Japanese Films That Stay With You for Years

Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, and he gathers six other samurai to join him.

Three parties and a witness have four versions of a rape/murder in ninth-century Japan.

A bureaucrat tries to find meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.

When a ronin requesting seppuku at a feudal lord's palace is told of the brutal suicide of another ronin who previously visited, he reveals how their pasts are intertwined - and in doing so challenges the clan's integrity.

An executive of a Yokohama shoe company becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom.

Soon after buying an expensive cello, Daigo learns that his orchestra is disbanding. He moves back to his hometown with his wife, where he answers an ad for what Daigo thinks is a travel agency but is, in actuality, a mortuary.

A family gathers together for a commemorative ritual whose nature only gradually becomes clear.

A renowned stage actor and director learns to cope with a big personal loss when he receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima.

Hirayama cleans public toilets in Tokyo, lives his life in simplicity and daily tranquility. Some encounters also lead him to reflect on himself.

A kamikaze pilot plagued by survivor's guilt seeks redemption when a giant monster he failed to kill is transformed by radiation from atomic bomb tests and lays siege to post-war Japan.

Yuko, a teacher of middle-school, is shattered to see her four-year-old daughter dead. She returns back to the school and finds out that her students are responsible for her daughter's murder.

A frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.

A truck driver stops at a small family-run noodle shop and decides to help its fledgling business. The story is intertwined with various vignettes about the relationship of love and food.

In a dystopian future, a group of students from a Japanese high school are forced by the government to compete in a battle, killing one another until only one is left standing.

A mother demands answers from her son's teacher when her son begins acting strangely.

Takumi and his daughter Hana live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. One day, the village inhabitants become aware of a plan to build a camping site near Takumi's house, offering residents a comfortable escape to nature.

A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.

The head of a Japanese theatre troupe returns to a small coastal town where he left a son who thinks he is his uncle, and tries to make up for the lost time, but his current mistress grows jealous.

A bizarre love triangle forms between a young Catholic upskirt photographer, a misandric girl and a manipulative cultist.