Category:Film Studies--Japanese

Film Studies--Japanese

1890s

1899

Momijigari (1899 Tsunekichi), film -- It is a record of the kabuki actors Onoe Kikugorō V and Ichikawa Danjūrō IX performing a scene from the kabuki play Momijigari. It is the oldest extant Japanese film.

1910s

1919

The Glow of Life (1919 Kaeriyama), film -- A country girl Teruko falls in love with the aristocrat Yanagisawa. When she once asks him what the meaning of life is, he responds that it is to live freely. Unfortunately, he does that by abandoning her. Teruko tries to commit suicide, but luckily is saved. Yanagisawa returns and apologizes to her.

1920s

1921

Souls on the Road (1921 Murata), film -- A small town boy dreams of being a famous fiddler; meanwhile, two convicts escape from prison and hide in the woods

1925

Orochi (1925 Futagawa), film -- The story of a decent samurai who is widely considered a scum and a criminal. His bad luck and numerous misunderstandings drag him down the social ladder straight to the gutter.

1926

A Page of Madness (1926 Kinugasa), film -- A man takes a job at an asylum with hopes of freeing his imprisoned wife.

1927

A Diary of Chuji’s Travels (1927 Ito), film -- Trilogy about the travels of the kindly bakuto Kunisada Chuji. Film depicts Chuji's attempt to save the geisha Oshina, a rebellion against the rigid social structure of Edo Japan. Part 3. "The Chuji Patrol".

1928

Crossroads (1928 Kinugasa)

1929

Days of Youth (1929 Ozu), film -- Two friends from a university try and court the same woman during a skiing trip. Oldest known surviving film by the director.

A Straightforward Boy (1929 Ozu), film -- A kidnapped boy proves to be more than his abductor can handle.

1930s

1930

That Night's Wife (1930 Ozu) -- A desperate man with a sick daughter decides to commit a robbery in order to help her. He begins to feel remorse though, which makes him question his decision.

What Made Her Do It? (1930 Suzuki)

1931

The Neighbour’s Wife and Mine (1931 Gosho)

1932

@@ I Was Born, But... (1932 Ozu), film -- Two young brothers throw a tantrum when they discover that their father isn't the most important man in his workplace.

An Inn in Tokyo (1935 Ozu), film -- Unemployed Kihachi and his two sons struggle to make ends meet. But that doesn't keep Kihachi from wooing single mother Otaka.

1936

Osaka Elegy (1936 Mizoguchi), film -- A young woman becomes a mistress of her boss in order to support her family.

Sisters of the Gion (1936 Mizoguchi), film -- Two geisha sisters lead a hard life in the Gion district of Kyoto. After one of them feels obliged to support a bankrupt businessman, the other sister sets up various schemes to get rid of him.

The Only Son (1936 Ozu), film -- A widow sends her only son away to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him, finding him a poor school teacher with a wife and son.

1937

Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937 Yamanaka), film

Children in the Wind (1937 Shimuzi), film -- Two young boys are usurped from being the head of their gang of children. Their father is fired and arrested for this, and they are sent to live with their uncle, only to spend their time thinking of ways to escape back home.

1938

Fallen Blossoms (1938 Ishida)

1939

@ The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939 Mizoguchi), film -- The adopted son of a legendary actor, and an aspiring star himself, turns to his infant brother's wet nurse for support and affection - only for her to give up everything for her beloved's glory.

Four Seasons of Children (1939 Shimuzi), film -- The brothers deal with declining family fortunes: they must work when the father becomes sick and dies, and eventually live with their grandfather, which means making new friends and struggling with a different environment.

1940s

1940

Spring on Leper’s Island (1940 Toyoda), film

1941

Ornamental Hairpin (1941 Shimizu), film

1942

The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya (1942 Yamamoto), film

@ There Was a Father (1942 Ozu), film -- A school-teacher struggles to raise his son Ryohei by himself, despite having neither money nor prospects.

1942

The Life of Matsu the Untamed (1943 Inagaki), film

Sanshiro Sugata (1943 Kurosawa), film -- Sugata, a young man, struggles to learn the nuance and meaning of judo, and in doing so comes to learn something of the meaning of life.

1944

Army (1944 Kinoshita), film

1945

Momotaro, Sacred Sailors (1945 Seo), film

Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (1945 Kurosawa), film -- Sugata returns to prove his judo mastery in a match against Western opponents.

1946

Utamaro and His Five Women (1946 Mizoguchi), film

1947

# Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947 Ozu), film -- In postwar Japan, an abandoned boy nobody wants to take care of grows a relationship with a cynical middle-aged woman.

The Ball at the Anjo House (1947 Yoshimura), film

1948

@ Drunken Angel (1948 Kurosawa), film -- A drunken doctor with a hot temper and a violence-prone gangster with tuberculosis form a quicksilver bond.

## Children of the Beehive (1948 Shimizu), film -- The movie focuses on the plight of ten war orphans hailing from different cities across Japan. They find a role model in the figure of a nameless soldier just repatriated after the war.

1949

@ Stray Dog (1949 Kurosawa), film -- During a sweltering summer, a rookie homicide detective tries to track down his stolen Colt pistol.

@@@ Late Spring (1949 Ozu), film -- Several people try to talk 27-year-old Noriko into marrying, but all she wants is to keep on caring for her widowed father.

1950s

1950

@@@ Rashomon (1950 Kurosawa), film -- 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.

1951

Repast (1951 Naruse)

@ Carmen Comes Home (1951 Kinoshita) -- A girl who had left her home village for life in Tokyo returns to her home years later, and evokes a scandal when the locals discover that she's a stripper.

Early Summer (1951 Ozu), film -- A family chooses a match for their daughter Noriko, but she, surprisingly, has her own plans.

1952

@@ Ikiru (1952 Kurosawa), film -- A bureaucrat tries to find meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.

@@ The Life of Oharu (1952 Mizoguchi), film -- Follows a woman's fight and survival amid the vicissitudes of life and the cruelty of society.

Children of Hiroshima (1952 Shindo), film -- Post war Hiroshima: It's been four years since the last time she visited her hometown. Takako faces the after effects of the A-bomb when she travels around the city to call on old friends.

1953

@ Gate of Hell (1953 Kinugasa), film -- A samurai pursues a married lady-in-waiting.

@@@ Ugetsu (1953 Mizoguchi), film -- A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.

@ A Geisha (1953 Mizoguchi) -- A seasoned geisha and her apprentice maiko are forced to give in to their clients' sexual advances to survive.

@@@ Tokyo Story (1953 Ozu), film -- An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city, but receive little attention.

Hiroshima (1953 Sekigawa), film -- Brilliant and extremely realistic retelling of the day in Hiroshima that the bomb dropped and following days. Children are at the center of the narrative.

1954

@@ Godzilla (1954 Honda), film -- After a dinosaur-like beast - awoken from undersea hibernation by atom bomb testing - ravages Tokyo, a scientist must decide if his similarly dangerous weapon should be used to destroy it.

@ Twenty-Four Eyes (1954 Kinoshita), film -- Schoolteacher Hisako Oishi forms an emotional bond with her pupils and teaches them various virtues, while at the same time worrying about their future.

@@@ Seven Samurai (1954 Kurosawa), film -- Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.

@@ Sansho the Bailiff (1954 Mizoguchi), film -- In medieval Japan, a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression.

@ A Story from Chikamatsu (1954 Mizoguchi), film -- Ishun is a wealthy but unsympathetic master printer who has wrongly accused his wife and best employee of being lovers. To escape punishment, the accused run away together, but Ishun is certain to be ruined if word gets out.

1955

Princess Yang Kwei Fei (1955 Mizoguchi), film -- In 8th-century China, the Emperor is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their influence over the court.

Forever a Woman (1955 Tanaka), film

@ Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji (1955 Uchida), film -- A samurai travels to Edo with his two servants. On their way, they meet many people and encounter great injustice.

1956

@@ The Burmese Harp (1956 Ichikawa), film -- A conscience-driven Japanese soldier traumatized by the events of WWII adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.

@ Tiara Clan Saga (1956 Mizoguchi), film -- After his father is not rewarded for his military achievements, Taira Kiyomori rebels against the court and the monks who rule the country. He also falls in love with Tokiko and discovers unsettling revelations about his parentage.

@ Street of Shame (1956 Mizoguchi), film -- The personal tales of various prostitutes who occupy a brothel.

Crazed Fruit (1956 Nakahira), film

1957

A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era (1957 Kawashima), film

@@ Throne of Blood (1957 Kurosawa), film -- A war-hardened general, egged on by his ambitious wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become lord of Spider's Web Castle.

1958

The Ballad of Narayama (1958 Kinoshita) -- A kabuki theatre-inflected story about a poor village whose people have to be carried to a nearby mountain to die once they get old.

@@ The Hidden Fortress (1958 Kurosawa) -- Lured by gold, two greedy peasants unknowingly escort a princess and her general across enemy lines.

@ Giants and Toys (1958 Masumura) -- In the middle of a fierce commercial competition between three caramel companies, an executive builds up a ditsy teenage girl as a mascot while simultaneously trying to uncover the rival companies' plans.

1959

@@ Fires on the Plain (1959 Ichikawa) -- In the closing days of WWII, remnants of the Japanese army in Leyte are abandoned by their command and face certain death by starvation.

@ Odd Obession (1959 Ichikawa) -- A man getting on in years sets out to find a way to resurrect his flagging virility.

@@ The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959 Kobayashi) -- A Japanese pacifist, unable to face the dire consequences of conscientious objection, is transformed by his attempts to compromise with the demands of war-time Japan.

@@ The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959 Kobayashi) -- As a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist struggles to maintain his determination to keep his ideals.

@@ Floating Weeds (1959 Ozu) -- 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.

1960s

1960

Late Autumn (1960 Ozu) -- A widow tries to marry off her daughter with the help of her late husband's three friends.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960)

The Naked Island (1960 Shindo)

1961

Bad Boys (1961 Hani)

@ Pigs and Battleships (1961 Imamura) -- A young hoodlum decides to work for a criminal organization that is tearing itself apart.

@@ The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961 Kobayashi) -- His ideals challenged by life as a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist faces ever greater tests in his fight for survival.

@@ Yojimbo (1961 Kurosawa) -- A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.

@ A Wife Confesses (1961 Masumura) -- Ayako is charged with murdering her much older academic husband while climbing a mountain. Ayako was having an affair, apparently with her husband's approval, and this complicates the trial.

The End of Summer (1961 Ozu) -- The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.

@ Girls of the Night (1961 Tanaka)

1962

@@@ Harakiri (1962 Kobayashi) -- When a ronin requesting seppuku at a feudal lord's palace is told of the brutal suicide of another ronin who previously visited, he reveals how their pasts are intertwined - and in doing so challenges the clan's integrity.

Sanjuro (1962 Kurosawa) -- 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.

The Tale of Zatoichi (1962 Misumi) -- The adventures of a blind, gambling masseur who also happens to be a master swordsman.

@@ An Autumn Afternoon (1962 Ozu) -- An aging widower arranges a marriage for his only daughter. Final film of the director.

1963

@ The Insect Woman (1963 Imamura) -- Life story of a woman born in poverty trying to succeed. Through her many schemes, she faces her ups and downs in a cyclical nature, fueled mostly by self-interest.

@ High and Low (1963 Kurosawa) -- 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.

1964

@ Intentions of Murder (1964 Imamura) -- A housewife living under her tyrannical husband has her life stressfully turned upside down after getting raped by a burglar.

@@ Kwaidan (1964 Kobayashi) -- A collection of four Japanese folk tales with supernatural themes.

@@ Onibaba (1964 Shindo) -- Two women kill samurai and sell their belongings for a living. While one of them is having an affair with their neighbor, the other woman meets a mysterious samurai wearing a bizarre mask.

@@@ Woman in the Dunes (1964 Teshigahara) -- An entomologist on vacation is trapped by local villagers into living with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.

1965

@@ Tokyo Olimpiad (1965 Ichikawa)

@ Red Beard (1965 Kurosawa -- In 19th-century Japan, a rough-tempered yet charitable town doctor trains a young intern.

@ Seisaku's Wife (1965 Masumura) -- On the eve of the Russo-Japanese war at the beginning of the 20th century, small-town girl Okane has married an old wealthy man to escape a life of poverty.

@ A Fugitive From the Past (1965 Uchida) -- Three thieves escape from a heist, one of them killing the other two. He is sheltered by a prostitute and sought after by the police, but only after ten years his true motivation unravels.

1966

@ Irezumi (1966 Masumura) -- A seductive woman gets kidnapped into prostitution. After getting a spider tattoo made on her back, she grows vengeful, leaving several men in her path.

@ Tokyo Drifter (1966 Suzuki) -- After his gang disbands, a yakuza enforcer looks forward to life outside of organized crime but soon must become a drifter after his old rivals attempt to assassinate him.

@ The Sword of Doom (1966 Okamoto) -- Through his unconscionable actions against others, a sociopath samurai builds a trail of vendettas that follow him closely.

Silence Has No Wings (1966 Kuroki)

1967

Branded to Kill (1967 Suzuki) -- After a botched assignment, a rice-fetishizing hitman finds himself in conflict with his organization, and one mysterious, dangerous fellow-hitman in particular.

1968

Death by Hanging (1968 Oshima) -- A Korean man is sentenced to death by hanging, but he survives the execution. For the following two hours, his executioners try to work out how to handle the situation in this black farce.

1969

@ Funeral Parade of Roses (1969 Matsumoto)

1970s

1970

Eros + Massacre (1970 Yoshida)

1971

Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets (1971 Terayama)

1972

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972 Ito)

Pinocchio: The Series (1972 Hara) -- The story of an extremely gullible, naive and morally confused wooden puppet brought to life by a fairy to give him a lonely poor carpenter a son he's always wanted.

1973

@ Battles without Honour and Humanity (1973 Fukasaku) -- During the violent chaos of post-War Japanese black market, a young gangster called Shozo Hirono has to keep up with the rapid shifts of power between unscrupulous bosses.

@ Lady Snowblood (1973 Fujita) -- A young woman is trained from birth to be a deadly instrument of revenge against the swindlers who destroyed her family.

1974

Sandakan No. 8 (1974 Kumai)

@ Castle of Sand (1974 Nomura) -- Detectives investigate the murder of an old man found in a Tokyo rail yard.

Heidi, Girl of the Alps (1974 Takahata) -- TV animated series in 52 episodes.

1975

The Shiranui Sea (1975 Tsuchimoto)

1976

Adventures of Pinocchio (1976 Koshi & Saito) -- An anime series from 1976, created in co-production with ZDF and ORF. The series is based on the children's book Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.

Watcher in the Attic (1976 Tanaka)

@ In the Realm of the Senses (1976 Oshima)

1977

@ House (1977 Obayashi) -- A schoolgirl and six of her classmates travel to her aunt's country home, which turns out to be haunted.

The Yellow Handkerchief (1977 Yamada)

1978

The Demon (1978 Nomura)

1979

@ The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979 Hasegawa) -- A high school science teacher builds an atomic bomb and uses it to extort the nation, but cannot decide what he wants. Meanwhile, a determined cop is catching up to him, as is radiation poisoning.

1980s

1980

Crazy Thunder Road (1980 Ishii), film

@ Kagemusha (1980 Kurosawa), film -- A petty thief with an utter resemblance to a samurai warlord is hired as the lord's double. When the warlord later dies the thief is forced to take up arms in his place.

Little Women (1980 Serikawa), film -- Adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel, in its original setting.

Zigeunerweisen (1980 Suzuki), film

1981

Little Women (1981 Miyazaki), series

@ Muddy River (1981 Oguri), film

1982

I Are You, You Am Me (1982 Obayashi)

1983

The Family Game (1983 Morita)

@ The Ballad of Narayama (1983 Imamura) -- In a poor 19th century rural Japanese village, everyone who reaches the age of 70 has to climb a nearby mountain to die. An elderly woman is reaching close to her cut-off age during her last days with her family.

1984

The Funeral (1984 Itami)

1985

@ Tampopo (1985 Itami), film -- A truck driver stops at a small family-run noodle shop and decides to help its fledgling business. The story is intertwined with various vignettes about the relationship of love and food.

@@ Ran (1985 Kurosawa), film -- In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him.

MacArthur's Children (1985 Shinoda), film -- In this drama at the end of World War II, the inhabitants of a small Japanese fishing village must come to terms with their nation's defeat and the sudden occupation of General MacArthur and his troops.

Fire Festival (1985 Yanagimachi), film

1986

To Sleep So as to Dream (1986 Hayashi)

Castle in the Sky (1986 Miyazaki) -- Pazu's life changes when he meets Sheeta, a girl whom pirates are chasing for her crystal amulet, which has the potential to locate Laputa, a legendary castle floating in the sky.

1987

The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987 Hara), film

Little Women (1987 Kurokawa), series -- Very loosely derived from Alcott's novel, keeps the original setting but includes many new characters.

1988

@@ My Neighbor Totoro (1988 Miyazaki), film -- When two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wondrous forest spirits who live nearby.

@@@ Akira (1988 Otomo), film -- A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath who can only be stopped by a teenager, his gang of biker friends and a group of psychics.

@@ Grave of the Fireflies (1988 Takahata), film -- A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.

1989

Black Rain (1989 Imamura), film -- The story of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing, based on Masuji Ibuse's novel.

@ Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989 Tsukamoto), film -- A businessman accidentally kills The Metal Fetishist, who gets his revenge by slowly turning the man into a grotesque hybrid of flesh and rusty metal.

1990s

1990

Dreams (1990 Kurosawa), film -- A collection of tales based upon eight of director Akira Kurosawa's recurring dreams.

The Cherry Orchard (1990 Nakahara), film

1991

Only Yesterday (1991 Takahata) -- A twenty-seven-year-old office worker travels to the countryside while reminiscing about her childhood in Tokyo.

1992

Porco Rosso (1992 Miyazaki) -- In 1930s Italy, a veteran World War I pilot is cursed to look like an anthropomorphic pig. <animation>

1993

@ Sonatine (1993 Kitano) -- Several yakuza from Tokyo are sent to Okinawa to help end a gang war. The war then escalates and the Tokyo drifters decide to lay low at the beach.

1994

Katatsumori (1994 Kawase)

1995

Like Grains of Sand (1995 Hashiguchi), film

@ Maborosi (1995 Kore-eda), film -- A young woman's husband apparently commits suicide without warning or reason, leaving behind his wife and infant.

The Diary of Anne Frank (1995 Nagaoka), film -- Japanese anime film based on Anne Frank's 1942-1944 The Diary of a Young Girl. <animation>

1996

@ Shall We Dance? (1996 Suo) -- A successful but unhappy Japanese accountant finds the missing passion in his life when he begins to secretly take ballroom dance lessons.

1997

@ Princess Mononoke (1997 Miyazaki), film -- On a journey to find the cure for a Tatarigami's curse, Ashitaka finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest gods and Tatara, a mining colony. In this quest he also meets San, the Mononoke Hime.

@ Fireworks (1997 Kitano) -- Nishi leaves the police in the face of harrowing personal and professional difficulties. Spiraling into depression, he makes questionable decisions.

@@ Cure (1997 Kurosawa) -- A frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.

@@ Perfect Blue (1997 Kon) -- A pop singer gives up her career to become an actress, but she slowly goes insane when she starts being stalked by an obsessed fan and what seems to be a ghost of her past.

Suzaku (1997 Kawase)

1998

@ After Life (1998 Kore-eda), film -- After death, people have a week to choose only one memory to keep for eternity.

@@ Ringu (1998 Nakata), film -- When her niece is found dead along with three friends after viewing a supposedly cursed videotape, reporter Reiko sets out to investigate. She finds the tape, watches it and receives a phone call informing her that she'll die in a week. <horror>

1999

@ Audition (1999 Miike) -- 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.

Kikujiro (1999 Kitano).jpg -- A young, naive boy sets out alone on the road to find his wayward mother. Soon he finds an unlikely protector in a crotchety man and the two have a series of unexpected adventures along the way.

2000s

2000

Eureka (2000 Aoyama), film

@ Battle Royale (2000 Fukasaku), film -- 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.

2001

@ All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001 Iwai), film -- The problematic lives of teenager students for whom the singer Lily Chou-Chou's dreamy music is the only way to escape an alienating, violent and insensitive society.

@ Pulse (2001), film

@@@ Spirited Away (2001 Miyazaki), film -- During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.

2002

@ Dark Water (2002 Nakata), film -- A mother going through a divorce moves into a run down apartment with her daughter. A persistent leak from above, visions of a missing girl, and other eerie phenomena become increasingly menacing as clues to a past tragedy come to light.

@ Bright Future (2002 Kurosawa), film -- Two young guys work in a plant that manufactures oshibori (those moist hand-towels found in some Japanese restaurants). Their weird bond is based on uncontrollable rage--something neither can articulate or control--and the strange jellyfish that they keep as a pet.

@ The Twilight Samurai (2002 Yamada), film -- As the feudal Japan era draws to a close, a widower samurai experiences difficulty balancing clan loyalties, 2 young daughters, an aged mother, and the sudden reappearance of his childhood sweetheart.

2003

@@ Tokyo Godfathers (2003 Kon), film -- On Christmas Eve, three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo discover a newborn baby among the trash and set out to find its parents.

Wild Berries (2003 Nishikawa), film

2004

@@ Nobody Knows (2004 Kore-eda), film -- In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.

The Face of Jizo (2004 Kuroki), film -- Based on a play by Hisashi Inoue, it focuses on the sufferings of the survivors of Hiroshima.

2005

Linda Linda Linda (2005 Yamashita)

2006

@ Paprika (2006 Kon) -- When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patients' dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist, Paprika, can stop it.

@ Memories of Matsuko (2006 Nakashima) -- When Matsuko is murdered, her nephew, Sho, gets to progressively unveil the many details of her mysterious past, discovering she wasn't just a forgotten outcast and had led an intriguing yet bizarre life.

2007

United Red Army (2007 Wakamatsu)

2008

Still Walking (2008 Kore-eda), film -- A family gathers together for a commemorative ritual whose nature only gradually becomes clear.

@ Tokyo Sonata (2008 Kurosawa), film -- An ordinary Japanese family slowly disintegrates after its patriarch loses his job at a prominent company.

Love Exposure (2008 Sono), film

Departures (2008 Takita), film -- Soon after buying an expensive cello, Daigo learns that his orchestra is disbanding. He moves back to his hometown with his wife, where he answers an ad for what Daigo thinks is a travel agency but is, in actuality, a mortuary.

2009

Summer Wars (2009 Hosoda), film -- A student tries to fix a problem he accidentally caused in OZ, a digital world, while pretending to be the fiancé of his friend at her grandmother's 90th birthday.

2010s

2010

Villain (2010 Sang-il), film

2011

@ I Wish (2011 Kore-eda), film -- Twelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents' divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.

2012

Flashback Memories 3D (2012 Matsue), film

2013

Like Father, Like Son (2013 Kore-eda), film -- Ryota 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.

@@ The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013 Takahata), film -- Kaguya is a beautiful young woman coveted by five nobles. To try to avoid marrying a stranger she doesn't love, she sends her suitors on seemingly impossible tasks. But she will have to face her fate and punishment for her choices.

Tale of Iya (2013 Tsuta), film

2014

The Light Shines Only There (2014 Oh), film

2015

Happy Hour (2015 Hamaguchi), film

Our Little Sister (2015 Kore-eda), film -- Three sisters live together in Kamakura. When their father-absent for 15 years-dies, they travel to the countryside for his funeral and meet their half-sister. Bonding quickly with the orphaned Suzu, they invite her to live with them.

2016

After the Storm (2016 Kore-eda), film -- After the death of his father, a private detective struggles to find child support money and reconnect with his son and ex-wife.

Harmonium (2016 Fukada), film

@ Your Name (2016), film -- Two teenagers share a profound, magical connection upon discovering they are swapping bodies. Things manage to become even more complicated when the boy and girl decide to meet in person.

2017

Hanagatami (2017 Obayashi), film

2018

@@ Shoplifters (2018 Kore-eda), film -- 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.

One Cut of the Dead (2018 Ueda), film

2019

Domains (2019 Kusano), film

2020s

2021

@ Drive My Car (2021 Hamaguchi), film -- 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.

2023

Monster (2023 Kore-eda), film -- When her young son Minato starts to behave strangely, his mother feels that there is something wrong. Discovering that a teacher is responsible, she storms into the school demanding to know what's going on. But as the story unfolds through the eyes of mother, teacher and child, the truth gradually emerges.

The Boy and the Heron (2023 Miyazaki), film -- In the wake of his mother's death and his father's remarriage, a headstrong boy named Mahito ventures into a dreamlike world shared by both the living and the dead.

@@ Godzilla Minus One (2023 Yamazaki), film -- 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.