The 30 Most Underrated Japanese Movies
Yes, we all love Rashomon, Ugetsu, Tokyo Story, Seven Samurai. But, as in music, there's intelligent life beyond the "Greatest Hits." Here are some wonderful, unheralded films from one of the best national cinemas the world has ever known.
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- DirectorYasujirô ShimazuStarsYumeko AizomeRyôtarô MizushimaDen ÔhinataKeitaro (Obinata Den) is a law student and Yaeko (Aizome Yumeko) is a high school girl. They are neighbors, and their friendship is starting to develop into something more romantic. Then, Yaeko's sister Kyouko (Okada Yoshiko) has a breakup with her husband and returns home. Kyouko is clearly interested in Keitaro and Yae becomes anxious.This is a thoroughly winning comedy about a flirtatious young couple. It's also about smelly socks. But you'll just have to see it to comprehend its charm. It was directed by Yasujiro Shimazu, who invented this genre of films about ordinary people, of which the other Yasujiro (Ozu) became the greatest master.
- DirectorSadao YamanakaStarsDenjirô ÔkôchiKiyozoKunitarô SawamuraA man gets rid of a cheap pot without knowing it contains a map to a treasure. As word spreads, many join in hunting it.Sadao Yamanaka was a prodigy and a genius who strongly influenced both Mizoguchi and Kurosawa. Alas, this delightful satire of the domestic life of a henpecked samurai is one of only three of his films to survive in its entirety. A big bonus: a highly unusual (and very catchy) musical score.
- DirectorHiroshi ShimizuStarsKen UeharaRyuji IshiyamaEinosuke NakaA friendly bus driver and his passengers over the duration of one journey through the mountains to the nearest train station.Director Hiroshi Shimizu has only recently begun to get his due in the West, and this poignant road movie is my personal favorite of the films of his I've seen. It also has a fine performance by actress Michiko Kuwano, who died much too young.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChôko IidaShin'ichi HimoriMasao HayamaA widow sends her only son away to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him, finding him a poor school teacher with a wife and son.This is a candidate for Yasujiro Ozu's darkest movie, though some would say that Tokyo Twilight (see below) has the edge. A marvelous performance by Choko Iida as the mother.
- DirectorSadao YamanakaStarsChôjûrô KawarasakiKan'emon NakamuraTsuruzô NakamuraThe lives of two slum neighbors, one of a happy-go-lucky gambler and the other of a poor ronin, converge when the two get involved with the affairs of a powerful samurai official and his gangsters.The final masterpiece of director Sadao Yamanaka (see Sazen Tange above). Some people have compared this period tragedy with the best of Jean Renoir. (Yes, it's that good!)
- DirectorHiroshi InagakiStarsTsumasaburô BandôKeiko SonoiYasushi NagataMatsugoro is a poor rickshaw driver whose animated spirit and optimistic demeanor make him a favorite of the town. Matsu helps an injured boy, Toshio, and is hired by the boy's parents.One of the best Japanese movies of the war period, with fine work by both director Hiroshi Inagaki and the great cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. This is the only film performance in a leading role by stage actress Keiko Sonoi, who a few years later would die of radiation poisoning after the atomic bombing at Hiroshima.
- DirectorKôzaburô YoshimuraStarsSetsuko HaraYumeko AizomeOsamu TakizawaAfter Japan's loss in the war, the wealthy, cultured, liberal Anjo family have to give up their mansion and their way of life. They hold one last ball at the house before leaving. The seemingly cold, cynical son secretly grieves for his defeated father and the values that the war destroyed, while the daughter tries to prevent father from taking his life and to find her own place in the new Japan.This film takes its melodramatic premise -- the fall of an aristocratic Japanese family after the end of the war -- to hilarious extremes, yet it's still a very moving experience. Future director Kaneto Shindo wrote the script. The young Setsuko Hara is lovely.
- DirectorKeisuke KinoshitaStarsHideko TakamineShûji SanoChishû RyûA girl who had left her home village for life in Tokyo returns to her home years later, and evokes a scandal when the locals discover that she's a stripper.This is the most charming comedy director Keisuke Kinoshita ever made. Hideko Takamine has never been one of my favorite Japanese actresses, but she's quite wonderful here as the delightfully funny stripper Lily Carmen.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsSetsuko HaraChishû RyûChikage AwashimaA family chooses a match for their daughter Noriko, but she, surprisingly, has her own plans.Tokyo Story gets all the applause from critics and audiences, but this earlier masterpiece by Yasujiro Ozu is just as excellent and nearly as moving. It also boasts (amazingly for Ozu) exquisite tracking and crane shots. He never made a more visually beautiful film.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsKen UeharaSetsuko HaraYukiko ShimazakiMichiyo lives in a small home in Osaka and is not happy with her marriage; all she does is cook and clean for her husband.Director Mikio Naruse is the flip side of Ozu, a dark vision of family life in which spouses, parents and children are doomed to fail and hurt one another. Setsuko Hara's work in this movie and in Sound of the Mountain (see below) is as good as anything she did for Ozu.
- DirectorTadashi ImaiStarsKyôko KagawaSusumu FujitaKeiko TsushimaHigh school girls, impressed to provide nursing care for the soldiers on Okinawa, find themselves on the front line during fierce onslaughts by American forces and are left to fend for themselves when the Japanese army dissolves.A true story, to the world's shame. During the final phase of the Pacific war, a group of brave schoolgirls sacrifice everything (literally) to the Japanese army's futile defense of Okinawa. An amazingly powerful work by the outrageously underrated director Tadashi Imai.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsSetsuko HaraSô YamamuraKen UeharaAn ingratiating bride develops warm ties to her father-in-law while her cold husband blithely slights her for another woman.Naruse's greatest and most moving love story: the catch is that the platonic "lovers" are a middle-aged man and his unhappily married daughter-in-law. I've seen this at least three times and could see it again. The ending is magnificent.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsKinuyo TanakaYoshiaki HanayagiKyôko KagawaIn medieval Japan, a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression.This is my favorite Mizuguchi work and one of my top ten films of all time. Yet it's constantly overlooked in Japanese critics' surveys of the best Japanese films of all time. (What's wrong with those people?) The young Kyoko Kagawa (who's still alive as of November 2019) gives a classic performance.
- DirectorHeinosuke GoshoStarsShûji SanoNobuko OtowaMitsuko MitoAn Inn at Osaka, rarely seen outside Japan, follows the story of an insurance company executive from Tokyo, Mr. Mito, who is demoted to the Osaka office. He takes a room at a small inn and tries to rebuild his life.Director Heinosuke Gosho is consistently underrated in the West, and this is his masterpiece from his "classic" period. This is one of those wonderful Japanese films in which "nothing happens," yet everything happens. A lovely performance as a geisha by the ever-versatile Nobuko Otowa.
- DirectorKeisuke KinoshitaStarsNoriko AritaChishû RyûHaruko SugimuraAn old man, being rowed along a river, sees a field of daisies and thinks back to when he was fifteen. He recalls his time with, and away from, the girl cousin he grew up with and would have married, except the family and other pressures got in the way.The most moving film about tragic young love I've ever seen. Kinoshita's sensitive direction of the very young actors is marvelous and the rural landscapes (as usual for Kinoshita) are spectacular.
- DirectorTomu UchidaStarsChiezô KataokaRyûnosuke TsukigataChizuru KitagawaA samurai travels to Edo with his two servants. On their way, they meet many people and encounter great injustice.This is the first of three films on this list by the most underrated Japanese director of all time: Tomu Uchida. It's a very funny, charming and poignant period road movie with a totally unpredictable ending. This was Uchida's great comeback film after 15 years in the wilderness.
- DirectorTadashi ImaiStarsKôjirô KusanagiSachiko HidariTaketoshi NaitôWhen an elderly couple is murdered, the police pick up the most likely suspect, a young loner. The authorities force a confession out of the suspect, who then insists that he had a pair of accomplices.One of the marvelous things about great Japanese directors like Tadashi Imai is that they were willing to experiment with the medium even in their serious "social consciousness" films. Here he boldly uses comical camera tricks to point out the absurdity of a corrupt police department's case against some innocent working-class men. Voted film of the year by native critics, but almost unknown in the West.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsSetsuko HaraIneko ArimaChishû RyûTwo sisters find out the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot take the truth of being abandoned as a child.This movie is finally getting some serious critical and audience attention after being dismissed for years as the "black sheep" of Ozu's works. I think Ozu wanted to make this his "Naruse film," with uneven but fascinating results. The morose young woman played by the usually ebullient Ineko Arima is perhaps the most tragic of all Ozu's characters.
- DirectorHeinosuke GoshoStarsYoshiko KugaMasayuki MoriMieko TakamineA young woman falls for a middle aged business man, but things get complicated when she also starts having feelings for his wife.The plot of this very strange Heinosuke Gosho melodrama suggests soap opera, yet it feels like a cross between Michelangelo Antonioni (whose work was not yet widely known outside Italy in 1957) and Fassbinder (who had not even started making films yet). Ahead of its time for sure, this movie is a testament to Gosho's amazing capacity for artistic growth and change.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneIsuzu YamadaKyôko KagawaIn a Japanese slum, various residents play out their lives, dreaming of better things or settling for their lot. Among them is a man who pines for a young woman but is stymied by her deceptive family.Though overshadowed by Kurosawa's showier Macbeth adaptation Throne of Blood (released in the same year), his stunning version of Gorky's dark play is a textbook case in the creative cinematic use of a highly confined space. The ensemble cast is (except for that of Seven Samurai) the best that Kurosawa would ever assemble, and Kurosawa's ending is much better than Gorky's.
- DirectorTadashi ImaiStarsRentarô MikuniIneko ArimaMasayuki MoriWhen a married woman has an affair with a young musician, feudal Japanese law requires that both offenders pay with their lives. However, the woman's husband blames himself for his wife's straying and attempts to thwart the law demanding capital punishment.Even Donald Richie, who disparaged Imai generally, praised this classic Chikamatsu adaptation, which actually subverts the playwright's glorification of feudal codes of honor. Both Rentaro Mikuni and lovely Ineko Arima are wonderful. (Fun fact: both of the film's scriptwriters, Kaneto Shindo and Shinobu Hashimoto, died at the age of 100!)
- DirectorKeisuke KinoshitaStarsTeiji TakahashiYoshiko KugaTakahiro TamuraIn a film that cuts across documentary and drama sees an exploration of both the dynamics of an industrial behemoth, which operates its own independent environment, and societal dynamics in which workers and management and men and women are depicted as both resigned and ambitious.I have a soft spot for this Kinoshita film about a company town, which both praises and critiques Japanese corporate paternalism. Although none of the townspeople who are enjoying the corporation's largess seem to be happy, the filmmaker manages to offer some unsentimental hope for the future. I've seen this twice and could see it again.
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiMichiyo AratamaChikage AwashimaA Japanese pacifist, unable to face the dire consequences of conscientious objection, is transformed by his attempts to compromise with the demands of war-time Japan.In citing this first part of Masaki Kobayashi's great trilogy, I'm actually choosing all three parts, which I consider a single work. Not exactly unknown or unappreciated in either Japan or the West, it remains too little seen, partly because of its daunting length. But it's the most powerful antiwar film ever made, so did you really have any better plans for those nine-and-a-half hours?
- DirectorTomu UchidaStarsChiezô KataokaYaeko MizutaniIsao KimuraA successful textile industrialist from the provinces, beloved by his employees for his kindness, cannot find a wife because of a disfiguring birthmark on his face. Even the courtesans in Yoshiwara refuse to entertain him, until indentured peasant prostitute Tamarazu, takes the unsavory assignment and treats him with brash tenderness.The second of three Tomu Uchida films on this list, this melodrama about a rich but naive merchant, who finds himself in thrall to some outrageously greedy pimps after falling in love with a terrifying empty prostitute, is almost too powerful in its harshness and cruelty. Veteran actor Chiezo Kataoka is brilliant, and the ending, by common consent, is one of the strongest in all Japanese cinema.
- DirectorKiriô UrayamaStarsSayuri YoshinagaMitsuo HamadaEijirô TônoSet in Kawaguchi, just north of Tokyo in the early 60s, the movie chronicles the lives of poor foundry workers and their families; and one girl's dreams of self-improvement through going on to higher education.This gentle movie about the struggles of an intelligent, compassionate and ambitious schoolgirl from a poor working class family made a star of young Sayuri Yoshinaga, understandably. It was also the impressive debut of director Kirio Urayama, who died young and never quite fulfilled his enormous promise.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneYutaka SadaTatsuya NakadaiAn executive of a Yokohama shoe company becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom.Many people have tried to imitate Hitchcock, but usually all they come up with is... imitation Hitchcock. I have no idea if Kurosawa was inspired by the British master when he made this amazing thriller, but I prefer this work to any Hitchcock film. Certainly its social analysis is far superior to anything Hitch even attempted. Watch for the famous bullet train sequence.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsHideko TakamineYûzô KayamaMitsuko KusabueAfter a bombing raid destroys the family store and her husband, Reiko rebuilds and runs the shop out of love stopped short by destruction.This is my second-favorite Naruse film after Sound of the Mountain (see above). Although for the first two-thirds of the narrative, its story about the strange relationship between a middle-class woman and her young brother-in-law feels like only average Naruse, it boasts an unexpectedly intense, even shattering, last act. This is probably Hideko Takamine's best dramatic performance, as Carmen Comes Home (see above) was her best comic one.
- DirectorHeinosuke GoshoStarsJitsuko YoshimuraKeizô KawasakiTaiji TonoyamaOshima Ayako, a young woman in her teens, lives in a small, impoverished fishing village. Her father is too ill to work. As a result, her mother sells her to a nearby brothel. There she quickly is stripped of her innocence and illusions.Gosho probably never made a more moving film than this story of a prostitute in the World War II era who believes herself cursed. The "curse" is really Japanese militarism and the toxic masculine codes it espouses, but she is tragically unable to see this. A brilliant performance by Imamura protege Jitsuko Yoshimura, and an incredibly well-shot climax.
- DirectorTomu UchidaStarsRentarô MikuniSachiko HidariKôji MitsuiThree thieves escape from a heist, one of them killing the other two. He is sheltered by a prostitute and sought after by the police, but only after ten years his true motivation unravels.The final Uchida film on this list is also his very greatest. A study of guilt, redemption and damnation, it features classic performances by Rentaro Mikuni (as a sympathetic killer), Sachiko Hidari (as a terrifyingly innocent prostitute), Junzaburo Ban (as an obsessed policeman) and the young Ken Takakura, in the year (1965) in which he became a superstar in Japan. It also boasts a very interesting musical score by Isao Tomita, who, under his surname, became a synthesizer-playing international superstar in the 1970s.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneYûzô KayamaTsutomu YamazakiIn 19th-century Japan, a rough-tempered yet charitable town doctor trains a young intern.This Kurosawa film, set in early 19th Century Japan, is about nothing but suffering, sickness and death, yet it leaves one feeling good about life and humanity. Toshiro Mifune's harsh, arrogant doctor hero, who ministers exclusively to the poor, is perhaps Kurosawa's most tragic character. With no possible knowledge of the causes of disease (bacteria and viruses), he can only mitigate sickness, not eliminate it. This is a long movie, but it's the perfect cure for the blues.