Classic Films from Japan
A Man Vanishes
(人間蒸発)
This riveting documentary chronicles the missing-person’s case of Tadashi, a Japanese businessman who has vanished into thin air.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1967
- Director Shōhei Imamura
- Cast Yoshie Hayakawa, Shōhei Imamura, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi
- Genre Documentary, Drama
- Available on OVID, Apple TV
Woman in the Dunes
(砂の女)
An entomologist suffers extreme psychological and sexual torture after being taken captive by the residents of a poor seaside village.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1964
- Director Hiroshi Teshigahara
- Cast Eiji Okada, Kyôko Kishida, Ginzô Sekiguchi, Kôji Mitsui, Sen Yano
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Amazon Video
Yearning
(乱れる)
After a bombing raid destroys the family store, Reiko rebuilds and runs the shop out of love stopped short by destruction.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1964
- Director Mikio Naruse
- Cast Hideko Takamine, Yûzô Kayama, Mitsuko Kusabue, Mie Hama, Aiko Mimasu, Yû Fujiki
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
High and Low
(天国と地獄)
A wealthy executive becomes the victim of an extortion plot after his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1963
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyōko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Isao Kimura, Kenjirō Ishiyama
- Genre Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Amazon Video
Immortal Love
(永遠の人)
While her fiancée is away fighting, a woman is raped by a landowner's son and forced into marriage.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1961
- Director Keisuke Kinoshita
- Cast Hideko Takamine, Keiji Sada, Tatsuya Nakadai, Nobuko Otowa, Akira Ishihama, Masakazu Tamura
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel
The Naked Island
(裸の島)
The only inhabitants of a small island in the Seto Inland Sea struggle to get by.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1960
- Director Kaneto Shindō
- Cast Nobuko Otowa, Taiji Tonoyama, Shinji Tanaka, Masanori Horimoto
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
(女が階段を上る時)
A middle-aged bar hostess, constantly in debt, is faced with numerous social constraints and challenges.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1960
- Director Mikio Naruse
- Cast Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan, Tatsuya Nakadai, Daisuke Katō, Ganjirô Nakamura II
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
Floating Weeds
(浮草)
Members of a traveling theater troupe meddle in the personal life of the troupe's leader.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1959
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Ganjiro Nakamura, Machiko Kyō, Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Ayako Wakao, Haruko Sugimura, Chishū Ryū
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kanopy
Good Morning
(お早よう)
Two young boys stop speaking in protest when their parents refuse to buy a television set.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1959
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Keiji Sada, Yoshiko Kuga, Chishū Ryū, Kuniko Miyake, Haruko Sugimura, Kôji Shitara
- Genre Comedy, Family, Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV
Tokyo Twilight
(東京暮色)
Two sisters discover the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot take the truth of being abandoned as a child.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1957
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Setsuko Hara, Ineko Arima, Chishū Ryū, Isuzu Yamada, Teiji Takahashi, Masami Taura
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Tubi TV
Street of Shame
(赤線地帯)
The daily personal dramas of five women employed as sex workers in Tokyo’s Yoshiwara district.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1956
- Director Kenji Mizoguchi
- Cast Machiko Kyō, Aiko Mimasu, Ayako Wakao, Michiyo Kogure, Kumeko Urabe, Yasuko Kawakami
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
Floating Clouds
(浮雲)
Returning to Japan following WWII, Yukiko hopes to continue an affair started during wartime, but realizes the man won’t divorce his wife.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1955
- Director Mikio Naruse
- Cast Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Mariko Okada, Isao Yamagata, Chieko Nakakita, Daisuke Katō
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel
Early Summer
(麦秋)
28-year-old Noriko's parents pressure her to marry in postwar Japan.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1951
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Setsuko Hara, Chishū Ryū, Chikage Awashima, Kuniko Miyake, Ichirô Sugai, Chieko Higashiyama
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV
Stray Dog
(野良犬)
During a sweltering summer, a rookie detective searches Tokyo’s streets for his stolen Colt pistol.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1949
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji, Eiko Miyoshi, Noriko Sengoku, Noriko Honma
- Genre Crime, Drama, Thriller
- Available on fuboTV, Criterion Channel, Crackle, Tubi TV, Plex
Dragnet Girl
(非常線の女)
In this silent gangster film, a career criminal is drawn to a sweet, strait-laced girl much to the ire of his longtime moll.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1933
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Kinuyo Tanaka, Joji Oka, Sumiko Mizukubo, Kōji Mitsui, Yumeko Aizome, Chishū Ryū
- Genre Crime, Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max