Director: Sofia Coppola

Notable Actors: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson

Awards: Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

Year: 2003

IMDB Score: 7.7/10 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Photo-credit: Wikipedia

This comedy drama presents a story of love and friendship in an unlikely bond between middle aged actor Bob Harris and neglected college graduate Charlotte in the middle of Tokyo. Both Bob and Charlotte, unused to the culture of Japan, also share a common dissatisfaction in their lives which quickly forms into a new friendship as they explore the sights and sounds of Tokyo. Lost in Translation shares a perfect balance of humor, drama and romance. It’s the perfect movie to watch before coming to Japan as it uses the backdrops of Tokyo for its scenes and features real places like the Shibuya crossing, Park Hyatt Hotel and Shinjuku.

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Director: Yojiro Takita

Notable Actors: Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue, Tsutomu Yamazaki

Awards: Japan Academy Awards Picture of the Year, Oscars Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Year: 2008

IMDB Score: 8.1/10 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

Photo-credit: IMDB

Departures is a drama film that reveals the strange but unique occupation of being a nokanshi - a Japanese ritual mortician. A young man, Daigo, returns back to his hometown after failing as a cellist when he accidentally stumbles across a nokanshi job when he mistakes the job advertisements wording of “assisting departures” for a travel agency. But, after taking up as a nokanshi, he is subjected to prejudice from people around him because of the social taboos in Japan that surround this job. This drama is able to capture both tears and laughter in 2 hours in an elegant way. It’s definitely a must see film from Japan.

aka Okuribito. Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and now finds himself without a job. Daigo...

Director: Kinji Fukasaku

Notable Actors: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Takeshi Kitano

Awards: Blue Ribbon Award

Year: 2000

IMDB Score: 7.6/10 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

Photo-credit: IMDB

Battle Royale is based on the novel from 1999 which follows a class of junior high school students who are gassed and forced on an island by the totalitarian government to fight until the last survivor. Each student is given food, water, a map of the island, flashlight and a random weapon and is told to have one emerging victor in three days. Any uncooperative student or students leaving the island will die from collar detonation. This film is controversial and violent, but given universal acclaim for its unique style and interesting story. Since the release of the film, the term battle royale has been redefined as this genre or mode of entertainment where a select group of people battle each other for one emerging winner.

Battle Royale Official Blu-Ray Trailer - Cult Classic Movie (2000) Subscribe to TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/sxaw6h FIRST TIME IN REGION 1! March 20, 2012. In the...

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Notable Actors: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Daisuke Kato

Awards: Venice Film Festical Silver Lion Award

Year: 1954

IMDB Score: 8.6/10 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Photo-credit: Wikipedia

Directed by one of Japan’s greatest directors of the 20th century, Akira Kurosawa made Seven Samurai which had a huge cultural impact across the world. It was even adapted into the American western film The Magnificent Seven and has inspired filmmakers like Steven Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan. Seven Samurai is set in 1586 during the Sengoku Period when war ravaged the country. It focuses on a village of farmers that hire seven ronin, or masterless samurai to protect the village from bandits who will raid the farmers after after harvest to steal their crops. The film is well known for its innovative idea of having a team assemble of heroic characters and perform a mission.

Check out the official Seven Samurai (1954) trailer starring Toshirô Mifune! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Buy or Rent on FandangoNOW: ...

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Studio: Topcraft

Year: 1984

IMDB Score: 8.1/10 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

Photo-credit: Wikipedia

Before the legacy of Studio Ghibli that started with Hayao Miyazaki, Miyazaki directed Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind which received lots of fame and popularity. Based off of his own manga he wrote, this film is an epic science fantasy adventure film. This film is set in a thousand years after an apocalyptic war that destroyed civilization and created a vast toxic jungle filled with poisonous forests and giant mutant creatures. Nausicaa, the princess of the Valley of the Wind, is a young woman who explores the jungle and communicates with the creatures in hopes to understand them and bring peace between humans and the creatures until she gets entangled with Tolmekia, a kingdom trying to eradicate these creatures. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind consistently ranks on greatest animated movies of all time lists and is a must watch movie for a true epic story.

A thousand years after a great war, a seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind is one of the only areas that remains populated. Led by the courageous ...

Director: Katsuhiro Otomo

Studio: TMS Entertainment

Year: 1988

IMDB Score: 8/10 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Photo-credit: Wikipedia

Akira is a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk film based off of the manga with the same name. Set in a dystopian 2019, Shotaro Kaneda leads a gang of bikers who finds himself in trouble after his childhood friend Tetsuo Shima crashes his bike and gains telekinetic abilities. With this power, he eventually threatens an entire military complex in the middle of a chaotic, rebellious and futuristic Neo-Tokyo. Akira is strikingly violent and moves with high energy that’ll surely keep you gripped to your seat at all times.

The end of the world was only the beginning A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psionic psychopa...

Director: Sunao Katabuchi

Studio: MAPPA

Year: 2016

IMDB Score: 7.8/10 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Photo-credit: IMDB

In This Corner of the World is a wartime drama based off the manga with the same name. Although a fictitious account, the background of the setting and events are all based off of real events such as the Hiroshima atomic bombing and air raids in Kure. During the final months of World War II, Suzu, a young, innocent and cheerful woman living near Hiroshima is trying to lead a normal life and keep her family safe. The film clearly describes the nature, traditional cultures and regular civilian life of Japan that is heavily contrasted with the destruction of war. This film is sweet, soft and sad but very strong. It has received positive reviews for it’s story but also because the entire film is hand painted which compliments the main character Suzu’s hobby of painting.

In This Corner of the World tells the story of the adolescent Suzu, who in 1944 moves to the small town of Kure in Hiroshima to live with her husband's famil...

Director: Isao Takahata

Studio: Ghibli

Year: 1988

IMDB Score: 8.5/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 98%

Photo-credit: Wikipedia

Grave of the Fireflies is an animated war film based off the semi-autobiographical story by Akiyuki Nosaka. On March 17, 1945, Americans dropped incendiary bombs on Kobe which destroyed about 20 percent of the city and killed over 8000 people. Among them was Nosaka’s father who perished in the bombings and his younger sister who died of malnutrition as a result of the air raid. Nosaka’s experiences during the war, inspired him to write The Grave of the Fireflies. This heartbreaking tale discovers the true horrors of war through Seita, a 9th grade teenager and his younger sister Setsuko. Seita desperately struggles to fight for him and his younger sisters life during the final months of World War II. A film to surely make you shed a tear, Grave of the Fireflies has received a lot of praise for it’s compelling story. It is considered to be a powerful war film that incorporates a unique blend of both beauty and despair.

In the aftermath of a World War II bombing, two orphaned children struggle to survive in the Japanese countryside. To Seita and his four-year-old sister, the...

Director: Makoto Shinkai

Studio: CoMix Wave Films

Awards: Mainichi Film Award for Best Animated Feature and 2016 Los Angeles Films Critic Association Award for Best Animted Film

Year: 2016

IMDB Score: 8.4/10 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Photo-credit: Wikipedia

Have you ever experienced a deja-vu or had a moment when you felt like you already knew someone you’ve never met before? Your Name perfectly captures this feeling in Shinkai’s most popular film. After Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli retired, Japan looked to see who would be their next big animation director and Shinkai responded perfectly with the release of Your Name. Your Name follows the story of Taki a high school student in Tokyo and Mitsuha, a high school student in the country side who begin to randomly and suddenly swap bodies. These two complete strangers begin to unravel the mystery and find themselves linked in some bizarre way. Aside from the excellent story-telling and plot, Your Name has also gained responses for its beautiful animation and attention to detail.

Available now on Blu-ray and DVD! Order from Amazon here: http://amzn.to/2hqsnVL ------- Exclusive screenings in UK & Ireland cinemas on 24th November 2016. ...

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Studio: Ghibli

Awards: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Blue Ribbon Award, Mainichi Film Award, Japan Academy Award for Best Film, British Academy Film Award for Best Film not in English, and many more

Year: 2001

IMDB Score: 8.6/10 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Photo-credit: Wikipedia

Spirited Away is considered one of Japan’s most famous and popular films being the highest grossing film in Japan. The movie tells a story about a young 10 year old girl named Chihiro, who enters the world of kami (deity), but soon finds herself trapped there after her parents are turned into pigs by the evil witch Yubaba who rules this world. Chihiro begins to work for Yubaba at a bathhouse in order to free herself and her parents from the spell that they are put under, but realizes it isn’t easy being the only human in the world of kami. She befriends a boy named Haku who helps Chihiro escape Yubaba’s spell.

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Hayao Miyazaki's wondrous fantasy adventure is a dazzling masterpiece from one of the most celebrated ...