Best Japanese Films Kinema Junpo (1926-2025)

2011 Japanese film directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita

In the Susukino red light district of Sapporo, a private detective (Yo Oizumi) drinks alcohol with his driver Takada (Ryuhei Matsuda) in his favourite bar. There he receives a phone call from a woman who identifies herself as Kyoko Kondo. The woman asks the detective to complete a simple task. The detective, having an excellent sense for danger, thinks the work is easy and accepts the case. The next day he begins the investigation.

Rieko Saibara is a cartoonist and mother of a 6-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl. When she has a difficult time, she throws away her problems with laughter. Her husband Kamoshitda used to be a war camera man, but now he's addicted to alcohol. He struggles to overcome his problem, but keeps failing. Finally, they get divorced. After Kamoshida loses his family, he realizes how precious they are. He focuses on getting away from alcohol, but another disease comes to him. Even though Saibara knows that he can not make it for long, she accepts him back to her family again. Since then a happy, but short, time exists for the family of four.

In a Tokyo love hotel district, a woman is found dead in a derelict apartment. As police investigate, a romance novelist's wife lives a life that seems simply a daily repetition without romance. To break away from the loveless monotony, she follows her desires and becomes a nude model enacting sex in front of a camera. Soon, she meets a mentor and begins selling her body to strangers, while at home, she hides behind the façade that she's still the doting wife she's supposed to be.

Miyata lost his wife early on and single-handedly raised their two children. One day he notices a change in his physical condition, and decides that it must be stomach cancer.

In suburban Tokyo, the Kobayashis – Mikio, his young second wife Natsuki, and his young adolescent daughter Eriko, who was borne out of his first marriage – live in a small flat above the family printing business. Mikio inherited the business and the flat from his father who passed away two years ago. Temporarily living with them is Mikio’s divorced sister Seiko, who is there until she decides what to do, which is in her mind – unrealistically – to go abroad to learn English. Their rather dull and staid lives are punctuated by Eriko’s pet parakeet having recently flown away, it which they are scouring the neighborhood looking for, and their neighbors organizing a neighborhood watch to keep out undesirables, namely foreigners who they believe are causing no good to their society. Into their lives stumbles Hanataro Kagawa, the son of their father’s old friend. Before they know it, Kagawa has talked his way into a job working at the print shop and room and board in their flat.

Kyohei Nagashima (Masaki Okada) has shut away the world. During his high school days he was the target of bullying and experienced horrifying moments. Now as a young adult Kyohei takes a new job. He works for a company that specializes in cleaning out the homes of recently deceased individuals. With his new job Kyohei meets co-worker Yuki (Nana Eikura). Yuki has also experienced a traumatizing event as a teen and has also shut herself away from the world. These two young people form a bond as they go through the homes of the recently departed people. They gradually open up to each other and in the process to the world. Yet, their fragile psyches may or may not be ready for such changes ...

24-year-old OL Chie Ikeshita's (Yuriko Yoshitaka) motto is to try various things to enjoy life. Chie spends her time accordingly to her motto. Chie Ikeshita then starts to date 5 different men and adjusts herself to the different situations. Up to this point, Chie never thought about marriage. She changes her thought after her friend Toshiko Hamaguchi (Anne Watanabe) gets married. Chie takes the advise of Toshiko and decides to marry one of the 5 men. She must now whittle down her choice to one man.

A tale of revenge, honor and disgrace, centering on a poverty-stricken samurai who discovers the fate of his ronin son-in-law, setting in motion a tense showdown of vengeance against the house of a feudal lord.

Yu Irie (8000 MILES 1 & 2) returns with this ambitious flick about an upcoming concert by a reclusive rock group and the managers, obsessed fans, shut-ins, single moms and kindergarten teachers who are affected by it. A true tribute to the healing power of rock and roll.

A young man is unable to save a young woman from being assaulted, despite her having helped him out of a difficult situation in the past. Wracked with regret, he decides to provide assistance to her younger twin sister who is plotting revenge against society.

Twelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents' divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.

2011 Japanese drama film directed by Amir Naderi

Mikio is a married man and works hard for the company where he is employed. Then one day Mikio is diagnosed with depression. Mikio's wife is Haruko. They have been married for 5 years. Haruko draws comics for work, but they do not sell well. She mainly relied on Mikio for support. Meanwhile, Haruko did not notice any changes in her husband. She begins to blame herself for not noticing any signs. Mikio's depression derived from his work. His company has been pressing him to quit the company. After Mikio quits his job his condition improves, but the dynamics of their relationship changes.

Kazu attacks a bar in Kabukicho, a Tokyo red-light district, and flees to his hometown with abducts Machiko, a pole dancer he's been stuck on. They begin living together, but their happiness is short lived as their pasts torment them both.

A heartwarming tale about the turning point in the life of an elite business man in his fifties and a local train that has been running since 1911. Hajime is in line to be the next head of a prominent electronics company. He toils day and night over his work and has no time for his family. But one day, his mother in Shimane falls ill, and his best friend dies in an accident. Grief-stricken, Hajime returns home, where memories of his childhood dream come back to him. He had always wanted to be a train conductor and drive the local "bataden" Ichibata Electric Railway.

2010 film by Lee Sang-il

2010 film directed by Tetsuya Nakashima

A young girl named Sato watches on television as a man named Tomoki states brazenly at a press conference that he hopes convicted murderer Mitsuo is eventually placed back into society so that he can kill him with his bare hands.

A bravado period action film set at the end of Japan's feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war-torn future.