Films from the country "japon", sorted by rating

, 3h27
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Origin Japon
Genres Drama, Action, Adventure
Themes Seafaring films, Sports films, Transport films, Martial arts films, Samurai films, Alternate history films
Actors Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, Isao Kimura, Seiji Miyaguchi, Yoshio Inaba, Daisuke Katō

Marauding bandits approach a rural mountain village, but their chief decides to spare it until after the harvest because they had raided it before. The plan is overheard by a farmer who tells the rest of village. Lamenting their fate, three farmers ask Gisaku, the village elder and miller, for advice. He declares they should hire samurai to defend the village. Since they have no money to offer, Gisaku tells them to find hungry samurai.

, 2h4
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Origin Japon
Genres Fantasy, Adventure, Animation
Themes Feminist films, Films about magic and magicians, Seafaring films, Transport films, Films about dragons, Witches in film, Political films, Children's films
Actors Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Bunta Sugawara, Takashi Naitō

Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino and her parents are traveling to their new home when her father takes a wrong turn. They unknowingly enter a magical world that Chihiro's father insists on exploring, believing it to be an abandoned amusement park. Her parents sit at an empty, but seemingly-operational, restaurant stall, and begin to devour the fresh food in a piggish manner; meanwhile, Chihiro discovers an exquisite bathhouse across a bridge, where a young boy named Haku warns her to get out before the impending sunset. Frantically, Chihiro returns to her parents, only to discover that they have literally transformed into pigs. She attempts to escape, but the way by which they came has since become submerged. Frightened and alone, she observes as the world she ventured into reveals itself as a luxurious retreat for spirits to revitalize themselves.

, 2h15
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Origin Japon
Genres Drama, Action, Historical
Themes Seafaring films, Sports films, Films about suicide, Transport films, Martial arts films, Samurai films
Actors Tatsuya Nakadai, Rentarō Mikuni, Shima Iwashita, Kei Satō, Hisashi Igawa, Yoshio Inaba

Edo, 1630. Tsugumo Hanshirō arrives at the estate of the Ii clan and says that he wishes to commit seppuku within the courtyard of the palace. To deter him Saitō Kageyu (Rentarō Mikuni), the Daimyo's senior counselor, tells Hanshirō the story of another rōnin, Chijiiwa Motome – formerly of the same clan as Hanshirō.

, 1h30
Directed by Isao Takahata
Origin Japon
Genres Drama, War, Animation
Themes Films about children, Films about families, Feminist films, Seafaring films, Transport films, L'enfance marginalisée, Political films, Children's films
Actors Veronica Taylor

The film begins at Sannomiya Station on 21 September 1945, shortly after the end of World War II. A boy, Seita (清太), is shown dying of starvation. Later that night, having removed Seita's body, a janitor digs through his possessions and finds a candy tin which he throws away into a nearby field. The spirit of Seita's younger sister, Setsuko (節子), springs from the tin and is joined by Seita's spirit as well as a cloud of fireflies. Seita's spirit then begins to narrate their story accompanied by an extended flashback of the final months of World War II.

, 2h3
Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara
Origin Japon
Genres Drama, Thriller, Romance
Actors Eiji Okada, Kyōko Kishida

A schoolteacher, Junpei Niki (Eiji Okada), is on an expedition to collect insects that inhabit sand dunes. When he misses the last bus, villagers suggest he stay the night. They guide him down a rope ladder to a house in a sand quarry where a young widow (Kyōko Kishida) lives alone. She is employed by the villagers to dig sand for sale and to save the house from burial in the advancing sand.

Directed by Makoto Shinkai
Origin Japon
Genres Drama, Animation, Romance
Themes Films about magic and magicians
Actors Etsuko Ichihara, Aoi Yūki, Nobunaga Shimazaki, Kaito Ishikawa, Kanon Tani, Fūrin Cha

Mitsuha, une étudiante du Japon rural, et Taki, un étudiant de Tokyo, rêvent chacun — sans se connaître — de la vie de l'autre. Un matin, ils se réveillent dans la peau de l'autre : autre sexe, autre famille, autre maison, autre paysage…

, 2h23
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Origin Japon
Genres Drama, Thriller, Noir, Crime
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films
Actors Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyōko Kagawa, Takashi Shimura, Tatsuya Mihashi, Isao Kimura

A wealthy executive named Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) is in a struggle to gain control of a company called National Shoes. One faction wants the company to make cheap, low quality shoes for the impulse market as opposed to the sturdy but unfashionable shoes currently being produced. Gondo believes that the long-term future of the company will be best served by well made shoes with modern styling, though this plan is unpopular because it means lower profits in the short term. He has secretly set up a leveraged buyout to gain control of the company, mortgaging all he has.

, 2h4
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
Origin Japon
Genres Drama
Themes Seafaring films, Sports films, Transport films, Martial arts films
Actors Kinuyo Tanaka, Kyōko Kagawa, Eitarō Shindō, Ichirō Sugai (菅井一郎), Ken Mitsuda, Masahiko Tsugawa (津川 雅彦)

Sansho the Bailiff is a jidai-geki, or historical film, set in the Heian period of feudal Japan. A virtuous governor is banished by a feudal lord to a far-off province. His wife and children are sent to live with her brother. Several years later, the wife, Tamaki (Kinuyo Tanaka), and children, Zushiō and Anju, journey to his exiled land, but are tricked on the journey by a treacherous priestess. The mother is sold into prostitution in Sado and the children are sold by slave traders to a manorial estate in which slaves are brutalized, working under horrific conditions and branded when they try to escape. The estate, protected under the Minister of the Right, is administered by the eponymous Sanshō (Eitarō Shindō), a bailiff (or steward). Sanshō's son Tarō (Akitake Kōno), the second-in-charge, is a much more humane master, and he convinces the two they must survive in the manor before they can escape to find their father.

, 31minutes
Directed by Kinuyo Tanaka
Origin Japon
Genres Documentary
Actors Kinuyo Tanaka, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne, Joe Pasternak

, 2h14
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Origin Japon
Genres Drama, Fantasy, Adventure, Animation
Themes Films about animals, Environmental films, Feminist films, Films about magic and magicians, Seafaring films, Films about religion, Transport films, Wolves in film, Demons in film, Political films, Alternate history films, Children's films, Mise en scène d'un mammifère
Actors Yuriko Ishida, Yoji Matsuda, Kaoru Kobayashi, Yūko Tanaka, Masahiko Nishimura, Makoto Satō

In Muromachi period Japan, an Emishi village is attacked by a demon. The last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, kills the demon before it reaches the village, but its corruption curses his arm in the battle. The curse gives him superhuman fighting abilities, but will eventually kill him. The villagers discover that the demon was once a boar god, Nago, corrupted by an iron ball lodged in his body. The village's wise woman tells Ashitaka that he may find a cure in the western lands Nago was exiled from.

, 2h23
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Origin Japon
Genres Drama
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about cancer
Actors Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Haruo Tanaka, Shinichi Himori, Bokuzen Hidari, Minoru Chiaki

Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for thirty years. His wife is dead and his son and daughter-in-law, who live with him, seem to care mainly about Watanabe's pension and their future inheritance.

, 2h8
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Origin Japon
Genres Drama, Action, Historical, Romance
Themes Seafaring films, Sports films, Transport films, Martial arts films, Samurai films
Actors Toshiro Mifune, Yōko Tsukasa, Isao Yamagata, Jun Hamamura, Tatsuya Nakadai, Gō Katō

In the Edo period of Japan, Isaburo Sasahara (Toshiro Mifune) is a vassal of the daimyo of the Aisu clan. Sasahara is the most skilled swordsman in the land, whose only rival in ability is his good friend Tatewaki Asano (Tatsuya Nakadai). Isaburo is in a loveless marriage with a shrew of a woman. One day one of the daimyo's advisors orders Isaburo's elder son Yogoro (Go Kato) to marry the daimyo's ex-concubine, Ichi (Yoko Tsukasa), even though she is the mother to one of the daimyo's sons. With much trepidation, the family agrees. In time, Ichi and Yogoro find love and happiness in the marriage and a daughter Tomi is born.

, 3h5
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Origin Japon
Genres Drama
Themes Medical-themed films, Seafaring films, Sports films, Transport films, Martial arts films
Actors Toshiro Mifune, Kinuyo Tanaka, Takashi Shimura, Yūzō Kayama, Kyōko Kagawa, Chishū Ryū

The film takes place in Koishikawa, a district of Edo (the former name of the city of Tokyo), in the 19th century. Young Dr. Noboru Yasumoto (Yūzō Kayama) is the film's protagonist. Trained in a Dutch medical school in Nagasaki, the arrogant Yasumoto aspires to the status of personal physician of the Shogunate, a position currently held by a close relative; his father is already a well-established, highly competent physician. Yasumoto believes that he should progress through the safe, and well-protected, army structure of medical education. However, for Yasumoto's post-graduate medical training, he has been assigned to a rural clinic under the guidance of Akahige ("Red Beard"), Dr. Kyojō Niide (played by Toshiro Mifune). Dr. Niide may seem like a tyrannical task master, but in reality he is a compassionate clinic director. Initially, Yasumoto is livid at his posting, believing that he has little to gain from working under Akahige. Dr. Yasumoto feels that Dr. Niide is only interested in his medical notes and soon rebels against the clinic director. He refuses to wear his uniform, disdains the food and spartan environment, and enters the forbidden garden where he meets "The Mantis" (Kyōko Kagawa), a mysterious patient that only Dr. Niide can treat.

, 1h59
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Origin Japon
Genres Science fiction, Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Animation
Themes Feminist films, Films about computing, Films about magic and magicians, Vieillesse, Witches in film, Political films, Cyberpunk films, Dystopian films, Steampunk films, Children's films
Actors Chieko Baishō, Takuya Kimura, Akihiro Miwa, Yo Oizumi, Ryūnosuke Kamiki, Akio Ōtsuka

Sophie, an eighteen-year-old hatter, is a responsible young woman who encounters a mysterious and powerful wizard named Howl on her way to visit her younger sister Lettie. The Witch of the Waste, who romantically pursues Howl, visits the hat shop only and insults Sophie, being refused service by her as a result. The Witch exacts revenge by cursing Sophie, transforming her into a ninety-year-old woman. Seeking a cure for the spell, Sophie travels into the Wastes and encounters a living scarecrow whom she names "Turnip Head," who leads her to Howl's castle. There, she meets Howl's young apprentice, Markl, and the fire-demon Calcifer, who is the source of the castle's energy and magic. Calcifer offers to break the witch's curse in exchange for Sophie's help in breaking the spell he's under, which keeps him bound to the house. When Howl appears, Sophie announces that Calcifer has hired her as a cleaning lady for the house.

, 1h50
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Origin Japon
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action, Adventure
Themes Seafaring films, Sports films, Transport films, Martial arts films, Samurai films
Actors Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yōko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura, Daisuke Katō

It is 1860, and the era of the Tokugawa shogunate is coming to a close. A rōnin, or masterless samurai, wanders into a small town divided by a gang war between two gangsters, Seibei and Ushitora. Ushitora used to be Seibei's right-hand man, until Seibei decided that his son Yoichiro would succeed him. Tazaemon, the silk merchant and mayor, backs Seibei, while Tokuemon the sake brewer is allied with Ushitora. Gonji, the owner of an inn, advises the stranger to leave while he can, but after sizing up the situation, the rōnin tells Gonji that the town would be better off with both sides dead, and that he intends to stay.