands answers from her son's teacher when her son begins acting strangely.
Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu | Stars: Sakura Andô, Eita Nagayama, Soya Kurokawa, Hinata Hiiragi
Votes: 21,463
41. In the Realm of the Senses (1976)
NC-17 | 109 min | Drama, Romance
A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: Tatsuya Fuji, Eiko Matsuda, Aoi Nakajima, Yasuko Matsui
Votes: 22,830
42. Cold Fish (2010)
Not Rated | 146 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
The lives of a bored suburban couple are changed forever when a seemingly nice old man gives their daughter a job at his fish store, and soon his gruesome hobbies are brought to light.
Director: Sion Sono | Stars: Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Denden, Asuka Kurosawa, Megumi Kagurazaka
Votes: 14,538
43. To Live (1952)
Not Rated | 143 min | Drama
A bureaucrat tries to find meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka
Votes: 87,661 | Gross: $0.06M
44. Evil Does Not Exist (2023)
106 min | Drama
Takumi and his daughter Hana live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. One day, the village inhabitants become aware of a plan to build a camping site near Takumi's house offering city residents a comfortable "escape" to nature.
Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi | Stars: Hitoshi Omika, Ryô Nishikawa, Ryûji Kosaka, Ayaka Shibutani
Votes: 3,610
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