Blue Ribbon Award 2010-2019
Movies to watch awarded or nominated in the Blue Ribbon Awards in the '10s
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- DirectorSion SonoStarsMitsuru FukikoshiDendenAsuka KurosawaThe 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.
- DirectorYong-hi YangStarsSakura AndôArata IuraYang Ik-joonBased on the director's own experience, Our Homeland follows a Korean family living in Japan, of which the father (Masane Tsukayama) decided to take North Korean nationality because of his strong belief decades ago. In 1997, Sonho (Arata Iura), the son of the family who was sent to North Korea under a "repatriation program" with the promise of a "paradise" free of discrimination, returns to Japan for the first time in 25 years to seek treatment for his brain tumor due to the difference in medical technology between the two countries. Allowed to stay for only three months and closely monitored by a North Korean officer (Yang Ik-Joon), Sonho is welcomed and embraced by his family and old friends but his father, who is still sticking to the belief but also feeling guilty about sending his son to North Korea at the same time, while Sonho's younger sister Rie (Sakura Andô) develops the aversion to North Korea and its political ideas.
- DirectorShûichi OkitaStarsAyumi ItoJun KunimuraGô AyanoWere people's lives changed by having known Yonosuke?
- DirectorKatsuhide MotokiStarsKuranosuke SasakiKyôko FukadaTsuyoshi IharaDuring the reign of the eighth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Yunagaya Domain in the Tohoku region is a small han. But at the han, there is a gold mine. Suddenly, Masaatsu Naito of Yunagaya Domain receives an order to perform Sankin-kotai within 5 days. Sankin-kotai is a custom that requires the daimyo to visit the shogun in Edo. Unfortunately, the time needed to visit the shogun in Edo for Masaatsu Naito is 8 days. Masaatsu Naito also learns he received the order because a high ranking government official wants the gold mine. Also, the expense for Sankin-kotai is high and the Yunagaya Domain is such a small han that it seems impossible to complete. Nevertheless, Masaatsu Naito begins an unexpected operation to complete Sankin-kotai in 5 days.
- DirectorMasato HaradaStarsKoji YakushoMasahiro MotokiTsutomu YamazakiThe War ended on August 15th, 1945. What took place in Japan on the previous night? The unknown destiny of the day is unveiled.
- DirectorYoshiyuki KishiStarsMasaki SudaYang Ik-joonDendenThe year is 2021 and years of mismanagement have left Japan a broken society riddled with poverty and underemployment. Kenji is visibly disabled and has an inferiority complex. Shinji is released from prison and has time in his hands. They both coincidentally sign up at a club for boxing and soon become friends.
- DirectorShin'ichirô UedaStarsTakayuki HamatsuYuzuki AkiyamaHarumi ShuhamaThings 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.
- DirectorHideki TakeuchiStarsFumi NikaidôGacktYûsuke IseyaIn a world where people are discriminated based on their birthplace, a resident of the much-reviled Saitama Prefecture embarks on a revolutionary campaign to improve things for his home.
- DirectorSang-il LeeStarsEri FukatsuSatoshi TsumabukiDendenA young woman's murder provokes reflection on the ugliness and villainy of modern society.
- DirectorCellin GluckHideyuki HirayamaStarsYutaka TakenouchiSean McGowanMao InoueDuring the end of World War 2, a group of Japanese soldiers fight on after US forces capture most of the island. They refuse to surrender and continue to resist after the Emperor surrenders.
- DirectorNobuhiro DoiStarsHiroshi AbeYui AragakiJunpei MizobataA man is stabbed to death in Tokyo's Nihonbashi area. The victim staggers with the knife still in the wound for eight minutes before collapsing under the winged statues of two Kirin on the famous Nihonbashi bridge. The suspect, on the other hand, is now in coma, having fled the scene and been hit by a truck. On hearing this news, his girlfriend, Kaori Nakahara, insist that he is innocent. The case falls to Kyoichiro Kaga, a brilliant detective. Kaga realizes that behind this apparently open-and-shut case is a tangled web of mystery involving both victim and suspect, and their families. What was the victim thinking as he died? Will Kaga unravel the mystery at the heart of the case?
- DirectorHideki TakeuchiStarsHiroshi AbeAya UetoKazuki KitamuraLucius, a Roman architect, is transported through time to modern-day Japan, where he learns about Japanese bathhouses and uses this to his gain back home.
- DirectorTadafumi ItôStarsHiroshi AbeShôji MurakamiBengalConstantly on the run from a vicious loan shark, two small-time con artists, Take and Tetsu, plan their biggest and most complex con yet in order to get revenge and retire from a life of crime. However, things get complicated when they cross paths with Mahiro, a young woman that Take inadvertently orphaned during a job gone awry years ago. Seeing Mahiro down on her luck, Take tries to relieve his guilt by taking her on as a partner, while hiding his true identity. But as his plan unfolds, Take discovers that he isn't the only one with a secret.
- DirectorKazuyoshi KumakiriStarsFumi NikaidôTadanobu AsanoAoba KawaiAfter losing everything in a tsunami, 10-year-old Hana is taken in by 26-year-old distant relative Jungo Kusarino. They live as father and daughter but share a profound sense of loss. Jungo works as a cook for the coast guard, leaving young Hana alone for days at a time. In wintry Hokkaido, Jungo and Hana both desire to fill their empty, love-starved hearts as they set foot into a forbidden world. Eventually, an elder benefactor in their small town learns of their illicit relationship. When he tries to separate them for Hana's own good, it provokes her emotional rage. Soon after, a murder quietly occurs atop the ice floes. With their dark secret, Jungo and Hana escape to Tokyo.
- DirectorMasato HaradaStarsYô ÔizumiErika TodaHikari MitsushimaThe lives of women saved by the historical Tokei-ji Buddhist Temple.
- DirectorYoshitaka MoriStarsKen'ichi MatsuyamaShôta SometaniTokio EmotoSatoshi Murayama was so much more than a Shogi master. Ever since the age of five, he had a serious kidney ailment. Growing up in hospitals and spending so much time sick, he learned how to play shogi; having no idea that he would fall in love with the game and later become a parody. Learn his story of perseverance and competitions despite the cards Murayama was dealt with.
- DirectorHideo NakataStarsHiroshi TachiHitomi KurokiRyôko HirosueSosuke Tashiro is on an elite career course at a major bank until he is transferred - or rather relegated - to a subsidiary company, where he reaches retirement age.
- DirectorKôki MitaniStarsKiichi NakaiDean FujiokaYuriko IshidaKeisuke Kuroda (Kiichi Nakai) wakes up in a hospital bed and he is unable to remember who he is. He sneaks out of the hospital and happens to see the news on TV.
- DirectorYukihiko TsutsumiStarsShihori KanjiyaNaoto TakenakaTakayuki TakumaHimawariso is a group home for intellectually disabled persons. Comic book artist Itpon moves in and begins working at the institution with his daughter Mako, who is intellectually disabled. Mako and another resident, Uyan, fall for each other, but father is concerned.
- DirectorMomoko AndôStarsSakura AndôMiyoko AsadaBengalSawa Yamagishi worked as a nursing-care helper. The family of an old man asked Sawa to sleep with him.
- DirectorNobuhiro DoiStarsKasumi ArimuraNanami AbeMorio AgataFact-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.
- DirectorRyûichi HirokiStarsKasumi ArimuraSôta FukushiYuki YamadaNinako confesses her love to Ren. But get rejected because he is already have a girlfriend. They promise to stay as a friend. Some other guy confess their love to her but she rejects them. Is it because she still wants to be with Ren?
- DirectorYasuo TsuruhashiStarsShinobu ÔtakeEtsushi ToyokawaKyoko HasegawaA predatory middle-aged woman and her partner prey upon aging older men of a certain wealth. The idea is as old as the history of mankind itself: take the man's money in exchange for something pretty on his arm's and a good time (to start). You would think more than half a dozen former husbands may be a red flag and it only becomes when two daughters with their radars up seek to dig deeper into the woman taking their father's inheritance and wealth. Not that any of this is slowing the scoundrels down.
- DirectorJun'ichi IshikawaStarsYui AragakiEita NagayamaRyôko HirosueTamiko used to be a very good ping pong player as a child, but she is now twenty-eight years old and left the sport behind. Her mother Hanako had taught her how to play imposing discipline and regimen, but following the former's death the daughter had felt free by quitting the sport and instead leading an ordinary life. One of her co-workers Akihiko asks her to go steady one day, but soon sleeps with a pretty co-worker called Airi. Having lost her chance with this man she quits her job and returns to her hometown. Here her mother once owned a ping pong club. At the same time, the man she lost has joined the company's ping pong club prompting her to want to beat him. She begins to practice again.
- DirectorKazuya ShiraishiStarsKisetsu FujiwaraArata IuraKuu IzimaSpring, 1969. The Japanese New Wave, represented on international screens mainly by the films of Nagisa Oshima, reaches new heights. 21-year-old Megumi Yoshizumi goes to Wakamatsu Production. The company makes films popular with young people. Pink film director Koji Wakamatsu gathers there with young talented people who are all fascinated with movie making. When they are not making movies, they spend their time smoking, drinking alcohol, scouting for actresses and looking for material for their next film. When filming begins, everybody immerses themselves into the production and will do everything on the filming set from running, shouting to acting.
- DirectorRyô TanakaStarsMasami NagasawaMasahiro HigashideShinya KoteThe con artists: Dako (Masami Nagasawa), Boku-chan (Masahiro Higashide), and Richard (Fumiyo Kohinata) attempt to steal the diamond from a member of the triad in Hong Kong, who is cold-blooded and appropriately called "Ice Princess."
- DirectorKazuya ShiraishiStarsTakayuki YamadaPierre TakiLily FrankyJournalist Shuichi Fujii receives a letter from convicted killer Junji Sudo. Writing from death row, Sudo wants to confess to crimes unknown to the police. On visiting Sudo in prison, Fujii learns about a real estate broker called "Doc" who masterminded a string of murders that Sudo worked muscle for. Set up by Doc, Sudo seeks revenge and implores Fujii to find the evidence needed to bring in his former boss. Working off Sudo's sketchy memories, Fujii begins to piece together a grizzly tale of extortion, torture, rape, and arson. But as his desire to see Doc brought to justice nears the boiling point, he runs into resistance from his editor, who views the story as tripe, the police, who seem indifferent to the case, and his wife, who is at her wits' end dealing with his mother's increasing dementia. Based on true crime cases, "The Devil's Path" exposes the secret underbelly of crime in modern Japan.
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsMasaharu FukuyamaMachiko OnoYôko MakiRyota is a successful workaholic businessman. When he learns that his biological son was switched with another boy after birth, he faces the difficult decision to choose his true son or the boy he and his wife have raised as their own.
- DirectorYûya IshiiStarsSatoshi TsumabukiKyôzô NagatsukaSôsuke IkematsuA family drama about a family's struggles as their mother's impending death when she is diagnosed with a brain tumor brings to light financial burdens that need to be shouldered by her sons.
- DirectorYukihiko TsutsumiStarsYôsuke EguchiMasahiro MotokiYukie NakamaEngineers try to save a young child and a nuclear power plant from a helicopter guided by a criminal.
- DirectorHitoshi ÔneStarsMasaharu FukuyamaLily FrankyRika IzumiShizuka Miyakonojo (Masaharu Fukuyama) is a 40 something paparazzi photographer. He is a skilled cameraman who has a gambling addiction and is in debt. An ex journo for a weekly picture magazine 'Scoop!,' he had fame for numerous scoops. Currently working as a freelance journalist applying his talents and fishing for celebrity scandals. He is joined by Nobi Namekawa (Fumi Nikaido), who works for his old magazine, who as a rookie reporter, becomes invaluable as they are on the verge of one of the greatest Scoops in Japans history.
- DirectorKazuya ShiraishiStarsKoji YakushoJunko AbeYôsuke EguchiHiroshima Police detective Ogami Shogo and his partner Hioka Shuichi are investigating the disappearance of a company's employees amidst an escalating yakuza turf war in 1988. Blood, shooting and death is everywhere. At the same time, there is a suspicion that the former man has his own ties to the thugs. Certainly many of his methods and actions are thuggish, violent and should be illegal.
- DirectorShinsuke SatoStarsKento YamazakiRyô YoshizawaMasami NagasawaIn ancient China, a young boy dreams of becoming the greatest general of the Qin Kingdom.
- DirectorYûya IshiiStarsHikari MitsushimaKôtarô ShigaRyô IwamatsuAfter 5 years in Tokyo, 5 part-time jobs, 5 boyfriends, Sawako's life is going nowhere. When her father gets seriously ill she have to take over his struggling factory. Gradually she becomes the decider of her own life.
- DirectorKaneto ShindôStarsEtsushi ToyokawaShinobu ÔtakeNaomasa MusakaToward the end of World War II, middle-aged soldier Keita is entrusted with a postcard from a comrade who is sure he will die in battle. After the war ends, Keita visits his comrade's wife Yuko and bears witness to the tragic life she has led. This year's Oscar entry from Japan finds SHINDO in top form and his 49th and reportedly last film as fresh and poignant as ever.
- DirectorKenji UchidaStarsMasato SakaiTeruyuki KagawaRyôko HirosueA failed actor switches identities with a stranger at a bath house thinking it is his way out of his life of misery but only to find himself filling the shoes of an elite assassin.
- DirectorTatsushi ÔmoriStarsYasushi FuchikamiShingo MizusawaAi TamuraKaji, an awkward factory-worker's social interactions are limited to his postings on internet message boards until he starts hanging out with a co-worker named Tanaka who suffers from the debilitating sleep disorder narcolepsy.
- DirectorTatsushi ÔmoriStarsHirofumi AraiJoe HyûgaMansaku IkeuchiA child's horrific murder brings to light the haunted truth of an affair between her mother and a neighbor. As a magazine reporter investigates the case, he finds that nothing is as it seems.
- DirectorMipo OhStarsGô AyanoChizuru IkewakiMasaki SudaTwo troubled souls living on the fringes of a port town fall in love, but their trials are far from over.
- DirectorRyosuke HashiguchiStarsTamae AndôLily FrankyRyô IkedaAtsushi is a civic construction worker who was widowed following a random murder. Toko's husband is neither interested in her nor in how his mother treats his wife. Shinomiya is a lawyer whose homosexuality has lead to mismatched love. The three separate stories tread a thread of hope, love, rejection and abandonment. Three relative cinema newcomers act in roles for which they were auditioned and specially hired.
- DirectorSunao KatabuchiStarsNonAva PickardKenna PickardA spirited 18-year-old woman is married off to a man she barely knows as she combats the daily struggles of living in Hiroshima during World War II.
- DirectorTetsuya MarikoStarsYû AoiTokio EmotoKanji FurutachiFollowing the manga series and the subsequent television serial of the same name, and featuring the same cast, a young and relatively inexperienced man comes across a woman during his working day and sparks fly.
- DirectorYûya IshiiStarsShizuka IshibashiSôsuke IkematsuRyûhei MatsudaNewcomer Shizuka Ishibashi throws herself into the role of Mika, a nurse by day, a 'girlie bar' hostess by night, subject to feelings of anxiety and isolation, and unable to reach through a hard outer shell that stops her from expressing tenderness to anyone else. Sosuke Ikematsu, one of Japan's most important young actors, stars as Shinji, who struggles as a day-hire construction worker with a sense of impending doom, but who still tries to find the source of an unnamable hope he feels inside. The setting is Tokyo in 2017, where empty words, a sense of doom, and feelings of isolation co-exist with hope, trust, and love. In the sense of real life conjured up in these two people is a new kind of film: the densest kind of love story.
- DirectorIzuru NarushimaStarsRyôko FujinoMizuki ItagakiAnna IshiiA group of junior high school must find out the truth of their classmate's death; if he was killed by someone or committed suicide.
- DirectorTakashi ShimizuStarsFuka KoshibaRyohei HirotaMachiko OnoA young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
- DirectorYûya IshiiStarsRyûhei MatsudaAoi MiyazakiJoe OdagiriMajime, an eccentric man in publishing company, who has unique ability of words, joins the team that will compile a new dictionary, 'The Great Passage.' In the eclectic team, he becomes immersed in the world of dictionaries. But the team is overwhelmed with problems. Will 'The Great Passage' ever be completed?
- DirectorNobuhiro YamashitaStarsMirai MoriyamaKengo KôraAtsuko MaedaKitamichi is a 19-year-old labor worker. He develops feelings for Yasuko who works in a used used bookstore, but he has never had a girlfriend. He also befriends Kusakabe, but jealousy soon threatens their friendship.
- DirectorYoshishige MiyakeStarsNobuko MiyamotoKasumi ArimuraKaho Minami"Hankyu Densha" follows the lives of various people who commute on Hankyu Railway's Imazu Line - connecting the cities of Nishinomiya and Takarazuka in Hyogo prefecture. One of the commuters is Shoko (Miki Nakatani), an office worker in her 30s who lost her boyfriend to a younger colleague. There's also a college student (Erika Toda) who is so easily persuaded by her no good boyfriend. Other commuters include a grandmother & granddaughter, a house wife, a female high school student, and a female otaku college student. Although the train ride takes only 15 minutes between two stations, the lives of these commuters are changed as they interact with each other ..
- DirectorRyûichi InomataStarsWin MorisakiMitsuki TakahataNanami SakurabaSchool girls compete in a shodo competition.
- DirectorYûya IshiiStarsKanata HosodaNagisa SekimizuTakanori IwataHigh school boy Machida is a loner who is not particularly good at his studies or extracurricular activities. He does seem to have his heart in the right place however. When he is injured at school instead of the school nurse at the infirmary a school-mate tends to him. He develops a crush for her and soon enough the feelings are returned.
- StarsHiroshi TsuchidaAyu MatsuuraAtsuko MineA man adopts his six-year-old aunt and raises her as his own kid.
- DirectorGenjiro AratoStarsTôma IkutaYûsuke IseyaShinobu TerajimaBorn with a silver spoon in his life, the child is nonetheless lonely and a misfit. His mate recognizes the feelings and predicts that when grown up his friend will be a great artist and popular with women. Moving to Tokyo the women come, as does everything else that the wanton lifestyle brings, but the man is still lonely despite a friendship with another of the same mind and a woman who could be his soul-mate.
- DirectorKôji WakamatsuStarsShinobu TerajimaShima ÔnishiKen YoshizawaThe story of a village woman given the grueling task of looking after (and fulfilling the sexual needs of) her quadruple amputee husband, a Japanese soldier in the Second Sino-Japanese War who has been decreed a "War God" by the Emperor.
- DirectorKazuya ShiraishiStarsYû AoiSadao AbeTôri MatsuzakaTawako's boyfriend is not her kind, but she puts up with it in exchange for shelter. Her old boyfriend of almost a decade ago is long gone, and was also not nice, but like most girls she still reminisces about him and is attracted to his bad ways. Enter Mizushima who reminds Tawako of her old boyfriend, but soon more transpires to remind the girl of her old relationship.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsJohn Lloyd YoungErich BergenMichael LomendaThe story of four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic 1960s rock group The Four Seasons.