The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family

1941

Japanese

7.2

♡ 10

86%

Yasujirô Ozu Director

Toshiaki Konoe as

Yoshiko Tsubouchi as Ayako

Mieko Takamine as Setsuko Toda

Reikichi Kawamura as Suzuki

After the death of her husband, an elderly woman and her youngest, unmarried daughter are forced to sell their house to cover his debts and decide to move in with one of the former's children, each of whom is scarcely happy to accommodate.

A Cat and Two Women

1956

Japanese

6.4

♡ 3

man between two women

post war japan

Shirô Toyoda Director

Eiko Miyoshi as

Isuzu Yamada as First wife

Chieko Naniwa as Orin

Hisaya Morishige as Shozo

Shozo is plagued by the needs of his ex-wife and his current one, but prefers the company of his cat.

The Ceremony

1971

Japanese

7.2

♡ 3

79%

Nagisa Ôshima Director

Kei Satô as Sakurada Kazuomi, Grandfather

Kenzô Kawarasaki as Sakurada Masuo

Nobuko Otowa as Sakurada Shizu

Atsuo Nakamura as Tachibana Terumichi

Oshima’s magisterial epic, centering on the ambivalent surviving heir of the Sakurada clan, uses ritual and the microcosm of the traditional family to trace the rise and fall of militaristic Japan across several decades.

Women of the Night

1948

Japanese

7.2

♡ 8

80%

Kenji Mizoguchi Director

Sadako Sawamura as

Hiroshi Aoyama as

Kikue Môri as

Sanae Takasugi as Natsuko Kimijima

In early post-war Osaka, three women, war widow Fusako, her sister Natsuko, an expatriate from Korea, and Kumiko, Fusako's sister-in-law, descend into prostitution, all for their individual reasons.

Repast

1951

Japanese

7.6

♡ 8

83%

based on novel or book

Mikio Naruse Director

Ranko Hanai as Koyoshi Dohya

Setsuko Hara as Michiyo Okamoto

Yôko Sugi as Mitsuko Murata, Michiyo's sister-in-law

Keiju Kobayashi as Shinzo Murata, Michiyo's brother

Michiyo lives in the small place Osaka and is not happy with her marriage; all she does is cook and clean for her husband.

House of Bamboo

1955

English

6.8

♡ 6

85%

Samuel Fuller Director

Brad Dexter as Captain Hanson

Barry Coe as Captain Hanson's Aide

Cameron Mitchell as Griff

Robert Quarry as Phil

Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.

Madadayo

1993

Japanese

7.3

♡ 20

88%

teacher student relationship

tribute

Akira Kurosawa Director

Tetsu Watanabe as

Masuo Amada as

Hidetaka Yoshioka as Takayama's son

Tomoyuki Dan as (uncredited)

In postwar Tokyo, beloved writer-professor Hyakken Uchida retires and is buoyed through hardship by the fierce devotion of his former students, who honor him each year with a raucous “Not yet!” birthday toast. Told in warm, gently comic vignettes, Kurosawa’s farewell celebrates aging, friendship, and the sustaining ritual of teacher and pupils refusing to say goodbye.

Carmen 1945

6.0

Hideo Gosha Director

Jinpachi Nezu as

Tsunehiko Watase as

Shinsuke Ashida as

Rino Katase as Maya

Prostitutes in burnt out Tokyo ghetto of post-WWII Japan peddle their flesh and save one-third of their money for a proposed dancehall to be named Paradise. The hookers live in a bombed-out building, but they accept the precarious situation with typical resolve.

The Sun's Burial

1960

Japanese

6.9

♡ 3

60%

Nagisa Ôshima Director

Yûsuke Kawazu as Gang member

Isao Sasaki as New gang member Takeshi

Masahiko Tsugawa as Shin, leader of gang

Ichirô Nagai as The 'lance'

In Osaka's slum, capricious folks without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the trading of ID cards and blood.

I Live in Fear

1955

Japanese

7.3

♡ 13

73%

Akira Kurosawa Director

Akemi Negishi as Asako Kuribayashi

Toshirô Mifune as Kiichi Nakajima

Eijirô Tôno as Old man from Brazil

Hiroshi Tachikawa as Ryoichi Sayama

An aging foundry patriarch, gripped by terror of nuclear annihilation, tries to uproot his family to Brazil. When they petition to have him declared incompetent, a family-court counselor witnesses his obsession slide into ruin—and asks whether ignoring the atomic threat is any saner.

Kobe Kokusai Gang

1975

Japanese

5.9

♡ 2

Noboru Tanaka Director

Ken Takakura as Masato Dan

Natsuko Yashiro as Pak's Whore

Renji Ishibashi as Pochi

Moeko Ezawa as Satoko

In 1947, in Kobe, Japan, a local street gang fights for their survival when its turf is overrun by United States occupation forces and international gangs.

Floating Clouds

1955

Japanese

7.6

♡ 12

82%

Action

based on novel or book

Mikio Naruse Director

Fuyuki Murakami as Futsuin no shikensho-chou

Nobuo Kaneko as Futsuin no shoin - Suitou

Masayuki Mori as Kengo Tomioka

Hideko Takamine as Yukiko Koda

A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.

Pigs and Battleships

1961

Japanese

7.4

♡ 8

87%

Shôhei Imamura Director

Masao Mishima as Himori

Eijirô Tôno as Kan'ichi

Takeshi Katô as Ohachi

Kotoe Hatsui as Wife, Tsune

In the city of Yokosuka, Kinta and his lover Haruko, both involved with yakuza, brave the post-occupation period with a goal to be together.

Tokyo Twilight

1957

Japanese

8.0

♡ 32

100%

Yasujirô Ozu Director

Fujio Suga as

Masami Taura as Kenji Kimura

Isuzu Yamada as Kisako Aijima

Setsuko Hara as Takako Numata

Two sisters find out the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot accept the fact that she was abandoned as a child.

Akitsu Springs

1962

Japanese

7.2

♡ 3

Yoshishige Yoshida Director

Kakuko Chino as

Jûkichi Uno as Kenkichi Matsumiya

Teruo Yoshida as News reporter

Eijirô Tôno as Priest

Just after WW2, a romance between an innkeeper and a man with tuberculosis unravels near a thermal spring.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity

1973

Japanese

7.4

♡ 13

90%

Kinji Fukasaku Director

Tatsuo Endô as

Takeshi Katô as

Takashi Ebata as Constable Maekawa

Nobuo Kaneko as Yamamori

In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.

Stray Dog

1949

Japanese

7.8

♡ 31

100%

Akira Kurosawa Director

Kappei Matsumoto as Bar owner

Toshirô Mifune as Detective Murakami

Reikichi Kawamura as Officer Ichikawa

Eijirô Tôno as Old man of wooden tub shop

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

The Thick-Walled Room

1956

Japanese

7.1

♡ 4

60%

Action

based on memoir or autobiography

crime against humanity

Masaki Kobayashi Director

Takeshi Katô as

Shinichirô Minami as

Unpei Yokoyama as

Kô Mishima as Yokota

A group of rank-and-file Japanese soldiers are jailed for crimes against humanity, themselves victims of a nation refusing to bear its burdens as a whole.