Personally I thought the Hanzo the Razor series to be better than Zatoichi. Maybe even Lone Wolf and Cub could be better than the blind swordsman. But none of those even holds a candle to the Tora-san series.
As of today..
As a Wife, As a Woman (Naruse)
Yearning (Naruse)
March Comes In Like a Lion (Yazaki)
Moving (Sômai)
Tokyo Twilight (Ozu)
Early Summer (Ozu)
Hitmatsuri (Yanagimachi)
An Inn at Osaka (Gosho)
Susaki Paradise: Red Light District (Kawashima)
M/Other (Suwa)
SEVEN SAMURAI (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
PRINCESS MONONOKE (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)
TETSUO: THE IRON MAN (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989)
IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES (Nagisa Oshima, 1976) + EMPIRE OF PASSION (Oshima, 1978)
GODZILLA (Ishiro Honda, 1954)
MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS (Paul Schrader, 1985)
FIREWORKS (Takeshi Kitano, 1997)
WOMAN IN THE DUNES (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
RAN (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
BATTLE ROYALE (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000)
Nice number one choice brotherdeacon.
Nobody bit for Flip Trotsky’s call for a top ten of the 2000s? Here’s a tentative gesture:
TOKYO SONATA – Kurosawa
BRIGHT FUTURE – Kurosawa
GHOST IN THE SHELL 2 INNOCENCE – Oshii
PISTOL OPERA – Seijun Suzuki
WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE – Imamura
ERI ERI REMA SABAKUTANI – Aoyama
THE MOURNING FOREST – Kawase
BIG BANG LOVE JUVENILE A – Miike
VIBRATOR – Hiroki
HANGING GARDEN – Toyada
I am not an expert by any means, but I think it’s a worthwhile conversation. I think two Kurosawa’s is justified…
10 for 2000?
Air Doll – Kore-eda
All About Lily Chou-Chou – Iwai
Battle Royale – Fukasaku
Eureka – Aoyama
Hana & Alice – Iwai
The Happiness of the Katakuris – Miike
Harmful Insect – Shiota
Howl’s Moving Castle – Miyazaki
Pistol Opera – Suzuki
Spirited Away – Miyazaki
Na its 10 all time cool list though
Death by Hanging, Nagisa Ôshima, 1968
Eureka, Shinji Aoyama, 2000
Funeral Parade of Roses, Toshio Matsumoto, 1969
Grim, Takashi Ito, 1985
5 Centimeters per Second, Makoto Shinkai, 2007
All About Lily Chou-Chou, Shunji Iwai, 2001
Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion, Shunya Ito, 1972
Go, Go Second Time Virgin, Kôji Wakamatsu, 1969
Noisy Requiem, Yoshihiko Matsui, 1988
Heroic Purgatory, Yoshishige Yoshida, 1970
Seven Samurai (Kurosawa)
I was Born, But… (Ozu)
Floating Weeds (Ozu)
Ugetsu (Mizoguchi)
Vengeance is Mine (Immamura)
Fires on the Plain (Ichikawa)
Spirited Away (Miyazaki)
Ran (Kuroawa)
Fireworks (Kitano)
The Naked Island (Shindo)
re “Na its 10 all time cool list though”
I actually asked earlier if people might, along with their ‘all time’ lists, also add their favourites of Japanese cinema from the past decade, and NRH and Zvelf were kind enough to share. I thought that might be an interesting addition to this thread, since some of us might be less familiar with recent Japanese film than with the older stuff.
I’ll go for one film per director:
A Geisha (Mizoguchi, 1953)
Face of Another (Teshigahara, 1966)
Pastoral: To Die in the Country (Terayama, 1974)
This Transient Life (Jissoji, 1970)
Silence Has No Wings (Kuroki, 1966)
Branded To Kill (Suzuki, 1967)
Red Beard (Kurosawa, 1965)
Shinjuku Mad (Wakamatsu, 1970)
Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Oshima, 1968)
Double Suicide (Shinoda, 1969)
I really oughta rewatch Double Suicide, Branded to Kill and Red Beard though.
Japan has to be my favorite film country. Infinite amounts of amazing films. At this time:
1. Pandemonium
2. Profound desire of the gods
3. The Emperors naked army marches on
4. Minamata: the victims and their world.
5. Mermaid Legend
6. Goodby Cp
7. In the realm of the senses
8. Dodeskaden
9. Ballad of Narayama (Shohei Imamura)
10. Under The Cherry Blossom Trees
Hate to appear positive in outlook, but these are some wonderful lists of exceptional films—the ones I’ve seen. The others make me hungry for viewing more Japanese celluloid fare. Bravo to all.
1. Dolls (Kitano)
2. Vital (Tsukamoto)
3. Sonatine (Kitano)
4. Still Walking (Kore-eda)
5. Su-Ki-Da (Ishikawa)
6. Nobody Knows (Kore-eda)
7. The Taste of Tea (Ishii)
8. Audition (Miike)
9. Battle Royale (Fukasaku)
10. Hana-Bi (Kitano)
I’m a big Kitano fan :)
1. (Maruhi) shikijô mesu ichiba “Secret Chronicle: She Beast Market” (Noboru Tanaka / 1974)
2. Kanojo to kare “She and He” (Susumu Hani / 1963)
3. Tokyo senso sengo hiwa “The Man Who Left His Will on Film” (Nagisa Oshima / 1970)
4. Jigoku no banken: akai megane “The Red Spectacles” (Mamoru Oshii / 1987)
5. Sen-hime to Hideyori “Princess Sen and Hideyori” (Masahiro Makino / 1962)
6. Hatsukoi: Jigoku-hen “Nanami: The Inferno of First Love” (Susumu Hani / 1968)
7. Kuchizuke “Kisses” (Yasuzo Masumura / 1957)
8. Joshuu sasori: Kemono-beya “Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable” (Shunya Ito / 1973)
9. Narayama bushiko “Ballad of Narayama” (Keisuke Kinoshita / 1958)
10. Kakushi-toride no san-akunin “The Hidden Fortress” (Akira Kurosawa / 1958)
11. Kyôsô jôshi-kô “Running in Madness, Dying in Love” (Kôji Wakamatsu / 1969)
Whoa, this is difficult!!!
I have to mention some more:
Midaregumo “Scattered Clouds” (Mikio Naruse / 1967)
Moe no suzaku “Suzaku” (Naomi Kawase / 1996)
Majo no takkyûbin “Kiki’s Delivery Express” (Hayao Miyazaki / 1989)
Meikyu-tan (Shuji Terayama / 1975)
Dokufu Takahashi Oden “A Wicked Woman” (Nobuo Nakagawa / 1958)
Hateshinaki yokubo “Endless Desire” (Shôhei Imamura / 1958)
Sukai kurora “The Sky Crawlers” (Mamoru Oshii / 2008)
Ai no mukidashi “Love Exposure” (Shion Sono / 2008)
Saikaku ichidai onna “The Life of Oharu” (Kenji Mizoguchi / 1952)
Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha “Dead or Alive” (Takashi Miike / 1999)
Shin seiki Evangelion Gekijô-ban: Shito shinsei “Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth” (Hideaki Anno, Masayuki, Kazuya Tsurumaki / 1997)
Topâzu “Tokyo Decadence” (Ryu Murakami / 1992)
Kôfuku no kane “Blessing Bell” (Sabu / 2002)
Nice to see “She and He” on your list, I thought about including it as well. Hani´s working method and relationship-centered concerns must have been a major influence for Suwa who is likely my favorite contemporary Japanese director (closely followed by Kore-eda and Kawase).
Hate to sound like a criterion collection shill, but…..
1. Rashomon (1950) Kurosowa
2. Late Spring (1949) Ozu
3. Vengeance Is Mine (1979) Imamura
4. The Eel (1979) Imamura
5. Pale Flower (1964) Shinoda
6. Onibaba (1964) Shindo
7. The Sword of Doom (1966) Okamoto
8. Battles Without Honor and Humanity 1973-76 Fukasaku
9. Sonatine (1993) Kitano
10. Harakiri (1962) Kobayashi
It’s amusing to me that on MUBI criterion is embarrassingly mainstream.
@AxelUmog – well, it is true that they tend to hurt their rep among film snobs by putting out material that doesn’t quite pass the smell test, at least yet. But I understand they have to appeal to a base outside the small set of people who frequent this site. And the Kevin Smith show does it no favors on HULU.
A Page of Madness
Gonza the Spearman
Story of Late Chrysanthemums
Red Angel
Revenge of a Kabuki Actor
Seven Samurai
Crazed Fruit
Bright Future
Late Spring
Mr. Thank You
the Kevin Smith show? Jesus, I don’t think I even want to know about such things
Bright Future, eh, Mr. Parks?
I would’ve pegged you more of a Cure or Doppelganger man, seeing as those seem fuller rendering of Kurosawa’s wider concerns in terms of genre (maybe Doppelganger is comparable to To’s Mad Detective, in that regard). But Bright Future is my favorite of his, too.
I hesitated a minute between Bright Future and Cure (I’m a little less fond of Doppelganger).
I love Doppelganger. I also love Charisma. And am a little lukewarm on Pulse and Retribution. So I tend to be more interested in Kurosawa’s deviations.
1905 looks like one such deviation. I can’t wait for that.
He’s one of the only modern filmmakers I know of that takes most influence from Hollywood, but appreciates Siegel and Penn more than Coppola and Scorsese.
Need to see more Suwa (especially his Japanese films), but I like Koreeda and Kawase very much.
If Hani had such an influence on Suwa I absolutely have to see his stuff. Hani is like a cinematic god for me. And “She and He” is simply mind-boggling in its sensibility.
2/Duo and M/Other definitely have the intimacy and immediacy of Hani’s work. I like that Scattered Clouds is an honorable mention on your list. Not many seem to appreciate Naruse’s goodbye to cinema, but I feel its one of his strongest efforts.
I love Charisma too. I like Pulse, particularly the image the ending leaves you with. Retribution not so much. Really looking forward to 1905.
Aaargh! Okay today`s 10, then, the ones fying around me right now:
Kemonomichi (Beast Alley, 1965) Eizo Sugawa
Kabe no naka no himegoto (Secrets Behind the Wall, 1965) Koji Wakamatsu
Akai tenshi (Red Angel, 1966) Yasuzo Masumura
Ningen jôhatsu (A Man Vanishes, 1967) Shohei imamura
Nikudan (The Human Bullet, 1968) Kihachi Okamoto
Minagoroshi no reika (I, the Executioner, 1968) Tai Kato
Mujo (This Transient Life, 1970) Akio Jissoji
Shura (Pandemonium, 1971) Toshio Matsumoto
Kinkakuji (Temple of the Golden Pavillion, 1976) Yoichi Takabayashi
Hotaru (Firefly, 2000) Naomi Kawase (original cut)
too many honorable mentions….
@Matt Parks: But what about LICENSE TO LIVE? Or BARREN ILLUSIONS?
Brotherdeacon
1. Profound Desire of the Gods – Shohei Imamura
2. Violence at Noon – Nagisa Oshima
3. Visitor Q – Takashi Miiki
4. Eureka – Shinji Aoyama
5. New Love in Tokyo – Banmei Takahashi
6. Black Lizard – Kinji Fukasaku
7. The Ecstasy of Angels – Koji Wakamatsu
8. Emperor Tomato Ketchup – Shuji Terayama
9. For the Crushed Right Eye – Toshio Matsumoto
10. Shitsurakuen: Jobafuku Onna Harakiri – Masami Akita