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6.8

♡ 10

Yôji Yamada Director

Yuriko Hirooka as

Takashi Sasano as Custodian

Jun Fubuki as Kayo Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Noriko Mamiya

A husband and wife have been married for 50 years. For her birthday, the husband asks the wife what she wants for her birthday present. She replies that she wants a divorce. The wife's divorce announcement sends the entire family into chaos.

What a Wonderful Family! 3: My Wife, My Life

2018

friends vs. family interment

6.8

♡ 8

96%

Yôji Yamada Director

Takashi Sasano as

Jun Fubuki as

Masahiko Nishimura as Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as

At the Hirata home, three generations of their family live together. A crisis ensues when one afternoon, housewife Fumie falls asleep and wakes up to find a thief has stolen her secret money she kept hidden in the refrigerator.

Hope and Pain

1988

6.5

♡ 2

Yôji Yamada Director

Toshinori Omi as Arles, Sadaichi Takai

Takeshi Katô as Chief of police

Hiroko Yakushimaru as Fusako Nakahara

Takashi Sasano as Yakuza boss

The adventures and tribulations of a group of students during the years following the II World War.

The Twilight Samurai

2002

8.1

♡ 44

99%

94%

based on novel or book

Yôji Yamada Director

Takashi Yamazaki as

Hiroyuki Sanada as Seibei Iguchi

Rie Miyazawa as Tomoe Iinuma

Senri Sakurai as Tozaemon's temporary soldier

Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century. A widower with a meager income, Seibei struggles to take care of his two daughters and senile mother. New prospects seem to open up when the beautiful Tomoe, a childhood friend, comes back into he and his daughters' life, but as the Japanese feudal system unravels, Seibei is still bound by the code of honor of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedence. How can he find a way to do what is best for those he loves?

Un ga yoke rya

1966

6.5

♡ 2

Crime

Yôji Yamada Director

Chieko Baishô as

Senri Sakurai as

Hiroshi Inuzuka as

Shin Yasuda as

A group of ne'er-do-wells live happily in the slums of what is now Tokyo and have a number of adventures: they get drunk and go whoring, revenge themselves on cruel landlords, animate the corpse of a money-lender in order to frighten people. Then they assist at the marriage of a lovely girl and almost kill themselves gambling to provide her with a dowry.

Kyoto Story

2010

6.5

♡ 4

Yôji Yamada Director

Min Tanaka as

Sôtarô Tanaka as Enoki

Hana Ebise as Kyoko Rei Dan

Rei Dan as Narrator

Kyoko is a university librarian and she also helps her parents with their drycleaning company. She is involved with a childhood friend from the neighborhood, Kota. He is the son of the local tofu maker and has begun a moderately successful career as a stand-up comedian. A visiting lecturer from Tokyo falls head-over-heels in love with Kyoko and asks her to go abroad with him to Beijing, where he has to spend the next few years for his research. But Kyoko cannot decide.

Tokyo Family

2013

7.5

♡ 4

91%

Yôji Yamada Director

Taiki Matsuno as

Teiyû Ichiryûsai as (as Mie Suzuki) Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Noriko Mamiya

Jun Fubuki as Woman at the bar

An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find them preoccupied and self-involved.

A Distant Cry from Spring

1980

7.6

♡ 3

Yôji Yamada Director

Mizuho Suzuki as

Ken Takakura as Kôsaku Tajima

Hidetaka Yoshioka as Takeshi Kazami

Chieko Baishô as Tamiko Kazami

The quiet life of a mother and her young son living on a farm in Hokkaido is changed by the arrival of a man who ignites flames of romance in the heart of the mother and shows her boy the importance of grit and kindness, but then he leaves with the autumn wind.

The Village

1975

7.1

♡ 2

travelling players

Yôji Yamada Director

Hisashi Igawa as

Chieko Baishô as

Akira Terao as

Kiyoshi Atsumi as

This appears to be a labor of love. Its about a village which is given the opportunity to put on a musical. They would have to pay the overhead and, being that they are farmers and always busy and not rich, question the wisdom and feasibility of such an idea. A spokesperson for the acting troupe Ms. Kono lays out the whole thing and they must decide. You get little slices of rural life in Japan far, at least in sentiment, from Tokyo. The best thing about this film is that it has heart. The acting is good, but it is really about the simple storyline of outing on a show. Films rarely get made with such simplistic plots these days. Enjoy this little slice of what city people call “the simple life”.

About Her Brother

2010

7.0

69%

Yôji Yamada Director

Yuriko Ishida as Chiyaki Komiyana

Sayuri Yoshinaga as Ginko Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Koharu Takano

Ryô Kase as Toru Nagata

Ginko's younger brother Tetsuro, a failed comedian, is the oddball of the family. Embarrassing, loud and plain inappropriate at times causes Ginko to disown him. The two reunite when she discovers Tetsuro is terminally ill. Tetsuro’s impending death marks the beginning of love and toleration.

Final Take: The Golden Age of Movies

1986

7.0

♡ 1

Comedy

Yôji Yamada Director

Takashi Sasano as

Kaori Momoi as Empress Akiko

Hidetaka Yoshioka as Mitsuo

Keiko Matsuzaka as Sumie Kawashima

Director Ogata discovers a new female star in Koharu Tanaka, who works selling candy at a studio theater and she is given a part as a bit player. After the studio's top leading lady is embroiled in a scandal, Koharu is suddenly thrust into the limelight when she replaces her in a film and gains instant fame and fortune. But the going is not always easy, and she soon seeks help from unexpected quarters.

It's a Flickering Life

2021

6.6

♡ 3

aspiring director

behind the scenes

characters at crossroads

ghost writer

Yôji Yamada Director

Shinobu Terajima as

Keiko Kitagawa as

Mei Nagano as

Kenji Sawada as

The story centers on a man who loves movies, having once worked at movie studio in pursuit of his dreams, surrounded by great directors and famous actors. In this tale of love and friendship spanning a lifetime, the "god of cinema" that Go has worshipped since he was young will transcend time, and work a miracle in the lives of one family.

What a Wonderful Family

2017

7.0

♡ 10

Yôji Yamada Director

Takashi Sasano as Custodian

Gekidan Hitori as Detective

Jun Fubuki as Kayo Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Noriko Mamiya

Several years after Shuzo settled his wife’s birthday-surprise divorce proposal (What a Wonderful Family, 40th), the Hirata family faces new problems. Ignoring his family’s worry that he is too old to drive, Shuzo takes his old schoolmate for a spin after carousing. Soon, a new disturbance arises for the Hirata family. Veteran director Yamada Yoji continues his comedy about the “perfect“ Japanese family turned upside down in chaos, laughters and understanding. This time, with an additional taste of death.

Nagasaki: Memories of My Son

2015

6.4

♡ 4

71%

Yôji Yamada Director

Kazunari Ninomiya as Koji Fukuhara

Tadanobu Asano as Kuroda

Sayuri Yoshinaga as Nobuko Fukuhara

Yuriko Hirooka as Tomie

Nobuko works in Nagasaki, Japan as a midwife. Her son died 3 years earlier from the atomic bomb. On August 9, 1948, her son appears in front of her again. Since that time, Koji appears in front of her and they reminiscence about pleasant times. These happy, but bizarre moments seem eternal.

Gakkô II

1996

6.7

♡ 1

hot air balloon

Yôji Yamada Director

Hidetaka Yoshioka as

Hideko Hara as

Masatoshi Nagase as

Pinko Izumi as

The story follows the teacher and students of the Ryubetsu Handicapped High School.

A Class to Remember 3: The New Voyage

1998

6.6

♡ 1

Yôji Yamada Director

Takashi Sasano as

Kunie Tanaka as

Kimiko Yo as

Hidetaka Yoshioka as

A widow who has single-handedly raised her autistic son loses her job and begins attending a technical college to gain new qualifications. She meets others looking for a new start in life, including a former salaryman with whom she begins a furtive romance...

A Class to Remember

1993

7.0

♡ 3

japanese school

Yôji Yamada Director

Takashi Sasano as

Kunie Tanaka as

Masato Hagiwara as

Keiko Takeshita as

A cantankerous but loveable high school teacher teaches a night school in a poor neighborhood for adult students on the fringes of Japanese society.

A Class to Remember 4: Fifteen

2000

English

6.7

♡ 3