Best Japan Movies

1954 • Rating 8.5 • action, drama

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

Genre: Action, Drama

Style:

Audience: Date Night

Plot: Martial Arts, Japan, Samurai, Sword, Peasant, Village, Looting, Rice, Fencing, Moral Ambiguity

Time: Year 1954, 1950S, 1954-04-26

Place: Japan, Japanese

Cast: Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaki, Daisuke Katō

1988 • Rating 8.4 • animation, drama, war

In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

Genre: Animation, Drama, War

Style: Suspenseful

Audience: Adult, Date Night, Family

Plot: Sibling Relationship, Hunger, World War Ii, Wartime, Shelter, Struggle For Survival, Pacific Theater, Adult Animation, Semi Autobiographical, Anti War

Time: Year 1988, 1980S, 1988-04-16

Place: Japan, Japanese

Cast: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara, Akemi Yamaguchi, Masayo Sakai, Kozo Hashida

1962 • Rating 8.4 • action, drama, history

Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual. The senior counselor for the Iyi clan questions the ronin’s resolve and integrity, suspecting Hanshirō of seeking charity rather than an honorable end. What follows is a pair of interlocking stories which lay bare the difference between honor and respect, and promises to examine the legendary foundations of the Samurai code.

Genre: Action, Drama, History

Style:

Audience: Date Night

Plot: Suicide, Japan, Samurai, Asia, Flashback, Revenge, Poverty, Black And White, Seppuku, Ronin

Time: Year 1962, 1960S, 1962-09-15

Place: Japan, Japanese

Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita, Tetsuro Tamba, Masao Mishima, Ichirō Nakatani