Japanese Films

Some I really liked:

Shiki-Jitsu (Ritual) <- my favorite movie ever
Tasogare Seibei (The Twilight Samurai)
Taiyo No Uta (A Song To The Sun)
Gekkô no sasayaki (Moonlight Whispers)
Shichinin no samurai (Seven Samurai)
Ran
Yurîka (Eureka)
Vital
Hotaru no haka (Grave Of The Fireflies)
Omohide poro poro (Only Yesterday)
Majo no takkyûbin (Kiki's Delivery Service)
Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)
Kaze no tani no Naushika (Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind)
Gake no ue no Ponyo (Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea)
Kôkaku kidôtai (Ghost In The Shell)
Innocence (Innocence: Ghost In The Shell 2)
Kumo no mukô, yakusoku no basho (The Placed Promised In Our Early Days)
Byôsoku 5 senchimêtoru (5 Centimeters per Second)
Jin-Rô (Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade)
Akira
Gaichu (Harmful Insect)
Kamikaze takushî (Kamikaze Taxi)
Hana-Bi (Fireworks)
Kikujirô no natsu
Dolls
Riri Shushu no subete (All About Lily Chou-Chou)
Sonatine
Cure
Su-ki-da
Tokyo.Sora
Suna no onna (Woman In The Dunes)

Well that's enough for now lol..

Did you ever notice that people who believe in creationism look really un-evolved? - Bill Hicks

japanese movies i like:

comedy :

swing girls
summer time machine blues
700 days vs the police
detroit metal city
etc

drama :

departures
nobody knows (really good, all koreeda movies are good in my opinion, :-))
honokaa boy
halfway / harufuwei
etc

i also like japanese tv dramas like nobuta wo produce and proposal daisakusen etc

sometimes if u dont understand the culture some scenes or dialogues would seem weird or stupid, u just gotta be a little more open minded..

As you can see from the replies here, there are tons of Japanese movies out there. Kurosawa Akira is perhaps the best-known Japanese director, but most of his movies are aging as far as the Japan that they present. Miyazaki Hayao's stuff is very popular, but IMHO if you've seen one you've seen them all -- the animation is cool, but the plots, as much as they exist at all, are absurd and personally I can't sit through them very easily. My wife (who's Japanese) and I saw Ponyo recently and at the end we were both left thinking, "What the hell was that?!?" At the same time, our son loved it -- go figure...

I have not seen Okuribito, but the star, Motoki Masahiro ("Mokkun" is his nickname in Japan), is famous in Japan more for his TV roles -- he has done lots of TV soaps ("dorama") and some historical/samurai stuff ("jidaigeki") recently. One of my favorie soaps is "Kimi to deatte kara," which is listed on his IMDB page under the date 1995. It is fairly serious fare, but very well-acted, with a great cast. He also did a funny show called "Sutairu" (Style), where he plays a womanizing department-store manager who unknowingly seduces the CEO's daughter and as a result gets assigned the doomed-to-fail task of turning a bunch of misfits into a successful personal-shopping department.

If you live in a larger city, there are bound to be a few Japanese-video stores around, which will have shows to rent on VHS and/or DVD. Not sure how many will have subtitles, though...Some cities, such as New York and L.A., have channels that show Japanese soaps, news, etc. with subtitles.

Looking at his IMDB page just now, I was reminded that Mokkun had a part in a movie called "Shall We Dance?," an excellent Japanese film from the mid-90's which was the basis for the remake starring Richard Gere. Definitely check that one out (the original, I mean -- not the remake, just another blatant Hollywood attempt to cash in on a successful foreign film by making a totally unnecessary "domestic" version).

Hirosue Ryoko, another star of Okuribito, has also done a bunch of soaps in Japan. A really funny one is "Oyaji" (Dad), listed on her IMDB page.

Similar movies I recommend are Ikiru and After Life. I personally thought they were more moving than Departures.

Some emotional Japanese movies like Departures are:

Laundry
Blue Bird (aoi tori)2008*
Nobody Knows (Dare mo shiranai)
Shining Boy and Little Randy (Hoshi ni natta shônen)
The Homeless Student (Hômuresu chûgakusei)
Yellow Tears (Kiiroi Namida)
The Blue Light (ao no hono)

Many of the ones already mentioned in previous posts are pretty good, but arent exactly dramas albeit they have dramatic elements like a lot of japanese films that arent comedies. These ones are very likely to make you laugh and cry. Laundry is probably the most touching.

If you are looking for one that makes you cry (and that is an old classic), I say watch Akira Kurosawa's "Ikiru" (&#29983;&#12365;&#12427;, "To Live") from 1952 and then maybe move onto "Tokyo Story" from 1953. "Ikiru" is more contemporary and more fitted to an American-style of storytelling (yet more original in its method), while "Tokyo Story" is very low key and full of slice-of-life moments.

Letters from Iwo Jima - I know it's directed by Clint Eastwood - But it's still about Japan with a Japanese cast and filmed in the Japanese language and a great film that will probably make you cry also!

There's only one word you need to know - MIYAZAKI.


See all my favorite movies before talking to me, ok? http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=39935568