Japanese Film Recs

The other day it was suggested I make a list of Japanese film recommendations, which immediately activated my Special Interest Trap Card; I begin thinking about the many paragraphs I could put out on the subject, which seems like a good impetus to actually use this website. As such, I'm going to break this up into (sub)categories and add to it as time goes on. Like it says on my letterboxd profile, my tastes are absolute and extremely biased; while I exclusively watch extremely cool stuff, your definition of 'extremely cool' might be different than mine. This isn't a be-all end-all canonical list of the greatest of all time; it's stuff that I enjoyed and think represent meritous or interesting elements of the subgenres that I'm into.

Sampler Platter

This section is intended as a real birds-eye view of what I'm into in terms of Japanese cinema, with representative examples of subgenres or just weird cool stuff that serves as a good intro to whet your appetite. If you don't know where to start and don't have a specific interest in mind, this is the place for you.

The Most Terrible Time in My Life
dir. Kaizo Hayashi, 1994
Watch if you want: A gorgeous, stylish, funny neo-noir
If you like it, check out: The sequel, The Stairway to the Distant Past, which is tonally quite different but still superb

Phenomenal score, great performances, excellent humor, and it looks absolutely, absurdly good, with stellar composition and camera movements. This is one of my favorite movies I've seen recently and is just an absolute standout. It's an ode to both American noir and detective fiction as well as the classic, heightened, incredibly designed films of Japan's Nikkatsu studio. Occasional bursts of hard-hitting violence (though nothing too graphic) and a real heart are just icing on the cake.

Zeiram
dir. Keita Amemiya, 1991
Watch if you want: Killer sci-fi action with awesome monster design
If you like it, check out: The sequel Zeiram 2, or another of Amemiya's flicks, like Cyber Ninja

It's no secret I'm a huge fan of the tokusatsu genre -- think Godzilla, Ultraman, people in rubber monster suits wailing on each other, basically. The boundless imagination and excitement behind them, along with frequently incredible monster design, is too awesome to pass up on. One of the best to ever do it is artist, monster designer, and director Keita Amemiya, and Zeiram (both the film and the character) is one of his very coolest. Intergalactic bounty hunter Iria, her AI partner BOB, and two regular humans have to take down near-invincible bio-weapon Zeiram in a fantastic showcase of practical effects, from aforementioned rubber suits to stop-motion beasties to more besides. Iria is a total badass, the humans could easily be hacky "comedy" but are actually pretty enjoyable, and the movie generally is just incredibly cool. All of Amemiya's live-action films that I've seen have been super rad tokusatsu stuff and this movie should clue you in as to why I love them.

Tokyo Drifter
dir. Seijun Suzuki, 1966
Watch if you want: The story of an honorable and absurdly cool drifter with off-the-charts visuals
If you like it, check out: Black Tight Killers, which shares its cinematographer and looks just as good

Seijun Suzuki is a big name when it comes to irreverance, visual style, and cool, and Tokyo Drifter very capably shows off why. Our protagonist Phoenix Tetsu is about as cool as they come, wearing awesome suits as he ambles around, singing his own theme song on his way to deal with his enemies. Production design here is outrageously good with glorious use of color, and the whole production is fantastically enjoyable. You'll be hard-pressed to see another movie as slick as this one.

Noroi: The Curse
dir. Koji Shiriaishi, 2005
Watch if you want: The pinnacle of found footage/mockumentary horror
If you like it, check out: Shiraishi's other films, like Occult, or his series Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi

Koji Shiraishi's found footage films are a major obsession for me, and while Noroi doesn't showcase his trademark offbeat humor, it is the purest example of the absolute dread he can create with his mastery over the subgenre. No other movie feels like this; cobbled together from variety shows, panel appearances, daytime TV, historical footage, and independent research -- all fictional -- the resulting mockumentary weaves together an incredible, sinister occult secret that is without equal. Nothing is ever going to come close to instilling the feeling that you're seeing something that is going to bring evil into your life as watching this late at night on a small screen; there's a reason I've got a Noroi tattoo.

Cure
dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997
Watch if you want: A disquieting, uncanny slow-burn police procedural in one of the best films ever
If you like it, check out: Kiyoshi's other monumental dread-infused work, Pulse (aka Kario)

Cure takes a relatively simple conceit -- a wave of murders across the city, the method of violence the same but the perpetrator different in each case -- and makes it into a hypnotic, uncomprisingly excellent film. To say too much would do the movie a disservice, but there's a reason this is a widely-touted classic and why Kiyoshi Kurosawa is considered so great.

Samurai Wolf
dir. Hideo Gosha, 1966
Watch if you want: to see what classic samurai action can get you in under 80 minutes
If you like it, check out: The sequel, Samurai Wolf II: Hell Cut, Gosha's classic Three Outlaw Samurai, or a zillion other samurai flicks

I'm a huge fan of samurai movies and the genre will definitely get its own section for my recommendations, but as an entry point to chanbara (swordplay action) films, it's tough to beat Samurai Wolf. Isao Natsuyagi plays Kiba, the titular samurai wolf, and he's immensely charismatic and charming -- it's super easy to root for him. Hideo Gosha is one of the masters of the genre and he's playing to his strengths here, the action is awesome, there's sick blood spray, and I can't stress this enough: it's 75 minutes long.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity
dir. Kinji Fukasaku, 1973
Watch if you want: Gritty, violent, scheming organized crime from the series that defined the subgenre
If you like it, check out: The rest of the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series! Or, Hideo Gosha's Violent Streets
Content warning: I forget if this one specifically has any sexual assault, but it's best to go into this genre expecting that it's likely

When it comes to yakuza films, they tend to come in two strains: the earlier ninkyo eiga, typified by chivalrous yakuza maintaining their code of honor and fighting on behalf of the people against their rotten counterparts, and the later "ripped from the headlines" jitsuroku eiga that emphasized the the brazen, backstabbing immoral world without good guys of the "real" yakuza. While Battles Without Honor and Humanity wasn't the first jitsuroku flick (director Kinji Fukasaku had done several others with lots of the same actors for a few years prior), it and the series it spawned absolutely embody the essence of the subgenre. A gorillion guys introduced with title cards saying stuff like "FUTURE UNDERBOSS OF THE YAMAMORI FAMILY", constant backstabbing and betrayal from the higher-ups, totally senseless and rage-motivated violence by the younger members, an endless churn of chaos and death that enriches the oyabun at the head of the clans and leads a wake of prison time and corpses for those underneath. Fukasaku's dense composition in the scheming scenes, his shaky handheld spinning-eye view of the violence, the great music... this sets the bar for jitsuroku everywhere as far as I'm concerned. Four more films following these characters were to come and they're all extremely good. Also, this will introduce you to the stable of actors that show up in essentially every Toei yakuza film, which is a major part of the draw for me -- once you're familiar with them, there's a huge delight in noticing them crop up other places too. The great Bunta Sugawara is a powerhouse and plays our protagonist Shozo Hirono, but just about everyone in this shows up all over the place in the 60s and 70s. A helpful tip from a friend here is that if you can't keep track of all the characters, that's okay -- neither can the guys in the movie, they're just as in over their heads as you are. Just roll with it.

Red Peony Gambler
dir. Kōsaku Yamashita, 1968
Watch if you want: a classic honorable yakuza story with a kickass female lead
If you like it, check out: The rest of the series! They range from 'quite good' to 'absolutely superb' and desrve to be more widely seen

This series totally surprised me -- I didn't totally get the appeal of the earlier ninkyo eiga, compared to the obvious pleasure of sleaze and grit in the later jitsuroku yakuza flicks, but along came Red Peony Gambler and totally blew me away. The story of Oryu the Red Peony, raised by her yakuza boss father, who sets out to avenge his death while wandering Meiji-era Japan and being the best gambler anyone's ever seen. Gorgeous sets (some wonderful mattes here) and an engaging story notwithstanding, this series lives and dies on the shoulders of Junko Fuji as Oryu, and she is an absolute presence. Her charisma, graciousness, kindness, and honor go hand-in-hand with her unchallenged gambling skills and ability to eradicate entire clans in the finale every entry. The series tends to hew fairly closely to the formula established here despite occasional variations; you've typically got mysterious and kind wandering strangers that would be a love interest if not for Oryu's duty, her loyal friends whom she maintains through her unerring respect, and so on. Another cool aspect as the series progresses is getting to see how the changes in the country impact the stories happening -- the introduction of locomotives is a frequent driving force, and seeing telegraph poles all over next to all these traditional buildings is a trip. But even if you only check out the first one, it's absolutely worth your while; I can pretty much guarantee you're going to have a good time.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance
dir. Kenji Misumi, 1972
Watch if you want: The ne plus ultra of samurai ultraviolence
If you like it, check out: The rest of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, which only ramps up from here

Chances are you've probably heard of Lone Wolf and Cub, for good reason. A catatonically stoic Tomisaburō Wakayama as the betrayed Shogunate executioner Ogami Itto wanders the country with his son and baby cart, plying his trade as an assassin while on a quest for vengeance. The series is absolutely locked in on delivering the heights of samurai pulp violence, with a wake of decapitations, surging bloodsprays, and severed limbs folowing Itto and Daigoro as they walk the demon way. It is pretty much the most righteous shit imaginable, with awesome cinematography and fantastic music completing the package. If this at all sounds like your kind of thing, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
dir. Shusuke Kaneko, 1995
Watch if you want: Fantastic kaiju action in a non-Godzilla package, or if you really liked Yukijiro Hotaru in Zeiram
If you like it, check out: The other two films in the trilogy, which just get better and better

Gamera's goofy reputation might be hard to get over, especially if, like me, you mostly knew him from old Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episodes. Don't dismiss the big turtle out of hand, though; his 90s trilogy of movies are some of the all-time best kaiju films ever made, with awesome practical effects, actually engaging human characters(!!!), and a lot of heart. You will believe that a giant turtle can fly like a UFO, and you will believe he is friend to all children; you'll also see some spectacular damage get done to some miniatures.