Japanese films from the '90s
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- DirectorJun IchikawaStarsRiho MakiseTomoko NakajimaYasuyo ShirashimaTugumi, who lives in a small seaside town, has been in delicate health from birth. Her parents spoiled her and she is rough and selfish. However, a few people are attracted by her beauty and unique character. In this summer, Tugumi loves Kyoichi Takahashi, who works in the art gallery of the town. One of Tugumi's old boy friends, the leader of bad boys, attacks Kyoichi and kills Tugumi's pet dog from jealousy. Tugumi plans revenge.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsSachiko MuraseRichard GereHisashi IgawaThree generations' responses to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
- DirectorTakeshi KitanoStarsClaude MakiHiroko ÔshimaSabu KawaharaThe lives of a young, hearing-impaired and gloomy couple are fulfilled after the boy holds interest in surfboarding.
- DirectorSion SonoStarsAkaji MaroYoriko DôguchiShirô SanoA quiet killer is looking for a room. The real state agent, shy and expressionless, guides him through Tokyo, towards the ruins the decadent economy has left behind, in hopes of finding The Room.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaIshirô HondaStarsTatsuo MatsumuraHisashi IgawaGeorge TokoroFollowing World War II, a retired professor approaching his autumn years finds his quality of life drastically reduced in war-torn Tokyo. Denying despair, he pursues writing and celebrates his birthday with his adoring students.
- DirectorTakeshi KitanoStarsTakeshi KitanoAya KokumaiTetsu WatanabeSeveral yakuza from Tokyo are sent to Okinawa to help end a gang war. The war then escalates and the Tokyo drifters decide to lay low at the beach.
- DirectorJûzô ItamiStarsRentarô MikuniMasahiko TsugawaNobuko MiyamotoA self-centered, hard-drinking actor and director falls seriously ill with stomach cancer
- DirectorRintarô MayuzumiKazuyoshi OkuyamaStarsNaoto TakenakaMichiko HadaMasahiro MotokiEdogawa Rampo is a writer whose latest work is censored by the government, deemed too disturbing and injurious to the public to be allowed to be published. However, after burning his drafts, his publisher shows him a newspaper with an account of events just like his forbidden story. As the film progresses, fantasy and reality intermingle in a tale that draws heavily on influences from Poe and Stoker's Dracula. The film's strongly Expressionistic direction skillfully combines a variety of media (animation, computer-generated imagery, grainy black-and-white fast film stock, color negatives) for artistic effect.
- DirectorBanmei TakahashiStarsSawa SuzukiReiko KataokaAya SugimotoA look a the lives of two sex workers in Tokyo: Rei, who works as an S&M dominatrix, and Ayumi, in the more straightforward profession of call girl. In addition to their working life, the film also looks at their private lives. Rei is acting in an amateur theatre company (along with the receptionist from Ayumi's escort service), while Ayumi is living with her student-boyfriend as he struggles to finally get accepted to college.
- DirectorShunji IwaiStarsMiho NakayamaEtsushi ToyokawaBunjaku HanAfter losing her fiance in a fatal mountain-climbing incident, Hiroko was devastated. She comes across his childhood address in a school yearbook and impulsively writes to him. But what happens when she receives a reply?
- DirectorRyosuke HashiguchiStarsYoshinori OkadaAyumi HamasakiKouji YamaguchiThe film is built around the very complex relationships between Yoshida, leaving Shimizu for Aihara (or at least he tries to), and his friend Ito, whose love for Yoshida seems to have little chance of success.
- DirectorTomoaki HosoyamaStarsKei MizutaniTakashi SumidaYasuyo ShirashimaKeiko Nadachi is a substitute weather-girl for Michiko Kawai on J-TV. As a way of signing off, she hikes up her skirt and flashes her underwear at the audience. This move makes her an instant cult TV figure and a celebrity. Then Kaori comes back to work and an all-out war erupts between the two of them, with an old high school flame of Keiko's trapped in the middle.
- DirectorTakashi IshiiStarsKôichi SatôMasahiro MotokiJinpachi NezuFive men plot to steal a large sum of money from the local yakuza, but everything does not go as planned and the men find themselves hunted down by contract killers.
- DirectorTakashi MiikeStarsKippei ShînaTomorô TaguchiTakeshi CaesarAmidst a Chinese and Japanese mafia war, a lawyer for the Chinese mob finds a rift forming between him and his corrupt police office brother.
- DirectorShin'ya TsukamotoStarsKaori FujiiShin'ya TsukamotoKôji TsukamotoSuspecting that his childhood friend, a professional boxer, is having a love affair with his fiancée, a businessman starts training rigorously in order to take him down.
- DirectorHirokazu KoreedaStarsMakiko EsumiTakashi NaitôTadanobu AsanoA young woman's husband apparently commits suicide without warning or reason, leaving behind his wife and infant.
- DirectorMasayuki SuôStarsKoji YakushoTamiyo KusakariNaoto TakenakaA successful but unhappy Japanese accountant finds the missing passion in his life when he begins to secretly take ballroom dance lessons.
- DirectorShunji IwaiStarsCharaTadanobu AsanoKoichi HashizumeCoco, Tsumuji, and Satoru, patients of a mental clinic who believe the world will end, escape from the clinic and search for a place to picnic so they can watch the end of the world.
- DirectorYoshimitsu MoritaStarsEri FukatsuSeiyô UchinoSei HiraizumiA young Tokyo businessman joins an online movie forum and develops a special bond with one of its members through back and forth e-mails.
- DirectorTakeshi KitanoStarsKen KanekoMasanobu AndôLeo MorimotoDropping out of high school, two friends at first find success, one as a up-and-coming boxer and one as a low level gangster. Yet, their life decisions still find a way of catching up with them.
- DirectorTakashi IshiiStarsKen OgataShinobu ÔtakeKimiko YoA man in debt, in search of revenge after his wife is assaulted, finds the Gonin thieves.
- DirectorShunji IwaiStarsHiroshi MikamiCharaAyumi ItoThe struggles of a group of immigrant outcasts living in an alternative-future, xenophobic Japanese metropolis.
- DirectorSion SonoStarsKeiko SuzukiEiichi UchidaKeiko Suzuki is a lonely waitress in Tokyo. Her father passes away of cancer and she becomes obsessed with the passage of time. And so, three weeks before her 22nd birthday, she decides to record this period of time in the most accurate way possible, regardless of how lonely or banal this record ends up being.
- DirectorNobuhiro SuwaStarsEri YuMiyuki YamamotoHidetoshi NishijimaYu, an employee at a clothing boutique, lives with Kei, an out-of-work actor who lives off of her. When one day he asks her to get married, the balance of their relationship seems to be irremediably disturbed.