30 Best Japanese Movies of All Time

No list of the best Japanese movies ever made can accurately cover the history of Japanese cinema. Japan has been making and releasing movies since approximately 1897. Like any other country that produces and distributes its own movies, a look through the history of Japanese film reveals some of the most influential films of all time. Every country contributes to global cinema. Japan has cultivated its own artists and creations, while simultaneously embracing characters and stories from other parts of the world. There is no question that western filmmaking alone has impacted the way Japan tells and even markets their stories.

At the same time, Japanese filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki, and Takeshi Kitano have crafted films whose importance to audiences went far beyond native shores. Kurosawa alone, who will certainly loom large over this list, was a director of note to such icons as George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg. Writer and director Yasujirō Ozu is another name whose regard goes far beyond what they achieved in Japan. There is no question that when we look to the best Japanese movies, we have at least several hundred choices to consider. This is the country that gave us Ugetsu, Battle Royale, and Gojira. These are all hallmark examples of Japan’s film industry, which have also found popularity throughout other parts of the world.

Yet any list of the best Japanese films can’t simply focus on movies that were also popular here. Regardless of how audiences outside of Japan respond to these stories, you can’t forget that Japanese writers, directors, actors, and others are telling Japanese stories for Japanese audiences. A look through Japan’s film history can also give you plenty of insight into the history and culture of the country itself.

We can’t include every stellar example from that history. What we can do is come up with twenty Japanese movies, presented in chronological order, that stand among the finest examples.

In other words, if you are new to Japanese movies, this list can get you started on a film festival of heavyweights.

 

The Best Japanese Movies

1. Late Spring (1949)

Director: Yasujirō Ozu

There is a slew of beautiful, moving films about families coming to terms with Japan after World War II. Late Spring, featuring one of legendary actress Setsuko Hara’s finest performances, is one of the best examples.

Late Spring is the story of a young woman (Hara), eventually put in a position of being compelled to choose between remaining unmarried, living with her father (Chishû Ryû, another giant of Japanese cinema), or getting married, and moving on to a new phase in her life. You don’t really need a background in Japanese familial relations and relationships to appreciate the themes explored here.

Among other things, Late Spring is a story of tradition trying to find a place amidst rapidly changing times. This is also one of the most minimalist films you’ve ever seen. It is riveting simply for its story, dialog, and performances.

Watch if: You want to see one of the best family dramas to ever come out of Japan.
Avoid if: You have a hard time sitting still for dialog-heavy movies.

 

2. Ikiru (1952)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Two years removed from the groundbreaking 1950 film Rashomon, Kurosawa was officially on a creative roll by this point. Ikiru is quite possibly his most emotionally ambitious film to date, featuring quite possibly Takashi Shimura’s finest performance. Considering he appeared in 21 of Kurosawa’s 30 films, that is saying something.

The basic premise of Ikiru is simple. Again, while the film has plenty of post-WW2 commentary, the core story concerns an aging bureaucrat, who undergoes a dramatic personal journey in the wake of terminal medical news.

There is a coldness that sometimes comes across in Kurosawa’s extraordinary body of work. You see that coldness in the world around Shimura’s meek, sorrowful pencil-pusher.

Then something changes. The world around him changes. It is one of film’s most satisfying, heartbreaking, and essential emotional journeys.

Watch if: You’re in the mood for a good cry.
Avoid if: You’re not.

 

3. Ugetsu (1953)

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

The consequences of ambition, which can include love, shows up in a lot of the best Japanese movies.

That theme isn’t exclusive to the country, but filmmakers like Kenji Mizoguchi have nonetheless directed films that explores the subject in decidedly singular ways. Ugetsu is perhaps Mizoguchi’s most dramatic, poetic exploration of what happens to those who move carelessly through an uncertain world.

One way in which Ugetsu still stands out, and still influences, is in its depiction of the supernatural. It is as natural as the war raging on around this story. As you can imagine, the subject of loss comes into contact with the supernatural in a big way.

Watch if: You want to say you’ve seen one of the most haunting endings in movie history.
Avoid if: Morally ambiguous romantic ghost stories aren’t your thing.

 

4. Seven Samurai (1954)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Six samurai, and then one lunatic with something to prove. These are the men who must defend a small village from a gang of bandits, who promise to destroy the village if the village doesn’t produce a certain amount of food for them.

Director Akira Kurosawa arguably changed film forever with Seven Samurai. Still widely regarded as the best samurai movie ever made, it is also a story that has been remade and retold numerous times. Its regard has only grown. Yet it is every bit as thrilling, engaging, and entertaining as anything being made today.

Seven Samurai truly has it all. There is a grand story of heroism set against a very bleak, human backdrop. There are flawless performances from Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, Shinpei Takagi, and Yukiko Shimazaki. There are sorrowful scenes of humanity. There are some moments that are genuinely hilarious.

Seven Samurai deserves its reputation. It is absolutely everything you should demand from a movie, particularly an epic.

Watch if: You want to see one the best movies of all time.
Avoid if: You already saw The Magnificent Seven, a remake of Seven Samurai, so you fail to see the point of going backwards.

 

5. Godzilla (1954)

Director: Ishirō Honda

To hear some critics and scholars, you’d swear there was never another good Godzilla outing after the 1954 original. That’s dumb. Godzilla is one of the longest-running film franchises in history, with more than thirty entries (primarily from Toho). There are a number of exceptional films in the series, as well as other contenders in the genre of Japanese kaiju movies.

Yet the original Godzilla, released in 1954 as Gojira, remains something special. It is still one of the scariest Godzilla movies ever made. The visuals can strike you as a little rough by 2010s standards. Yet they work beautifully well against the movie’s dark backdrop of a world being brought to face the consequences of nuclear activity.

The original Godzilla was not the start of a franchise, it was a brutal horror movie that wanted to leave the earth in ruins. Arguably, it succeeded.

Watch if: You’re in the mood for an enthralling, depressing monster movie.
Avoid if: Your overall impression of Godzilla as a character is pretty positive right now. You’d rather not change that.

 

6. An Autumn Afternoon (1962)

Director: Yasujirō Ozu

In his own inimitable way, the films of Yasujirō Ozu affix the most uncompromising-yet-kindest light possible on what it is to be a human being. It isn’t spectacular, but life belongs to us in a fashion that is unique, beautiful, sad, quiet, but also explosive in the most minute details. No one screams in An Autumn Afternoon, slams the door, or even raises their voice. Everything is very centered, organic, and sometimes elusive in what Ozu’s movies refuse to show us.

It is the story of an aging father (Chishū Ryū) who must decide whether to value his own loneliness above the future of his daughter (Shima Iwashita) in post war-Japan. Regardless of how you may feel about certain traditions upheld by some in Japan, particularly in that period, it is impossible not to emphasize with and relate to all these people. There are no distinctive marks of good and evil here, but rather simple, painfully believable people trying to do what they can while they can. Most of us want to be happy. Most of us at least aspire to do our best.

An Autumn Afternoon presents the qualities above in a light which at least *feels* optimistic. At the very least, and in the most gently dynamic fashion possible, Ozu’s films, particularly this somber final film in a long career, make me glad to be alive.

Watch if: You want to watch a slow-burn, low-key family drama.
Avoid if: Slow movies put you to sleep in a hurry.

 

7. Woman in the Dunes (1964)

Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara

One of the most disturbing entries on this list, this 1964 adaptation of Kōbō Abe’s novel (he also wrote the screenplay) has the ability to make you feel at least as crazy as the combined talents of its story, characters, and atmosphere.

Woman in the Dunes is the story of a man who is sucked into absolute insanity, when the inhabitants of a small village essentially trick him into becoming part of a widow’s ongoing life, spent living in a small hut at the bottom of a deep sand dune. If they don’t dig, not only do the rations disappear, but the dune itself eventually buries alive anyone who happens to live inside it.

What follows from there is nothing short of a wonder. It is a dark story of survival and love, and how those things can be shaped by anything. No matter how deranged things get, you will find a way to deal with it.

Watch if: You’re up for one of the most unconventional stories of personal growth you’re ever likely to come across.
Avoid if: You don’t like your human dramas to get too weird.

 

8. Tokyo Drifter (1966)

Director: Seijun Suzuki

An MPV from a recently shut down Yakuza gang (Tetsuya Watari) is forced to adopt a wanderer lifestyle. What happens from there is nothing short of exhausting in the best way possible.

Tokyo Drifter might be the most exciting movie Seijun Suzuki ever made. That comes from an impressive list of crime thrillers and other low-budget films that showed Japan in an entirely different light from that of Kurosawa or Ozu.

Tokyo Drifter is one of the most exciting noir films ever made. Its solitary figure against a mass of murderous intent is a story concept that still seems to appeal to people. Tokyo Drifter is still one of the best versions of that plot, with a sense of bombast and effortless cool that few can touch.

Watch if: You want to see one of the most exciting movies in Japanese film history.
Avoid if: You’re not really into movies where criminals go up against other criminals.

 

9. Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)

Director: Toshio Matsumoto

At some point recently, did you say to yourself “I wish there was a Japanese version of Oedipus Rex, but with a gay son killing his mother to get at dad”? You’re in luck.

Funeral Parade of Roses is the kind of movie that tells you what’s going to happen pretty much from the beginning. As the movie starts, we can almost sense that everything is just on the cusp of getting much, much worse. It does.

Funeral Parade of Roses isn’t just of historical value to the history of Japanese film. It is also one of the wildest, darkest family dramas ever made. Funeral Parade of Roses will stun you again and again.

Watch if: You want to see a masterful approach to the art of narrative escalation.
Avoid if: You’ve gone your whole happy life without dealing with any version of Oedipus Rex that you’re aware of. Why start now?

 

10. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)

Director: Kenji Misumi

Based on a manga by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx is the 2nd film in a 6-movie series. Do you absolutely need to see the first movie in order to understand this one? Not especially. While the films do tell a riveting larger story in the journey of an assassin (Tomisaburo Wakayama) who wanders the landscape with his infant son (Akihiro Tomikawa) in search of work, each Lone Wolf and Cub entry can work just fine on its own.

Why? Because Baby Cart at the River Styx combines satisfying action with some of the best Japanese film characters of the period. Baby Cart features a complex-but-straightforward narrative in which factions war with one another across a stunning, sometimes haunting landscape. The characters and their relationships share the stage with some of the most thrilling fight sequences of not only this series, but arguably of all time.

Baby Cart at the River Styx is a ruthless, harrowing adventure story with deeper themes at play.

Watch if: You want to see a complex human drama with some absolutely badass action sequences.
Avoid if: You don’t like seeing children in peril.

 

11. The Executioner (1974)

Director: Teruo Ishii

The Executioner is one of the best introductions to the late and singularly great Sonny Chiba, who passed away in 2021.

Some of the toughest badasses in the world are brought together to take down a Tokyo drug empire. The movie offers a frenzied pace, deliberately weird narrative choices, and characters who seem quite comfortable in an extreme, oddly cartoonish, and excessively dangerous world. None of this comes through without a clear and well-expressed sense of humor about how ridiculous this story really is.

The Executioner was allegedly made under duress by director Teruo Ishii, who was simply trying to finish his contract with Toei. The result, which features a physical, charismatic, and unforgettable antihero performance by Chiba, certainly seems to suggest a filmmaker going for broke. There’s also a ton of style behind the dynamic cinematography of Yoshikazu Yamazawa and music by Hajime Kaburagi.

The Executioner is as ludicrous as it is exciting, a comedic pulp classic and one of the best Japanese movies of the 1970s. The sequel is almost as good.

Watch if: You want to enjoy a legendary action star in one of his best performances.
Avoid if: You don’t like action movies that get too silly.

 

12. The Castle of Sand (1974)

Director: Yoshitarō Nomura

Another example on this list of a slow-burn with a devastating emotional payoff, The Castle of Sand consists mostly of an oddly satisfying, routine-driven police procedural. There is a singular tranquility to the pace with which our detectives (Tetsuro Tamba and Kensaku Morita) pursue the bludgeoning death of an old man. Everything moves at a pace which seems to challenge the idea of how a detective story should unfold.

To put it another way, there’s no discernable tension in this film from director Yoshitarō Nomura. We don’t relish the pursuit of good against evil. Like the detectives themselves, we become engrossed in this quietly brilliant humdrum, and simply want to see how it all works out.

This approach to The Castle of Sand pays off in the final act. At the same time, while you will get some answers, you may not like them — this film chooses to shatter our expectations dramatically and almost violently, when the mystery is brought to a head. You’re going to be riveted, but you may also be in a pretty weird place, emotionally speaking, when the movie is over.

Watch if: You like police dramas with the potential to be something very different from the norm.
Avoid if: You don’t like it when movies abruptly change gears.

 

13. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)

Director: Nagisa Oshima

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence uses its World War 2 Japanese POW camp setting to create one of the most multifaceted dramas of the 1980s. You may approach this movie for the chance to see David Bowie give a performance that set him a good deal apart from other rockstars moonlighting as actors. That’s fine. You’re going to stay for the disconcerting blend of eroticism, fear, and warring cultures.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is a steady exploration of men trying to make the best of things. Even the most reprehensible characters in the film show the destructive potential of confusion, combined with exhaustion. The film features one of the most gripping scores ever composed for a film, by musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also delivers one of the movie’s best performances.

Look for Takeshi Kitano in an early standout role. By the end of the decade, Kitano would be directing films of his own.

Watch if: You want to see a WW2 POW drama that will be almost impossible to shake afterwards.
Avoid if: As far as dramas go, the slower the burn, the harder it is for you to sit still.

 

14. Ran (1985)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

The last epic directed by Akira Kurosawa, Ran takes the King Lear story to the Sengoku period (1467-1615), plunges its characters and themes into one of the most chaotic periods in Japanese history, and leave us devasted by the multifaceted results.

Ran was a true last hurrah for Japan’s most famous and influential director. Kurosawa would direct a few films after that, but none of them have the scope and tragic awe that sweeps over you in this story of a foolish, aging lord. If you know the King Lear story already, you know how that goes. Tatsuya Nakadai is one of the finest actors to ever play the King Lear figure. At age 87, he is still very active in film and television.

Ran does not simply transport Shakespeare’s drama about family and the ghosts of poor decisions into feudal Japan. Kurosawa uses the vital pieces of that story’s DNA to create something that adds yet another shade to the seemingly endless potential of one of Shakespeare’s best tragedies. Ran is one of the greatest epics ever committed to film.

Watch if: You want to see one of the best Shakespeare film adaptations of all time.
Avoid if: You’re a Shakespeare purist.

 

15. Tampopo (1985)

Director: Juzo Itami

Tampopo, which might be one of the most delightful movies ever made, is best described as a series of comedic events. Although the story focuses on two men (Ken Watanabe and Tsutomu Yamazaki), and their efforts in the world of making ramen, Tampopo takes a leisurely approach to things.

The smaller stories feed the larger narrative, and we meet more colorful, hilarious characters along the way. This is a wonderful cinematic world to get lost. Director Juzo Itami made many classic films along those lines.

Tampopo is an endlessly appealing, slightly off-center comedy about family, determination, and loyalty. It expresses these sentiments so gently, so perfectly, it’s difficult to imagine a single cynic left standing.

Watch if: You’re always up for an eccentric family comedy.
Avoid if: Movies that take their time strike you as meandering, to the point of distraction.

 

16. Castle in the Sky (1986)

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Two orphans named Sheeta and Pazu throw in together in their bid to find the floating city of Laputa.

Like many of Hayao Miyazaki’s best films, Castle in the Sky focuses on a purity and boundless ambition of children set against a world of indifferent, self-absorbed, or sometimes deeply misguided adults. The talent of Miyazaki to create extremely engaging drama and even tension with stakes comparatively (some would argue deceptively) lower than other adventure movies is beautifully on display here.

Castle in the Sky benefits from two strong characters whose shared dream is just as compelling as the stories of everyone around them. Studio Ghibli films in a broad sense reward those who crave visual creativity, colorful characters with surprising depth, and a story with room to peek vibrantly beyond the motivations of our protagonists.

Everything works about Castle in the Sky, which is a sumptuous, animated classic for any age or taste. It is pure pleasure in both English and Japanese language tracks, and it hasn’t lost a step in 35 years.

Watch if: You want to see one of the best animated movies of all time.
Avoid if: You prefer adventure stories that promise heavier doses of action.

 

17. Akira (1988)

Director: Katsuhiro Otomo

Akira was an evolutionary leap forward for anime as a medium. It was also a leap forward for how people not only perceived anime, outside of its fans, but how they perceived animation in general.

Adapted by Katsuhiro Otomo from his own 1982 manga, Akira is one of the finest marriages of apocalyptic delirium and cyberpunk dystopia ever brought to screen. It also introduces us to some of the most iconic visuals in Anime history.

The film also offers a surprisingly positive portrayal of humanity. Barring that, you can certainly call it relatable.

Watch if: You want to see one of the most spectacular animated films ever made.
Avoid if: You have a low threshold for stylized cartoon violence.

 

18. Dreams (1990)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Dreams was not Akira Kurosawa’s last film, but this loose association of his most reccurring dreams cannot help but feel like a farewell from a creative giant.

The 90s in Japanese cinema saw many young and emerging talents create exceptional pieces of work in a turbulent industry. Yet iconic figures like Kurosawa were still putting forth work that could stand with their best. Dreams was a reminder that age had not diminished a visionary’s capacity to not only, no pun intended, dream, but to realize those dreams in a way that could still connect with audiences.

Despite Dreams being one of his most personal films, a seemingly simple series of vignettes (including one with Martin Scorsese as Van Gogh, leading Kurosawa’s dreamer on a chase through his most famous paintings), this film has a wondrous accessibility to its episodic structure. You don’t have to have these dreams yourself to understand what Kurosawa was saying in the twilight of his life and career. Nor to appreciate what a stunning, multifaceted work of art Dreams reveals itself to be.

Watch if: You’re looking for a dose of movie magical realism from one of Japan’s great artists.
Avoid if: You prefer movies with a more traditional narrative structure.

 

19. Sonatine (1993)

Director: Takeshi Kitano

Between Sonatine, Fireworks, and 1999’s Kikujiro, the exhilarating run of movies Takeshi Kitano had in the 90s in particular is one of the hallmarks of contemporary Japanese cinema. Sonatine was not Kitano’s first film as a director, but it’s arguably the movie that solidified his reputation as one of the country’s most distinctive filmmaking voices from that point forward.

Sonatine involves a group of Yakuza making their way to Okinawa. What starts as a legitimate effort to end gangland warfare between two clans soon escalates into the kind of screen violence that Kitano as a director would become famous for. However, when the Yakuza flee the situation, including weary enforcer Murakawa (Kitano), hiding out at the seaside for a spell, Kitano’s other strengths come to the forefront.

Sonatine is a story about coming to terms with one’s choices, and about where our assumptions can take us in life. Sonatine is a masterwork of balance between the shocking and the somber.

Watch if: You want a truly unique film in the Yakuza or just gangster movie genre.
Avoid if: You prefer those types of movies to come with more action.

 

20. Fireworks (1997)

Director: Takeshi Kitano

Few Japanese filmmakers have done as much with revenge and violence as Takeshi Kitano. One of the country’s most famous comedic actors, among other gigs, Takeshi Kitano has proven repeatedly that there are still fascinating stories to be told about desperate or angry men. He’s still telling them in the 2010s.

While Fireworks (released in Japan as Hana-bi) is not quite as famous as 1993’s Sonatine, which put him on the map, it is quite possibly Kitano’s best film nonetheless. The idea of an embittered police detective striking back at the system has been explored before. Few have delved as fearlessly into the mindset of a man who will do anything to clear his debts and gain what he desires.

Kitano plays this character without an ounce of romanticism. Everything goes into making us believe in what his character wants. The film itself is one of the most intense cop dramas you’re ever going to see.

Watch if: You want to see a cop go to war with the mob in a truly unique way.
Avoid if: You like to have a clear idea of who you should root for.

 

21. Dead or Alive (1999)

Director: Takaski Miike

No one ups the ante quite like Takashi Miike. The director of some 100 films and TV shows, Miike is particularly known for some of the weirdest and most violent movies in the history of Japanese cinema. That’s not fair. He also ranks high on filmmakers who like to work with fluids.

There are a lot of fluids in Dead or Alive, the story of a detective and a gangster who begin a mutually-beneficial working relationship. There are characters who behave horribly. There are moments of cartoon surrealism with moments of violence that can move even the most jaded gore hound. We start the movie off with these things. It gets worse from there. Everything does. Or better. It depends on your perspective.

Regardless, Dead or Alive is one of the most creative, unforgettable movies to ever come out of Japan.

Watch if: You want to be able to say you’ve seen one of the most disturbing movies ever made.
Avoid if: You have a weak stomach for violence. Or on-screen human waste of any kind.

 

22. Uzumaki (2000)

Director: Higuchinsky

Based on a manga by Junji Ito, the creator of Tomie and many other distinctive horror works, Uzumaki might just be the most mentally exhausting Japanese horror movie of all time. The story of a small village that becomes consumed by a madness related to spirals, depicted in a variety of different forms, is an exercise for the audience, an opportunity to submit wholesale to one of the bleakest and strangest entries on this list.

Japanese horror in broad strokes is known for its strangeness, and for creating a situation in which the odds of survival, even for the best and brightest, are slim. The wave of a transformative force that is never fully known or even vaguely understood consumes everything. We are as helpless to watch it unfold as these characters are to do anything but try to press forward.

Even the simplest words and gestures in Uzumaki, which is grounded by a strong performance by Eriko Hatsune, can lead to something horrifying. Nothing can be trusted, except that nothing will ever be the same again.

Uzumaki is a startling adaptation of one of the best modern horror stories of all time.

Watch if: You want to see an utterly suffocating horror film.
Avoid if: You prefer movies that don’t leave you feeling as though you just had a small breakdown.

 

23. Battle Royale (2000)

Director: Kinji Fukasaku

The final feature film completed by Japanese New Wave figure Kinji Fukasaku proved to be a critical and commercial triumph for the director, who passed away in 2003 at the age of 72.

Perhaps more significant than that is the fact that Battle Royale created an entire genre unto itself. That would be the concept of taking a group of people, sticking them in an unfamiliar place, throwing some weapons at them, and leaving the situation to work itself out. Battle Royale is perhaps one of the most influential Japanese films of all time, in addition to being one of the best.

Beyond any of these thoughts remains a movie that is brutally violent, darkly funny, and nearly overwhelmed with performances by a cast that connects seamlessly to the movie’s impressively aggressive, inventive approach to what seems like an overly sophisticated grindhouse film.

The high school students who suddenly find themselves fighting for survival on a mysterious island are not disposable for the most part. This is one of the movie’s secrets of success, beyond the absolute creativity of the violence. Another was casting Takeshi Kitano as a teacher who has just had it with the stresses of life and the job.

Watch if: You want to see one of the most important movies of the past 20 years.
Avoid if: You don’t have a strong tolerance for the ultra-violence.

 

24. Spirited Away (2001)

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki has directed some of the best animated films of all time. Spirited Away is his best for simply being the best combination of the many themes he has worked with over a long career.

An unhappy young girl, moving to a new town with her parents, is taken from these circumstances to a bathhouse for the spirits. These things can happen, when you stop at an abandoned amusement park.

Whether you watch it in its original Japanese, or choose your native language, the warmth of these characters will resonate. The same goes for the surprises found in the storytelling, and in how that story unfolds.

Spirited Away is also notable for the touching attention to the details found in human courage. It is a benchmark for humor and emotional depth in an animated film that we have rarely seen since.

Watch if: You love stories in which young girls are as brave and heroic as anyone could ever be.
Avoid if: You prefer stories with a more traditional antagonist.

 

25. Survive Style 5+ (2004)

Director: Gen Sekiguchi

A stunning mix of fantasy, surrealism, and a far-reaching ensemble whose stories connect in he most remarkable ways, Survive Style 5+ is surprisingly broad in its appeal. Survive Style 5+ asks you to accept a lot of odd stuff early on. It does this with such likable enthusiasm and creativity that it is impossible to say no.

A family whose father is trapped in a hypnosis which makes him believe he’s a bird. An advertising executive who dreams of murder and bizarre TV commercials. A hypnotist who doesn’t know his days might be numbered. An English hitman (Vinnie Jones, who steals every scene he appears in) and his Japanese translator. A man who can’t seem to successfully murder his wife, who eventually becomes a zombie with superpowers. A group of bank robbers with aimless dreams and romantic fantasies about each other.

That sounds like a lot. It is. Somehow, everything clicks. In its own wild way, everything about Survive Style 5+ is perfectly reasonable.

Watch if: You’re up for a freewheeling comedy with a huge cast.
Avoid if: You’re a profound believer in the idea that movies have to be logical.

 

26. Paprika (2006)

Director: Satoshi Kon

If you’re like me, celebrating the life and work of Satoshi Kon means two things. It means knowing without question that movies like Paprika are among the best anime feature films of all time. It also means mourning the life of a dark visionary who nonetheless seemed to weigh that darkness against at least some concept of optimism.

When a device with the ability to explore the dreams of others in real-time is stolen, it sets in motion a chain of events which feature dream detectives, monumental greed, love, our connections that keep us at least aware of the real world around us, and more. It also features moments that could very easily descend into a type of horror I don’t think most of us could handle.

There is of course the famous argument that Christopher Nolan’s Inception stole concepts and even scenes from this film. What matters to me more than your opinion on that is that you see this movie at all. If you do, and you do decide to compare the two, I hope you’ll come to decide the same thing I did.

Paprika is a much, much better movie about the redemption in a dreamscape.

Watch if: You’re ready for an animated science fiction classic with visual flair and likable characters.
Avoid if: You live in constant fear of the idea that movies about dreams will influence your own.

 

27. Departures (2008)

Director: Yōjirō Takita

The story of a musician whose life takes a dramatic turn, Departures almost feels like a piece of music in its own right.

Departures has a melodic pace. We are often left to character surrounded by a quietly stunning atmosphere. Even if there wasn’t a gorgeous score by Joe Hisaishi, we could very easily create our own music to accompany a young man who finally finds his calling. Departures has moments of soft-spoken drama that spring from this calling, that of a traditional ritual mortician, but the movie has a much keener focus on reminding us of death.

Obviously, there are a lot of different ways to make your audience think of death. Director Yōjirō Takita goes for a direct approach. Departures is a contemporary film in many ways. It also uses things like tradition and ritual. For some, and in some situations, there is something meaningful we can find in experiencing it through another culture.

Watch if: You want to see one of the kindest movies about death in recent years.
Avoid if: You can only stand so much circumstance.

 

28. One Cut of the Dead (2017)

Director: Shinichirou Ueda

Four years after its release, the temptation with talking about the unbelievably good zombie comedy One Cut of the Dead is to avoid spoilers. Some people still haven’t heard of the film, let alone see it.

As anyone who has seen One Cut of the Dead will tell you, one of the joys of this film is the element of surprise. All you really need to know is that this is simultaneously one of the best Japanese comedies in recent memory, one of the best zombie movies to be found anywhere on the planet, and one of the best movies about the hells and joys of filmmaking itself that you are ever going to see.

Yes, that’s a very tall list for a movie that runs just 97 minutes, but not a second of that running time is wasted. Not a single line of dialog or performance does anything less than delight, and contribute to an almost supernatural cinematic achievement.

One Cut of the Dead proves that film as a medium is still wide open to truly and uniquely surprise you. That might sound like a lot of hype for what is ostensibly a horror comedy, but if anything, it is an understatement.

Watch if: You want to experience one of the most entertaining plot twists in modern film history.
Avoid if: You’re not generally someone who can combine zombies with humor.

 

29. Shoplifters (2018)

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda

Family stories are becoming increasingly complex in film and television. Shoplifters is a stirring example of that notion. At the same time, it might just be the best film yet from Hirokazu Kore-eda, who also directed the renowned Nobody Knows in 2004.

It is certainly also a good indication that Japan is still producing unique, engaging films on their own soil. As entities like Hollywood aspire to make the world smaller through oversaturation, films like Shoplifters still speak to the notion of a global cinematic community.

If you don’t care about that part, it’s okay. You are still left with the story of a non-biological family that turns to stealing and sharing among one another to survive. Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, and Kairi Jō are among the standouts in a film filled with believable, likable characters.

Shoplifters is also a story a survival on a number of levels. As far as we’re concerned, this film may remind you that such survival often relies on trusting others. Many of us are currently redefining our respective criteria.

Watch if: You want a touching, engaging ensemble drama, with touches of light humor.
Avoid if: You’re sick of movies that are optimistic about people.

 

30. Drive My Car (2021)

Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi

With a running time of 2 hours and 59 minutes, the last thing you want to do with Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s international success Drive My Car is be intimidated by this time commitment and its leisurely pace.

You’ve probably heard this about the story of a grieving widower (Hidetoshi Nishijima) developing a unique and spiritually fulfilling relationship with his young chauffer (Toko Miura), if you’ve heard anything at all. Drive My Car reveals its wonderful characters, not just our two primary protagonists, and their lives slowly, yes. That’s fine because you’ll almost certainly get into these people and where they’re each going.

A cinematic slow burn would be a good way to describe Drive My Car in a nutshell. We’re moving at a gradual pace, yet each moment and interaction, beautifully filmed and edited, is exciting. Not only because it builds on Drive My Car’s decidedly cinematic story, but also because the writing and willingness to tell its own story in its own way shine through every single time.

Watch if: You want a moving deep dive into characters and their respective and shared stories.
Avoid if: You really don’t have approximately 3 hours to spare.

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