10+ Films Which Help Explore And Know Japan (Fiction And Non-Fiction)
A list of fiction and non-fiction films relating to Japan. Each of these adds to one's Japanese perspective.
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- DirectorSatoshi MikiStarsJoe OdagiriTomokazu MiuraKyôko KoizumiTakemura has no friends and no family. He's a law student but he doesn't have any particular ambitions. A thug offers to pay Takemura's considerable gambling debt if the student accompanies him on a trip across Tokyo.
- DirectorYôjirô TakitaStarsMasahiro MotokiRyôko HirosueTsutomu YamazakiSoon after buying an expensive cello, Daigo learns that his orchestra is disbanding. He moves back to his hometown with his wife, where he answers an ad for what Daigo thinks is a travel agency but is, in actuality, a mortuary.
- DirectorSang-il LeeStarsYasuko MatsuyukiEtsushi ToyokawaYû AoiYoung women in a small Japanese town look to revive their home's declining fortunes by building a Hawaiian village tourist attraction.
- CreatorMotoka MurakamiStarsMiki NakataniWayne LeGetteTakao OsawaA brain surgeon named Minakata Jin faints at the hospital and awakens to find himself transported back in time to the Edo period.
- DirectorDavid GelbStarsJiro OnoYoshikazu OnoMasuhiro YamamotoA documentary on 85-year-old sushi master Jiro Ono, his renowned Tokyo restaurant, and his relationship with his son and eventual heir, Yoshikazu.
- DirectorShinsuke OgawaXiaolian PengThe ostensible subject of this remarkably beautiful film is the growing, drying, peeling and packaging of persimmons in the tiny Japanese village of Kaminoyama. The inhabitants explain that it is the perfect combination of earth, wind and rain that makes their village's persimmons superior to those grown anywhere else, including the village just a few miles away. The film's larger subject, however, is the disappearance of Japan's traditional culture, the end of a centuries-old way of life.
- DirectorLouie PsihoyosStarsRichard O'BarryLouie PsihoyosHardy JonesUsing state-of-the-art equipment, a group of activists, led by renowned dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry, infiltrate a cove near Taijii, Japan to expose both a shocking instance of animal abuse and a serious threat to human health.
- DirectorKei KumaiStarsMisa ShimizuNagiko TônoMasatoshi NagaseO-Shin is a young brothel worker who, one night, helps a young samurai escape from his pursuers. Against the warnings of her fellow workers, particularly Kikuno and the brothel's owner, O-Shin falls in love with the samurai.
- StarsSusan SarandonArthur GoldenA look inside the private world of Japan's famous geisha.
- DirectorJean-Pierre LimosinStarsNaoki WatanabeChiyozo IshiiHideyuki IshiiA young man is initiated into a Yakuza band.
- DirectorTatsuya MoriStarsHiroshi ArakiAum Shinrikyo, the Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara and responsible for the 1995 Sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway, becomes the subject of this documentary.
- DirectorJohn JeffcoatStarsDavid DruryJohn JeffcoatAya KawaharaA struggling Seattle Rock band, Tennis Pro, take one last shot at making it big as they embark on a comical musical odyssey in Tokyo with hopes to prevent their day jobs from becoming their careers.
- DirectorTakashi YamazakiStarsMaki HorikitaHidetaka YoshiokaShin'ichi TsutsumiTeenage Mutsuko comes to Tokyo for work but ends up at a repair shop. She befriends the owner's family. Neighbors Hiromi, writer Chagawa with admirer Junnosuke strive alongside them in postwar Tokyo's evolution.
- DirectorJohn Junkerman'Okinawa: The Afterburn' is the first documentary film to provide a comprehensive picture of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa and the ensuing 70-year occupation of the island by the U.S. military.