Best Japanese Films Kinema Junpo (1926-2025)

A young woman breaks off her long-term relationship with her boyfriend to move to Tokyo in search of new experiences.

When Ken, the leader of the once-notorious biker gang of Tokyo, falls in love with a barmaid, he quickly loses his rebellious ideals. The rest of the gang feels betrayed, especially the reputedly troubled kid Jin who revolts against his former friend.

A couple originally from Okinawa run an inexpensive restaurant in Kobe, with their grade-school daughter, Fuuchan. The movie depicts the warm interaction between her and adults that grew up with the rough history of Okinawa and discrimination from the mainland. Shots partly on location at beach of Itoman, Yogi Park and Hateruma Island. This is the movie version of the well-known novel by Kenjiro Haitani.

Aspiring to be admitted to a good university and to become a lawyer, Tasiro Yuusuke, a tenth-grader from Kyushu, enrols in a prestigious high school in Tokyo. Plans are made for him to live in his uncle's house, part of which is rented out while his uncle is abroad on business. A realtor's mistakes leaves Tasiro sharing the house with Kei Yamaba, the most beautiful girl in the school, who is also his classmate. There is the risk that their unexpected 'co-habitation' will be discovered by the school authorities. While he grows increasingly attracted to her, he is often irritated by her innocent and nonchalant attitude towards their predicament. They each develop other romantic attachments, but end up turning to each other.

A pilot crash-lands in the African wilds, and loses his memory. He finds an old man living in the jungle with his grand-daughter. He falls in love with the young girl and settles down happily with them; their idyllic life broken only by a visit from his long forgotten fiancee.

寅次郎收到莉莉從沖繩寄來的信，原來她在夜總會唱歌時暈倒入院，還說：「臨死前，很想見寅一面」。寅馬上趕到沖繩照顧莉莉，縱然闊別了五年，兩人的感情有增無減，莉莉休養期間，寅更隨傳隨到，旁人都以為他們是夫妻……淺丘瑠璃子演的莉莉第三度登場，叫寅再三考慮「結婚問題」。山田自言「這是我最愛的作品之一」，渥美清去世後，山田在《男人之苦》系列中只選了本片(加插新片段)推出特別版來紀念這位一代巨星。
Upon receipt of a letter from Lily telling Tora that she would like to see him before she dies, Tora rushes to Okinawa, where Lily has fainted during one of her performances. Although five years has passed since they parted, the former couple continues to care about each other, and Tora nurses Lily to health. The personal favourite of Yamada Yoji , Tora-san's Tropical Fever was the only film re-released (with added scenes) by the director to commemorate Atsumi Kiyoshi after the superstar's death.

Set in Japan's Tenpyou era (729-749 CE), four young monks are sent to China to study Buddhism and bring a high priest back to Japan with them. The film tells the tale of the four monks' youth and the life and times of the high priest Ganjin.

17 year old Saki lives in a run-down shack with her mom, who survives by pushing a food cart from dawn to dusk. Saki has dropped out of school, and when she's not helping her mother selling noodles in the streets, she's playing flesh-games with boyfriend Sotoo. In her spare time, the girl also entertains a truck driver named Ataru. She believes her promiscuity is a trait inherited from her mom. Determined to improve her lot in life, Saki decides to stop seeing the two guys.

The tale takes place around 1650, after the death of the third Tokugawa shogun, when ronin were expelled from Edo, the military capital. During the political instability following the death of Iemitsu Tokugawa, Hanzo's Iga ninja clan battles against the Koga clan as various factions vie to seize power. The child shogun Ietsuna is kidnapped but turns out to be hidden under (or over) everyone's noses in a castle turret which is reinforced by a comic book villain, the fire-spitting black ninja. The good ninja has to get through all the traps & save the child.

1980 film by Toru Murakawa

Mariko Miyagi is back documenting the activities of disabled children from her own school, Nemunoki. This time, the whole documentary focuses on the healing powers of creativity and drawing.

After a married businessman has his way with a young prostitute he takes good soak in the bath. When he returns to the bedroom he discovers her bloody body. Suddenly two men enter the room with cameras proceed to blackmail him. At first they just want money but when they find out the businessman has a sexy wife she becomes part of the payment.

A thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu is on the run from the police.

A high school science teacher is the butt of all his students' jokes, until their bus is hijacked on a school trip. But something more sinister lurks beneath the surface: he's building an atomic bomb in his apartment.

Keiko is a 23-year-old lonely virgin who lives in a tiny room, and hopes to meet someone in the cafe she frequents. After a bad affair with one of the other diners, she vows to give up men. She then begins a happy lesbian relationship with her co-worker Kazuyo. However she is under constant pressure from her father to marry.

Junko Miyashita plays a mysterious hitchhiker picked up by a brute of a construction worker named Kenzo who takes her back to his run-down and cramped apartment in a not so good part of town. Claiming that she is running away from an abusive husband, she shacks up with him. In a futile attempt to escape the bleak working class surroundings, the pair engage in an obsessive erotic relationship.

A man whose son has been murdered pushes to create laws to financially protect victims' families.

Akira leaves for the Mt. Gassan foothills before winter's onset, visiting the local temple and interacting with the residents all while falling for fair Fumiko.

A 19-year-old newspaper delivery boy begins collecting information on the households in his neighborhood and keeping a journal of why he doesn't like them. Declaring himself a 'right-winger' and calling in bomb threats against the neighbors he doesn't like, the 19-year-old begins a war of psychological terror against the families in his neighborhood.

Mariko is living the life of a typical Japanese college student in the 70's, spending far more of her time balancing boyfriends and part-time jobs than on her schoolwork. She finds herself torn between a former boyfriend who's the tough, insensitive-but-sexy, type, and a new acquaintance who's more sensitive to her feelings, but who still acts childishly selfish at times. Will she choose one of them, or decide to go her own way?