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A long road to reach this point. While I had screened the film previously, I had only seen a handful of films at that point. This time around having completed the full run of the series the character moments hit so much harder.

I felt each memory of Mitsuo, the conversations with Sakura and Hiroshi, the appearances by Gen and even Akemi. Shibamata is still thriving even as the next generation arrives.

The hopeful melancholy of the series remains intact with no easy endings or full resolution. These characters still feel like your extended media family. Thank you Yamada-kantoku. Thank you Atsumi-san.

A wonderful conclusion to the series and my lecture on Tora-san in the bubble-era for PSU’s Center for Japanese Studies. Now to write that article submission!

Watched on Wednesday May 21, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday May 20, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday April 22, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday May 21, 2025.

Watched on Monday May 19, 2025.

Special Edition re-releases were all the rage in 1997. Much like the Star Wars Trilogy this entry features some janky CGI to place Tora-san as a half memory/mirage to Mitsuo that opens up thoughts to him about his Uncle and relationship with Lily, before providing a revisit of the 25th entry in the series.

Other reviews note this entry as being unnecessary or note offering much when having seen all the other films. My counter point is that this entry is part of the grieving process for Yamada and co, not quite ready to deal with the loss of Atsumi Kiyoshi. Both "Rainbow Seeker" films and particularly this updated re-release speak to a cycle of life for the cast, crew, Yamada, and Shochiku to think about the potential of continuing the series without Atsumi or offering a new repertory screening with Mitsuo as the central figure. On the most basic level it is a wistful eulogy to a series that encomed nearly 30 years of life and change filtered through Shibamata.

Having just ed the 55th anniversary of the series with updated 4K blu-ray releases, new books, memorial events, and Yamada and Baisho completing a new film for summer 2025 there is an eternal feeling to this series.

Watched on Sunday May 18, 2025.

Watched on Saturday May 17, 2025.

Watched on Saturday May 17, 2025.

Difficult to encapsulate the immensity of this series in a single entry. Planned or not Yamada hedged his bet with this entry offering comforting reconciliations between characters - pointing toward happily ever after, but not guaranteeing such a saccharine resolution.

For all the potential nostalgia, Yamada and company do not fall prey to finality. Our Tora-san continues to wander peddling his wares and pointedly helping those who need it wherever he goes.

I can only imagine being born in the early 1960s and growing up with this series as a constant throughout your life into adulthood. Even in a compressed watch over several months the Kuruma/Suwa characters have come to mean a great deal to me. Extensions of my own sense of family even if some are more troublesome than you wish. Only after watching the full series do I recognize the enduring love for the character and the need for Yamada to eulogize his career and relationship with Atsumi following his ing in successive films.

What a gift of life it is to have people who create and devote, in part, their lives to expression of family and relationships. Like Mitsuo I know my thoughts will drift to Uncle Tora and when I need to rewatch some of my favorite journeys with him.

Watched on Saturday May 17, 2025.

Really enjoyed the artistry, locations, and relationship dynamics between Mitsuo and Nao, even Tora’s romance.

Having Mitsuo working for a shoe company in sales offers a latent dichotomy of salaryman expectations from his family and the street peddler spirit that resides in him.

Shots in areas like Shibuya and Asakusa emphasize the early post bubble hustle vs the more tranquil movement of rural spaces near Lake Biwa.

Very nice late entry, even with the very noticeable signs that Atsumi’s health is clearly declining. The flash of his smile as Tora-san never fades though.

Watched on Friday May 16, 2025.

Watched on Thursday May 15, 2025.

Nice off-shoot from the three year focus on Mitsuo and Izumi's will they/won't they courtship.

Very nice location photography leaning into the boost of tourism a Tora-san film corollary provides with each entry.

Nice simple rhythms here, but starts with a bit of melodrama in the Suwa household.

Watched on Wednesday May 14, 2025.

The destruction of Suzuka Circuit will not be forgiven

Entering the final stretch of the series. First film I can think of where Yamada has an almost meditative quality in shot composition and holding on characters without dialogue. So much of the series is built around the blabber-mouth quality of Tora-san that silence seems to equal death for the Kuruma/Suwa families.

This is likely overstating as we have many great monologue beats from the title character, romance sequences between Mitsuo & Isumi, and a final set of sequences at the station platform which ramp up the melodrama from the previous three entries.

Mitsuo is at times a tiring character, not as humorous as his uncle, unable to express his feeling for Izumi, yet frequently whining at the unfairness of nearly everything. It has not worn me out, but watching the films in close proximity heightens this point a bit.

This is also the first film that literally sidelines Tora with a "broken" foot so many of the scenes he is sitting or resting. Need to read more if this owes to the script or Atsumi's health declining and needing plot points to have him seated. That said the fight scene with him and Shacho back at the Kuruma household still gets a smirk out of me every time.

Watched on Thursday May 8, 2025.

Watched on Thursday May 8, 2025.

Watched on Thursday May 8, 2025.

Watched on Friday May 9, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday May 7, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday May 6, 2025.

A lot of strengths in this entry. The developing relationship between Mitsuo and Izumi, transportation doubling for progress, and a dynamic engagement between Izumi's Mother and Tora. Not my favorite entry of these latter films, but the increasing rancor between Mitsuo and his parents the angsty young adult quality actually reads pretty well (even if some beats feel more annoying than heartfelt).

The series attempts to be rather A-political, but that in-itself is a political act. Hiroshi commenting on the fall of the Berlin Wall, the clothing of Izumi's mother as a bar Madam, even the CDs Tora peddles for the closing scene speak to changing excesses in the late bubble period.

Really enjoyed the re-watch of this in sequence and thinking through the slow development of Mitsuo as a character and family member to eventually center the story on. With the remaining six features in the initial run will be curious to see the level of attention placed on him. Particularly knowing Atsumi's health begins to decline in lock step with the bubble-bursting, our lovable Tora is also winding down as a constant in Japan's domestic filmmaking landscape.

Goto Kumiko's entrance to the series is pleasant as well and offers a true shift from a Madonna for Tora to the potential for romance in Mitsuo's life.

Envious of audiences seeing these films in real time, spending a few hours during the New Years holiday going with family or escaping a bit of at-home holiday duty to spend time with Auntie, Uncle, Hiroshi, Sakura, Mitsuo, Shacho/Tako, and of course Tora.

Location change offers quaint culture clashes, but not much else. Really the focus is on the first half with Emoto Akira’s overstressed salaryman.

Even with the travel, location change, and efforts of the crew time and again it comes back to a close-up of Atsumi’s face offering a reaction or thought the audience processes from his demeanor that offers the most action. 41 entries in and the face is still the most dynamic component of the series.

Watched on Sunday May 4, 2025.

Love this - even better on SLP VHS

Not a good movie by any means. It was a flick my family/I recorded on a free HBO weekend and as a result have watched hundreds of times. I know every beat of this silly movie and each dumb “disguise” is more comic than the last, one hopes this is a Top Secret! sequel. RIP Val.

Watched on Saturday May 3, 2025.

Watched on Friday May 2, 2025.

Watched on Thursday May 1, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday April 30, 2025.

Perhaps with Morita's Sorobanzuku the most bubble-coded film of the decade. Part of a double-header of popcorn filmmaking by Omori Kazuki in 1989 with this and Godzilla vs. Biollante there is a synergy of the pop excess of this period.

In some ways this picture is a more entrenched film dripping with ideas of the era. Kirin Pure Pilsner product placement, a battle over control of a French fine dining restaurant, westerners used as shorthand for higher class cosmopolitanism, and pop tunes from Omega Tribe to continue the Kadokawa media-mix.

The actors all do their best with the source material that was also a hit NHK drama the same year. The clothing, set pieces, and love story are all competently placed, but as a time capsule for the era it is unmatched. Wish there were subs or this was more readily available for audiences outside Japan.

Sillier by a third, but really works for me. Placing Tora in “fish out of water” environments produces some endearing moments.

 The sequence in a lecture hall might turn some off, but works so well and speaks to the endearing quality and importance of the character after 20 years in the pop culture landscape. You can even catch an extra in the foreground of that sequence generally cracking up and trying to stifle it as Atsumi Kiyoshi rips into a comedic monologue. Extra points that this whole sequence takes place at Waseda, one of my alma maters, that has a flowy interconnected feeling with the environment unlike the gate at Todai or Meiji’s larger building.

Really wonderful entry that offers another nice beat between Tora and Mitsuo next to Edogawa. Contender for best of the bubble-era entries.

There is a strong film in here, but the elements do not offer a full engaging experience. I wondered initially why Yakushimaru never appeared as a Madonna in the Tora-san series. This connects with her trying for more serious, themed pictures after leaving the Kadokawa umbrella. Unfortunately this film is playing as an ensemble rather than a character driven story initially before trying to boil down to that in the final scenes. As a whole this feels like an undeserved portrait of the early postwar period, but it feels very clear why Yamada would be attracted to the concept.

Watched on Tuesday April 29, 2025.

Effective efforts for Tora to cosplay as a father and almost have the idea of a family, even if they all see it as an illusion.

This one is pretty confined within the margins of the characters met. Feels like a bubble within the bubble where changes in culture and personal consumption are ignored for the benefit of a audience wanting the escape.

That is until the sequence of Mitsuo and Tora walking to Shibamata Station. While the question "What is the meaning of life" is too broad for any film to due justice, the film is noting that changes are a foot in what will be the final sequence of films in the series. The blocking, lighting scheme, and color timing all shift in this one small scene. There is a grounded quality as Mitsuo is earnestly realized as a character.

Basically perfect. Cannot fathom why I waited so long to revisit.

Watched on Sunday April 27, 2025.

Watched on Saturday April 26, 2025.

Watched on Sunday April 27, 2025.

Blank Check is correct, entirely different viewing experience watching through lens of every character wanting to fuck that horse.

“I am. I was.” - Gigolo Joe

Hard to argue against the brilliance of Mifune, even if he has lost a step or two with age and drink. The smallest facial twitch still commands so much from the screen. Pairing with Tora is quite a delight and offers a deviation from much of the standard character beats in the series.

The location photography in Hokkaido is pretty brilliant in this one too. Also, focusing on a father-daughter dynamic, removing the tension on youthful love stories is a good change of pace too.

Almost a counterbalance to the ideals of the bubble (as much of the series is), but almost pointedly focused on the importance of rural life and returning to your roots.

Watched on Tuesday April 22, 2025.

Pure bubble fluff and the opening of the Baba Bubble Trilogy.

Would not show this in class as a feature, but absolutely have to include it in the discussion as a film consumed with the themes of the era. Conspicuous consumption and leisure as a rising sign of the goals of the era. Stands in stark contrast to something like the Tora-san series and its most recent pairing at the time of Mifune Toshiro in the 38th entry.

For a cheapy quick sequel there are some very cinematic moments and solid action staging. The Aerial photography combined with model compositions is quite effective.

The mediation of Osaka’s destruction is perhaps the standout sequence for me before a “how will they stop it” final run at the glacier. Obviously no where near the pathos of the original, but shows that the Kaiju series has legs and will offer a lot to franchise on. A pity these are the only black and white offerings of the original Showa cycle of pictures.

Watched on Monday April 21, 2025.

Every film awarded Best Picture at the Japan Academy Awards

• The Yellow Handkerchief
• The Incident
• Vengeance Is Mine
• Zigeunerweisen
• Station
• Fall Guy
• The Ballad of Narayama
• The Funeral
• Gray Sunset
• House on Fire

...plus 38 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• It's a Wonderful Life
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Cool Hand Luke
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• A Clockwork Orange
• The Godfather
• The Godfather Part II
• Jaws
• Apocalypse Now
• Alien

...plus 99 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Waiting for Guffman

  Rented Blu-ray Library

• Vengeance Is Mine

  Blu-ray (Own)

• The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

  Many streaming services

• All the Long Nights

  Digital File

• Days of Heaven

  4K BD Disc (Own)

• The Outrun

  Netflix

• Before Night Falls

  DVD Hold Request through Library

• The Vanishing

  The Criterion Channel

• Paris Is Burning

  Blu Ray (Own)

• Challengers

  Amazon, MGM+

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Mitchells vs. the Machines
• Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
• Aristocrats
• The Chicken
• The Day of Destruction
• Wife of a Spy
• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
• Wolf's Calling
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi

...plus 231 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

(1978) 野生号の船海
Snoopy and Charlie Short film (not included)

1. The Inugami Family
2. Proof of the Man
3. Never Give Up
4. Devil's Flute
5. Dead Angle
6. The Adventures of Kosuke Kindaichi
7. The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf
8. G.I. Samurai
9. Virus
10. The Beast to Die

...plus 55 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Kinema Junpo 100th Anniversary Special Project #6
1990 era Japanese Film Best 15

*Published October 2019*

Ranking of "Best 16" Japanese films from the 1980s. Films are listed in order, but include all films that received a vote from the critics and individuals included in the poll.

Current Missing titles:
kemonotachi no seien: Ike toki, issho (1995) - Dir. Imaoka Shinji (after 39 Seiho)
totsuzenhono gotoku (1994) -
Big show! Hawaii ni utaeba (1999)
Mimo Kokoromo (1997)
Reibyo densetsu (1998)
歌舞伎役者 片岡仁左衛門　登仙の巻　(1995)
COZY GARDEN (1998)
姉妹どんぶり　抜かずに中で 1997
地球交響曲 ガイアシンフォニー第三番 (1997)
チャカ2 (1999)
NOBODY (1994)
病院はきらいだ (1991)
萬歳樂 (1999)
見世物小屋~旅の芸人・人間ポンプー座~ (1997)
病は気から 病院へ行こう2 (1992)
ルイズ その旅立ち (1998)
渡り川 (1994)

1. All Under the Moon
2. Sonatine
3. Moving
4. Cure
5. Shall We Dance?
6. Sumo Do, Sumo Don't
7. Tokarev
8. Fireworks
9. Princess Mononoke
10. Boiling Point

...plus 269 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Wicked
• Dune: Part Two
• Oppenheimer
• Barbie
• Top Gun: Maverick
• The Batman
• Dune
• Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
• Tenet
• 1917

...plus 39 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Only films included on the "Best Ten" annual list from Kinema Junpo for Japanese Films listed from 1926-2024 with noted exceptions below.

*61 Titles added to database. Magazine uses ranked voting, multiple years include ties which allow for more than ten films on certain years.

1924-25 Best Foreign Films Only
1930 - Best 3 Contemporary, Best 3 Period only
1943 - No Films selected
1944 - No Films selected
1945 - No Films selected
1946 - Best 5 only

1. All the Long Nights
2. Desert of Namibia
3. Evil Does Not Exist
4. Cloud
5. My Sunshine
6. Living in Two Worlds
7. Look Back
8. Dare to Stop Us 2
9. Last Mile
10. A Girl Named Ann

...plus 952 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Interview
• Taken 3
• Kingsman: The Secret Service
• Big Eyes
• Interstellar
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Lucy
• The Other Woman
• All Is Bright
• Jimi: All Is by My Side

...plus 122 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. It's Tough Being a Man
2. Tora-san's Cherished Mother
3. Tora-san, His Tender Love
4. Tora-san's Grand Scheme
5. Tora-san's Runaway
6. Tora-san's Shattered Romance
7. Tora-san, the Good Samaritan
8. Tora-san's Love Call
9. Tora-san's Dear Old Home
10. Tora-san's Dream-Come-True

...plus 40 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

These are the 100 Japanese films that film journal "Kinema Jumpo" lists as required viewing.

1. The Neighbour's Wife and Mine
2. I Was Born, But...
3. The Dancing Girl of Izu
4. Sisters of the Gion
5. Humanity and Paper Balloons
6. The Life of Matsu the Untamed
7. The Ball at the Anjo House
8. The Blue Mountains: Part I
9. Late Spring
10. Till We Meet Again

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

*Updated* January 23, 2025

1. The Best Years of Our Lives
2. Casablanca
3. Citizen Kane
4. The Crowd
5. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
6. The General
7. Gone with the Wind
8. The Grapes of Wrath
9. High Noon
10. Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages

...plus 887 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Irishman
• Parasite
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• s Ha
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Hunger
• The Darjeeling Limited
• Hotel Chevalier
• No Country for Old Men
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

...plus 108 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Avatar: The Way of Water
• Dune
• Pokémon Detective Pikachu
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens
• Jupiter Ascending
• Edge of Tomorrow
• Godzilla
• The Lego Movie
• Metallica: Through the Never
• Gravity

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Man Who Stole the Sun
• Zigeunerweisen
• Something Like It
• I Are You, You Am Me
• The Family Game
• Mahjong Horoki
• Love Hotel
• The House of Wedlock
• The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On
• Rock Requiem

...plus 36 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films listed, described, used as example texts in Yomota Inuhiko's What is Japanese Cinema? book translated and published by Columbia University Press.

While the author mentions a number of films in different order, the organization of the text is chronological by chapter breaks that often encom a single decade of film style, movements.

List is organized in reverse chronological order.

460 total entries as of 2024.05.13

40% watched

Not yet cataloged:
Mother's Song (haha no kyoku, 1937) - Yamamoto Satsuo
Kachusha (1914) - Hosoyama Kiyomatsu
The Phantom Woman (Gen'ei no onna) - Lost Film
Poppies (Gubijinso, 1921) -
Story of White Chrysanthemums (Shiragiku monogatari, 1920)
Bride of the Village (Mura no hanayome, 1928)
The Idle Vassal (Hatamoto taikutus otoko)
Umon Torimonocho
Kutusukake Tokijiro (1929)
Challenge (Chosen, 1930)
The Dawn of the Founding of Manchukuo and Mongolia (manmo kenkoku no reimei, 1932)
The Road to Peace in the Orient (Toyo heiwa no michi, 1938)
The Lieutenant's Daughter (Taii no musume, 1929) - Ochiai Namio
The Demon at the Modoribashi Bridge (Modoribashi)
Hometown (furusato, 1930) - Mizoguchi Kenji
Kunisada Chuji (1933)
Rekishi - Uchida Tomu (three part series)
Youth Across the River (Kawa muko no seishun, 1933) - Kimura Sotoji
The China Incident (Shina jihen, 1937) - Kamei Fumio
Shanghai (1938)
Lovebirds' Song Contest (Oshidori uta gassen, 1939) - Kamei Fumio
The Powerful Princess (Arahimesama)
Preventing Cholera (Yufang huoluan, Yobo kakuran)
Song of sadness (Ai no kyoku, 1919)
Hero of Alishan (Arisan no kyoji, 1927)
Gohom the Righteous Man (Gijin goho, 1932) - Ando Taro
Spring Breeze (Wang chunfen, 1938)
My Nightingale (Watashi no uguisu, 1944)
Road to Peace in the Orient (Toyo heiwa e no michi, 1938)
Calling Australia (1944)
The Apple Song (Ringo no uta, 1945)
Bells of Nagasaki (Nagasaki no kane, 1950) - Oba Hideo
Wildcat Lady (Yamaneko reijo, 1948) - Mori Kazuo
A Woman's Pedigree (Onna Keizu, 1962)
Dear Emperor (Haikei tenno heika sama, 1963)
A Complete Fool (Baka marudashi, 1964)
A pure heart spattered with Mud (Doro darake no junjo, 1963)
A Parade of Sorrow, Colored by Sadness (Okashisa ni irodorareta kanashimi no paredo, 1968)
The Sacred God of Japan (Hatsukuni shirasusumera mikoto, 1973)
Comedy: Women Need Guts (Kigeki: Onna wa dokyo, 1969)
Doll in the Shadows (Hina no kage, 1964)
Empire of Punks: A Wordy War (Gaki Teikoku: Akutare senso, 1982)
The Battle for Port Arthur (Nihyaku-san kochi, 1980)
3 Year Pregnant (san nen migomaru, 2006)

• Helter Skelter
• 11.25 The Day He Chose His Own Fate
• Postcard
• A Night in Nude: Salvation
• Heaven's Story
• My Darling Is a Foreigner
• Dear Doctor
• Air Doll
• Love Exposure
• Yasukuni

...plus 452 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films included in Mark Schilling's, Contemporary Japanese Cinema monograph published in 1999.

Includes interviews, essays, and reviews from Schilling's work as the Japanese film reviewer for the Japan Times.

Not listed yet:

Daiyonige: Yonigeya Hompo 3 (Midnight Run 3, 1995 Dir.: Hara Takahito)
Kegareta Maria (1998), Dir.: Zeze Takahisa)
Kiriko bno fukei (1998, Dir.: Akaishi Tomoyuki)
Oinaru Gakusei (1993, Dir.: Koike Takashi)
Menda Sakaei: Gokucha no Sei (1998, Dir.: Koike Masato)
Nagare Ita Shichinin (1997, Dir.: Izumi Seiji)
Nettai Raken Club (1994, Dir.: Takita Yojiro)
Nijuseiki Nostalgia (1997, Dir.: Hara Masato)
Ohigaramo Yoku Goshusho-sama (Dir.: Izumi Seiji)
Season Off (1993, Nakahara Shun)
Shiawase ni naro ne (1998, Dir.: Murahashi Akio)
Shigure no Ki (1998, Dir.: Sawai Shin'ichiro)
Shuraba no Ningengaku (1993, Dir.: Hajima Shun'ichi)
Synch (1998, Dir.: Muramatsu Masahiro)
Watashi o daite shoshite kiss shite (1992, Dir.: Sato Junya)
Love never dies (1993, Dir.: Takita Yojiro)

• Untamagiru
• Bakayarō! 2: I Want to Be Happy
• Gunhed
• Kiki's Delivery Service
• Violent Cop
• Rikyu
• A Sandcastle Model Family Home
• Buddies
• Beijing Watermelon
• Circus Boys

...plus 293 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Kinema Junpo 100th Anniversary Special Project #4
1980s era Japanese Film Best 15
*Published January 2019*

Ranking of "Best 15" Japanese films from the 1980s. Films are listed in order, but include all films that received a vote from critics and individuals included in the poll.

野獸刑事 - 工藤栄一 (1982)
アリサヒトから人間への記録 (1986) 山崎定人
帰ってきた若大将 (1981) 小谷承靖
ガキ帝国 悪たれ戦争 (1981) 井筒和幸
風とゆききし (1989) 柳澤寿男
間：竜安寺石庭の時／空間 (1989) 飯村隆彦
movie watching (1982) 奥山順市

1. The Family Game
2. Zigeunerweisen
3. The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On
4. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
5. Violent Cop
6. Typhoon Club
7. I Are You, You Am Me
8. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
9. The Tragedy of “W”
10. Knockout

...plus 285 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Third Man
• Miss Julie
• Miracle in Milan
• Two Cents Worth of Hope
• Othello
• The Wages of Fear
• Gate of Hell
• Marty
• The Silent World
• Friendly Persuasion

...plus 74 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Maya’s 12th Summer

-Scream 07.03
-Citizen Kane 07.09
-The Patriot 07.10
-Twister 07.17
-Trap
-Minority Report
-Rudy
-Seven Samurai
-Field of Dreams
-Dumb and Dumber
-Twisters

• The Martian
• Hugo
• Unstoppable
• Pride
• Inside Man
• Bruce Almighty
• Signs
• Hero
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• the Titans

...plus 40 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Updated July 31, 2024

Best films often included on Kinema Junpo's Best Ten lists. Some years include many more popular films from a given year.

For a list of just the "Best Ten" entries see:

“True Kinema Junpo Best 10 List”

1. Okiku and the World
2. Perfect Days
3. Shadow of Fire
4. September 1923
5. The Moon
6. A Spoiling Rain
7. Monster
8. Godzilla Minus One
9. The Boy and the Heron
10. Picture of Spring

...plus 1250 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Hidden Fortress
• Harakiri
• Humanity and Paper Balloons
• The 47 Ronin
• Chûshingura
• 47 Ronin
• Utamaro and His Five Women
• Taboo
• The Twilight Samurai
• Unforgiven

• Youth of the Beast
• The Warped Ones
• I Am Waiting
• A Colt Is My port
• The Champion
• Man Who Causes a Storm
• Rusty Knife
• Ashita wa Ashita no Kaze ga Fuku
• Red Pier
• Ryuji, the Gun Slinger

...plus 24 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Book organization:
Foreword, Brief History of the genre, Profiles/Interviews of prominent directors, notable actors, and Film Reviews.

There are nine subjects/periods:
Edo Era (seven films; pre-1868);
Meiji Era to early Showa Era (18 films; 1868-1945);
Postwar Period (30 films; 1945-1975);
Women and the Gangs (28 films);
Comic Takes (13 films);
Punks (seven films);
International Connections (19 films);
Crossing Genres (ten films);
Loners and Outsiders (28 films).

AREN'T (as yet) in Letterboxd are:

--Don e no Michi (aka 'The Road to Bossdom'; video; Shigeru Ishihara, 2003)

1. Chuji's Travel Diary: Koshu tate hen
2. Chuji's Travel Diary: Story of Bloody Shinshu
3. Chuji's Travel Diary: The Chuji Patrol Episode
4. Kutsukake Tokijiro
5. Drunken Angel
6. Five Men of Edo
7. Kunisada Chuji
8. The Big Boss
9. Afraid to Die
10. Flower, Storm and Gangster

...plus 114 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

40 Features commemorating 40 solar trips

Majority of lists feature a representative film from each decade I have been alive 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s, and 20s.

01-05 - Most Meaningful of Each Decade
06-10 - Top 5 - Rewatchable
11-15 - Top 5 - Underseen
16-20 - 5 Films Need to See
21-25 - Top 5 Non-Fiction
26-30 - Top 5 - 1984
31-35 - Top 5 Japanese Films
36-40 - Top 5 Japanese Films Need to See

1. Blade Runner
2. Jurassic Park
3. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
4. The Social Network
5. Top Gun: Maverick
6. The Transformers: The Movie
7. Point Break
8. Déjà Vu
9. Spotlight
10. Dune

...plus 30 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

(1989) That Summer of White Roses - Rajko Grlic
(2003) Nuan - Huo Jianqi

• Typhoon Club
• Old Well
• City of Hope
• White Badge
• The Blue Kite
• The Day the Sun Turned Cold
• Kolya
• The Perfect Circle
• Beyond Silence
• Open Your Eyes

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

This list comprises the end of the year best ten lists for the imminent Chicago Sun Times film critic, Roger Ebert. The lists range from 1967-2012 prior to his ing in early 2013.

Towards the end of his career Ebert included several lists over ten titles in alphabetical order bucking the Top Ten tradition. In those years I have included all titles listed. Previous years when he still selected over ten in numerical order, I include only the top ten.

• Bonnie and Clyde
• Ulysses
• Blow-Up
• The Graduate
• A Man for All Seasons
• The War Game
• Reflections in a Golden Eye
• Cool Hand Luke
• Elvira Madigan
• In the Heat of the Night

...plus 465 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. TÁR
2. Top Gun: Maverick
3. The Fabelmans
4. Babylon
5. The Banshees of Inisherin
6. Avatar: The Way of Water
7. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
8. Three Thousand Years of Longing
9. The Northman
10. Decision to Leave

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Giants and Toys
2. Season of the Sun
3. The Last War
4. Happy Go-Lucky
5. A Geisha's Diary
6. Tora-san's Shattered Romance
7. Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival
8. Tenchu!
9. Battles Without Honor and Humanity
10. Submersion of Japan

1. Lincoln
2. Spring Breakers
3. Django Unchained
4. Dredd
5. Rent-a-Cat
6. Magic Mike
7. End of Watch
8. Looper
9. Killing Them Softly
10. The Hunt

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. A Star Is Born
2. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
3. Under the Silver Lake
4. Shoplifters
5. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
6. Free Solo
7. Dragged Across Concrete
8. BlacKkKlansman
9. First Man
10. Game Night

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Aristocrats
• Da 5 Bloods
• True Mothers
• Another Round
• Wife of a Spy
• Mank
• Dick Johnson Is Dead
• One Night in Miami...
• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Bill & Ted Face the Music

1. Dune
2. Drive My Car
3. Judas and the Black Messiah
4. West Side Story
5. The Matrix Resurrections
6. The Mitchells vs. the Machines
7. Wrath of Man
8. Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar
9. The Power of the Dog
10. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The Film That Changed My Life: 30 Directors on Their Epiphanies in the Dark

30 Directors select a film(s) that had a significant impact on their life.
Edited, Compiled by Robert K. Elder
Published by Chicago Review Press
2011

• An American Werewolf in London

  Edgar Wright

• Annie Hall

  Rian Johnson
  

• Apocalypse Now

  Danny Boyle

• Bonnie and Clyde

  Bill Condon

• Brazil

  Richard Kelly

• Citizen Kane

  Peter Bogdanovich

• A Clockwork Orange

  John Dahl

• 8½

  Henry Jaglom

• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

  Brian Herzlinger

• The Exterminating Angel

  Alex Gibney

...plus 22 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Gene Siskel Best Ten Lists (1969-1998)

This list comprises the end of the year best ten lists by Chicago Tribune film critic, Gene Siskel, from the late 1960s until his death in 1998.

• Z
• Midnight Cowboy
• Alice's Restaurant
• Simon of the Desert
• The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
• Oh! What a Lovely War
• The Wild Bunch
• if....
• Pretty Poison
• Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

...plus 290 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Peter Bogdanovich's Movie of the Week: 52 Classic Films For One Full Year

A week by week movie guide written and organized by Bogdanovich. Published in 1999 by Ballantine these selections initially appeared as weekly updates in the New York Observer.

1. An American in Paris
2. The Lady Eve
3. The Awful Truth
4. To Have and Have Not
5. Anatomy of a Murder
6. White Heat
7. Adam's Rib
8. Notorious
9. The Blue Angel
10. The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek

...plus 42 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Serpent

  W1 Benshi - Silent Era film

• Humanity and Paper Balloons
• Stray Dog
• Giants and Toys
• It's Tough Being a Man
• The Man Who Stole the Sun
• No More Comics!
• Nobody Knows
• Dreams for Sale
• Labyrinth of Cinema

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films produced by Tokuma Shoten following their purchase of the bankrupt Daiei Studios until they separated from production with Ghibli Studios in 2002 and sold Daiei's rights and library to KADOKAWA.

• Solar Eclipse
• Manhunt
• Dynamite Don-Don
• Dog of Fortune
• The Go Masters
• Irezumi
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
• GoShogun: The Time Étranger
• Arion
• Castle in the Sky

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Japanese Cinema Essential Handbook by Thomas Eeisser and Yuko Mihara Weisser

H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z

Spiral
Chi to ekusutasi
Dai sanji sekai taisen
Dendo biburu shisuta gari
Daijobu, My Friend
Daikansho Kamen
Gokudo no ane Reiko (gokudo boss-lady Reiko)
hachi jikan no kyofu
hanazono no meikyu
hiko shonen wakamono no toride

• Abashiri Prison
• The Key
• Take Aim at the Police Van
• Summer Vacation 1999
• Boiling Point
• Rolling on the Road
• Tales of a Golden Geisha
• To Love Again
• Love Makes Me Wet
• Empire of ion

...plus 147 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Film reviews included in Mark Schilling's new book and semi-sequel to Contemporary Japanese Cinema published in 1999.

• After the Rain
• Charisma
• The Dentist
• Audition
• Bullet Ballet
• Monday
• Dora-heita
• Love/Juice
• The Whispered City
• The New God

...plus 225 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

List of shorts, features by Director Mizoguchi Kenji that are still extant and where to view them

• Song of Home
• Tokyo March
• Yoshie Fujiwara's Hometown
• The Water Magician
• The Downfall of Osen
• Oyuki the Virgin
• Poppy
• Osaka Elegy
• Sisters of the Gion
• The Straits of Love and Hate

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

List of films, shorts, and documentary films that speak to our current moment.

• Malcolm X

  Spike Lee's magnum opus, the connective tissue of all of Lee's work before and after. It is a monumental film in the biographical drama tradition. Not nominated for a best picture and Denzel Washington's portryal lost out to Al Pacino yelling, "Hooh ahh."

  A wonderful prologue and epilogue bookend the life and globe-spanning influence of Mr. X as he transforms repeatedely through his life as American culture ebbs, flows, rebels, and almost destroys itself.

• Do the Right Thing

  Spike's first major work and the one that most closely resembles the spark that lights the flame of protest and social unrest. The picture is so nuanced that only on multiple viewing can you grasp all the threads that Mr. Lee layers into the world of this block on Brooklynn.

  The range of characters, backgrounds, and voices in the film prevent it from portraying a simiplistic or easily characterized depiction of race relations in America. "Fight the Power"

• Boyz n the Hood

  Singleton's debut film and exhibits and immense amount of power. Some of the specifics of gang relations may have changed, but the struggles still feel very potent.

  The core of the film is the relationship between Trey and Furious, fathers and sons, that mirrors Singleton's relationship with his father. The didactic moments can feel more scripted than other parts of the movie, but the message is powerful.

  For young filmmakers this is also an excellent guide. If you are able the commentary Singleton provides not only highlights the themes of the film, but the choices he was making on the day in production and how that was informed by the screenplay, which he wrote at USC, but also the options he created in his post-production.

  "Increase the Peace"

• Menace II Society
• Fruitvale Station
• Law and Order
• Whose Streets?
• The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
• Black Panthers
• Malcolm X

...plus 30 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Serpent
• A Page of Madness
• Chuji's Travel Diary: Koshu tate hen
• Crossroads
• Days of Youth
• What Made Her Do It?
• The Neighbour's Wife and Mine
• I Was Born, But...
• Japanese Girls at the Harbor
• Our Neighbor, Miss Yae

...plus 85 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Rashomon
• Gate of Hell
• Seven Samurai
• Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto
• Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple
• Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island
• Throne of Blood
• The Hidden Fortress
• Yojimbo
• Sanjuro

...plus 41 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Old Enough
• Blood Simple
• Smooth Talk
• Waiting for the Moon
• The Trouble with Dick
• Heat and Sunlight
• True Love
• Chameleon Street
• Poison
• In the Soup

...plus 29 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Beaver Valley
2. Cinderella
3. Justice Is Done
4. Without Leaving an Address
5. Four in a Jeep
6. One Summer of Happiness
7. The Wages of Fear
8. Hobson's Choice
9. The Rats
10. Invitation to the Dance

...plus 71 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

List of All Time Best Ten - Jidai-geki films (period/samurai films) from Japan. List was compiled by Kinema Junpo in August 2004 to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the magazine's publication. Top ten are listed along with all films voted on and included among the lists of the 53 contributors.

Missing currently:

(1957) Adauchi sozenji baba
(1951) Case of Umon - sekimon torimonocho katamegenro - Nakagawa Shinobu - Shin Toho
en to iu onna (1961)
(1945) Kitsune no kureta akannbo)

1. Seven Samurai
2. 13 Assassins
3. The Tale of Zatoichi
4. Miyamoto Musashi

   The first film is listed, but all parts of the five part series of films are included in this vote ranging from 1961-1965

5. The Ghost of Yotsuya
6. Yojimbo
7. Humanity and Paper Balloons
8. A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era
9. Samurai Vendetta
10. Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo

...plus 74 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
2. Marriage Story
3. Parasite
4. Knives Out
5. Ad Astra
6. Long Shot
7. The King
8. Apollo 11
9. Booksmart
10. Dolemite Is My Name

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Mark Schilling film writer for Japan Times and correspondent for Hollywood Reporter and Variety. This is a list of each Best Ten list he has compiled from 2000 to present. I'll update this as he continues to publish. Equally I will expand to include his notes from the 1990s which are less organized into neat lists.

Suite de Jeudi (mokuyo Kumikyoku), Tetsuo Shinohara (2002)
The Village Submerged (Mizu ni Natta Mura), Nobuo Onishi (2007)
Obon Brothers (Obon Kyodai), Akira Osaki (2015)

• Face
• Audition
• Monday
• The New God
• Love/Juice
• Freeze Me
• The Dentist
• After the Rain
• The Whispered City
• Charisma

...plus 162 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 3-Iron
• A Bittersweet Life
• A Company Man
• A Dirty Carnival
• A Hard Day
• A Man Who Was Superman
• A Moment to
• A Tale of Two Sisters
• Addicted
• Address Unknown

...plus 84 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.