Watched in 2019
by Xardie | created - 06 Jan 2019 | updated - 9 months ago | PublicA log of all the films I have watched in 2018. I only give full number ratings on scale from 1 to 5. This means I sometimes have to make difficult calls in whether I round down or up IMDB scores (e.g. 7 becomes either 3/5 or 4/5 feature for the review blurp). But in the first place numerical ratings are only rough indications of film's quality and merit so I think this is fine.
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1. Wet Woman in the Wind (2016)
Not Rated | 78 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
When a successful, but tired Tokyo-based playwright who has sworn off easy women and casual encounters takes refuge in the countryside, his plans are disrupted by a horny woman who pedals fast into his life and is unrelenting.
Director: Akihiko Shiota | Stars: Tasuku Nagaoka, Yuki Mamiya, Yûmi Akagi, Masatoshi Ikemura
Votes: 1,356
January 1
The funniest film of the new Roman Porno stack by far is fairly entertaining romp through occasionally ridiculous sex antics.
3/5
2. White Lily (2016)
80 min | Drama, Horror
Tokiko, a renowned ceramic artist, and her husband encounter Haruka, a teenage runaway, and take her into their home, where Tokiko teaches her about ceramics.
Director: Hideo Nakata | Stars: Rin Asuka, Kaori Yamaguchi, Shôma Machii, Kanako Nishikawa
Votes: 575
January 3
Ring director helms Roman Porno revival feature that is horrific only due to how poorly made it is. Lifeless direction and weak script nullify any effort the actors and production team might've put in. How can a lesbo romp be so unintentionally unerotic to boot?
2/5
3. Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (1945)
Not Rated | 83 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Sugata returns to prove his judo mastery in a match against Western opponents.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Denjirô Ôkôchi, Susumu Fujita, Ryûnosuke Tsukigata, Akitake Kôno
Votes: 2,707
January 12
Sugata Sanshiro was a great debut feature and would remain the strongest Kurosawa film for years to come. Its great success led to this sequel which overall is a very common sequal movie. Reuse of the same ingredients with somewhat grander scale but lacking the vitality and essentiality of the original. It's qualities as propaganda film are also more pronounced and in a way harmful to the production.
Which is not to say the second Sugata Sanshiro film is bad. It's a fine film showcasing Kurosawa's superb directing talent in many individual scenes and the climax is at least as good as anything in the first film. But overall this sequel remains a nice extra, not an essential viewing.
3/5
4. Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director (1975)
132 min | Documentary, Biography
A documentary film on the life and works of director Kenji Mizoguchi.
Director: Kaneto Shindô | Stars: Takako Irie, Daisuke Itô, Kyôko Kagawa, Matsutarô Kawaguchi
Votes: 325
January 14
Kaneto Shindo's lovingly crafted, indepth documentary feature on Mizoguchi is one of the rare documentaries of its kind that is thoroughly captivating, despite heavy reliance on talking heads.
It's fine filmmaking on its own but essential viewing for anyone interested in the master filmmaker.
4/5
5. Four Days of Snow and Blood (1989)
114 min | Action, Drama, War
Based on the "2.26 Incident", an attempted coup d'état in Japan 1936, launched by radical ultra-nationalist parts of the military. Several leading politicians were killed and the center of ... See full summary »
Director: Hideo Gosha | Stars: Ken'ichi Hagiwara, Tomokazu Miura, Masahiro Motoki, Katsutoshi Arata
Votes: 219
January 15
Hideo Gosha's treatment of the infamous February 26 Incident left me unsatisfied - and all the moreso because the film has considerable virtues.
226 is a great film all the way through the first night of the incident when the insurgent militarymen take over key targets and assassinate their targets. Unfortunately it stagnates in the long second half depicting the siege of insurgents. Characters are too thin to support any meaningful drama and Gosha's treatment of the incident itself and its political and social implications is just too superficial and uncommitted in its appraisal pro or con.
2/5
6. The Most Beautiful (1944)
Not Rated | 85 min | Drama
World War II film about female volunteer workers at an optics plant who do their best to meet production targets.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Takashi Shimura, Sôji Kiyokawa, Ichirô Sugai, Takako Irie
Votes: 2,409
January 29
Kurosawa's propaganda film features an aesthetically interesting mixture of potent formalism and realistic grit, but ultimately the film cannot overcome its utilitarian origins and the mesh of elements never gels together firmly.
2/5
7. The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945)
Not Rated | 59 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
A Japanese general and his men disguise themselves as monks in order to pass an enemy border patrol.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Denjirô Ôkôchi, Susumu Fujita, Ken'ichi Enomoto, Masayuki Mori
Votes: 4,370
January 30
Kurosawa's adaptation of classic story known from Noh and Kabuki theatre is a powerhouse feature which showcases what keen focus, dramatic unity and Denjiro Okochi's masterclass acting can do when put together.
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail is Kurosawa's supreme wartime achievement alongside Sanshiro Sugata.
4/5
8. One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama, Romance
During a Sunday trip into war-ravaged Tokyo, despairing Yuzo and optimistic Masako look for work and lodging, as well as affordable entertainments to pass the time.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Isao Numasaki, Chieko Nakakita, Atsushi Watanabe, Zekô Nakamura
Votes: 3,680
January 30
Kurosawa's most ambitious postwar, pre-Stray Dog feature attempts to portray the harsh human realities and glittering dreams of Occupation era Japan. On the whole Kurosawa's ambitions exceed his grasp, and the feature is notable for some weak scenes and a general feeling of being less than sum of its parts. In select sequences and scenes we do, however, encounter masterful filmmaking of the highest level, an unmistakanable sign Kurosawa was to soon emerge as one of the greatest masters of them all.
3/5
9. The Quiet Duel (1949)
95 min | Drama
A surgeon gets syphilis from a patient when he cuts himself during an operation. The doctor's life is destroyed, but unlike the patient, he doesn't destroy others along with him.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Miki Sanjô, Kenjirô Uemura
Votes: 3,904
February 2
Kurosawa's uneven postwar melodrama feels like there is a great film somewhere here buried under all the production difficulties and overblown emotions. The early scenes set during the war are nevertheless great, and the film features some excellent acting too.
2/5
10. American Psycho (2000)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.
Director: Mary Harron | Stars: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage
Votes: 716,111 | Gross: $15.07M
February 21
Get guy movie for the ages and the most iconic performance of Christian Bale's career. Dark, macabre, disgusting and hysterically funny. American Psycho's status as cult classic is well deserved and the film more than the memes it spawned.
5/5
11. Tokyo Bordello (1987)
133 min | Drama
A young woman is sold into the famous red light district brothel in Yoshiwara by her bankrupt father.
Director: Hideo Gosha | Stars: Yûko Natori, Rino Katase, Jinpachi Nezu, Sayoko Ninomiya
Votes: 235
February 24
Intentionally melodramatic and somewhat Operatic (at least if fierce burning emotions of Carmen are taken as normative for Opera) look at prostitution in Yoshiwara of the old. The film is marred somewhat by its excesses in lenght and bathos, but its recreation of turn-of-the-Century Yoshiwara is undeniably stunningly thorough and its key scenes pull one's attention irresistibly.
"Yoshiwara burns" is a sumptuous, visual splendor.
3/5
12. The Devil's Path (2013)
128 min | Thriller
Journalist Shuichi Fujii receives a letter from convicted killer Junji Sudo. Writing from death row, Sudo wants to confess to crimes unknown to the police. On visiting Sudo in prison, Fujii... See full summary »
Director: Kazuya Shiraishi | Stars: Takayuki Yamada, Pierre Taki, Lily Franky, Chizuru Ikewaki
Votes: 1,244
March 12
The Devil's Path features one of the great Japanese performances of 2010s in cinema from Lily Franky and it works as a dark crime, but the film is kept from highest echelons by being overlong. Some of its choices in focus and structure are also somewhat questionable. Nevertheless, the feature is worth seeing at leatst once for Lily Franky's atypical role here.
3/5
13. One Cut of the Dead (2017)
Not Rated | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Horror
Things go badly for a hack director and film crew shooting a low budget zombie movie in an abandoned WWII Japanese facility, when they are attacked by real zombies.
Director: Shin'ichirô Ueda | Stars: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama, Kazuaki Nagaya
Votes: 29,754
March 15
Absolute delight of a movie that proves there is real life left in Japanese independent movies as a scene - and in comedy as a genre. Movie that reminds us why we love movies in the first place.
5/5
14. Mori, the Artist's Habitat (2018)
99 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
Vegetation thrives in painter Morikazu's garden, which is home to creatures that serve as models for his paintings, including numerous bugs and cats. A sweet and heartwarming day begins for... See full summary »
Director: Shûichi Okita | Stars: Tsutomu Yamazaki, Munetaka Aoki, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Yoichi Hayashi
Votes: 479
March 16
Typical quietly amusing, quietly touching miniature portrait of life through carefully chosen main character, in this case an eccentric artist who really loves his garden, from Shuichi Okita. This fine feature sees the world as its main character sees it with admirable intensity, but overall it is somewhat thin offering.
What a lovable geezer, nevertheless.
3/5
15. Dare to Stop Us (2018)
119 min | Drama
Spring, 1969. The Japanese New Wave, represented on international screens mainly by the films of Nagisa Oshima, reaches new heights. 21-year-old Megumi Yoshizumi goes to Wakamatsu ... See full summary »
Director: Kazuya Shiraishi | Stars: Kisetsu Fujiwara, Arata Iura, Kuu Izima, Mugi Kadowaki
Votes: 164
March 16
Disappointingly crummy and safe film about an outrageous subject matter - Koji Wakamatsu's 60s/70s pink film production company and escapades of its workers. The film is compromised by its poorly chosen focus of main character, which results in a strange 'forced feminism' feel to the whole endeavour.
2/5
16. Black Rain (1989)
Not Rated | 123 min | Drama, War
The story of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing, based on Masuji Ibuse's novel.
Director: Shôhei Imamura | Stars: Yoshiko Tanaka, Kazuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara, Shôichi Ozawa
Votes: 3,966
March 24
Imamura's harrowing b&w feature on impact of atomic bomb is one of the best Hiroshima themed Japanese movies, and one of the high points in director's filmography. It is a strong, serious drama that doesn't stoop down to sentimentality or navelgazing the way Japan's cultural reminiscenes of that nuclear apocalypse often do. Rare bright spot in rather bleak decade for Japanese cinema.
5/5
17. Lucky (I) (2017)
Not Rated | 88 min | Comedy, Drama, Western
Lucky follows the spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off the map desert town.
Director: John Carroll Lynch | Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, David Lynch, Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr.
Votes: 26,111 | Gross: $0.96M
March 13
Somber reflection on mortality and an enjoyable character study at the same time, Lucky feels like a respectful tribute to its star Harry Dean Stanton not far from end of his own life.
4/5
18. Miami Connection (1987)
R | 87 min | Action, Crime, Music
A martial arts rock band goes up against a band of motorcycle ninjas who have tightened their grip on Florida's narcotics trade.
Directors: Woo-sang Park, Y.K. Kim | Stars: Y.K. Kim, Vincent Hirsch, Joseph Diamand, Maurice Smith
Votes: 6,607
March 14
A true so-bad-it-is-good classic not to be missed by 80s kinoastes.
2/5
19. Cold War (2018)
R | 89 min | Drama, Music, Romance
In the 1950s, a music director falls in love with a singer and tries to persuade her to flee communist Poland for France.
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski | Stars: Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc, Agata Kulesza
Votes: 61,940 | Gross: $4.57M
March 15
Pawlikowski's excellent portrayal of fiery romance in pressure cooker of Soviet communism and Cold War in general does not reach the cinematic heights of Ida, but it still is one of the noteworthy films of the 2010s.
5/5
20. The Drifting Classroom (1987)
104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
An international school in Kobe, Japan is catapulted into the future after a time-slip occurs.
Director: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi | Stars: Yasufumi Hayashi, Aiko Asano, Vajra Barzaghi, Leana D'Aloisio
Votes: 294
June 3
Obayashi's SFX heavy manga adaptation represents 80s Japanese cinema at its absolute nadir: not even stylistic eccentricity of the director can make this poorly told, unfocused story any better. If anything the form fares no better than the content, reminding us just how unbearable Obayashi can be as a director when he is bad.
Some cool practical effects by standards of 80s Japan can be found, I guess. I struggle to find anything else nice to say. How a film with such outrageous premise can be such a boring mess is astonishing.
1/5
21. Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (1957)
Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
In the last days of the Shogunate, a resourceful grifter seeks to outwit competing prostitutes, rebellious samurai and other inhabitants of a brothel in order to survive the hardened times.
Director: Yûzô Kawashima | Stars: Furankî Sakai, Sachiko Hidari, Yôko Minamida, Yûjirô Ishihara
Votes: 1,326
July 2
*The* great comedy from Golden Age of Japanese Cinema has stood up to the test of time no less than its more famous contemporaries (more famous in the west, that is). Kawashima's social satire of Japan of his own time as well as that of soon to end Edo era has biting wit, great cast and superb script. It is still funny and Frankie Sakai in the lead role surely ranks among the great performances from 1950s Japanese cinema.
In short, Bakumatsu is a masterwork that deserves the high reputation it enjoys in its country of origins.
5/5
22. Bite Me If You Love Me (2011 Video)
71 min | Comedy, Horror
A schoolgirl with a zombie fetish manage with help from a nerd to translate a book from Italian that explains how to manufacture zombies.
Director: Naoyuki Tomomatsu | Stars: Ai Haneda, Yuto Kobayashi, Nana Ninomiya, Masayoshi Tomomatsu
Votes: 84
July 10
While 'objectively' this flick is fairly terrible, this pink film horror comedy schlock is far more clever and entertaining than cheaply made rubbish has any right to be. This nonsensical glory is what happens when horror fan slaving away in the C-budget pinky trash industry just stops giving a fuck. Even sex scenes feel like gags.
3/5
edit: rewatch on 3rd November.
23. Akihabara@Deep (2006)
TV-PG | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Set in Tokyo's otaku mecca Akihabara, "Akihabara@DEEP" tells the story of five otaku who drop out of society and end up founding their own successful IT venture called Crook. But Nakagomi, ... See full summary »
Director: Takashi Minamoto | Stars: Hiroki Narimiya, Yû Yamada, Shûgo Oshinari, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa
Votes: 179
July 11
Akihabara@Deep is a shameless cash-in on Akiba subculture and otakus at large during peak Akiba otakudom, but reasonably entertaining one. Better kind of mediocre as far as Japanese productions of this kind go, and somewhat nostalgic too.
3/5
24. Non Non Biyori: The Movie - Vacation (2018)
71 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Summer vacation is drawing to an end. When Suguru wins a free trip to Okinawa, all of the five students of Asahigaoka branch school are excited to end their vacation with a bang. Along with... See full summary »
Director: Shin'ya Kawatsura | Stars: Kotori Koiwai, Rie Murakawa, Ayane Sakura, Kana Asumi
Votes: 403
July 12
Non Non Biyori cast go down to Okinawa and back again in this extended episode marketed as feature film. But this is no knock on the movie, which delivers all the charm and healing slice of life escapades that made the anime series such a delight.
4/5
25. Juliet of the Spirits (1965)
Not Rated | 137 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Visions, memories, and mysticism all help a 40-something woman to find the strength to leave her cheating husband.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Giulietta Masina, Sandra Milo, Mario Pisu, Valentina Cortese
Votes: 14,724 | Gross: $0.08M
July 19
Juliet of the Spirits is often seen as first feature where Fellini's preoccupation with depth psychology, whimsy and his personal life slip into downright embarrassing degree of self-indulgence. It is also criticized as ultimately self-serving apologia for his marital infidelities in guise of loving tribute to his wife.
While there is more truth to both criticisms than one would care for, Juliet is still a place of magic and cinematic wonder that amply demonstrates why Fellini is one of the all time greats.
4/5
26. Fellini Satyricon (1969)
R | 129 min | Drama, Fantasy
A series of disjointed mythical tales set in first-century Rome.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born, Salvo Randone
Votes: 17,190 | Gross: $1.14M
July 31
Fellini's theatrical and subjectivist vision of deep grotesgue of ancient Rome attracts and repels in equal measure, with bravura filmmaking and obnoxious, torpid fantasies comingling in a way that is impossible to disentangle.
3/5
27. Chûgoku no chôjin (1998)
TV-PG | 118 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A salaryman and yakuza are each sent by their bosses to a remote Chinese village but discover more than they expected.
Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Masahiro Motoki, Renji Ishibashi, Mako, Michiko Kichise
Votes: 4,921
August 1
Idiosyncratic and unique feature even by standards of unfiltered 90s Miike. This yakuza-road-trip-fairy-tale offers an often beautiful and original take on "going native and abandoning modern civilization" genre. Bird People also appear, of course.
4/5
28. Swing Girls (2004)
105 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A tale of delinquent and lazy school girls. In their efforts to cut remedial summer math class, they end up vitiating and replacing the schools brass band.
Director: Shinobu Yaguchi | Stars: Juri Ueno, Yûta Hiraoka, Shihori Kanjiya, Yuika Motokariya
Votes: 4,684
August 2
Bunch of no-good high school slackers end up starting a jazz orchestra in school, youth drama and comedic hijinks ensue. Swing Girls is a delightful sister film to Yamashita's Linda Linda Linda, and just like the latter forms a grittier 3DPD counterpart to Kyoto Animation's K-ON!, Swing Girls could be thought of as 3DPD counterpart of same studio's Hibike Euphonium. With all that 3DPD entails, good or bad.
4/5
29. Rhapsody in August (1991)
PG | 98 min | Drama, War
Three generations' responses to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Sachiko Murase, Richard Gere, Hisashi Igawa, Narumi Kayashima
Votes: 7,554 | Gross: $0.52M
August 2
Kurosawa's penultimate feature is sentimental, boring slog about atomic bombing and hectoring moral lecture aimed at ignorant and insolent younger generations by an old man.
While the film is not entirely meritless, all in all it's good Kurosawa's career didn't end with this film.
2/5
30. Roma (1972)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Drama
A fluid, unconnected and sometimes chaotic procession of scenes detailing the various people and events of life in Italy's capital, most of it based on director Federico Fellini's life.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Britta Barnes, Peter Gonzales Falcon, Fiona Florence, Pia De Doses
Votes: 13,807 | Gross: $0.73M
August 5
Fellini's tribute to Rome is something of a triumph, a narrative film about life of and changes in the eternal city without clear cast of characters to shoulder the story, an essay film without authorial voiceover providing commentary. It still works due to depth and power of Fellini's vision, and while the film may not be more than the sum of its parts, those parts are worthy.
4/5
31. Madadayo (1993)
134 min | Drama
Following 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.
Directors: Akira Kurosawa, Ishirô Honda | Stars: Tatsuo Matsumura, Hisashi Igawa, George Tokoro, Masayuki Yui
Votes: 6,157 | Gross: $0.05M
August 6
Kurosawa's final film is a touching tribute to Hyakken Uchida and a wistful reflection on mortality and life by a master filmmaker near end of his own life. While the film does not rise to first rank in Kurosawa's extensive filmography I think it has been critically undervalued, if anything. The final scene is as perfect final note from the master filmmaker as any this side of the way Tarkovsky ends Sacrifice and his career.
4/5
32. Natsu no niwa: The Friends (1994)
113 min | Comedy, Drama
A delightful and moving coming-of-age story. One summer, three young boys take an increasing interest in an eccentric old man who lives alone in a house surrounded by an overgrown garden. ... See full summary »
Director: Shinji Sômai | Stars: Rentarô Mikuni, Naoki Sakata, Yasutaka Oh, Ken'ichi Makino
Votes: 180
August 9
Somai offers us Japan's take on Stand By Me, and all in all it is a powerful story about growing up from a decade of often underwhelming productions.
4/5
33. Himiko (1974)
100 min | Drama, Fantasy, History
A freestyle, imagined telling of the life of shaman queen Himiko, who falls in love with her half-brother, making her powers weaken thus putting her position to risk.
Director: Masahiro Shinoda | Stars: Shima Iwashita, Masao Kusakari, Rie Yokoyama, Chôichirô Kawarasaki
Votes: 735
August 11
This ATG production provides us with audacious interpretation of Japan's mythical origins and shaman queen of legends. Shinoda's vision is powerful and the film starts out strong, but alas in the end Himiko is most properly described as interesting failure. If only most failures were as interesting as this.
3/5
34. Gate of Hell (1953)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama, History
A samurai pursues a married lady-in-waiting.
Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa | Stars: Machiko Kyô, Kazuo Hasegawa, Isao Yamagata, Yatarô Kurokawa
Votes: 4,280
August 15
Teinosuke Kinugasa's sumptuous color jidaigeki has not withheld its status the way most other international breakthroughs from Golden Age of Japanese cinema have. It is essential viewing for all fans of Japanese movies, nevertheless, with its truly gorgeous color cinematography and its simple yet elegantly told story.
5/5
35. Fate/stay night [Heaven's Feel] II. lost butterfly (2019)
117 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
The story focuses on the Holy Grail War and explores the relationship between Shirou Emiya and Sakura Matou, two teenagers participating in this conflict. The story continues immediately ... See full summary »
Director: Tomonori Sudô | Stars: Yu Asakawa, Michael Donovan, Melissa Fahn, Crispin Freeman
Votes: 3,126
August 23
Ufotable's magisterial adaptation of Heaven's Feel route continues on the highest level of animated action features.
5/5
36. Faces Places (2017)
PG | 94 min | Documentary, Adventure
Director Agnes Varda and photographer/muralist J.R. journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.
Directors: JR, Agnès Varda | Stars: Agnès Varda, JR, Jeannine Carpentier, Clemens Van Dungern
Votes: 13,611 | Gross: $0.95M
September 5
Agnes Varda's collaboration wit JR is pure genius through and through - not many veteran filmmakers deliver a masterpiece with their final film, but Varda does so as self-assuredly as ever.
5/5
37. Phantom Thread (2017)
R | 130 min | Drama, Romance
Set in 1950s London, Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned dressmaker whose fastidious life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who becomes his muse and lover.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Vicky Krieps, Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville, Julie Vollono
Votes: 145,574 | Gross: $21.02M
September 10
PTA and Daniel Day-Lewis bring on their A game for their presumably final artistic collaboration. Phantom Thread weaves its intricate and elegant story no less elegant than the dresses Day-Lewis's character creates, and it loses nothing in beauty too. Adult, subdued drama at its best is like this, but not many subtle character studies in this vein come with as much wit and tasteful shots of black comedy.
5/5
38. Lincoln (2012)
PG-13 | 150 min | Biography, Drama, History
As the Civil War rages on, U.S President Abraham Lincoln struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on his decision to emancipate the slaves.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Votes: 272,718 | Gross: $182.21M
September 15
Spielberg's prestige biopic stands out in two respects: as historically accurate political drama of highest calibre, and as the best on-screen portraya of Lincoln there has been. Day-Lewis as Lincoln is astonishingly good even by standards of the greatest actor of his generation.
4/5
39. Joker (I) (2019)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
Director: Todd Phillips | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy
Votes: 1,490,042 | Gross: $335.45M
October 4
Kino masquerading as capeshit and the film of our times in many ways. King of Comedy and Taxi Driver had a love child and caked his face with clown makeup. Joker is unexpected triumph of 2010s which will historically outlast its critics.
5/5
40. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
R | 133 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Six tales of life and violence in the Old West, following a singing gunslinger, a bank robber, a traveling impresario, an elderly prospector, a wagon train, and a perverse pair of bounty hunters.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Tim Blake Nelson, Willie Watson, Clancy Brown, Danny McCarthy
Votes: 168,273
October 6
Coen Brothers's western anthology surpassed my expectations across the board with its consistently high quality whether the stories are played straight or not, comedic or tragic. The best stories are superb, the weakest of clearly lower calibre, but nothing here is a clunker.
4/5
41. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
PG | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: Tim Robbins, Paul Newman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Charles Durning
Votes: 85,099 | Gross: $2.87M
October 9
As much as I love the great Art Deco vision of ye olde days of American Capital and the basic conceit and themes of The Hudsucker Proxy, ultimately the film just does not work and is far less than sum of its parts. It's hard to say what exactly goes wrong because nothing about Hudsucker is aggressively bad, but too many elements have something ever-so-slightly off.
Dat Art Deco tho'
2/5
42. Fate/Grand Order: First Order (2016 TV Movie)
74 min | Animation
It is the year 2015, the final era over which magic still held sway. Caldea is an organization established to observe the magical world and the world of science - as well as to prevent the ... See full summary »
Director: Hitoshi Nanba | Stars: Nobunaga Shimazaki, Rie Takahashi, Madoka Yonezawa, Ken'ichi Suzumura
Votes: 1,070
October 12
Infodump prologue setting up the story for stories to come, not a proper movie as such.
2/5
43. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
PG-13 | 107 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman
Votes: 330,949 | Gross: $45.51M
October 15
Coen Brothers Old South "retelling" (in loosest possible terms) of Odyssey is a rambunctious joyride with some truly standout music and musical elements. The film also greatly benefits from familiarity with Homer's classic, as I found out to my personal benefit, having read the epic not long before seeing O Brother.
4/5
44. The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
R | 116 min | Crime, Drama
A laconic, chain-smoking barber blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning, but his plan goes terribly wrong.
Director: Joel Coen | Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, James Gandolfini
Votes: 115,020 | Gross: $7.49M
October 16
Despite great Billy Bob Thornton performance, noirish b&w and memorable side role by very young Scarlett Johansson The Man Who Wasn't There never really takes off in a way you'd expect and hope duo's take on Billy Wilderesque noir would. All in all the film is fine but would've benefited from tighter focus, making the pacing less glacial, and by removing entirely tangential tidbits like UFO jokes that just intrude on noir universe for no good artistic purpose.
3/5
45. Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
Miles, a high-profile divorce lawyer, wins a case for his rich but adulterous client Rex Rexroth. But Rex's ex-wife, Marylin, who is no saint and is a gold-digger, plots to take revenge on Miles.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Bob Thornton, Geoffrey Rush
Votes: 101,867 | Gross: $35.33M
October 18
Intolerable Cruelty is that rare thing: genuinely bad and bland Coen brothers feature, an artistic misfire as brothers attempt to craft mainstream romantic comedy fueled by star power of Clooney and Zeta-Jones.
It doesn't work.
2/5
46. The Ladykillers (2004)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
An eccentric, if not charming Southern professor and his crew pose as a classical ensemble in order to rob a casino, all under the nose of his unsuspecting but sharp old landlady.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Tom Hanks, Marlon Wayans, Irma P. Hall, J.K. Simmons
Votes: 108,933 | Gross: $39.80M
October 19
The worst Coens picture is obnoxious and aggressively stupid affair which has no justification for its existence. All the decent elements of the picture come off from the old British original, but even the good things are more or less damaged in the transition process. The original elements are pure horror show of turpid directing and writing.
2/5
47. Burn After Reading (2008)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A disk containing mysterious information from a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous and daft gym employees who attempt to sell it.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, John Malkovich
Votes: 353,355 | Gross: $60.36M
October 19
Between No Country for Old Men and their post-Oscar do-whatever-you-want-licensed and unusually personal A Serious Man Coen Brothers put out this morbidly dark spy comedy. Seen 10 years later it is wickedly funny and deeply unsettling. Seen from vantage point of late 2010s BAR is probably more accurate portrayal of Intelligence Community characters and how they run things than anyone cared to admit back in 2008.
Don't look here for lessons to learn, however.
4/5
48. Beauty in Rope Hell (1983)
77 min | Drama, Horror
A mailman abducts a housewife and holds her captive as his sex slave.
Director: Genji Nakamura | Stars: Miki Takakura, Kazuhiro Yamaji, Maya Itô, Satsuki Watanabe
Votes: 133
October 20
Pink film exploitation that raises above the 80s standard by beauty of its cinematography and its lead actress Miki Takakura.
It's still nothing to write home about.
2/5
49. Miller's Crossing (1990)
R | 115 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Tom Reagan, an advisor to a Prohibition-era crime boss, tries to keep the peace between warring mobs but gets caught in divided loyalties.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, John Turturro, Marcia Gay Harden
Votes: 142,184 | Gross: $5.08M
October 27
Miller's crossing is one of the Coen brothers undisputed masterpieces and all time great crime films. Miller's Crossing status has only grown with time, despite its obliqueness and complex story keeping it from widespread public embrace like Goodfellas or Godfather have got.
5/5
50. The Prince of Egypt (1998)
PG | 99 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
Egyptian Prince Moses learns of his identity as a Hebrew and his destiny to become the chosen deliverer of his people.
Directors: Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, Simon Wells | Stars: Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock
Votes: 146,439 | Gross: $101.22M
October 28
"If Ten Commandments was 90s DreamWorks animated musical" is the conceit, and surprisingly it works. This is without doubt the best or 2nd best film adaptation of Exodus and stands as lone pinnacle among biblical animated epics.
Kinda like Mount Sinai, no?
4/5
51. Hands of Steel (1986)
R | 94 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A cyborg is programmed to kill a scientist who holds the fate of mankind in his hands. He fails and hides in a diner in a desert run by a woman who likes him. The people who sent him are after him and so is the local arm wrestling champ.
Director: Sergio Martino | Stars: Daniel Greene, Janet Agren, Claudio Cassinelli, George Eastman
Votes: 2,876
November 3
Italo schlock 80s action science fiction nonsense.
Aka good times to be had by all.
2/5
52. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Approved | 82 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
While awaiting execution for murder, Baron Victor Frankenstein tells the story of a creature he built and brought to life - only for it to behave not as he intended.
Director: Terence Fisher | Stars: Peter Cushing, Hazel Court, Robert Urquhart, Christopher Lee
Votes: 12,649 | Gross: $17.44M
November 3
Hammer's Frankenstein is all around delightful horror serving, if inferior to Dracula. Pretty fun all in all.
3/5
53. Tenebrae (1982)
R | 101 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An American novelist visiting Rome to promote his latest book is stalked and harassed by an obsessed fan who is committing a string of murders that appear to be tributes to his work.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Anthony Franciosa, Giuliano Gemma, John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi
Votes: 27,437
November 3
Argento at his most complex and compelling. Hitchcockian duality themes and classic sense of style abound, as does Argento's bravura setpieces. If we take Tenebre to be the last great Argento movie as many do he goes out with a bang.
5/5
54. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
GP | 96 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An American expatriate in Rome attempts to unmask a serial killer he witnessed in the act of an attempted murder - and is now hunting him and his girlfriend.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi
Votes: 24,105 | Gross: $0.42M
November 4
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is perhaps the finest of Argento's "straightforward" giallos this side of Profondo Rosso, and it's notable how great control he can exercise this early in his career already. While the film is relatively simple compared to classics to come its story is told effectively on its own terms, and the grounds laid here for future achievements are sturdy.
4/5
55. The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)
GP | 112 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Two journalists try to solve a series of murders connected to a pharmaceutical company's secret experiments, becoming targets of the killer themselves.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: James Franciscus, Karl Malden, Catherine Spaak, Pier Paolo Capponi
Votes: 13,031
November 4
Argento's followup to The Bird keeps the animal theme and pure giallo as a genre, but film's frankly silly and scientifically dated central conceit drags the whole thing down a level. It's still worth seeing for some great Argento setpieces like the rooftop scenes.
3/5
56. The Great Passage (2013)
134 min | Drama
Majime, an eccentric man in publishing company, who has unique ability of words, joins the team that will compile a new dictionary, 'The Great Passage.' In the eclectic team, he becomes ... See full summary »
Director: Yûya Ishii | Stars: Ryûhei Matsuda, Aoi Miyazaki, Joe Odagiri, Kaoru Kobayashi
Votes: 2,872
November 5
Movie about creation of dictionary has no reason to be this compelling, but it is. The Great Passage is one of the stronger drama films from 2010s Japan and both its empathy and its restraint in telling of its story are greatly appreciated.
4/5
57. Zigeunerweisen (1980)
Not Rated | 144 min | Horror, Mystery
A surreal period film following an university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways.
Director: Seijun Suzuki | Stars: Yoshio Harada, Naoko Ôtani, Kisako Makishi, Akaji Maro
Votes: 1,501
November 6
Suzuki's triumphal return as director after his blacklisting took the form of unpronouncable Zigeunerweisen. The film often taken to be the best from 80s Japan throws a curveball at fans of experimental 60s B-movie material. Gone is the frenetic energy and exciting action, in is slow and literate arthouse fare. What does carry over is experimental approach to fragmented narrative and audiovisual brilliance. Ghosts, some more literal, some more metaphorical, haunt this exploration of Taisho era.
Zigeunerweisen is more demanding on the viewer than Suzuki's great 60s work, but going by the way the film (as of 30th June 2020) has haunted me for a long time after it might be his greatest achievement after Branded to Kill.
It is in any case a masterpiece.
5/5
58. Village of Doom (1983)
115 min | Crime, Drama
An emotionally distraught young man goes on a violent killing spree after his tuberculosis keeps him from serving in World War II and is frowned upon by his fellow villagers.
Director: Noboru Tanaka | Stars: Masato Furuoya, Misako Tanaka, Kumiko Ôba, Isao Natsuyagi
Votes: 193
November 8
1930s incel rapes and murders women in a Japanese village, based on a true story. This pink film punches above most of its peers and it is surprisingly low on pure exploitation. For good or bad, the filmmakers were making a film about the subject in earnest, not a shock flick.
3/5
59. Floating Clouds (1955)
123 min | Drama, Romance
A tragic social drama set in post war Japan and concerns a lonely woman trying to find purpose and stability in a devastated Tokyo.
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Mariko Okada, Isao Yamagata
Votes: 3,148
November 10
Naruse's masterpiece is one of the greatest films to be made in Japan - and as such it is one of the great films of world cinema, period.
5/5
60. Youth of the Beast (1963)
Not Rated | 92 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
A violent thug plays opposing yakuza bosses against each other.
Director: Seijun Suzuki | Stars: Jô Shishido, Misako Watanabe, Tamio Kawaji, Minako Katsuki
Votes: 3,919
November 11
Youth of the Beast is where Seijun Suzuki stopped being one of the better B movie directors at Nikkatsu and became, well, Seijun Suzuki. Suzuki takes a script for boilerplate yakuza action feature which Nikkatsu churned out at the time and goes crazy with it. Ironic tone and frenetic pacing, over the top action scenes and experimental visuals mark Youth as the first Suzuki classic and herald of things to come.
5/5
61. Flower and Snake (1974)
74 min | Drama, Thriller
The elderly Senzô Tôyama orders his employee, Makoto Katagiri, to kidnap and train his wife Shizuko in order to break her pride so that she will submit to his desires.
Director: Masaru Konuma | Stars: Naomi Tani, Nagatoshi Sakamoto, Hijiri Abe, Willie Dorsey
Votes: 546
November 12
What is there to say about this cornerstone of SM pink exploitation films at this point? First, Naomi Tani is indeed as stunning actress as everyone says she was. In one of her breakthrough roles Tani showcases acting chops that make her one of the great Japanese actresses of the era, not just the Queen of SM.
Alas this doesn't mean the feature has any other redeeming features whatsoever.
1/5
62. Farewell to the Ark (1984)
127 min | Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
A surreal, isolated village sees its inhabitants gradually leave behind their mutual traditions and superstitions as they leave for the city. Among them are two cousins who love each other and who get into a quarrel with other villagers.
Director: Shûji Terayama | Stars: Tsutomu Yamazaki, Mayumi Ogawa, Yoshio Harada, Yôko Takahashi
Votes: 632
November 13
Terayama's final film is a surrealist epic and one of the great achievements of this maverick artistic genius. Death, time, clocks, rural communities, holes, memory. The film is more than little reminiscent of Death in the Country, both in style and themes.
They really don't make 'em anymore like they used to.
5/5
63. The Big Sleep (1946)
Passed | 114 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail and what might be love.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers
Votes: 90,538 | Gross: $6.54M
November 15
Bogart classic is one of the all time great film noirs, with one of the all time great scripts and Bogart & Bacall romances.
Who cares about the driver?
5/5
64. Wife to Be Sacrificed (1974)
71 min | Drama, Romance
A woman must endure an extreme ritual when her ex-husband, who has recently escaped from jail, kidnaps her.
Director: Masaru Konuma | Stars: Naomi Tani, Nagatoshi Sakamoto, Terumi Azuma, Hidetoshi Kageyama
Votes: 622
November 16
Naomi Tani and director Masaru Konuma return with this bleak masterwork of degrading moviemaking. Wife to be Sacrificed leaves me in a bind, because the ferocious will and commitment with which the story has been skillfully captured is notable. But when the story you offer is that of pure degradation and nihilism with nothing to even contextualize its violations in some worthy thematic framework does the skill put into its creation even matter?
Inhumane trash or a desolate masterpiece, Wife to Be Sacrificed is impossible to forget.
3/5
65. The King of Comedy (1982)
PG | 109 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A passionate yet unsuccessful comedian stalks and kidnaps his idol to take the spotlight for himself.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard
Votes: 119,239 | Gross: $2.50M
November 17
Scorsese's masterful, pitch black comedy was somewhat underappreciated during its own time but has found cult status that it richly deserves. The film is all around excellent and Rupert Pupkin must be one of the most memorable and sympathetic unhinged creeps in movie history.
What a creep though.
5/5
66. Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Approved | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger
Votes: 14,705
November 18
Perhaps the best Marlowe movie without Bogart and a strong highlight among 40s noir features, Murder, My Sweet finds Dick Powell in wonderful form as the rugged detective. John Paxton's screenplay captures essence of Chandler's sharp wit while Edward Dmytryk at times audacious direction and Harry J. Wild's cinematography adapt the story superbly for the widescreen.
5/5
67. Wild at Heart (1990)
R | 125 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Young lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula's mom has hired to kill Sailor.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, J.E. Freeman
Votes: 101,005 | Gross: $14.56M
November 18
The most cartoony and offensively bad taste Americana of all Lynch features, Wild at Heart is still a keeper thanks to its (really!) good heart and a Lynchian parade of oddities in scene and character - and who knew Nicholas Cage could sing Elvis so well?
4/5
68. Sadistic and Masochistic (2001)
91 min | Documentary
Documentary on director Masaru Konuma, who dedicated his life to Japanese soft porn, directing more than 47 films in more than three decades and specializing in S&M.
Director: Hideo Nakata | Stars: Haruhiko Arai, Hiroshi Hanzawa, Osamu Inoue, Yuko Katagiri
Votes: 58
November 18
Documentary on Masaru Konuma reveals a thoroughly ordinary and unimposing, in some respects even gentle, man behind many of the most (in)famous of Nikkatsu's S&M films. An interesting look from the inside of Roman Porno world that showcases how large the gap between an artist and his work can get.
3/5
69. Blade Runner (1982)
R | 117 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos
Votes: 823,383 | Gross: $32.87M
November 19
One of the greatest films of them all and the greatest cyberpunk film of all time will not disappear like tears in the rain with passage of time. Few scifi visions have been as powerful and influential as that of Blade Runner, and even fewer have been as spiritual.
5/5
70. Every Day a Good Day (2018)
100 min | Drama
Noriko is a university student. By her mother's recommendation, Noriko begins attending a Japanese tea ceremony near her house with her cousin Michiko. There, Noriko learns from Teacher ... See full summary »
Director: Tatsushi Ômori | Stars: Haru Kuroki, Mikako Tabe, Kirin Kiki, Mayu Harada
Votes: 1,274
November 20
An essay book on tea ceremony and life lessons it imparts adapts with surprising grace and ease into feature film format. Kiki Kirin bows out gracefully and true to her outstanding talent as actress in her last major role.
3/5
71. Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over The Rainbow (2019)
TV-14 | 100 min | Animation, Comedy, Music
When Kanan and Dia disappear while visiting Mari on Italy, Chika and the rest of the Aqours have no choice but to reach the "Belpaese" themselves and search for them.
Director: Kazuo Sakai | Stars: Anju Inami, Rikako Aida, Nanaka Suwa, Arisa Komiya
Votes: 261 | Gross: $0.03M
November 24
Love Live goes to Italy and back again, stringing together musical number and amusing interludes with the thinnest of plots. The girls are cute as ever and the feature is well-animated so it's not all that bad as far as time waste goes. But there's nothing essential about it except for the most hardcore fans.
2/5
72. Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky (2016)
70 min | Animation, Sci-Fi, War
Follows the decisive battles in Thunderbolt sector around the debris of Side 4 during the One Year War, between Earth Federation's prototype Full Armor Gundam and Zeon's prototype Psycho Zaku.
Director: Kô Matsuo | Stars: Yûichi Nakamura, Ryohei Kimura, Toa Yukinari, Sayaka Ôhara
Votes: 703
December 7
Godawful grimderp UC fare for edgy teens that doesn't even manage to make its jazzy conceit work. Horrid directing, its only saving grace is well-animated mobile suit action. But it's hard to care when everything else sucks.
1/5
73. Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower (2017)
90 min | Animation, Action, Drama
Eight months after the One Year War, the Earth Federation attempts to secure and destroy the Psycho Zaku from the hands of a cult called South Seas Alliance.
Director: Kô Matsuo | Stars: Johnny Yong Bosch, Max Mittelman, Cherami Leigh, Tara Sands
Votes: 352
December 7
Almost as offensively bad as its prequel. Bandit Flower trades some inept attempts at clever storytelling for lame and generic developments and elements, so it's marginally preferrable. As a film its structure is utterly haphazard.
1/5
74. Mobile Suit Gundam: NT - Narrative (2018)
88 min | Animation, Action, Drama
The Federation and Neo-Zeon collaborate to capture a rogue suit.
Directors: Hidekazu Hara, Naoki Kotani, Shun'ichi Yoshizawa | Stars: Junya Enoki, Tomo Muranaka, Ayu Matsuura, Yûichirô Umehara
Votes: 510 | Gross: $0.26M
December 9
This strangely low tension, low effort sequel to Gundam Unicorn has a bizarre cheapness to it. Hammy drama does this narrative no favors.
2/5
75. Yoiyami semareba (1969)
43 min | Short, Drama
When faced with an accidental gas leak, four bored students turn the situation into a game. The last one to leave the apartment gets a small sum of money.
Director: Akio Jissôji | Stars: Ben Hiura, Yumiko Mitome, Ren Saitô, Kôji Shimizu
Votes: 95
December 13
Akio Jissoji's debut on the big screen is this existentialist, borderlinine nihilist one room short film that acts as extended metaphor for feelings and choices of 60s youth movement or something like that. The film adeptly builds up tension and Jissoji's keen eye for framing and composition is present in somewhat subdue form, but overall Oshima's script never really gets to anything truly interesting and the glacial pacing drags somewhat.
3/5
76. Utamaro and His Five Women (1946)
106 min | Drama
Utamaro is a great artist who lives to create portraits of beautiful women, using the brothels of Tokyo to provide his models.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Minosuke Bandô, Kinuyo Tanaka, Kôtarô Bandô, Hiroko Kawasaki
Votes: 1,423
December 13
Mizoguchi's film on the great painter and his relationships with women acts as also as semi-confessional biopic. As one would expect from even lesser Mizoguchi the film has its aesthetic merits, but in the end the film feels like it is all over the place and unfocused.
2/5
77. Utamaro: Yume to shiriseba (1977)
140 min | Biography, Drama
Follows the life of the famous classical printmaker, Utamaro Kitagawa, set during the time when Utamaro is commissioned to produce pornographic woodblocks.
Director: Akio Jissôji | Stars: Shin Kishida, Eiji Okada, Mikio Narita, Shingo Yamashiro
Votes: 108
December 14
Jissoji's take on Utamaro offers brilliant sequences and some of the director's trademark visual genius, but its mixture of genre elements, obscure plotting and other storytelling shortcomings mark the film as an interesting failure at being more commercial after director's ATG films.
While Mizoguchi's film has its problems with pacing and focus, the older master's take on Utamaro feels graceful and succesful in comparison.
2/5
78. Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (1988)
135 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
A demonic reincarnation of a Japanese general from the 10th century appears in the early 20th century Tokyo with a mission to destroy the blooming city.
Director: Akio Jissôji | Stars: Shintarô Katsu, Kyûsaku Shimada, Mieko Harada, Jun'ichi Ishida
Votes: 460
December 14
Jissoji helms this adaptation of 80s dark fantasy megaseries and it truly is one of a kind 80s extravaganza. Teito Monogatari features the best practical effects to come out of 1980s Japan, sweeping, epic story full of real historical persons and one of the all-time most iconic villains in japanese fiction. Jissoji keeps his outrageous stylistic bursts at minimum, but he directs the lumbering megaproject with sure hand as a satisfying 80s fantasy romp.
The film does have its shortcomings, of course. There is no way to cram in as much story into 2h 15 minutes as Teito tries to, and as a result the film features several ellipses and narrative gaps of a scale one does not usually see. For those of us who haven't read the original (untranslated) books Teito monogatari whets appetite for reading them, but it also is quite hard to follow in places in addition to being dramatically clunky. We're never shown how two key characters meet, fall in love and establish a family, for example. These are not magisterial, poetic ellipses in style of Ozu, these indicate dozens of pages ripped from the script due to time constraints.
But it is still very fun film and must see for enthusiasts of 80s pop culture from Japan.
3/5
79. The Watcher in the Attic (1976)
76 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
The landlord of a boarding house in 1923 Tokyo, is keen on spying on the bizarre close encounters taking place beneath his roof. One day he sees a prostitute killing a customer, and decides he's found his soulmate.
Director: Noboru Tanaka | Stars: Junko Miyashita, Renji Ishibashi, Hiroshi Chô, Kyôichi Mizuki
Votes: 501
December 15
Noboru Tanaka's perverse adaptation of Edogawa Ranpo story is one of the great works of 70s pink film. Due to inherent voyerism and sexual paraphilias involved with Ranpo's work adapted here sex exploitation aspects of the picture fuse naturally with the rest, and Tanaka's exploration of Taisho decadence feels far more thematically weighty than most pink films of its kind. Directing is also first-rate in a way that clearly establishes Tanaka's reputation as the best of Nikkatsu Roman Porno directors.
4/5
80. A Watcher in the Attic (1993)
74 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
The landlord of a boarding house in 1923 Tokyo, is keen on spying on the bizarre close encounters taking place beneath his roof. One day he sees a prostitute killing a customer, and decides he's found his soulmate.
Director: Akio Jissôji | Stars: Hiroshi Mikami, Kan'ichi Hiraga, Masami Horiuchi, Keiko Kaga
Votes: 107
December 15
Jissoji's take on Watcher in the Attic is strong and supremely disturbing film that finds Jissoji at the top of his form. If it were not for few scenes that clearly stem from excessive intrusions of his own sexual proclivities and nothing else, as well as unnecessarily "nihilistic" subversion in the final scene I would probably rate Jissoji's film as even superior to Tanaka's.
As things stand these small blemishes mean the comparative ranking is reverse, but Jissoji's Watcher is still a very good film.
4/5
81. D-Zaka no satsujin jiken (1998)
95 min | Mystery
Detective Kogoro Akechi is faced with a peculiar murder case involving forgeries of classic pornographic artworks.
Director: Akio Jissôji | Stars: Hiroyuki Sanada, Kyûsaku Shimada, Yumi Yoshiyuki, Yûko Daike
Votes: 191
December 15
What was said of Jissoji's Watcher in the Attic also holds for his adaptation of Ranpo's Murder on the D Street. It is beautifully and strikingly shot and directed dark murder story of the kind only Jissoji does, but as is common in his later work some of the fetishistic elements in the film detract from the story rather than add to it.
D Street is a very good film but taken with rest of Jissoji's 90s output it establishes how unrestrained libido can negatively affect artist's work too.
4/5
82. Flowing (1956)
117 min | Drama
Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mothers trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta ... See full summary »
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Isuzu Yamada, Hideko Takamine, Mariko Okada
Votes: 1,189
December 16
Flowing is one of the most essentially Naruse-like of director's essential films. It is a masterful study of human relations in pressures financial and psychological in a way Naruse excels.
5/5
83. Arietta (1989)
51 min | Drama
Director: Akio Jissôji | Stars: Keiko Kaga, Kiriko Shimizu
Votes: 48
December 17
Jissoji's dehumanizing, pornographic V cinema entry has just about zero redeeming features. It is a work by sick soul trying to plaster thin veneer of religious significance upon pure brutalization. Even on strictly aesthetic terms the film is a dismal affair not explicable simply by minimal budget and limitations of the video format.
Disgraceful.
1/5
84. Story of a Prostitute (1965)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Romance, War
In WW2 Manchuria, a prostitute grows to resent an abusive adjutant and falls in love with his aide.
Director: Seijun Suzuki | Stars: Tamio Kawaji, Yumiko Nogawa, Isao Tamagawa, Shôichi Ozawa
Votes: 1,603
December 18
Seijun Suzuki took a dismal, generic romantic weeper about a woman sold as prostitute to serve troops in Manchuria - and turned it into a madcap, absurdist, darkly comic and genuinely tragic exploration of futility and insanity of war. Suzuki drawing inspiration from his own wartime experiences and gleeful formal experimentation play keyrole in turning this film into a Suzuki masterpiece, but Yumiko Nogawa's performance in the main role also draws applaud.
5/5
85. Ichijo Sayuri: Nureta yokujo (1972)
Not Rated | 69 min | Drama
The story is about a stripper's relationships with two men: her boyfriend and a club owner.
Director: Tatsumi Kumashiro | Stars: Sayuri Ichijo, Hiroko Isayama, Kazuko Shirakawa, Gô Awazu
Votes: 280
December 19
Tatsumi Kumashiro's pseudodocumentarian, cinema verite exposure of the life of a stripper (playing herself) in Osaka is many things and lacks neither in craft nor panache, but overall this glorification of sexual liberation and degeneration is merely obnoxious.
1/5
86. Gilda (1946)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A small-time gambler hired to work in a Buenos Aires casino discovers his employer's new wife is his former lover.
Director: Charles Vidor | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 35,285
December 19
Gilda features Rita Hayworth in her most iconic role as title character of this classic film noir. Gilda is a strong film and stands out among 40s noir for flirting unusually intensively with romance genre, to generally speaking great results.
4/5
87. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Approved | 80 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan
Votes: 54,783
December 21
The original Cold War scifi-horror paranoia movie still thrills and enthralls. What the decades have taken away in terms of being frightening the decades have given back in making it clear just how well-written, crafted and directed this minimum budget scifi feature truly was. Excellent all around and in my view the ending does not compromise integrity of the work the way it is sometimes claimed. On the contrary, it fits the confidence of 50s USA in the Cold War, just like the late 70s take sticking closer to the original script reflects the mood of its era.
5/5
88. Forbidden Planet (1956)
G | 98 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
A starship crew in the 23rd century goes to investigate the silence of a distant planet's colony, only to find just two survivors, a powerful robot, and the deadly secret of a lost civilization.
Director: Fred M. Wilcox | Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens
Votes: 53,236 | Gross: $3.00M
December 21
The original inner space meets space, Freudian Hypertravel science fiction film has stood the test of time admirably. Forbidden Planet is perhaps best described as extremely good Star Trek episode (which Forbidden Planet clearly inspired), featuring more animal sexuality and psychopathological weirdness than average Trek episode ever would.
Forbidden Planet's status as one of the first genuinely great science fiction films is well-deserved and its legacy in west and in Japan (no Ideon and thus no Evangelion without it!) inspires admiration.
4/5
89. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
G | 92 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
An alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe
Votes: 85,785
December 22
Liberal humanist cum mid-20th Century protestant scifi parable about the good of UN and its desirability. As politically naive as the film is its status as first succesful "serious" scifi film is well deserved, as the film is all around very well-realized drama and Klaatu is a particularly memorable Christ expy.
Ultimately The Day the Earth Stood Still is a beautifully realized vision by a postwar liberal democratic culture about its most deeply held values and their religious background. That this humane order was perhaps doomed to internal decay by its own contradictions doesn't detract from naive nobility of this atom age fantasy.
5/5
90. Princess Arete (2001)
105 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
Confined in the castle tower by her father, Princess Arete spends her days watching the world outside her window. Sometimes she sneaks out. Prospective suitors are sent on quests to collect magic treasures to win her hand in marriage.
Director: Sunao Katabuchi | Stars: Houko Kuwashima, Tsuyoshi Koyama, Minami Takayama, Yûsuke Numata
Votes: 789
December 24
Sunao Katabuchi's first anime feature film is insufferable, ugly and most unforgivably dreadfully boring feminist fantasy tract. Studio 4C's production work is as unimpressive here as it stuns in Yuasa's Mind Game few years later and Katabuchi doesn't seem to know what to do with the material given to him, or how to pace a story.
All in all Princess Arite offers no aesthetic or intellectual thrills to anyone except the most committed ideologist.
1/5
91. Hanagatami (2017)
169 min | Drama, War
Fulfilling his filmmaking dream of 40 years, Nobuhiko Obayashi's luminous new feature "Hanagatami" delivers a timeless story of the pureness of youth beset by the chaos of war.
Director: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi | Stars: Shunsuke Kubozuka, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, Keishi Nagatsuka, Tokio Emoto
Votes: 775
December 25
Obayashi's kaleidoscopic, batshit insane antiwar poem and a tragic tribute to a doomed generation just should not work. But it does. This is one of the best films of 2010s and a rare spot bright as sun in somewhat underwhelming decade in Japanese movies. Obayashi's bizarre storytelling logic and formal experimentation somehow form an integral whole.
Not many veteran directors manage to make such a late career masterpiece.
5/5
92. Riarizumu no yado (2003)
83 min | Comedy, Drama
Tsuboi and Kinoshita have just arrived at a desolate town. Both of them are amateur filmmakers. Tsuboi is a screenwriter and Kinoshita a director. They have come to this town because Funaki... See full summary »
Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita | Stars: Keishi Nagatsuka, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Machiko Ono, Sunny Francis
Votes: 282
December 26
Two losers are supposed to make a film the japanese boons, but instead they end up wasting their time on do-nothing out of season holiday. Plenty of lowkey hilarity ensues.
4/5
93. A Woman Called Sada Abe (1975)
85 min | Biography, Drama
A true-life tale of a broken woman whose hedonistic tryst with a high-class restaurateur resulted in a horrific crime of passion that littered Tokyo headlines in 1936.
Director: Noboru Tanaka | Stars: Junko Miyashita, Eimei Esumi, Genshû Hanayagi, Yoshie Kitsuda
Votes: 605
December 26
Noboru Tanaka's masterwork is the great portrait of sexual passion and spiralling self-destruction Oshima's dismal In the Realm of the Senses wants to be. This superb character study shows that when the subject and the form fit even the most ridiculous of pink film demands - at least one sex scene in every 15 minutes - can be utilized for artistic triumph.
5/5
94. The Red Spectacles (1987)
116 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A surreal science fiction noir involving a man trapped in a future where seemingly everyone is a government spy and all-night noodle stands are outlawed.
Director: Mamoru Oshii | Stars: Shigeru Chiba, Machiko Washio, Hideyuki Tanaka, Tesshô Genda
Votes: 853
December 27
Oshii's first live action feature finds Oshii at his darkest and most inscrutable stretch of his career, those post-Urusei Yatsura pre-Patlabor days of Angel's Egg and Twilight Q. Obscure philosophical ruminations on free will and determinism meets aesthetics of european arthouse cinema, metafictional theatre, dystopian science fiction - and over-the-top-physical comedy that has more in common with Oshii's Urusei Yatsura than masters of silent comedy.
Ultimately, the film is undeniably something of an willfully obscure and pretentious mess. Disparate elements like Shigeru Chiba's over-the-top cartoon comedy and moody Soviet oppressiveness of Ashes and Diamonds, while individually well-realized, do not gel well. There is aura of film school geekery, joy of unwilling anime creator finally getting to do a "rea film", that is somewhat offputting.
But there is no gainsaying an ending so powerfully affecting. Ultimately Red Spectacles 'works', despite its shortcomings and obscurity. That is what matters.
3/5
95. Stray Dog: Kerberos Panzer Cops (1991)
99 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
The Metropolitan Police's ultimate crime-fighting unit was an elite squad of men and women known as the Kerberos. Refusing an order from the government officials to disarm led to a riot ... See full summary »
Director: Mamoru Oshii | Stars: Yoshikazu Fujiki, Eaching Sue, Takashi Matsuyama, Shigeru Chiba
Votes: 540
December 28
If Red Spectacles had its merits despite its obtuse film school pretentiousness its prequel Stray Dog is unfortunately exchanged obscurity for clarity. The results are terrible. The film is shoddy, amateurish affair, an awkward mix of barely cinematic Taiwan holiday home video footage and awkward arthouse pretentions. The mixture of disparate elements like slapstick and brooding SF that didn't work well in Red Spectales is downright disastrous here. Some of the hammy acting is utterly unbearable.
Chiba's performance is very enjoyable as such and the film is bookmarked by fine opening sequence and pretty decent action sequence of the kind Oshii specializes in, but everything inbetween is more akin cinematic wasteland than anything else.
Stray Dog is the one genuinely bad film Oshii made in the 90s. Jin-Roh would go to salvage many elements from this sad mess and put them to a good use.
1/5
96. Talking Head (1992)
105 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A revered director with an obscure style, Rei Maruwa, has gone missing during the production of his latest animated feature, Talking Head. With the deadline approaching and next to no ... See full summary »
Director: Mamoru Oshii | Stars: Shigeru Chiba, Tomoko Ishimura, Fumihiko Tachiki, Yoshikazu Fujiki
Votes: 467
December 29
Talking Head is a very interesting exercise in metafiction and theatrical arthouse, but sadly less than its parts. It's a metaphysical detective story of the kind Oshii excels at and its ruminations on film and animation as mediums are interesting and fun while the film is ongoing, but after the credits roll it just doesn't seem to have had anything interesting say about any of the themes it dabbles with.
For good and for bad, Talking Head is just Oshii playing around, nothing more, nothing less.
3/5
97. La Valse (1990)
95 min | Fantasy
In a piece of erotic realism it is a work that both entertains the curious eye and then turns around to provide philosophy in order to criticize it. Being a prostitute is not easy. There is... See full summary »
Director: Akio Jissôji | Stars: Mari Ayukawa, Mariko Itsuki, Keiko Kaga, Minori Terada
Votes: 44
December 29
La Valse finds Jissoji continuing his porn-crime-V-cinema trilogy. It is definitely more succesful endeavor than dismal Ariette was - Jissoji seems to be at least trying while sitting on director's chair and despite cheapness and poor quality of the format some of his trademark stylistics work quite well. Some.
Unfortunately none of this is quite enough to make La Valse a good film and the story never escapes the gravity field of Jissoji's nihilism or the pornographic dimension of the enterprise succesfully. That the version I saw cut away third of the film as purely pornographic says it all.
1/5
98. Jissouji Akio kantoku sakuhin: Watashi, nandemo shimasu! (1993)
97 min
Director: Akio Jissôji | Stars: Keiko Kaga, Katsumi Muramatsu, Masami Horiuchi
December 29
What is said about La Valse fit the third part of the trilogy just as well. Like Va Valse Dialogue has its share of delightful Jissojisms, though like in La Valse V-cinema format makes some of his stylistic trademarks I'm generally ambivalent about (notably his idiosyncratic approach to lighting) simply unsuccesful.
While Jissoji is no doubt sincere about finding something to say about human condition through pornographic pathos, in the end this is just Buddhist bathos acting as a window dressing. What really is the driving force for the whole trilogy is Jissoji indulging his own carnality.
1/5
99. Ride Your Wave (2019)
Not Rated | 95 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama
A surfer and firefighter meet and fall in love.
Director: Masaaki Yuasa | Stars: Ryôta Katayose, Rina Kawaei, Honoka Matsumoto, Kentarô Itô
Votes: 4,148
December 29
Yuasa turns out more sentimental, safe mainstream fare for the box office. If it wasn't for Science Saru's animation and Yuasa as director nothing would really make this middling tale of love, loss and healing stand out in the plastic manga adaptation box office.
While the film has some standout sakuga and good moments - the finale is particularly memorable visual feast - overall this is just an uninspiring, depressingly mediocre affair. And not good-mediocre or mediocre-mediocre affair, no, Your Wave is bad-mediocre.
2/5
100. Avalon (2001)
R | 107 min | Action, Drama, Fantasy
In a dystopian world, a woman spends her time playing an illegal and dangerous game, hoping to find meaning in her world.
Director: Mamoru Oshii | Stars: Malgorzata Foremniak, Wladyslaw Kowalski, Jerzy Gudejko, Dariusz Biskupski
Votes: 13,701
December 30
Avalon stands out among Oshii's live action work as singularly succesful. It is here, and nowhere else, he succeeds in making something that reminds the audience of what makes his anime work so singularly compelling. Great action scenes, digital cinematography beautiful in all its unnaturalness, haunting atmosphere and deliberate pacing reminiscent of East European arthouse all find expressions here that work.
In story department vague philosophical unease about nature of reality and our (lack of) place and (lack of) knowledge of it and mythological allusions add substance to an otherwise simple rise-and-grind vidya storyline. Partly the film is culpably too open to interpretation - Oshii's ideas on real and virtual do not seem too worked through - but by and large it succeeds as thought provoking science fiction in a 'legit' way.
4/5
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