Japanese Movie Listing

I have loved the Japanese culture and Feudal Japan in particular since I was young. I have watched many Japanese movies over the years, and have put my own notes along with the notes of friends and family. Over the this list has grown and grown, thanks to the input of many web visitors!

Note that since each of these movies was seen by a normal human being, what you read here is just one person's opinion :) Your own opinion may of course be different! If you notice that a movie listing is missing or incorrect, please Contact Me (Really!! WRITE ME!!!) so I can update the list!

Check out Japanese Movies By Director if you want to see what movies a given director made. Otherwise, use this alphabetical listing to view your movie by title.

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Midway (1976) The epic WWII battle of Midway, the turning point in the war, is retold through Allied and Japanese viewpoints. Star-studded cast and even-handed portrayal of both sides. Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, Robert Webber, Ed Nelson, James Shigeta, Christina Kokubo.

Mishima
The life story of Japan's most famous author, inspersed with scenes from four of his novels. Mishima started the Tatenokai (Shield Society) as a "shield" for the Emperor. One wonders what the emperor thought about it. [Interestingly, Mshima wrote a commentary on the Hagakure (a manual for samurai). I believe the English translation is no longer in print.] Anyway, _Mishima_ is an American production with English narration and Japanese (English subtitled) dialog. [Jim Holman]

Mission Of The Shark (1991)
A top secret naval mission leads to a scandal-ridden court martial in this true WWII saga, based on the worst sea disaster in naval history. The USS Indianapolis has just completed it's mission (delivering vital pieces of an atomic bomb) when it is torpedoed by a Japanese sub. The survivors spend five days in shark infested waters, awaiting rescue, and when the navy points fingers, the ship's highly decorated and well-respected Captain Mcvay accepts responsability for the good of the service. Stacey Keach, Richard Thomas, David Carrusso, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.

Miss Oyu (1951) 96m. (Oyu-sama)
Mizoguchi's Miss Oyu is a ménage à trois melodrama set in Japan's Meiji period (1867-1912), and based on a story by Junichiro Tanizaki, favourite author of screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda, who scripted all but a handful of Mizoguchi's works from 1936 on. Kinuyo Tanaka is excellent as the eponymous heroine, a young woman who marries, bears a child, and is widowed before she is twenty-one. Shinnosuke (Yuji Hori), a wealthy young bachelor, falls in love with her, but propriety and property laws prevent her from remarrying. In order to be near Oyu, Shinnosuke marries her sister Oshizu (Nobuko Otowa) instead. After a brief period of happiness, the triangular relationship leads to scandal and tragedy. The film offers ample evidence of Mizoguchi's mastery of the long take, and includes one extraordinarily powerful 5-minute, 45-second sequence shot -- when distraught Oshizu accuses her new husband of having married her solely to be near her sister -- that has the actors moving through three rooms and seven different positions. "An exceptionally poignant melodrama" (Andrew Sarris, Village Voice). "Another fine vehicle for Tanaka, made and played with great delicacy, style and emotion" (Bloomsbury). Director: Kenji Mizoguchi. Cast: Kinuyo Tanaka, Nobuko Otowa, Yuji Hori. B&W, In Japanese with English subtitles. [Daniel Richard]

The Mistress (1953) (Gan) D: Toyoda Shiro.
During the Meiji era, a woman is deceived into becoming a mistress but then falls in love with a young medical student who ultimately leaves her. A melancholy but poetic film.

Moborosi (1996 -J). D: Hirokazu Koreda.
Spiritual odyssey of a young Japanese woman recovering from her husband's suicide. (rev NYT 3/26/96)

The Most Beautiful (Ichiban Utsukushiku) (1944)
A group of girls work in a precision / optical / instrument factory making lenses, binoculars, etc.. during WWII. The episodic film is made up of the various stories of the girls, their happiness, their sorrows. Directed by: Akira Kurosawa

Mother (1952) (Okasan) D: Naruse Mikio
Naruse's films, along with Ozu's, defined the shomin geki genre. Perhaps his most famous work, Okasan tells the story of a widow with three children in postwar Japan. Her struggle to build a laundry business to support her family is told with warmth and compassion.

Mothra (1962) 100m D: Inoshiro Honda

Mr. Baseball (1992 - US)
Tom Selleck as ballplayer shipped to Japanese team who must learn much to fit in and win the girl.

Muddy River (1982) 105m D: Kohei Oguri
Life in postwar Japan, as perceived by two young boys. Stunning, memorable. Lovely black and white photography. Independently produced - Oscar nominee.

Musashi Miyamoto (Miyamoto Musashi) (1944) 53m.
The life of legendary 17th-century swordsman Musashi Miyamoto has served as fodder for numerous Japanese novels and films, including Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai, winner of the 1955 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Mizoguchi's version -- based on a novel by Kan Kikuchi, as adapted by screenwriter Matsutaro Kawaguchi -- was made near the end of the war, at a time when the director was trying to distance himself from contemporary events -- and, he claimed, trying to avoid being drafted. While the celebrated samurai's heroic adventures had "obvious nationalistic overtones that could be easily exploited to encourage the war effort" (David Owens), Mizoguchi threw a feminist wrench into the militaristic works by making Miyamoto's love interest (played here by the great Kinuyo Tanaka) a skilled swordswoman pursuing a serious vendetta. "This last characteristic was particularly suited to Mizoguchi's fondness for women who asserted themselves" (Owens). Director: Kenji Mizoguchi. Cast: Chojuro Kawarazaki, Kinuyo Tanaka, Kanemon Nakamura. B&W, In Japanese with English subtitles. [Daniel Richard]

The Mysterians (1959) 85m
When their planet is destroyed, highly intellectual aliens try to invade Earth to try to carry on their civilization. Above average of its type. D: Inoshiro Honda

Mystery Train (US: 1989)
Three loosely connected stories revolving around Memphis and a train trip. Elvis permeates the film. Particularly funny is the segment about a young Japanese couple making a pilgrimage to Graceland.

My Champion (1984)
A chance meeting propels Mike Gorman and Miki Tsuwa into a relationship based on the stong bonds of love and athletic competition. Based on the true story of marathon runner Miki Tsuwa. Yoko Shimada, Chris Mitchum

My Geisha (US: 1962) 120m
Occasionally amusing comedy. Shirley MacLaine is a movie star who tries the hard way to convince husband-director Yves Montand that she's right for his movie. Filmed in Japan. Edward G. Robinson, Robert Cummings, Yoko Tani. D: MacLaine Cardiff

My Love Has Been Burning (1949) 84m. (Waga koi wa moenu)
Based on the life of Eiko Kageyama, a late-19th century Japanese feminist, My Love Has Been Burning is the third film in Mizoguchi's so-called "Fighting Women" trilogy, which also includes Victory of Women (1946) and The Love of Sumako the Actress (1947). Kinuyo Tanaka gives a stellar performance as the heroine (here fictionally renamed Eiko Hirayama), a politically-active schoolteacher who defies her Okayama family and leaves for Tokyo to be with the man she loves, an organizer for the newly-formed Liberal Party. He is soon exposed as a government spy, and she eventually marries the party leader. She discovers, however, that her new husband's progressive attitudes do not extend to the rights of women. Expressive of Mizoguchi's ongoing concern with the nature and position of women, highly critical of Japanese society and politics, and unusually violent by Mizoguchi standards, the film was not well received by Japanese critics upon its release; one suggested it had been made by "a wild animal." "An absorbing piece. . . [that] points to the flowering of [Mizoguchi's] best work in the 1950s" (Bloomsbury). "A film that deserves the same kind of praise as Ugetsu Monogatari and Sansho Dayu" (Time Out). Director: Kenji Mizoguchi. Cast: Kinuyo Tanaka, Ichiro Sugai, Mitsuko Mito. B&W, In Japanese with English subtitles. [Daniel Richard]

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