Takashi Shimura
Series
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
1998.
Language
日本語
Appears on these lists
Description
This epic masterpiece is about a group of 16th century samurai who are hired to defend a small Japanese village that finds itself annually raided by an army of bandits who steal the meager crops harvested by the peasants. Tired of relinquishing their food supply but woefully inept in combat skills, the villagers decide to hire a band of samurai to protect them. In addition to the primary conflict between the villagers and the bandits, much of the...
2) Rashōmon
Series
Language
日本語
Formats
Description
A riveting psychological thriller that investigates the nature of truth and the meaning of justice, widely considered one of the greatest films ever made. Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife. This eloquent masterwork and international sensation revolutionized film language and introduced Japanese cinema, and a commanding new star.
3) Godzilla
Series
Publisher
Image Entertainment
Pub. Date
[2012]
Language
日本語
Description
It's also a remarkably humane and melancholy drama made in Japan at a time when the country was still reeling from nuclear attack and H-bomb testing. Its rampaging radioactive beast, the poignant embodiment of an entire populations fears, became a beloved international icon of destruction, spawning more than twenty sequels and spinoffs. Here, we present the original, 1954 Japanese version, along with Godzilla: King of the Monsters!, the 1956 American...
5) Ikiru
Series
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Language
日本語
Formats
Description
Discovering that he is in the terminal stages of cancer, a clerk spends his last months in search of the meaning to life. After his pursuit of pleasure has failed, he finds self-realization in bringing about the building of a children's playground in the slums and dies quietly fulfilled.
Series
Criterion collection volume 190
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2003]
Language
日本語
Description
Adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, set in feudal Japan. Tells the story of a Samurai lord who kills his master and usurps his power in fulfillment of a witch's prophecy.
Series
Criterion collection volume 2
Language
日本語
Formats
Description
This epic masterpiece is about a group of 16th century samurai who are hired to defend a small Japanese village that finds itself annually raided by an army of bandits who steal the meager crops harvested by the peasants. Tired of relinquishing their food supply but woefully inept in combat skills, the villagers decide to hire a band of samurai to protect them. In addition to the primary conflict between the villagers and the bandits, much of the...
Publisher
Sony Music Entertainment
Pub. Date
[2002]
Language
English
Description
Injured in a disaster that has destroyed most of Tokyo, foreign correspondent Steve Martin recounts the events leading up to the catastrophe. Arriving in Tokyo to visit his friend, Dr. Serizawa, Martin learns that ships in the vicinity of Oto Island are being mysteriously destroyed. Martin joins a team of scientists and security officers who go to Oto to investigate. The natives insist that a giant creature, Godzilla, is responsible for the disasters....
Series
Language
日本語
Formats
Description
"Godzilla (a.k.a. Gojira) is the roaring granddaddy of all monster movies. It's also a remarkably humane and melancholy drama, made in Japan at a time when the country was reeling from nuclear attack and H-bomb testing in the Pacific. Its rampaging radioactive beast, the poignant embodiment of an entire population's fears, became a beloved international icon of destruction, spawning more than thirty sequels. A thrilling, tactile spectacle that continues...
10) Throne of blood
Series
Criterion collection volume 190
Pub. Date
2014
Language
日本語
Description
A vivid, visceral Macbeth adaptation, directed by Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai), sets Shakespeare's definitive tale of ambition and duplicity in a ghostly, fog-enshrouded landscape in feudal Japan. The film fuses classical Western tragedy with formal elements taken from Noh Theater to create an unforgettable cinematic experience.
Publisher
GoodTimes Home Video
Pub. Date
[2001]
Language
English
Description
Godzilla rises from the sea, his slumber disturbed by atomic tests. With its haunting scenes of a devastated Tokyo eerily echoing the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this film gave the world the perfect monster, and metaphor, for the Atomic Age.
12) Seven samurai
Series
Criterion collection volume 2
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2006]
Language
日本語
Description
Tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire seven out-of-work warriors to protect them from invading bandits.
Series
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[1999]
Language
日本語
Description
In the year 1860, a wandering samurai-for-hire turns the war between two clans fighting for control of a small town to his own advantage. A satire on greed, violence, paranoia and human weakness. Includes theatrical trailer.
Series
Criterion collection volume 413
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2007]
Language
日本語
Description
Set in post-war Tokyo in 1945, a tuberculosis-infected criminal starts an unhealthy relationship with an alcoholic doctor. The patient needs to feel better so that he can retain his status as gang-leader after the ex-leader is released from prison, and the doctor needs to feel like he has a place in society and that life is worth living.
Series
Criterion collection volume 190
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
日本語
Description
A vivid, visceral Macbeth adaptation, directed by Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai), sets Shakespeare's definitive tale of ambition and duplicity in a ghostly, fog-enshrouded landscape in feudal Japan. The film fuses classical Western tragedy with formal elements taken from Noh Theater to create an unforgettable cinematic experience.
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2007]
Language
日本語
Description
An elderly and wealthy industrialist is driven to madness over fears of a nuclear attack. In a futile attempt to save his family he pressures them to leave Japan and move to the rain forest in Brazil where he believes they will be safe. His family, complacent and cynical, is outraged and move to have him declared insane.
Series
Criterion collection volume 2
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2023]
Language
日本語
Description
A sixteenth-century Japanese farming community that has been victimized by bandits year after year hires seven unemployed samurai to help defend them.
18) Ikiru
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2008]
Language
日本語
Description
A young Japanese businessman dying of cancer wants to give something back to society before his death, so he decides to build a playground for children.
19) Kumonosujō
Series
Criterion collection volume 190
Publisher
The Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
日本語
Description
A vivid, visceral Macbeth adaptation, directed by Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai), sets Shakespeare's definitive tale of ambition and duplicity in a ghostly, fog-enshrouded landscape in feudal Japan. The film fuses classical Western tragedy with formal elements taken from Noh Theater to create an unforgettable cinematic experience.
Publisher
Distributed exclusively by Image Entertainment
Pub. Date
[2002]
Language
日本語
Description
Set in 18th century Japan, the film tells the story of a young lord, Asano, who travels to the capital city of Edo to assume state duties. After refusing to bribe the Grand Master of Ceremonies for teaching him official etiquette, he is goaded into drawing his sword in the Shogun's palace, a capital offense for which he is sentenced to commit harakiri suicide. This leaves the warriors of Ako as rōnin, masterless samurai, with nowhere to go and no...