Japanese Cinema
Japanese cinema flourished early on and silent films were being made right through the 1930s. Most were accompanied by a 'benshi' or live narrator telling the story as well as live music. Very little survives from this era however; the 1923 earthquake, the bombings of WW2 and the country's high humidity destroyed many of these historical works. Of those that survive, the early works of Kenji Mizoguchi are highly regarded and he went on to make the classic 'The Life of Oharu' in 1952. Of course no discussion on Japanese cinema is possible without mention of their best known son, Akira Kurosawa. With a career spanning 60 years Kurosawa's ground-breaking films (e.g. 'Seven Samurai', 'Kagemusha', 'Ran') influenced film makers around the world. Most recently Japanese cinema hero 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano revitalised the Yakuza genre; and young mavericks like Takashi Miike ('Audition', 'Ichi the Killer) and Hideo Nakata ('Ring', 'Dark Water') have breathed new life into the horror flick, their films often (and promptly!) remade by US production houses.
For Japanime, use the animation link to the left.
Pictured: Kurosawa teamed once more with the incomparable Toshiro Mifune for 'Seven Samurai'
Godzilla: All Monsters Attack (1969)
6.4/10
Director: Ishiro Honda
Starring: Tomonori Yazaki, Eisei Amamoto, Sachio Sakai, Kazuo Suzuki, Kenji Sahara
A bullied schoolboy dreams of befriending Godzilla's son, Manilla, on Monster Island. Through this ethereal relationship Ichiro sees Godzilla and Man... Read more
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
6.5/10
Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Starring: Masahiro Matsuoka, Rei Kikukawa, Kazuki Kitamura, Don Frye, Akira Takarada
Godzilla's 50th birthday sees him travelling the globe as evil aliens have landed with evil alien thoughts. Only Godzilla and the Earth Defence Force... Read more
Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S (2003)
6.4/10
Director: Masaaki Tezuka
Starring: Noboru Kaneko, Miho Yoshioka
Mechagodzilla, the superior-armed, state-of-the-art, all-robot version of Godzilla, is undergoing repairs after his devastating battle against the wor... Read more
Goemon (2009)
6.7/10
Director: Kazuaki Kiriya
Starring: Masato Ibu, Yosuke Eguchi, Takao Osawa, Ryoko Hirosue
The year is 1582. A huge chasm exists between rich and poor, and evening things out is super-thief Goemon (a Japanese Robin Hood) who spends his day r... Read more
Gohatto (1999)
6.9/10
Director: Nagisa Oshima
Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Shinji Takeda, Tadanobu Asano, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Tomoroh Taguchi...
Master filmmaker Nagisa Oshima (In the Realm of the Senses) returns to the screen with this fascinatingly ambiguous tale of homoerotic desire and jeal... Read more
Golgo 13: Kowloon Assignment (1977)
7.5/10
Director: Yukio Noda
Starring: Sonny Chiba, Etsuko Shihomi, Emi Shindo, Callan Leung
Based on a best-selling Japanese comic, Sonny Chiba stars as 'Golgo 13', a master assassin whose calling card is a single shot between the eyes. Match... Read more
Goodbye, South, Goodbye (Nan guo zai jian, nan guo) (1996)
7.2/10
Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Starring: Jack Kao
A glimpse at the lives of two petty criminals in Taipei. Read more
Gozu (2003)
7.1/10
Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Sho Aikawa, Kimika Yoshino, Renji Ishibashi, Hideki Sone
Prolific Japanese director Takeshi Miike presents his most unusual film yet with a film that is by turns surreal, horrific and hilarious. Young Yakuza... Read more
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
8.5/10
Director: Isao Takahata
In the aftermath of a World War II bombing, two orphaned children struggle to survive in the Japanese countryside. To Seita and his four-year-old sist... Read more
Hana-Bi ( Fireworks ) (1998)
7.8/10
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Starring: Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi, Takeshi Kitano
This original, offbeat, explosive drama showcases Takeshi Kitano as Nishi, a detective distraught by a number of troubles in his life. Pushed to the e... Read more