25 Best Japanese Movies Filtered By Different Genres

Japanese Movies have also been standing out from other language movies, after all, non-English language film deserves as much recognition as English film. Akira Kurosawa has brought a significant change not only in Japanese cinema but in the film industry itself.

The 25 Best Japanese Movies

1. I Give My First Love To You

Original Title: Boku no Hastsukoi o Kimi ni Sasagu
Director: Takehiko Shinjo
Year of Release: 2009
Cast: Yoko Mariguchi, Yuki Terada, Sea Kumada, Mao Inoue, Toru Nakamura, Masaki Okada, Yoshihiko Hosoda, Masataka Kubota, Tetta Sugimoto, Kaito Kobayashi, Gaku Yamamoto, Keiko Horiuchi, Natsuki Harada
IMDb: 7.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: Not Rated

I Give My First Love To You is one of the Japanese movies that keep you on the edge of your seat. The movie is based on a manga of the same name by Kotomi Aoki.

It’s a young adult love story where a boy is told that he will die before the age of 20, and there is a girl who is in love with her.

2. Crying Out Love in the Center of the World

Original Title: Sekai no Chushin de, Ai o Sakebu
Director: Isao Yukisada
Year of Release: 2004
Cast: Takao Osawa, Mirai Moriyama, Masami Nagasawa, Ko Shibasaki, Rio Kanno, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kankuro Kudo, Issei Takahashi, Kanji Tsuda, Misato Watanabe, Tetta Sugimoto, Midori Kiuchi.
IMDb: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes:

One of the most romantic and realistic Japanese movies. Crying Out Love in the Center of the World follows the story of a man (Takao Osawa) who returns to his old neighborhood and pays attention to sound journals recorded by his school darling (Masami Nagasawa) before her demise.

The motion picture is based on a bestseller by Kyoichi Katayama named Socrates in Love. The story is an absolute delight for authentic romance lovers.

3. Floating Clouds

Original Title: Ukigumo
Director: Mikio Naruse
Year of Release: 1955
Cast: Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Mariko Okada, Chieko Nakakita, Daisuke Kato, Isao Yamagata, Mayuri Mokusho, Noriko Sengoku, Fuyuki Murakami.
IMDb: 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: Not Rated.

This classic movie is undoubtedly a work of art. The director has done their job perfectly. Floating Clouds is based on the bestseller of the same name by Fumiko Hayashi.

The story revolves around Yukiko Koda, who floats around the rubble of a crushed Tokyo, attempting to get a handle on the obliteration and to track down reason and security for herself.

4. Let Me Eat Your Pancreas

Original Title: Hepburn: Kimi no Suizo o Tabetai.
Director: Shao Tsukikawa, Tomoko Yoshida, Akihiro Yamauchi, Taichi Ueda.
Year of Release: 2017
Cast: Minami Hamabe, Takumi Kitamura, Shun Oguri, Keiko Kitagawa, Karen Otomo, YumaYamoto, Yusuke Kamiji, Dori Sakurada.
IMDb: 7.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes:

Based on the novel I Want to Eat Your Pancreas by Yoru Sumino, this Japanese movie leaves you no choice but to cry your heart out. One of the most famous Japanese movies.

The story is about two teenagers. The boy finds the dairy of the girl and discovers that she has a pancreatic disease. To fulfill her, he acknowledges every one of her desires. He later discovers that he is fascinated with her; however, they can’t be together as she leaves him for eternity.

5. My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday

Original Title: Boku wa Asu, Kino no Kimi to Deto Suru
Director: Takahiro Miki
Year of Release: 2016
Cast: Sota Fukushi, Nana Komatsu, Kaya Kiyohara, Masahiro Higashide, Yuki Yamada, Akira Otaka, Yoshiko Miyazaki.
IMDb: 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes: Not Rated.

Another Japanese film is based on the yellowback by Takafumi Nanatsuki. A romance movie with insane time travel? Yesss! This is one of the few films with the best romance and sci-fi stories. The premise of the movie is unique and has never been seen before.

The story follows Takatoshi, who fell in love with a girl on their first meeting. Little did he know the girl had some superpowers in her past. The time runs backward for her.

6. A Whisker Away

Original Title: Nakitai Watashi wa Neko o Kaburu. (Wanting to Cry, I Pretend to be a Cat).
Director: Junichi Sato, Tomotaka Shibayama
Year of Release: 2020
Voice Cast: Mirai Shida, Natsuki Hanae, Hiroaki Ogi, Fukushi Ochiai, Koichi Yamadera, Ayako Kawasumi.
IMDb: 6.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%

A Whisker Away is a Japanese movie on Netflix about Covertly, who is enamored with her schoolmate Kento; Miyo takes the assistance of a baffling veil and changes into a feline to draw nearer to him. In any case, inconvenience results when she starts to lose herself.

War Japanese Movies:

7. Throne of Blood

Original Title: Kumonosu-Jo (Spiderweb Castle).
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Year of Release: 1957
Cast: Akira Kubo, Yoichi Tachikawa, Toshiro Mifune, Takamaru Sasaki, Minoru Chiaki, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura.
IMDb: 8.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

Inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Throne of Blood is the film that recounts the narrative of his sovereign champion at the encouragement of his aggressive spouse.

Drama Japanese Movies:

8. Puppet Master

Original Title: The Puppetmaster
Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Year of Release: 1993
Cast: Li Tian-lu, Lim Giong, Tsai Chen-nan, Yang Li-yin, Vicky Wei.
IMDb:
Rotten Tomatoes:

The Puppetmaster is one of the greatest Japanese films ever made in cinema history. This Japanese film depends on the diaries of Li Tian-lu, Taiwan’s most celebrated puppeteer; this story covers the years from’s first experience with the world in 1909 to the uttermost furthest reaches of Japan’s fifty-year control of Taiwan in 1945.

9. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Original Title: Hepburn: Kaguya-Hime no Monogatari.
Director: Isao Takahata
Year of Release: 2013
Cast: Takaya Kamikawa, Kengo Kara, Tomoko Tabata, Nobuko Miyamoto, Aki Asakura, Takeo Chii, Tatekawa Shinosuke, Atsuko Takahata.
IMDb: 8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is based on Japanese folklore, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. A rancher and his better half find a small-scale young woman inside a bamboo tail who mysteriously grows up to turn into a wonderful woman. The young lady is pursued by five men who must confront inconceivable undertakings to win her hand.

10. Tokyo Story

Original Title: Tokyo Monogatari
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Year of Release: 1953
Cast: So Yamamura, Eijiro Tono, Chishu Ryu, Shiro Osaka, Haruko Sugimura, Kuniko Miyake, Chieko Higashiyama, Nobuo Nkamura, Kyoko Kagawa, Setsuko Hara.
IMDb: 8.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%

Tokyo Story might not have received the recognition it deserved at its release, but now, it is considered one of the greatest Japanese films ever made. The dramatic moments in Tokyo Story are surely worth the watch. The story is about a maturing couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their adult youths. The Japanese culture in this movie is acute.

11. Tokyo Sonata

Original Title: Tokyo Sonata
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Year of Release: 2008
Cast: Kanji Tsuda, Kyoko Koizumi, Kazuya Kojima, Kai Inowaki, Teruyuki Kagawa, Haruka Igawa, Yu Koyanagi, Koji Yakusho.
IMDb: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%

Tokyo Sonata is one of the best films made in Japanese cinema. The story is about Ryûhei Sasaki, withholding something from his spouse, Megumi, and his two young boys. Even though he goes out each day, he’s not exactly going to work. He’s going to a work office. He, as of late, lost his employment due to re-appropriating, not entirely settled to find another position, all while supporting a close buddy who is likewise jobless. In any case, when Megumi coincidentally figures out Ryûhei’s confidentiality and doesn’t tell him, her confidence in him and their marriage endures.

12. Like Father, Like Son

Original Title: Soshite Chichi ni Naru
Director: Hirokazu Kore Eda
Year of Release: 2013
Cast: Machiko Ono, Yoko Maki, Masaharu Fukuyama, Kirin Kiki, Jun Kunimura.
IMDb: 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%

One of the best Drama Japanese films. The movie is about Ryota, who discovers his biological son was exchanged upon entering the world with the kid he had raised. He should settle on a day-to-day existence influencing the choice between his two children.

Crime/ Mystery:

13. Rashomon

Original Title: Rashomon
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Year of Release: 1950
Cast: Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Kichijiro Ueda, Toshiro Mifune, Msayuki Mori, Noriko Honma, Daisuke Kato.
IMDb: 8.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%

Akira Kurosawa is undoubtedly one of the best directors in film history. He changed the film industry throughout the world with this movie. Rashomon is praised internationally for its frantic storytelling, cinematography, and narration. It’s the first Japanese movie to get international praise level.

The movie follows the events that happen in the forest. The murder of a Samurai husband was shown by the prescription of four people who witnessed it.

Award received by the movie

The film also got Academy Honorary Award at Academy Award in 1952.

14. Sonatine

Original Title: Sonachine
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Year of Release: 1993
Cast: Susumu Terajima, Takeshi Kitano, Tonbo Zushi, Tetsu Watanabe, Ren Osugi, Masanobu Katsumura, Aya Kokumai.
IMDb: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%

Sonatine is one of the most praised Japanese movies by Takeshi Kitano. The story follows as a few yakuza from Tokyo are shipped off Okinawa to assist with finishing a pack war. The conflict heightens, and the Tokyo wanderers choose to disappear to the ocean side.

15. The Snow White Murder Case

Original Title: Shirayuki hime Satsujin Jiken
Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura
Year of Release: 2014
Cast: Mao Inoue, Go Ayano, Nanao, Nobuaki Kaneko, Erena Ono, Mitsuki Tanimura, Shihori Kanjiya, Shunsuke Daito, Misako Renbutsu.
IMDb: 6.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes:

One of the best Japanese movies in the mystery drama genre. The story is about a young lady who works at a therapeutic organization and is investigated concerning the homicide of her lovely colleague.

Action Japanese Movies:

16. Seven Samurai

Original Title: Shichinin no Samurai
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Year of Release: 1954
Cast: Isao Kimura, Toshiro Mifune, Yoshio Inaba, Minoru Chiaki, Daisuke Kato, Seiji Miyaguchi, Takashi Shimura.
IMDb: 8.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%

Yet another masterpiece from the Japanese movies given by Akira Kurosawa. This movie was the second-highest-grossing of that time and the most expensive film.

The story happened in 1586 during the Sengoku time of Japanese history. It follows the narrative of a town of frantic ranchers who recruit seven rōnin (masterless samurai) to battle scoundrels who will return after they gather to take their harvests.

17. The Twilight Samurai

Original Title: Twilight Seibei
Director: Yoji Yamada
Year of Release: 2002
Cast: Erina Hashiguchi, Rie Miyazawa, Hiroshi Kanbe, Hiroyuki Sanada, Reiko Kusamura, Nenji Kobayashi, Miki Ito, Ren Osugi, Erina Hashiguchi, Mitsuru Fukikoshi.
IMDb: 8.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 99%

One of the greatest films made in Japanese Cinema. Set in mid-nineteenth century Japan, a couple of years before the Meiji Restoration, it follows the existence of Seibei Iguchi, a low-positioning samurai utilized as a civil servant. Poor, yet not sad, he figures out how to have a substance and cheerful existence with his little girls and his mom, who has dementia. Through a lamentable development, the turbulent times contrive against him.

Award received by the movie

The movie won an uncommon 12 Japanese Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay.

Horror Japanese Movies:

18. Ring

Original Title: Ringu
Director: Hideo Nakata
Year of Release: 1998
Cast: Rie Ino, Nanako Matsushima, Katsumi Muramatsu, Miki Nakatani, Daisuke Ban, Hiroyuki Sanada, Yuko Takeuchi, Yoichi Numata, Yutaka Matsushige, Masako, Hitomi Sato, Rikiya Otaka.
IMDb: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%

One of the best horror genre films in Japanese cinema. The movie is based on the horror mystery novel Ring by Koji Suzuki.

The movie is about a lady, and her ex researching a progression of high schooler passings brought about by a baffling tape. Their assessment takes a loathsome transform when their kid transforms into a setback.

It started subsequent meet-ups in the Ring establishment, promoted Japanese loathsomeness, and set off a pattern of Western revamps of J-blood and gore movies, including the 2002 American film The Ring.

Animated Japanese Movies:

19. Spirited Away

Original Title: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Year of Release: 2001
Voice Cast: Takeshi Naito, Takehiko Ono, Rumi Hiragi, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Bunto Sugawara, Miyu Irino, Tsunehiko Kamijo, Mari Natsuki.
IMDb: 8.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%

Studio Ghibli produced one of the best movies in animation history. Ten-year-old Chihiro and her folks end up at an unwanted carnival occupied by otherworldly creatures. Before long, she discovers that she should attempt to free her folks, who have been transformed into pigs.

20. Princess Mononoke

Original Title: Mononoke-Hime
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Year of Release: 1997
Voice Cast: Kaoru Kobayashi, Yuko Tanaka, Yoji Matsuda, Masahiko Nishimura, Yuko Tanaka, Tsuehiko Kamijo, Yuriko Ishida.
IMDb: 8.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%

In the fourteenth hundred years, the amicability that people, creatures, and divine beings have appreciated started to disintegrate. The hero, youthful Ashitaka – tainted by a creature assault, looks for a fix from the deer-like god Shishigami. In his movements, he sees people assaulting the earth, cutting down the fury of wolf god Moro and his human friend Princess Mononoke. His attempts to expedite harmony between her and the people bring just a clash.

21. Weathering With You

Original Title: Tenki no ko, lit. (Child of Weather)
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Year of Release: 2019
Voice Cast: Shun Oguri, Sei Hiraizumi, Kotaro Daigo, Tsubasa Honda, Nana Mori, Sakura Kiryu.
IMDb: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%

Weathering With You is one of the best-animated movies. The story is about a young boy who left his native home in Tokyo and ended up in a small village as a publisher. While staying there, he met a young girl who could control the weather.

22. The Garden of Words

Original Title: Kotonoha no Niwa
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Year of Release: 2013
Cast: Allison Sumrall, Hilary Haag, Mike Yager, Maggie Flecknoe, Crash Buist, Shelley Calene-Black, Brittney Karbowski.
IMDb: 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes:

The Garden of Words is one of the best Japanese films ever. The animation, the narrative, the story, everything about this movie is perfect.

The film centers around a young boy Takao Akizuki, a shoemaker, and Yukari Yukino, a strange 27-year-elderly person he continues to meet at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden on windy mornings. While Takao is skirting his morning class to configure shoes, Yukari is staying away from work because of individual issues in her expert life. Yukari educates Takao nothing regarding herself, including her name, while Takao opens up dependent upon her, sharing his energy for shoes by proposing to make a couple for her. At the point when Takao learns Yukari’s personality, feelings reach a crucial stage as both discover that they have been showing one another “how to walk”.

23. Grave of the Fireflies

Original Title: Hotaru no Haka
Director: Isao Takahata
Year of Release: 1988
Voice Cast: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara, Akemi Yamaguchi, Kazumi Nozaki, Michio Denpo, Teruhisa Harita.
IMDb: 8.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%

Japanese filmmakers are nowhere behind the world in animated films. Grave of the fireflies is one of the Japanese animation movies that holds the title of one of the greatest movies ever made.

A staggering reflection on the human cost of war, this story follows Seita, a youth blamed for the thought of his younger sibling, Setsuko, after an American firebombing during The Second Great War detaches the two children from their people. Their account of perseverance is anyway horrendous as it is by all accounts predictable with life. The family relies absolutely upon each other and fights notwithstanding all that to stay together and stay alive.

24. Paprika

Original Title: Papurika
Director: Satoshi Kon
Year of Release: 2006
Voice Cast: Aiko Otsuka, Megumi Hayashibara, Katsunosuke Hori, Hideyuki Tanaka, Toru Emori, Koichi Yamadera, Toru Furuya.
IMDb: 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%

Based on the novel of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui, Paprika is an animated film about a fight between a fantasy psychological militant who takes a gadget that permits others to share their fantasies and causes bad dreams for individuals and an exploration clinician who enters the fantasy land and changes into Paprika, a fantasy investigator, to examine the cases.

25. Battle Royale

Original Title: Batoru Rowaiaru
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Year of Release: 2000
Cast: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Masanobu Ando, Kou Shibasaki, Chiaki Kuriyama, Takashi Tsukamoto.
IMDb: 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%

Based on the novel of the same name by Koushun Takami, the film follows a gathering of middle school understudies that are compelled to battle against the passing of the Japanese government.