Top Japanese Movies


The Top Japanese Movies List is calculated by overall movie ratings and members' "Top Japanese List". Lists are calculated daily.

71. Fullmetal Alchemist The Movie: The Conqueror of Shamballa ( Gekijô-ban hagane no renkinjutsushi: Shanbara wo yuku mono )

Year of Release: 2006
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Anime/Adventure
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Seiji Mizushima
Actors: Romi Pak, Rie Kugimiya, Shun Oguri, Kazuko Kato

72. Sansho the Bailiff ( Sanshô dayû )

Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Actors: Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Eitarô Shindô, Masao Shimizu
Plot: When a compassionate governor finds himself ousted and banished in medieval Japan, he attempts to keep his family together. Yet his wife and children become separated, and they are raised amidst suffering and oppression.

73. Porco Rosso ( Kurenai no buta )

Year of Release: 1992
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Anime/Adventure
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Actors: Cary Elwes, Michael Keaton, Brad Garrett, David Ogden Stiers
Plot: In Italy in the 1930's, the sky is filled with sky pirates and bounty hunters. One of the most cunning amongst them is Porco Rosso, who helps those attacked by the no-gooders, but who is also cursed with the head of a pig for watching the dead spirits rise to the heavens during the last great sky battle.

74. Early Summer ( Bakushû )

Year of Release: 1951
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Actors: Setsuko Hara, Chishû Ryû, Chikage Awashima, Kuniko Miyake
Plot: A family living in postwar Tokyo are loving and serene - with the only problem being Noriko, the 28-year-old daughter, being headstrong and independent - and unmarried. When her boss suggest she marry a 40-year-old friend, her family hastily agrees, but Noriko has her own ideas about where she wants to end up.

75. Nobody Knows ( Dare mo shiranai )

Year of Release: 2004
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Actors: Yûya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, Momoko Shimizu, Hiei Kimura
Plot: Four siblings live happily with their mother in a small apartment in Tokyo. The children all have different fathers and have never been to school. The very existence of three of them has been hidden from the landlord. One day, the mother leaves behind a little money and a note, charging her oldest boy to look after the others. And so begins the children's odyssey, a journey nobody knows. Though engulfed by the cruel fate of abandonment, the four children do their best to survive in their own little world, devising and following their own set of rules. When they are forced to engage with the world outside their cocooned universe, the fragile balance that has sustained them collapses. Their innocent longing for their mother, their wary fascination toward the outside world, their anxiety over their increasingly desperate situation, their inarticulate cries, their kindness to each other, their determination to survive on wits and courage. Written by Sujit R. Varma

76. Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro ( Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro )

Year of Release: 1979
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Anime/Adventure
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Actors: Bob Bergen, Yasuo Yamada, Eiko Masuyama, Kiyoshi Kobayashi
Plot: A princess kept in the clutches of an evil count holds the key to finding a fabulous treasure. Master thief Lupin III and his gang hatch a plan to free the princess and get their hands on the riches.

77. Ninja Scroll ( Jûbei ninpûchô )

Year of Release: 1996
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Anime/Action
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Kevin Seymour
Actors: Richard Barnes, Dean Elliott, Richard Cansino, Richard Epcar
Plot: A traveling ninja for hire fights demons and their henchmen.

78. Drunken Angel ( Yoidore tenshi )

Year of Release: 1959
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Crime/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Actors: Takashi Shimura, Toshirô Mifune, Reisaburo Yamamoto, Michiyo Kogure
Plot: The film focuses on an unlikely relationship of an alcoholic doctor (Takashi Shimura) treats a hood named Matsunaga (Toshiro Mifune).

79. Human Condition II: Road to Eternity, The ( Ningen no joken II )

Year of Release: 1961
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Minoru Chiaki, Keiji Sada
Plot: Continuing the story of Kaji - the soldier finds himself in a unit where the veterans berate him and mistreatment leads one man to suicide and another to defect. With cruelty the order of the day, it ends at the front where his unit is pitted against a Russian tank division - with no hope of winning.

80. Samurai 2: Duel at Ichijoji Temple ( Zoku Miyamoto Musashi: Ichijôji no kettô )

Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Adventure/Biography
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Hiroshi Inagaki
Actors: Toshirô Mifune, Koji Tsuruta, Mariko Okada, Kaoru Yachigusa
Plot: Legendary Samurai Musashi Miyamoto travels, and comes across adversaries as he battles to become the country's greatest samurai.

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