Japan has one of the richest cinematic histories in the world, which is why it is very hard to make a Top 10 Film list. Even though many Japanese classic movies are readily available, there are many that never got a proper release. That means, this list will change over the years as I come across previously unseen films. As it is, this list has changed many times over the last few decades. There was a time when Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon was in the Top 3 and Kenji Mizoguchi’s films were in the Top 10.
This Top 10 could easily be filled with films from Kurosawa,
Ozu and Mizoguchi. However, this list has now a handful of genre films in the Top
10 such as Kaiju (Gojira),
thriller (Black Test Car) and crime (Kinji Fukasaku’s masterpiece). All these
films are there on merit. Plus, I have cheated slightly and incorporated all three
Human Condition parts and all five volumes of Battles Without Honor and
Humanity.
Top 10 Japanese Films of all time:
1. Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujirô Ozu)
2. Ikiru (1952, Akira Kurosawa)
3. Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
4. Godzilla (1954, Ishirô Honda)
5. Tampopo (185, Jûzô Itami)
6. Black Test Car (1962, Yasuzô Masumura)
7. The Human Condition Parts 1-3 (1959-61, Masaki
Kobayashi)
8. Fires on the Plain (1959, Kon Ichikawa)
9. Battles Without Honor and Humanity vol 1-5
(1973-74, Kinji Fukasaku)
10. When
a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960, Mikio Naruse)
Honourable Mentions (in order of preference):
High and Low (1963, Akira
Kurosawa)
Woman in the Dunes (1964, Hiroshi
Teshigahara)
Like Father, Like Son (2013, Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Happy Hour (2015, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
My Neighbour Totoro (1988, Hayao Miyazaki)
