Cinematography: Kôzô Shibasaki

The best movies, series, and documentaries with cinematography by Kôzô Shibasaki. Explore visually stunning titles that highlight an exceptional filmmaking.


Always: Sunset on Third Street

2005 · Movie · 133 min. · Japan

Direction Takashi Yamazaki

Cast Maki Horikita · Hidetaka Yoshioka · Shin'ichi Tsutsumi · Koyuki

Synopsis Leaving her provincial home, teenage Mutsuko arrives in Tokyo by train to take a job in a major automotive company but finds that she is employed by a small auto repair shop owned by Norifumi Suzuki. Suzuki's hair-trigger temper is...

7.2

143 votes

7.2

143 votes

Close-Knit

2017 · Movie · 127 min. · Japan

Direction Naoko Ogigami

Cast Tôma Ikuta · Eiko Koike · Kenta Kiritani · Mugi Kadowaki

Synopsis One spring Hiromi, who is the mother of an 11-year-old girl Tomo, left home for the umpteenth time. Tomo is accustomed to such a mother and as always went to Makio's place. He is a brother of Hiromi and has...

7.2

126 votes

7.2

126 votes

The Eternal Zero

2013 · Movie · 144 min. · Japan

Direction Takashi Yamazaki

Cast Junichi Okada · Min Tanaka · Haruma Miura · Mao Inoue

Synopsis A young man Kentaro Saeki (Haruma Miura) keeps failing his bar test and does not know what to do any more. His older sister Keiko is a freelance writer. Kentaro and Keiko begin to search for information on their grandfather...

7.1

190 votes

7.1

190 votes

Godzilla: Minus One

2023 · Movie · 125 min. · Japan

Direction Takashi Yamazaki

Cast Ryunosuke Kamiki · Minami Hamabe · Yûki Yamada · Munetaka Aoki

Synopsis Japan, devastated after the end of World War II, enters into crisis after the appearance of an atomic monster.

6.7

8K votes

6.7

8K votes

Oba: The Last Samurai

2011 · Movie · 128 min. · Japan

Direction Hideyuki Hirayama

Cast Yutaka Takenouchi · Sean McGowan · Mao Inoue · Daniel Baldwin

Synopsis In 1944, the American military lands on the shores of Saipan. Refusing to commit suicide with his superiors or be forced into camps for prisoners of war, Captain Oba Sakae (Takenouchi Yutaka) leads a group of his men and other...

6.6

85 votes

6.6

85 votes

Modern Love Tokyo (TV Series)

2022 · Series · 40 min. · United States

Direction Atsuko Hirayanagi · Ryuichi Hiroki · Kiyoshi Kurosawa · Naoko Ogigami

Cast Naomi Scott · Douglas Bennett · Sôsuke Ikematsu · Asami Mizukawa

Synopsis Japanese adaptation of Prime Video's "Modern Love."

6.2

43 votes

6.2

43 votes

Ritana (The Returner)

2002 · Movie · 111 min. · Japan

Direction Takashi Yamazaki

Cast Takeshi Kaneshiro · Anne Suzuki · Kirin Kiki · Goro Kishitani

Synopsis 2084. After decades of intense fighting, an alien invasion force is close to destroying what's left of the world. In a last-ditch effort to save the human race, a guerilla fighter named Milly leaps into a waiting Time Shifter. With...

5.9

1K votes

5.9

1K votes

Foodlosslla

2024 · Movie · 2 min. · Japan

Direction Takashi Yamazaki

Cast Maori Komeno · Ozuno Nakamura · Takeshi Itakura · Narumi Uno

Synopsis Takashi Yamazaki has unleashed Foodlosslla, a brand new Kaiju created for a short advertisement calling attention to the horrors of food waste. Foodlosslla is quite literally a giant monster made out of food waste, and he’s the new official spokes-monster...

5.4

41 votes

5.4

41 votes

Space Battleship Yamato

2010 · Movie · 131 min. · Japan

Direction Takashi Yamazaki

Cast Takuya Kimura · Meisa Kuroki · Toshirô Yanagiba · Naoto Ogata

Synopsis The crew of the space battleship Yamato set out on a journey to the planet Iscandar to acquire a device that can heal the ravaged Earth.

5.0

1K votes

5.0

1K votes

Out

2002 · Movie · 119 min. · Japan

Direction Hideyuki Hirayama

Cast Mieko Harada · Mitsuko Baisho · Shigeru Muroi · Naomi Nishida

Synopsis Four down on their luck housewives murder their husbands and find whacky ways to hide the bodies!

Not rated

Not rated

After School

2008 · Movie · 102 min. · Japan

Direction Kenji Uchida

Cast Yo Oizumi · Masato Sakai · Kuranosuke Sasaki · Takako Tokiwa

Synopsis A middle school teacher, Jinno, is friends with a young couple that is about to have a baby. But on the eve of the birth, the father, Kimura, disappears. A somewhat shady private detective named Shimazaki confronts Jinno with a...

Not rated

Not rated

Laundry

2002 · Movie · 126 min. · Japan

Direction Junichi Mori

Cast Yôsuke Kubozuka · Koyuki · Takashi Naitô · Ken'ichirô Tanabe

Synopsis A young man named Teru, mentally altered by a childhood injury, runs a laundry and falls for Mizue, a lonely young woman with internal scars.

Not rated

Not rated

Fueled: The Man They Called 'Pirate'

2016 · Movie · 145 min. · Japan

Direction Takashi Yamazaki

Cast Junichi Okada · Hidetaka Yoshioka · Shôta Sometani · Nomaguchi Toru

Synopsis The grand story of Japan's post-war reconstruction is based on the actual story of an oil company's president, namely Tetsuzo Kunioka, who believed in the power of oil, as opposed to coal, to abet the country's re-emergence. He believes Japan's...

Not rated

Not rated

Haunted School 3

1997 · Movie · 96 min. · Japan

Direction Shusuke Kaneko

Cast Naomi Nishida · Takuma Yoshizawa · Aki Maeda · Takeru Higa

Synopsis Third installment of the "Gakko No Kaidan" series follows the trek of several elementary school students as they wander into an alternate world that exists on the opposite side of a school mirror. Nishida Naomi (the hapless teacher in "Gakko...

Not rated

Not rated

Love, Life and Goldfish

2021 · Movie · 92 min. · Japan

Direction Yukinori Makabe

Cast Nicole Ishida · Hayato Kakizawa · Naoki Kawano · Masayasu Kitayama

Synopsis Makoto Kashiba is an elite bank clerk and works for a big bank at its Tokyo HQ. Due to a minor mistake, he is demoted to a small branch office in a country town. He is devastated by his situation....

Not rated

Not rated

Scrap Heaven

2005 · Movie · 117 min. · Japan

Direction Lee Sang-il

Cast Ryo Kase · Jô Odagiri · Chiaki Kuriyama · Akira Emoto

Synopsis The lives of three people intersect on a late bus ride that's hijacked by a suicidal political flunky. Shingo is a miserable young desk cop bucking for homicide division. Tetsu is a restroom cleaning attendant who has a mentally ill...

Not rated

Not rated

Family of Strangers

2019 · Movie · 117 min. · Japan

Direction Hideyuki Hirayama

Cast Shôfukutei Tsurube · Gou Ayano · Nana Komatsu · Ryôta Bandô

Synopsis Three patients of different backgrounds, illnesses and stages are being treated at a psychiatric clinic in Nagano Prefecture. Their cases range from the criminal to merely asocial. That should be that, but soon matters take a darker turn when a...

Not rated

Not rated

Juvenile

2000 · Movie · 100 min. · Japan

Not rated

Not rated