Best Japanese Films Kinema Junpo (1926-2025)

In Tokyo, a Chinese exchange student gets involved in rigged pachinko schemes and meets a Chinese girl raised in Japan. When they're caught cheating by a former yakuza now running a pachinko parlor, a tense triangle forms as money, power, and personal ties collide.

Jiro is a Tokyo man who offers a stand-in service where he'll do "anything". A woman claiming to be from Fukuoka wants to be shown around Tokyo and see the sights. What Jiro doesn't know is that this woman isn't who she says she is. She's on the run from her Yakuza boyfriend, and Jiro is going to be unwittingly entwined in the situation.

1993 film by Akira Kurosawa

An anthology film based on the works of manga artist Yoshiharu Tsuge. The main character in all four segments is a fledgling cartoonist named Tsube . In the first segment, Tsube encounters a dotty old man named Ri after renting a tumble-down cottage in the country. The following day, Ri, his equally weird wife, and his two squalid children move into his house. Soon the wife is stealing the cucumbers in his garden while the two kids devour all the food in the house.

A Japanese police unit who use giant anthropomorphic robots (called Labors) is caught up in a political struggle between the civilian authorities and the military when a terrorist act is blamed on an Air Force jet. With the aid of a government agent, the team gets close to a terrorist leader to stop things from going out of control when after the military is impelled to impose martial law.

A successful Japanese movie director in his sixties becomes increasingly ill while working on his latest film. Though his family, friends, and doctor try to keep the secret of his terminal cancer from him, Buhei gradually comes to realize the truth of his condition, leading him on a journey of despair, anger, and – ultimately – acceptance.

The misadventures of Junko, a schoolgirl who unwittingly sets off a catastrophic chain of events after being caught using her friend's train pass.

A quiet killer is looking for a room. The real state agent, shy and expressionless, guides him through Tokyo, towards the ruins the decadent economy has left behind, in hopes of finding The Room.

Tatsuru and Shinichiro’s relationship shifts from casual to complicated as love and emotions blur the lines between their work and personal lives.

A college senior, Shuhei, is blackmailed by a professor into joining the school's sumo team. He is aided by a group of misfits who must team together to defeat their rivals or face disgrace and the disbandment of the sumo club.

It is 1965. High-school student Takeyoshi Fujiwara hears "Pipeline" by the Ventures, and is mesmerized by their unique sound. With three friends, he forms a band called "The Rocking Horsemen." A warm and comic glimpse into high-school and small-town life in Japan in the 60's.

In Italy in the 1930s, sky pirates in biplanes terrorize wealthy cruise ships as they sail the Adriatic Sea. The only pilot brave enough to stop the scourge is the mysterious Porco Rosso, a former World War I flying ace who was somehow turned into a pig during the war. As he prepares to battle the pirate crew's American ace, Porco Rosso enlists the help of spunky girl mechanic Fio Piccolo and his longtime friend Madame Gina.

Based on a novel by Bo Nishimura, the film is about an extramarital affair between the wife of an estate agent and a 22 year old man.

Following the bloody aftermath of a heist, three robbers are double-crossed by a new accomplice, who is then tracked down amid escalating carnage and spectacular car chases.

Shoko and Mutsuki get married to satisfy their worried parents, but she is well past the age at which a ‘good’ Japanese woman should marry, and he is in love with a young male college student.

A headmaster and a novelist, looking for inspiration, regard a strange natural phenomenon before sharing stories of their own.

1992 film by Hideo Gosha

A Japanese salaryman finds his body transforming into a weapon through sheer rage after his son is kidnapped by a gang of violent thugs.

An upscale Japanese hotel hires Mahiru Inoue, a lawyer adept at dealing with the Yakuza, to help them rid their hotel of the local gangsters so they can get a contract for a meeting of important foreign officials.

Tetsuo is a young man living in Tokyo, who falls in love with a deaf-mute factory girl. He has always felt jealous of his college-educated brother, but ultimately wins both the girl and his father's acceptance and support in a touching and refreshing way.