Soundtrack: Shinichirô Ikebe

Direction Akira Kurosawa

Cast Tatsuya Nakadai · Tsutomu Yamazaki · Kenichi Hagiwara · Daisuke Ryû

Plot In 16th century Japan, Shingen, a powerful warlord, has become as legendary as the motto emblazoned on his war banners: "Swift as the wind, silent as the forest, fierce as...

Direction Shôhei Imamura

Cast Ken Ogata · Sumiko Sakamoto · Tonpei Hidari · Aki Takejô

Plot A fusion of Japanese Kabuki and modern film techniques, this adaptation of Shichiro Fukazawa's 1956 novel depicts the moving tale of a 69-year-old woman's traditional journey from her poor village...

Direction Akira Kurosawa

Cast Martin Scorsese · Akira Terao · Mitsuko Baisho · Mieko Harada

Plot Akira Kurosawa's Dreams comprises eight dream sequences, featuring impressive special effects and beautiful scenery from Japan. Kurosawa's dream sequences are elusive, metaphoric and influenced by Japanese legends, reflecting in some...

Direction Hayao Miyazaki · Keiji Hayakawa · Isao Takahata

Plot The story takes place in the 21st century, 20 years after World War 3. The world as we know it has been destroyed, and 12 year old Conan lives on...

Direction Akira Kurosawa

Cast Tatsuo Matsumura · Kyôko Kagawa · Hisashi Igawa · George Tokoro

Plot This film tells the story of professor Uehida Hyakken-sama (1889-1971), in Gotemba, around the forties. He was a university professor until an air raid, when he left to become a...

Direction Akira Kurosawa

Cast Richard Gere · Hisashi Igawa · Mitsunori Isaki · Narumi Kayashima

Plot The final film released in the U.S. by Japanese master Akira Kurosawa looks at the atomic blast at Nagasaki from a distance of more than 40 years, through the eyes...

Direction Shôhei Imamura

Cast Kôji Yakusho · Misa Shimizu · Mitsuko Baisho · Akira Emoto

Plot The film opens with Takuro Yamashita (Koji Yakusho), a seemingly normal salaryman, learning that his wife might be having an affair. When he catches the couple in flaganto delicto, he...

Direction Shôhei Imamura

Cast Ken Ogata · Rentarô Mikuni · Mayumi Ogawa · Mitsuko Baisho

Plot Iwao Enokizu is a middle-aged man who has an unexplainable urge to commit insane and violent murders. Eventually he is chased by the police all over Japan, but somehow he...

Direction Masahiro Shinoda

Cast Tetsuya Fujita · Yuji Horioka · Katsuhisa Yamazaki · Noritake Kobinata

Plot Bombing during World War II resulted in whole urban populations fleeing to the countryside, and this created a meeting of urban and rural cultures. Shinji (a young boy evacuated from...

Direction Masahiro Shinoda

Cast Tomisaburô Wakayama · Shima Iwashita · Hiroko Isayama · Kô Nishimura

Plot Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees tells the tale of a beautiful city woman and a bandit that has fallen in love with her. After kidnapping the object of his affection...

Direction Shôhei Imamura

Cast Kôji Yakusho · Misa Shimizu · Mitsuko Baisho · Mansaku Fuwa

Direction Shôhei Imamura

Cast Norihei Miki · Ken Ogata · Leonard Kuma · Mitsuko Baisho

Direction Shôhei Imamura

Cast Shigeru Izumiya · Kaori Momoi · Ken Ogata · Masao Kusakari

Direction Kihachirô Kawamoto

Plot A woman taking a trip encounters a nightmarish landscape juxtaposed against scenes of classical beauty.

Direction Kihachirô Kawamoto · Mark Baker · Jacques Drouin · Co Hoedeman

Plot Winter Days is a 2003 animated film, directed by Kihachirō Kawamoto. It is based on one of the renku (collaborative linked poems) in the 1684 collection of the same name...

Direction Takeshi Kitano

Cast Takeshi Kitano · Toru Emori · Kayoko Kishimoto · Keiko Matsuzaka

Plot Takeshi Kitano plays a version of himself in which he's a struggling director cycling through a number of different genres in an effort to complete his latest project.

Direction Tadashi Imai

Cast Komaki Kurihara · Yûko Kotegawa · Yoshiko Tanaka · Kumiko Ohba

Plot Story follows a group of high school girls trained as nurses during World War II who witness the horrors of war first-hand on Okinawa.

Direction Masanobu Deme

Cast Ken Matsudaira · Bruno Ganz · Hiroshi Abe · Jun Kunimura

Plot German soldiers are transported to a prisoner-of-war camp in Japan after the First World War.

Direction Shunya Ito

Cast Yôko Shimada · Yuya Uchida · Youki Kudoh · Hitomi Kuroki

Plot A serial killing occurs at a port town brothel.

Direction Tomio Kuriyama

Cast Go Kato · Yukiyo Toake · Narimi Arimori · Yumi Kusaka

Plot A tale of the bond between a childless middle-aged couple and their small dog.