Best Japanese Films Kinema Junpo (1926-2025)

1997 Japanese film directed by Shinobu Yaguchi

Kuki is a veteran newspaper reporter who has been shuffled off to a book-development branch and finds escape in an illicit relationship with Rinko. Together they find the passion no longer present in their marriages.

Takashi and four of his classmates, fourth-grade students, cannot succeed in doing a back pullover around a horizontal bar. Their gym teacher warns them: they have one week to succeed; if they resign now, then, tomorrow, facing life difficulties, they will always run away and become bums. Furthermore, all five must succeed, if one of them cannot do it, then all of them fail. Takashi is really worried and wonders if he won't be always the loser who couldn't succeed in the back pullover bar exercise.

When an innocent young country girl falls for a low level yakuza, she enters a completely different world in which the line between good and evil are quickly blurred. Through great ups and downs their love will be tested, but the ultimate test lies in whether or not they will survive the downward pull of the lifestyle they have chosen.

Sawaki is a postman who's not quite thrilled about his boring way of life. But his life is about to change when he delivers mail to his old schoolmate Noguchi, who's now a member of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia, and just finished cutting his little finger off.

Vain, middle-aged actress Biwako is placed in witness protection while authorities investigate the brutal murder she witnessed. Under the watch of two dedicated cops, Biwako struggles to maintain her career, her public image, and her personal life as she prepares for her new role on the witness stand.

A Japanese assassin stranded in Taiwan must take work from a local crime boss to make ends meet when suddenly a woman from his past delivers a son to him.

1996 film by Masayuki Suo

Shinji and Masaru spend most of their school days harassing fellow classmates and playing pranks. They drop out and Shinji becomes a small-time boxer, while Masaru joins up with a local yakuza gang. However, the world is a tough place.

Ever since an accident in the mountains outside town, Takuji's slept in a coma; his neighbors care for him as new events occur every day.

1996 film by Yoshimitsu Morita

Tells of the childhood of two nine-year-old twins in a rural village in Japan after World War 2. Includes the boys relationships with their schoolteacher mother, civil servant father, elderly landlord, a rough new boy at the school, and three mysterious spirits in the form of old women.

There still stands a famous apartment building where such prominent manga artists as Tezuka Osamu, Shotaro Ishinomori and Fujio Akatsuka once lived, worked, and shared experiences.

1993年，山田洋次導演的《學校》在日本本士引起極大迴響，不僅贏得好評如潮，更在各大頒獎禮中獨領風騷。延續篇《學校II》將舞台移師至北海道一間供智障學童入讀的高中，但仍舊以刻劃帥生關係及反思教育意義為核心主題。山田在片中寄托了他對學校及老師們的期望：教育並非只靈培育老師心目中的好學生，老師的工作也並非只是教學，更重要的是跟學生建立深厚的關係。全片溫情洋溢，值得細味。

The Learning Circle, a film by Yamada Yoji and a follow-up to his 1993 hit A Class To Remember, is a moving story about the daily life of teachers and students at a high school for mentally-handicapped children. In this film, Yamada has depicted vividly and with genuine emotion the dreams and expectations he has for all schools and teacher: "Education is much more than merely minting students who are easy for schools and teachers to handle. A teacher's job is more than just teaching and guiding students, it is also to associate closely with them."

新學年又開始了。在北海道一間專供智障學童入讀的高中，青山龍平老師正在迎接新生。當中一位名叫高志的學生智商不算低，但過去曾受同學欺侮，心靈創傷使他從此一言不發。另一位學生佑矢就更是問題多多。他總是不肯乖乖坐著，一時大呼小叫，一時又像一枝箭似的飛奔出課室；問他甚麼也好，答案就衹有一個：午後紅茶－他最喜愛的飲料。資深老師也拿他沒法，於是把佑矢交給新到任的小林老師看管，害得他沒一刻能放鬆，差點得了神經衰弱。直到一天，一件前所未有的事發生了：佑矢忽然跳了起來，想要搶奪北川老師手中的文稿。這時，一直沒開口說過一句話的高志忽然疾言厲色地罵他。更令人意外的是郤是佑矢的反應──他第一次順著別人的意思去做。自那一天起，學校有了重大的改變，不僅是學生，老師也一樣……

資料來源︰電影雙周刊—Home Entertainment DVD (香港)

A short, direct and to-the-point media-commentary thriller. A sleazy TV producer trying to exploit a quiet otaku (an obsessive hobbyist) whose hobby is electronic eavesdropping ends up getting a lot more than he bargained for when they eavesdrop on the wrong conversation and he prods said otaku into helping him "investigate" the lead, only to find out that some things (and people) are not always as they seem, when a minor altercation causes things to take a rather nasty turn....

A strange meteor lands in Japan and unleashes hundreds of insect-like "Legion" creatures bent on colonizing the Earth. When the military fails to control the situation, Gamera shows up to deal with the ever-evolving space adversary. However the battle may result in Gamera losing his bond with both Asagi and humanity.

1996 film by Shunji Iwai

Takashi and Yuriko are like any other young couple. He is a high school teacher, she takes care of the household chores and holds a job on the side transcribing audio recordings for a publishing house. Their marriage follows the traditional Japanese model: Yuriko has given up a promising career as a concert pianist and still laments the decision, despite having embraced the life of a housewife, while Takashi stays out until very late every day, spending his time after work with his colleagues rather than with his wife. Though dinners regularly go cold on him and the look on the face of his wife is far from happy, Takashi remains oblivious to the abandonment he inflicts on Yuriko.

1996 film directed by Takashi Ishii

"Atlanta Boogie" centers around a mock track meet between the "normal" and "good" citizens of Yokohama and those they want to expel from the neighborhood: the illegal foreign workers, the deadbeats, the juvenile delinquents, and elderly.