r/JapaneseMovies

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Epic in scope and emotionally enthralling, “Seven Samurai” is a masterpiece. Beyond its influence on cinema, it rewards the audience with wonderful storytelling, superb pacing, incredible production values, and top-notch performances. Akira Kurosawa and the team poured their hearts and souls into doing this project.

What are your thoughts on the film?

Click on the link to read our review: https://asianmoviepulse.com/2022/07/film-review-seven-samurai-1954-by-akira-kurosawa/

u/tobayas18 — 12 days ago

Hello guys, I’ve been wanting to watch this movie for ever and I check every website I know/find. I don’t really know anyone websites for Japanese movies only so maybe that’s my problem.

I’m also a bit scared there will be no where to watch this since I haven’t heard much about it

u/TomorrowNo8873 — 12 days ago

The AGONY of just discovering Sayuri Yoshinaga knowing I will never be able to watch her films

I just found this actress from some trailers of her old movies I came across and I'm blown away by her beauty especially in her 60s movies. I try looking all of them up and can't any of them anywhere. Some I found on DVD but they would have to come from Japan and are very expensive and of course don't have English subs.

Once again being a fan of Japanese cinema is a tough gig :(

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u/Zombie_Giles — 6 days ago

Hello. It is my first time posting in this subreddit. I would like to ask for some Japanese film suggestions after watching Seven Samurai. I believe Kurosawa did quite a nice job on this for something that was made in the 1950s. However due to its nearly 3 and a half hour run time, I'd have to give it a 7/10. Which of these should I pursue next?

  • 8-ban deguchi
  • Kimi no na wa
  • Hotaru no haka
  • Perfect Days
  • Hauru no ugoku shiro
  • Akira
  • Mononoke-hime
  • Seppuku
  • Koe no katachi
  • Ran
  • Tengoku to jigoku
  • Ikiru
  • Yôjinbô
  • Tôkyô monogatari
  • Ringu
  • Kumonosu-jô
  • Koroshiya 1
  • Tanpopo

Thank you

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u/HighV23 — 11 days ago

Love on the Rainbow Island(1956) : Where to find this?

I have been trying to find this movie but with no luck. Can anyone suggest a website or torrent that has these old japanese movies?

u/Gargantua007 — 3 days ago

So I was getting so much recommendation about this movie and I don't know why I knew this movie had potential and guess what just got halfway through the movie and I'm wondering why didn't I watch it early 😭

I mean it's just so gooooood like howw and am also learning japanese(bcoz of anime tho) but this just motivated me so muchhh guess I will let it marinate for today and will watch the other half tomorrow, great movie tho \\\^-\\\^(no spoilers pls

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u/sagarsa06 — 11 days ago
▲ 18 r/JapaneseMovies+1 crossposts

Excuse me, do you know anything about this movie? Do you know where I can see it?

u/AngelMarkk — 9 days ago

R.I.P : Koji Suzuki (Sadako creator)

The creator of Sadako has passed away. Sadako is an iconic symbol of terror for the world and one of the most recognizable characters in J-horror.

RIP Koji Suzuki. Thank you for creating a character that redefined horror and left a lasting mark on cinema and pop culture around the world.

u/Shay7405 — 4 days ago

Movie of the Day: Hana (2006) by Hirokazu Koreeda

Despite now being typecast as a director of family dramas, Hirokazu Koreeda isn’t a director afraid to step out of his comfort zone, experimenting with fantasy (“Air Doll”) and courtroom drama (“The Third Murder”). It’s no surprise then that his sole jidaigeki (period drama) to date, 2006’s “Hana”, tells the story of a samurai well out of his comfort zone in his role.

What are your thoughts on the film?

Click on the link to read our review: https://asianmoviepulse.com/2020/04/film-review-hana-2006-by-hirokazu-koreeda/

u/tobayas18 — 4 days ago

Takeshi kitano top three

I'm almost done watching all of his films and wanted to see what everones top three films by him are.

My top 3 so far: sonatine, a scene at the sea, kids return

reddit.com
u/samsamcan — 2 days ago

I'm trying to remember the name of an early 2000s late 90s Japanese film

Sorry for the vagueness, but I can't seem to recall this one and I really want to.

It's a live action film about a young woman, I think a first year college student who moves to another city (can't remember if it was Tokyo or not) to live on her own.

The film is a slice of life, just following his girl around as she does her life and learns to be alone. Probably from the late 90s or early 2000s. Not a comedy or a romance. It wasn't a very long film, I'd say around the 1h10m or 1h20m mark. There weren't a lot of characters besides the girl.

Some scenes I remember

-The girl visits a library of used books

-The girl goes to the cinema alone

-The girl is followed by a creep but she manages to evade him and he never shows up again

-The film ends up with a boy coming in to bring the girl an umbrella during the rain as she takes refuge in a store. They don't get together but the film seemed to be hinting at a romance starting to bloom, and that's how it ends

If you could help me recall this film's name I'd be really grateful

reddit.com
u/inidsumslip — 4 days ago

Any discord server to discuss japanese movies/dramas?

Hello

I am kind of new to japanese movies and wanted if there is a active community discussing japanese movies, culture etc. Thank you for reading my query.

reddit.com

Koji Wakamatsu Tribute: Sex, Violence, Revolution and the Cinema of Eternal Rebellion

Koji Wakamatsu was one of Japanese cinema’s most uncompromising voices, a filmmaker who turned pinku, exploitation, political rage, and low-budget filmmaking into a radical cinematic language.

From "Secrets Behind the Wall" and "Go Go Second Time Virgin" to "United Red Army" and "Caterpillar", his work remains ugly, poetic, furious, provocative, and frequently brilliant.

Read our tribute to a director who was not asking to be liked, but to be confronted. Check the full article in the link: https://asianmoviepulse.com/2026/05/koji-wakamatsu-tribute/

What are your thoughts on Wakamatsu?

u/tobayas18 — 3 days ago

Desert of Namibia (ナミビアの砂漠)

This movie is really good.
There is a no correctly person and also incorrectly.
I hope if this director is man… but that’s impossible.
She was like on the cloud.

Some reviews say I don’t understand Kana’s emotion and action.
Most impressive scene was
「Am I weird? 」
「No you aren’t.」
「Then you are 」
「…」
Nobody reject being myself

u/Secret-Assistant-771 — 3 days ago
▲ 8 r/JapaneseMovies+1 crossposts

Watched "Straight to Hell" (地獄に堕ちるわよ) — Netflix series about Hosoki Kazuko, Japan's queen of fortune-telling. Quietly brilliant character study.

https://preview.redd.it/nmkw7uxfkw0h1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=903f98e325bbf26d45848af34853309a16722257

Just finished Netflix's "Straight to Hell" (地獄に堕ちるわよ),

a Japanese biographical series about Hosoki Kazuko — a fortune

teller who dominated Japanese television and publishing for

roughly 20 years, from the 1990s until her death in 2021.

Toda Erika plays her from age 17 to 67.

https://www.netflix.com/jp/title/81700182

A few things stuck with me, and I'm curious what others think.

First, this is biopic territory that English-language prestige TV

has been exploring for a while — The Crown, Pam & Tommy, Inventing

Anna — but applied to a Japanese subject most viewers outside Japan

won't know. Hosoki was simultaneously: a self-made woman who

clawed out of postwar Tokyo, a brilliant operator of postwar TV

culture, and someone whose business practices included what most

would now call spiritual fraud. The show refuses to settle the

question of which of these she "really" was.

What I found interesting: the show is patient with her in a way

American biopics rarely are. There's no third-act reckoning, no

moment where the music shifts and we're told how to feel. The

camera just keeps watching as she negotiates, lies, charms,

threatens, and survives. It trusts viewers to do their own moral

math.

This raises something I've been thinking about with the "difficult

woman" biopic genre. In English-language versions, there's almost

always a structural insistence on framing — Pam Anderson as

victim, Anna Delvey as performance, the Queen as duty-bound.

"Straight to Hell" feels more like a Japanese aesthetic move:

refuse the frame, let the viewer sit with discomfort.

I'd be curious whether anyone who watched this had a different

read. Did the show's restraint feel like respect for the viewer,

or evasion of taking a position? And if you've seen other

Japanese biographical dramas in this vein (思いつくのは「凪のあすから」

or anything by Hirokazu Kore-eda's biographical work), how does

this compare?

8 episodes, streaming worldwide on Netflix. If you liked Pachinko,

Tokyo Vice, or The Crown, the texture will feel familiar — but the

ethical framing is interestingly different.

(Tokyo-based editor btw, watch a lot of these — happy to recommend

more Japanese stuff if anyone's interested.)😀

https://preview.redd.it/78egmtxfkw0h1.jpg?width=275&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=424f0c6b13cf73acf26db73246fc3919a9c4318a

reddit.com
u/Gold-Talk-925 — 1 day ago

Japanese movie nerd here — strong rec: Siblings of the Cape (岬の兄妹)

https://preview.redd.it/mpo83vzcmw0h1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=124deb707d1a03521cfca1965ff9cf127b8918bb

Japanese movie nerd here.

Just want to put Siblings of the Cape (岬の兄妹, 2019) on more

people's radar. It's the directorial debut of Shinzo Katayama,

who worked as an assistant director on Bong Joon-ho's films

(Mother, Tokyo!) and Yamashita Nobuhiro's work before this.

A brother and sister in a fishing village. The brother is

disabled, loses his job. The sister is autistic. Things go to

places that are hard to describe without sounding sensational,

but the film never feels sensational. It feels like Imamura

Shohei territory — patient, ugly, weirdly tender.

Currently on Netflix Japan, Amazon Prime, U-NEXT. International

viewers, check your local Netflix.

Heads up: R-15 in Japan, deals with poverty, disability, and

sex work head-on. Not an easy watch but a real one. If you

liked Pulse-era Kurosawa Kiyoshi, early Bong, or Imamura —

you'll want to see this.

(Have a list of more underrated Japanese stuff if anyone's

curious.)

reddit.com
u/Gold-Talk-925 — 1 day ago