MC Consensus: Japandemonium

[Spinal]

Submit your TEN favorite Japanese films and in about a week or so I will give you a top TWENTY. Films should have Japan listed as a country of origin in IMDb. Hopefully, I won't have to make a ruling on this and it will be self-policing. But the purpose of the thread is to specifically address films that are from Japan.

The point system is as follows

1st Place- 10 points
2nd Place - 8 points
3rd Place - 7 points
4th Place - 6 points
5th Place - 5 points
6th Place - 4.5 points
7th Place - 4 points
8th Place - 3.5 points
9th Place - 3 points
10th Place - 2.5 points

(Point system is weighted to give your top film a boost and to minimize the discrepancy between the films in the bottom half of your list.)

There will be no restrictions on short films. A list must have ten films to be eligible. If you list more than ten films, I will assume that the top ten films are the ones you want to receive points. If you do not list your films 1-10, I will assign the points from the top on down.

If you decide to edit your ballot, please make a new post indicating the changes. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

If, for some reason, you would like to like to submit your ballot via private message, I will accept those as well. However, your ballot will be revealed after the final results are posted.

You may begin now.

[Melville]

1. Woman in the Dunes
2. Onibaba
3. Paprika
4. Princess Mononoke
5. Vengeance is Mine
6. Spirited Away
7. House
8. Love Exposure
9. Nobody Knows
10. Whisper of the Heart

Near misses: My Neighbour Totoro, Audition, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Double Suicide

[Ezee E]

Certainly have some research to do here.

[Spinal]

1. Ikiru
2. Ran
3. Onibaba
4. Perfect Blue
5. Tokyo Story
6. The Seven Samurai
7. Grave of the Fireflies
8. Paprika
9. Nobody Knows
10. Pulse

[Dukefrukem]

1. Akira

[D_Davis]

People who haven't should watch Mind Game now that it's on Netflix!

[Lazlo]

1. Princess Mononoke
2. Spirited Away
3. Seven Samurai
4. Kikujiro
5. Red Beard
6. My Neighbor Totoro
7. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
8. The Twilight Samurai
9. Yojimbo
10. Ikiru

[Skitch]

I don't even know where to begin...

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Throne of Blood (1957)
2. Ikiru (1952)
3. House (1977)
4. Ugetsu (1953)
5. Double Suicide (1969)
6. Seven Samurai (1954)
7. Ballad of Narayama (1983)
8. Vengeance Is Mine (1979)
9. The Demon (1978)
10. Onibaba (1964)

[Sycophant]

People who haven't should watch Mind Game now that it's on Netflix!

I can't believe I didn't know that. I'm glad it finally has a US release/distributor of some kind!

[D_Davis]

I can't believe I didn't know that. I'm glad it finally has a US release/distributor of some kind!

Netflix made some kind of partnership with Studio 4DC, and now a lot of their stuff is available for streaming.

It should be on more lists here. :) The only reason I can fathom it not being on more lists here is that people haven't seen it.

[D_Davis]

1. Mind Game
2. Funky Forest: First Contact
3. Talking Head
4. Nausicaa
5. Patlabor 2
6. Akira
7. Zatoichi (2003)
8. Godzilla VS. Mothra: Battle for the Earth
9. Whisper of the Heart
10. Samurai Fiction

[Spinal]

8. The Twilight Samurai


That's a good movie. Made my short list.

[Peng]

1. Be With You (2004)
2. Rashomon
3. My Neighbor Totoro
4. 13 Assassins
5. High and Low
6. Ikiru
7. Princesss Mononoke
8. After Life (1998)
9. A Story of Yonosuke (2013)
10. Sansho the Bailiff

[Russ]

1. Yearning (1964)
2. Confessions (2010)
3. Mind Game (2004)
4. Woman in the Dunes (1964)
5. Survive Style 5+ (2004)
6. She and He (1963)
7. The Naked Island (1960)
8. A Page of Madness (1926)
9. The Castle of Sand (1974)
10. A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era (1957)

HM: Branded to Kill, Legend of a Duel To the Death, Harikiri, Carmen Comes Home, Twenty-Four Eyes, Seven Samurai, Floating Clouds

[ContinentalOp]

1. Seven Samurai
2. Fireworks
3. Yojimbo
4. Samurai Rebellion
5. High and Low
6. Ikiru
7. Sonatine
8. The Twilight Samurai
9. Ran
10. Taboo

If Dersu Uzala counts, I want it at number 8; Taboo would be out.

[Skitch]

1. Akira
2. Seven Samurai
3. Pistol Opera
4. Ghost in the Shell
5. Dreams
6. Princess Mononoke
7. Battle Royale
8. Pulse
9. Tetsuo: The Iron Man
10. Azumi



11. My Neighbor Totoro
12. Ninja Scroll
13. Throne of Blood
14. Spirited Away
15. The Hidden Fortress
16. Grave of the Fireflies


Okay I just have to stop.

[Gizmo]

1. Grave of the Fireflies
2. Ikiru
3. Spirited Away
4. The Seven Samurai
5. Battle Royale
6. Ran
7. Howl's Moving Castle
8. Princess Mononoke
9. Akira
10. Nausicaa

[Grouchy]

1. Akira
2. Ran
3. Hana-Bi
4. Rashomon
5. Seven Samurai
6. Spirited Away
7. Throne of Blood
8. Tale of Ugetsu
9. Battle Royale
10. Twilight Samurai

[baby doll]

A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)
I Was Born, But... (Yasujiro Ozu, 1932)
Sisters of the Gion (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936)
Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)
Life of Oharu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952)
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Sudden Rain (Mikio Naruse, 1956)
Seppuku (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962)
Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
Tampopo (Juzo Itami, 1985)

[baby doll]

A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)
I Was Born, But... (Yasujiro Ozu, 1932)
Sisters of the Gion (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936)
Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)
Life of Oharu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952)
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Sudden Rain (Mikio Naruse, 1956)
Seppuku (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962)
Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
Tampopo (Juzo Itami, 1985)Whoops, I somehow overlooked Tampopo.

[Spinal]

If Dersu Uzala counts, I want it at number 8; Taboo would be out.

I will allow it.

[D_Davis]

2. Confessions (2010)


I still need to see this.

[Russ]

I still need to see this.
Yes, indeedy, you sure do!

[dreamdead]

1. Throne of Blood
2. Ikiru
3. Seven Samurai
4. Life of Oharu
5. Late Spring
6. Sansho the Bailiff
7. Pulse
8. Mind Game
9. Tokyo Story
10. Spirited Away

[Spinal]

Watching the most recent Macbeth really made me appreciate Throne of Blood.

[Spinal]

Only 10 films have really separated themselves from the pack. I'll like to get a few more lists before tallying if possible. We'll hold on through the holiday.

[Stay Puft]

Oh yeah I forgot about this. Let's see what I can do:

1. After Life (Hirokazu Koreeda)
2. Samurai Rebellion (Masaki Kobayashi)
3. Hana-bi / Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)
4. Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon)
5. Tetsuo, the Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto)
6. Ugetsu monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi)
7. Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara)
8. Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo)
9. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa)
10. Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo)

[Spinal]

4. Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon)


I really need to watch this again.

[PURPLE]

1. Farewell to the Ark (Terayama)
2. The Affair (Yoshida)
3. Pastoral: To Die in the Country (Terayama)
4. Nobody Knows (Koreeda)
5. Eureka (Aoyama)
6. Late Spring (Ozu)
7. Affair in the Snow (Yoshida)
8. Harakiri (Kobayashi)
9. Death by Hanging (Oshima)
10. I Wish (Koreeda)

Have not seen so much, but, specifically: have not seen any Naruse, have not seen Maborosi, have not seen Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets!

[Spinal]

I have a lot of films hovering near the bottom of the list. In order to flesh out the final results, I am going to let you give me up to 3 more films. These films will be given 2, 1.5 and 1 point(s) respectively.

This is for people who have already posted a list. If you haven't feel free to do so. There's still time.

[Sycophant]

I think I can get one in tomorrow.

[Mysterious Dude]

My additions:

11. Life of Oharu (1952)
12. Rashomon (1950)
13. Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

[Peng]

11. Harakiri (1962)
12. Seven Samurai (1954)
13. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)

[Raiders]

I was lurking as I still do from time to time... and saw this thread, read through it and noticed that Mikio Naruse has gotten like, zero love. That's absurd. It would be like having a list of greatest French films with no Godard... oh wait, nevermind, you did that already. :rolleyes:

Anyway:

1. Floating Clouds (1955)
2. Woman in the Dunes (1964)
3. Ugetsu (1953)
4. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1961)
5. Pulse (2001)
6. Only Yesterday (1991)
7. Throne of Blood (1957)
8. Yearning (1964)
9. Spirited Away (2001)
10. Nobody Knows (2004)
11. Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
12. Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
13. Hana-bi (1997)

Though I may not be here for it, I would request the Top Aussie films thread be subtitled We Come from a Land Down Under.

[Grouchy]

11. Audition
12. Sonatine
13. Hara-Kiri (1962)

[Melville]

11. Audition
12. Double Suicide
13. My Neighbour Totoro

[Sycophant]

1. Mind Game (Yuasa, 2004)
2. Hana-bi (Kitano, 1997)
3. Hara-kiri (Kobayashi, 1962)
4. After Life (Koreeda, 1998)
5. Ikiru (Kurosawa, 1952)
6. Mr. Thank You (Shimizu, 1936)
7. End of Evangelion (Anno, 1997)
8. Princess Mononoke (Miyazaki, 1997)
9. Cure (Kurosawa, 1997)
10. Onibaba (Shindo, 1964)
11. Millennium Actress (Kon, 2003)
12. An Autumn Afternoon (Ozu, 1962)
13. The Ideon: Be Invoked (Tomino, 1982)

[Melville]

I was lurking as I still do from time to time... and saw this thread, read through it and noticed that Mikio Naruse has gotten like, zero love. That's absurd.
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs might have made my top 15.

[Stay Puft]

11. Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano)
12. Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi)
13. Paprika (Satoshi Kon)

[Russ]

11, Happiness of Us Alone (Zenzô Matsuyama, 1961)
12. Floating Clouds (Mikio Naruse, 1955)
13. Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962)

[Russ]

3. Pastoral: To Die in the Country (Terayama)
This is a really good film, great choice. How is Farewell to the Ark?

I briefly considered Emperor Tomato Ketchup, but it's kinda...out there. :)

[baby doll]

I have a lot of films hovering near the bottom of the list. In order to flesh out the final results, I am going to let you give me up to 3 more films. These films will be given 2, 1.5 and 1 point(s) respectively.

This is for people who have already posted a list. If you haven't feel free to do so. There's still time. Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu, 1951)
Late Autumn (Yasujiro Ozu, 1960)
An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)

[PURPLE]

This is a really good film, great choice. How is Farewell to the Ark?

I briefly considered Emperor Tomato Ketchup, but it's kinda...out there. :)I haven't seen Tomato Ketchup, but I have a hard time believing it's anything other than a dignified masterpiece.

Farewell to the Ark is fantastic! Supposedly based on that book about an extended period of solitude that I haven't read. It's got a little of everything, but very much in the same vein of Pastoral. I can't always remember what is in one film vs. the other... But somehow I have a greater fondness for Farewell to the Ark. But there's no reason to fight, friends! There's room for.both! Or neither, the way this thread is going...

[Sycophant]

The only feature-length Terayama film I've seen is his first one, Let's Throw Out Our Books and Hit the Streets. Amazing film. Need to catch up with his later work.

[ContinentalOp]

11. Taboo
12. Kikujiro
13. Harakiri

[Gizmo]

Shit. I forgot about Audition. It would be #5 on my list, but if that's too hard, add it at 11 for sure.

[Ezee E]

1. High and Low
2. Grave of the Fireflies
3. Spirited Away
4. Throne of Blood
5. Audition
6. Red Beard
7. Battle Royale
8. Avalon
9. Seven Samurai
10. Akira

Guess there's really not that many movies I love from Japan.

[Spinal]

Shit. I forgot about Audition. It would be #5 on my list, but if that's too hard, add it at 11 for sure.

That's fine. Just give me a new post quoting the original list and indicating the changes you'd like.

[Peng]

11. Harakiri (1962)
12. Seven Samurai (1954)
13. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)

I forgot about Audition too. New one:

11. Harakiri (1962)
12. Seven Samurai (1954)
13. Audition (1999)

[Gizmo]

1. Grave of the Fireflies
2. Ikiru
3. Spirited Away
4. The Seven Samurai
5. Audition
6. Battle Royale
7. Ran
8. Howl's Moving Castle
9. Princess Mononoke
10. Akira
11. Nausicaa

Updated list

[Spinal]

My bonus votes that probably won't change much:

11. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
12. Throne of Blood
13. Whisper of the Heart

[Spinal]

OK, voting is closed. Thanks for the late help. I now have a top 20. Results will begin today, although the holiday will likely delay me a bit.

[Spinal]

#20

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/audition-movie-poster-2002-1020227975_zpshs9vik2h.jpg
Words create lies. Pain can be trusted.

Audition

Director: Takashi Miike

Year: 1999

A widower takes an offer to screen girls at a special audition, arranged for him by a friend to find him a new wife. The one he desires is not who she appears to be after all.

Won the FIPRESCI Prize and the KNF Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
Placed #11 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

Miike claims that the contents of the dog dish were authentic because Eihi Shiina is a method actress.

"The best way to see it would be to stumble absentmindedly into the theater knowing nothing about it. On the other hand, only the most adventurous moviegoers would be grateful for not having been warned." - Scott Tobias, The AV Club

[Spinal]

#18 (tie)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Rashomon_poster_zps7ofsypbr.jp g
It's human to lie. Most of the time we can't even be honest with ourselves.

Rashômon

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Year: 1950

A heinous crime and its aftermath are recalled from differing points of view.

Won an Honorary Award for being the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States in 1951. Although Honorary Awards were occasionally given out, Best Foreign Film would not be an official category until 1956.
Nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White at the Academy Awards.
Won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Nominated for Best Film at the BAFTA Awards.
Nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement by the Directors Guild of America

In addition to the narrative innovation of telling a story from different viewpoints, the film also contains very early use of the hand held camera technique, and is credited as the first film in which a camera is pointed directly at the sun.

"The wonder of Rashomon is that while the shadowplay of truth and memory is going on, we are absorbed by what we trust is an unfolding story. The film's engine is our faith that we'll get to the bottom of things--even though the woodcutter tells us at the outset he doesn't understand, and if an eyewitness who has heard the testimony of the other three participants doesn't understand, why should we expect to?" - Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

#18 (tie)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Late_Spring_Japanese_Poster_zp s5vabx2o6.jpg
Marriage may not mean happiness from the start.

Late Spring

Director: Yasujirô Ozu

Year: 1949

Noriko is 27 years old and still living with her widowed father. Everybody tries to talk her into marrying, but Noriko wants to stay at home caring for her father.

Appeared at #15 on the 2012 Sight and Sound poll of the Greatest Films of All Time.

Most of the movie takes place in Kita-Kamakura, about 30 miles from downtown Tokyo. Several years after the release of the film, Ozu moved with his mother to the area and spent the rest of his life there.

"Late Spring can be seen as Ozu’s first absolutely crucial work, a step toward understanding the ripple effects of the postwar age among ordinary citizens—or, if that’s not possible, then at least capturing them in compassionate amber." - Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

[Spinal]

#17

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/913234-poster01_super_zpsosd8sdy7.jpg
You just have to fight for yourself. No one's going to save you. That's just life, right?

Battle Royale

Director: Kinji Fukasaku

Year: 2000

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other.

Won Best Editing, Best Newcomer (Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda) and Most Popular Film at the Awards of the Japanese Academy. Nominated for six other awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Tatsuya Fujiwara), Best Screenplay, Best Sound and Best Music Score.

Fukasaku began work on the sequel, but died of prostate cancer on January 12, 2003, after shooting only one scene with Takeshi Kitano. His son Kenta, who wrote the screenplay for both films, directed the rest of the film, which was released on May 18, later that year.

"If there’s any movie that’s been made since I’ve been making movies that I wish I had made, it’s that one." Quentin Tarantino

[Skitch]

This is amazing.

[Yxklyx]

Too late but here:

Seven Samurai
Ran
Woman in the Dunes
The Ballad of Narayama
The Hidden Fortress
Paprika
Harakiri
Ikiru
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer
Onibaba

[baby doll]

I wonder if Ozu's film would've placed higher on the list if Setsuko Hara had stabbed Chishu Ryu in the crotch.

[Spinal]

#16

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/After-Life-1998-poster_zpskazapimm.jpg
I'm going to keep you inside me, forever ... I can't bear to be forgotten by any more people.

After Life

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda

Year: 1998

After death, people have just one week to choose only a memory to keep for eternity.

Won Best Film and Best Screenplay at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema.

Some of the interviews seen in the film are scripted. However, some are non-actors reminiscing about their own lives.

"Koreeda, with this film and the 1997 masterpiece Maborosi, has earned the right to be considered with Kurosawa, Bergman and other great humanists of the cinema." - Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

#15

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Tengoku-To-Jigoku_zpsknhzvocf.jpg
I'm not interested in self-analysis. I do know my room was so cold in winter and so hot in summer I couldn't sleep. Your house looked like heaven, high up there. That's how I began to hate you.

High and Low

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Year: 1963

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

Nominated for the Samuel Goldwyn Award at the Golden Globes.
Nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

The film made its American debut in November 1963, the week that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

"High and Low is, in a way, the companion piece to Throne of Blood -- it's Macbeth, if Macbeth had married better." - Paul Attanasio, The Washington Post

[Spinal]

#14

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/onibaba-linen-japanese-64-kaneto-shindo-s-japanese-horror-movie-about-a-demon-mask_zpsrsdk9ss5.jpg
I'm not a demon! I'm a human being!

Onibaba

Director: Kaneto Shindô

Year: 1964

Two women kill samurai and sell their belongings for a living. While one of them is having an affair with their neighbor, the other woman meets a mysterious samurai wearing a bizarre mask.

Won Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actress (Jitsuko Yoshimura).

The scenes of the older woman descending in to the hole had to be shot using an artificial "hole" built above ground with scaffolding, since holes dug in the ground at the location site would immediately fill with water.

"Onibaba is a chilling movie, a waking nightmare shot in icy monochrome, and filmed in a colossal and eerily beautiful wilderness." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

[Spinal]

#13

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Harakiri_Japan_zpsugk5jrld.jpg
What befalls others today, may be your own fate tomorrow.

Harakiri

Director: Masaki Kobayashi

Year: 1962

An elder ronin samurai arrives at a feudal lord's home and requests an honorable place to commit suicide. But when the ronin inquires about a younger samurai who arrived before him things take an unexpected turn.

Won the Jury Special Prize at Cannes.
Won Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Tatsuya Nakadai).

Seppuku and harakiri both mean to commit ritual suicide in Japanese. However, seppuku is the formal term; harakiri is the cruder, less polite term for this act.

"Structured with intricacy and precision, the storyline alternates between present and past, using its extended flashback sequences to delay and then detonate narrative revelations like so many time bombs." - Budd Wilkins, Slant Magazine

[Spinal]

#12

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Ugetsu042015OS_zpszoelxxt2.jpg
Whenever I hear his voice, I tremble. It's the voice of a curse, a lingering attachment to this world.

Ugetsu

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Year: 1953

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

Nominated for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White at the Academy Awards.
Won the Silver Lion and the Pasinetti Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Mizoguchi made his first trip outside of Japan to attend the 1953 Venice Film Festival. He was in his mid-50s.

"The characters in Ugetsu are down to earth, and in the case of Tobei, even comic, but the story feels ancient ... Unlike ghost stories in the West, Mizoguchi's film does not try to startle or shock ... At the end of Ugetsu, aware we have seen a fable, we also feel curiously as if we have witnessed true lives and fates." - Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

#11

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Grave_of_the_Fireflies-128332096-large_zpsd1fodyym.jpg
Why must fireflies die so young?

Grave of the Fireflies

Director: Isao Takahata

Year: 1988

A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.

Won the Animation Jury Award and the Rights of the Child Award at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.

In South Korea, the release of the movie was postponed indefinitely because of the concern that the movie somewhat justified Japan's role in World War II.

"Yes, it’s a cartoon, and the kids have eyes like saucers, but it belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made." - Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

#10

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/tumblr_n7wd0meazn1rmg6igo2_r3_ 1280_zpssehjwx0j.jpg
Man is born crying. When he has cried enough, he dies.

Ran

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Year: 1985

An elderly lord abdicates to his three sons, and the two corrupt ones turn against him.

Won Best Costume Design at the Academy Awards. Nominated for three other Oscars including Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.
Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes.
Won Best Foreign Film and Best Make-up at the BAFTA Awards. Also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design.
Named Best Foreign Language Film by the New York Film Critics Circle.
Won Best Director from the National Board of Review.
Won Best Film and Best Cinematography at the National Society of Film Critics Awards.

Kurosawa's wife of 39 years, Yôko Yaguchi, died during the production of this film. Kurosawa halted filming for just one day to mourn before resuming work on the picture.

"Ran is as close to perfect as filmmaking gets. List any element -- from concept through cinematography, battle action, editing, acting, sound, music, costumes or whatever, right down to makeup -- and Kurosawa's commitment is total. Ran is proof that the spirit can be captured on film. Kurosawa's was." - Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle

[Ezee E]

Confused how Ran wasn't nominated for Best Foreign Film.

[baby doll]

Confused how Ran wasn't nominated for Best Foreign Film.It was a French-Japanese coproduction, and both countries submitted other films.

[Spinal]

#9

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/mindgame_poster_zpsnf5mqkny.jp g
Fear takes the shape we're willing to give it.

Mind Game

Director: Masaaki Yuasa and Kôji Morimoto

Year: 2004

Nishi, a loser who has a crush on his childhood girlfriend, has an encounter with the Japanese mafia and journeys to heaven and back.

Won the Ofuji Noburo Award at the Mainichi Film Awards.

The movie's main character Nishi is based on Robin Nishi, the man who wrote the underground cult comic on which Mind Game was based. Some elements of the story are said to be autobiographical.

"A virtuoso narrative loop-the-loop that travels through a phantasmagoric catalog of animation styles, Mind Game is not just one of the most fantastically experimental anime features seen stateside. It's a superflat cousin to the grown-up cartoon head trips of the '60s and '70s." - Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle

[Spinal]

#7 (tie)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/il_570xN.668494657_he35_zps4aw l4gjy.jpg
Men and women are slaves to their fear of being cheated.

Woman in the Dunes

Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara

Year: 1964

An entomologist on vacation is trapped by local villagers into living with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.

Nominated for Best Foreign Film and Best Director at two separate Academy Award ceremonies.
Won the Jury Special Prize at Cannes.
Won four Mainichi Film Awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Art Direction and Best Film Score.

Teshigahara was the first Japanese director to be nominated for a Oscar for directing.

"Teacher-by-day and hobbying entomologist, our ostensible hero opens the picture harmlessly seeking out new species yet discovers only a nightmare logic. If logic be the correct word, that is, for Woman of the Dunes doesn’t so much make narrative sense as it does allegorical/metaphorical sense; it’s a fevered, intense film, seemingly the result of a fevered, intense mind." - Anthony Nield, DVD Times

[Spinal]

#7 (tie)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/hanabi_zpsnvbwzi7x.jpg
Next time, I'll kill you.

Hana-bi

Director: Takeshi Kitano

Year: 1997

Nishi leaves the police in the face of harrowing personal and professional difficulties. Spiraling into depression, he makes questionable decisions.

Won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Awards.
Won the Critics Award at the São Paulo International Film Festival.
Won Best Foreign Film from the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics.
Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the César Awards.
Nominated for 11 awards at the Awards of the Japanese Academy including Best Film and Best Director. Only won for Best Music Score.

The paintings that appear throughout the movie were painted by Kitano himself after his near-fatal motorcycle accident in August 1994.

"It’s a weird experience that Kitano is offering to movie audiences: We thrill to the violent, heroic exploits that leave many a pierced eyeball, many a severed limb, many a bullet-riddled corpse, but we find uplift in his celebration of community, music, dance, light, color, and companionship." - Jaime N. Christley, Slant Magazine

[Spinal]

#6

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/tumblr_n9sh20MAcH1rt479bo1_r1_ 1280_zps0th2hfp1.jpg
Cut off a wolf's head and it still has the power to bite.

Princess Mononoke

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Year: 1997

On a journey to find the cure for a Tatarigami's curse, Ashitaka finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest gods and Tatara, a mining colony.

Won Best Film at the Awards of the Japanese Academy.

Miyazaki personally corrected or redrew more than 80,000 of the film's 144,000 animation cels.

"A windswept pinnacle of its art, Princess Mononoke has the effect of making the average Disney film look like just another toy story." - Ty Burr, Entertainment Weekly

[Spinal]

#5

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/424263493b3d33e95c59717a5270c3 1a_zpswy1ijtjs.jpg
What did you people do to my head?

Akira

Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo

Year: 1988

A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath that only two kids and a group of psychics can stop.

Won the Silver Scream Award at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival.

The music for the film was completed before any of the composers saw a frame of film or read the script.

"What makes it work is the astounding animation, 160,000 cells worth. The detail is exceptionally realistic, fluid and multidimensional, suggesting both a futuristic world and ancient quests. Otomoto's neon-lit Neo-Tokyo is a marvel of post-apocalyptic tension and desires." - Richard Harrington, The Washington Post

[Spinal]

#4

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/SpiritedAway2001Japan_1_zps7fg volxh.jpg
There must be some mistake! None of these pigs are my parents!

Spirited Away

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Year: 2001

During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.

Won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Won Best Film at the Awards of the Japanese Academy.
Won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Won four Mainichi Film Awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Animated Film and Best Music Score.
Won Best Animated Film at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.
Won 8 Tokyo Anime Awards including Animation of the Year.
Named Best Animated Feature by the National Board of Review.
Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the César Awards.

This is the first film to earn $200 million before opening in the U.S.

"Mr. Miyazaki's specialty is taking a primal wish of kids, transporting them to a fantasyland and then marooning them there. No one else conjures the phantasmagoric and shifting morality of dreams -- that fascinating and frightening aspect of having something that seems to represent good become evil -- in the way this master Japanese animator does." - Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times

[Spinal]

#3

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/throne_of_blood_poster-jpeg_zpsvb5deqlq.jpg
Ambition is false fame and will fall, death will reign, man falls in vain.

Throne of Blood

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Year: 1957

A war-hardened general, egged on by his ambitious wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become lord of Spider's Web Castle.

Nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

That scene with the arrows ... yeah, those are real arrows.

"Throne of Blood is possibly Kurosawa's definitive expression of the estrangement one experiences from their own life as it spins wildly out of control, and he goes about invoking this existential damnation with a ruthless precision." - Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine

[Spinal]

#2

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Ikiru_poster_zps5mhuq8li.jpg
I can't afford to hate people. I don't have that kind of time.

Ikiru

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Year: 1952

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

Won Best Film and Best Screenplay at the Mainichi Film Awards.
Won the Special Prize of the Senate of Berlin at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Nominated for Best Foreign Actor (Takashi Shimura) at the BAFTA Awards.

Hideo Oguni, one of the three main writers, originally envisioned Shimura's character as being a yakuza as opposed to a government bureaucrat.

"I saw Ikiru first in 1960 or 1961. I went to the movie because it was playing in a campus film series and only cost a quarter. I sat enveloped in the story of Watanabe for 2 1/2 hours, and wrote about it in a class where the essay topic was Socrates' statement, 'the unexamined life is not worth living.' Over the years I have seen Ikiru every five years or so, and each time it has moved me, and made me think. And the older I get, the less Watanabe seems like a pathetic old man, and the more he seems like every one of us." - Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

#1

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Seven-Samurai-Poster_zpsnlt8lpsn.jpg
The farmers have won. Not us.

Seven Samurai

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Year: 1954

A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.

Nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.
Nominated for three BAFTA Awards including Best Film and Best Actor (Toshirô Mifune and Takashi Shimura).
Won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Kurosawa designed a registry of all 101 residents of the village, creating a family tree to help his extras build their characters and relationships to each other.

"This 3-hour epic on violence and action--Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece--has been widely imitated, but no one has come near it." - Pauline Kael

[Spinal]

1. Seven Samurai (61)
2. Ikiru (50.5)
3. Throne of Blood (38.5)
4. Spirited Away (36.5)
5. Akira (33)
6. Princess Mononoke (31)
7t. Hana-bi (31)
7t. Woman in the Dunes (31)
9. Mind Game (30.5)
10. Ran (22.5)
11. Grave of the Fireflies (22)
12. Ugetsu (21)
13. Harakiri (20.5)
14. Onibaba (20)
15. High and Low (20)
16. After Life (19.5)
17. Battle Royale (15.5)
18t. Late Spring (15.5)
18t. Rashomon (15.5)
20. Audition (15)

Pulse (15)

NOTE: Where possible, ties are broken with the film receiving votes from more total voters given preference.

[Skitch]

I approve the hell out of this list.

[baby doll]

Seven Samurai is my favorite Kurosawa (it was also the first one I saw), and Throne of Blood, High and Low, and Ran wouldn't be very far behind. Rashomon's sentimental ending is a big weenie shrinker, but it's still obviously a major work. On the other hand, I find Ikiru astonishingly ham-fisted.

Call me crazy, but I prefer Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea to both Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, but they're both pretty terrific as well. I probably need to see Grave of the Fireflies again just to figure out what I think of it, whereas I have no doubts about Pom Poko, which is absolutely delightful.

I haven't seen Woman in the Dunes since I was in high school, but I remember it being crazy and sexy as hell. I remember liking After Life when I was a teenager but I don't know what I'd think of it now, especially as I haven't been too fond of some later Hirokazu films I've seen (especially Still Walking).

Ugetsu Monogatari is only my third favorite Mizoguchi (after Life of Oharu and Sisters of the Gion) but it should still be higher on the list. Late Spring is my favorite Japanese movie period, maybe my favorite film ever, and I Was Born, But..., Early Summer, Late Autumn, and An Autumn Afternoon are all almost equally wonderful. (Ozu's most underrated films are probably An Inn in Tokyo, What Did the Lady Forget?, A Hen in the Wind, and Early Spring.)

I saw Harakiri last year and was blown away by it, and Black River, The Inheritance, and Samurai Rebellion are masterpieces as well.

Battle Royale is a piece of shit and you all know it. Oh, and Audition. Yeah, that was pretty bad too, but at least it had some craftsmanship behind it. Battle Royale is just a dead piece of meat.

I need to take another look at Onibaba, and I haven't seen Akira, Hana-bi, or Mind Game.

[Stay Puft]

Thanks again, Spinal. Great work, and not a bad looking list despite the inevitable Kurosawa dominance.


I remember liking After Life when I was a teenager but I don't know what I'd think of it now, especially as I haven't been too fond of some later Hirokazu films I've seen (especially Still Walking).

I don't think there's much of a comparison, really. I feel like the dude walked straight off a cliff after Nobody Knows (and I wasn't even a big fan of that one, honestly). He's never made a movie like After Life again, conceptually or stylistically, nor has he even tried. He has a lot of fans now, I know - and his last two were invited to compete at Cannes, so I guess he's doing something right? - but I find his early run of films absolutely trounce his more recent work.


Battle Royale is a piece of shit and you all know it. Oh, and Audition. Yeah, that was pretty bad too, but at least it had some craftsmanship behind it. Battle Royale is just a dead piece of meat.

And I know this is a wildly unpopular opinion, but oh I absolutely agree. Those are the only two entries on the list that made me cringe.

There's a reason you all forgot to vote for Audition at the outset, people! It's unworthy.

[transmogrifier]

Audition and Battle Royale are both awesome. I've heard that anyone who doesn't think so has suspect personal hygiene and leaves comments on YouTube.

[D_Davis]

Cool list. Really glad that Mind Game made the cut.

[Spinal]

Yeah, I was disappointed to see the tiebreaker go to Audition over Pulse, since I think the latter is a vastly superior film.

And I really would have liked to see representation from Satoshi Kon, but it's probably my fault for giving Perfect Blue the big points over Paprika.

[D_Davis]

Tokoyo Godfathers is the only Kon film I really like.

[Skitch]

Perfect Blue, Paprika, and Tokyo Godfathers are all much better than Mind Game. That flick was irritating.

[Ezee E]

Rematched top scenes from Audition, and they're amazing. There's a decent amount of fluff in it, but boy... When it does try, it's quite good.

[Melville]

Too much Kurosawa. Not enough Paprika. Audition is great, emotionally resonant pulpy filmmaking.