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Japanese Classics
From the samurai thrillers of Kurosawa and the beautiful melodramas of Naruse to classic sci-fi, this collection celebrates the extraordinary diversity of Japanese cinema.
While little known in the west until Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1951, Japanese cinema is now regarded as one of the great canons of world film.
100 Years of Japanese Cinema100 Years of Japanese Cinema
Documentary199652 minsDirector: Nagisa Oshima
Archive propels argument in this fascinating exploration of the social and cultural importance of Japan's film heritage.
The Bad Sleep WellThe Bad Sleep Well
Crime1960151 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
The first film made by Akira Kurosawa's own production company is a dark tale of greed, corporate corruption and revenge.
Dodes'Ka-DenDodes'Ka-Den
Drama1970140 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa’s first colour film is an eccentric and joyous account of a group of disparate people living in a city dump.
Floating CloudsFloating Clouds
Drama1955123 minsDirector: Mikio Naruse
Mikio Naruse’s masterpiece about a wandering woman trying to find her identity amid the devastation of post-war Japan.
GodzillaGodzilla
Horror195492 minsDirector: Ishiro Honda
The original Godzilla - arguably the definitive monster movie - both a bold metaphor for the atomic age and a thrilling powerhouse of pioneering special effects.
The Hidden FortressThe Hidden Fortress
Martial arts1958139 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa’s thrilling mix of fairy story and samurai movie - a story of rival clans, hidden gold and a princess in distress - was famously a key inspiration for George Lucas’ Star Wars.
High and LowHigh and Low
Crime1963143 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa’s procedural crime masterpiece, from Ed McBain’s gritty novel, follows an industrialist who faces an agonising choice as a result of a botched kidnapping by ruthless criminals.
IkiruIkiru
Drama1952143 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
A bureaucrat’s life finds new meaning in Kurosawa’s classic original, the source for Bill Nighy’s brilliant drama, Living.
I Live in FearI Live in Fear
Drama1955103 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Toshiro Mifune delivers an outstanding performance as a paranoid man striving to move his family to Brazil to escape the nuclear holocaust which he fears is imminent.
Late ChrysanthemumsLate Chrysanthemums
Drama1954101 minsDirector: Mikio Naruse
The story of four ageing geishas as they struggle to make ends meet in post-war Japan, from acclaimed filmmaker Mikio Naruse.
The Lower DepthsThe Lower Depths
Drama1957125 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s novel, in which inhabitants of a slum revel in illusions to avoid bitter reality.
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's TailThe Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail
Martial arts195259 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Adapted from Noh and Kabuki theatre, Kurosawa’s classic tale of deception sees a lord and his bodyguard disguise themselves as monks to bypass an enemy roadblock.
The Most BeautifulThe Most Beautiful
War194485 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa’s artful propaganda film provides a fascinating portrait of female volunteer workers in an optics factory during wartime.
The MysteriansThe Mysterians
Science Fiction195785 minsDirector: Ishiro Honda
The team behind Godzilla (1954) reunites for Toho’s first colour widescreen sci-fi, an arresting spectacle about the arrival of an alien race and their giant, destructive robot.
No Regrets for Our YouthNo Regrets for Our Youth
Drama1946111 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Kurosawa's first post-war film stars Setsuko Hara as the privileged daughter of a professor who takes up arms against the Japanese military.
One Wonderful SundayOne Wonderful Sunday
Drama1947109 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Kurosawa’s bitter-sweet story of young love set in the devastation of post-war Tokyo.
RanRan
Drama1985154 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa’s visually spectacular epic transplants Shakespeare’s King Lear from Celtic Britain to feudal Japan.
RashomonRashomon
Crime195088 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Credited with bringing Japanese cinema to worldwide audiences, Akira Kurosawa’s breakthrough tells the story of a murder in the woods from four differing perspectives.
Red BeardRed Beard
Drama1965180 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Kurosawa’s episodic, poignant story of a 19th-century doctor (Toshiro Mifune) working in a clinic for the poor and his tumultuous friendship with a young intern.
SanjuroSanjuro
Comedy196296 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
In Akira Kurosawa's comedy of manners, a ronin runs rings around nine young, clean-cut samurai while cleaning up a spot of corruption in local government.
Sanshiro SugataSanshiro Sugata
Crime194379 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Kurosawa’s assured debut film about a young man’s spiritual journey through the study and practice of judo.
Sanshiro Sugata part twoSanshiro Sugata part two
Crime194579 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
This sequel reunites most of the principal cast from the original and follows Sanshiro face a new set of enemies whilst continuing his quest to become a judo master.
Seven SamuraiSeven Samurai
Drama1954207 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Farmers hire a band of samurai to defend them against marauding bandits in Kurosawa’s influential epic, a touchstone for action movies ever since.
Stray DogStray Dog
Crime1949122 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa’s masterful mix of film noir and police thriller set on the sweltering mean streets of occupied Tokyo.
Throne of BloodThrone of Blood
Drama1957110 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
A master of period-drama, Kurosawa (Rashomon, Seven Samurai) recasts Macbeth as a Japanese warlord in one of the greatest Shakespearean adaptations
When a Woman Ascends the StairsWhen a Woman Ascends the Stairs
1960111 minsDirector: Mikio Naruse
Mikio Naruse’s best-known film is a masterful study of a Ginza hostess struggling under constant pressures to compromise her honour.
Woman of the DunesWoman of the Dunes
Animation & Artists Moving Image1964147 minsDirector: Hiroshi Teshigahara
Hiroshi Teshigahara's mystifying, serene and provocative fable about an entomologist who becomes trapped in a young widow’s desert shack.
YojimboYojimbo
Crime1961111 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Kurosawa’s classic about a drifting samurai who plays two gangs off against each other, famously remade as A Fistful of Dollars.