Director: Martin Scorsese

Notable Actors: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson

Year: 2016

IMDB Score: 7.2/10 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

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Based off of the novel by the same name, this film is set in Nagasaki during the 17th century (Edo Period) when Japan was isolated from the rest of the world. It follows the story of two Jesuit priests from Portugal who come to Japan to find their missing mentor and attempt to spread Catholic Christianity in a largely untouched Buddhist country. The film truly emphasized silence as there is no traditional soundtrack with music, but rather the soundtracks are the sounds of nature and subtle sounds throughout the movie.

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Author: Gosho Aoyama

Year: 1994-present

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Summary:

Ghastly beheadings, bloody murders, and coldhearted child abductions--Precocious high school student Jimmy Kudo uses his keen powers of observation and astute intuition to solve mysteries that have left law enforcement officials baffled. Hot on the trail of a suspect, Jimmy is accosted from behind and fed a strange chemical which physically transforms him into a grade schooler! Taking on the pseudonym Conan Edogawa, he attempts to track down the people who did this to him. But until he finds a cure for his bizarre condition, Jimmy continues to help the police solve their toughest cases.Can you crack the case before Conan does?

*Linked is volume 1 of 50 in the series.

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Author: Yoshito Usui

Year: 1990-2010

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Summary:

Famous as a Japanese anime TV show, Crayon Shin-Chan follows the daily life of a five-year-old boy whose bodily functions, offensive comments, and outrageous behavior consistently annoy his parents and land him in hot water. A national phenomenon in Japan, this shocking and hilarious comic celebrates the terrible power of destruction and indecency wielded by toddlers everywhere!

*Linked is volume 1 of 50 in the series.

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Author: Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata

Year: 2003-2006

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Summary:

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects—and he's bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal…or his life?

*Amazon is linked to all 12 volumes while Book Depository is linked to just the first 2 volumes.

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Author: Akira Toriyama

Year: 1985-1995

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Summary:

Before there was Dragon Ball Z, there was Akira Toriyama's action epic Dragon Ball, starring the younger version of Son Goku and all the other Dragon Ball Z heroes! Meet a naive young monkey-tailed boy named Goku, whose quiet life changes when he meets Bulma, a girl who is on a quest to collect seven "Dragon Balls." If she gathers them all, an incredibly powerful dragon will appear and grant her one wish. But the precious orbs are scattered all over the world, and Bulma needs Goku's help (and his super-strength)! With a magic staff for a weapon and a flying cloud for a ride, Goku sets out on the adventure of a lifetime...

*Linked is volume 1 of the series. Dragon Ball Z comes after Dragon Ball.

Book description credit: Amazon

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Author: Eiichiro Oda

Year: 1997-present

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Summary:

A new shonen sensation in Japan, this series features Monkey D. Luffy, whose main ambition is to become a pirate. Eating the Gum-Gum Fruit gives him strange powers but also invokes the fruits curse: anybody who consumes can never learn to swim. Nevertheless, Monkey and his crewmate Roronoa Zoro, master of three sword fighting style, sail the Seven Seas of swashbuckling adventure in the search of the elusive treasure “One Piece”.

*Linked is volume 1 of the series. There are more than 90 total.

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"An enormous achievement."

--The New York Times Book Review

"The Tale of Genji set an insanely high standard for anything that came after it. This latest edition is reader friendly at every turn, with generous footnotes, character lists and lots of illustrations to show what robes looked like, or swords, or houses. You have to reach for comparisons to Tolstoy or Proust to convey just what a captivating experience this story can be."

--Newsweek

Author: Murasaki Shikibu translated by Royall Tyler

Year: 1008

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Summary:

Written in the eleventh century, this exquisite portrait of courtly life in medieval Japan is widely celebrated as the world’s first novel. Genji, the Shining Prince, is the son of an emperor. He is a passionate character whose tempestuous nature, family circumstances, love affairs, alliances, and shifting political fortunes form the core of this magnificent epic. Royall Tyler’s superior translation is detailed, poetic, and superbly true to the Japanese original while allowing the modern reader to appreciate it as a contemporary treasure. Supplemented with detailed notes, glossaries, character lists, and chronologies to help the reader navigate the multigenerational narrative, this comprehensive edition presents this ancient tale in the grand style that it deserves.

Book description credit: Amazon

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"A nonchalant string of anecdotes and wisecracks, told by a fellow who doesn't have a name."

--The New Yorker

Author: Natsume Soseki

Year: 1906

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Summary:

Written from 1904 through 1906, Soseki Natsume's comic masterpiece, I Am a Cat, satirizes the foolishness of upper-middle-class Japanese society during the Meiji era. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, it follows the whimsical adventures of a world-weary stray kitten who comments on the follies and foibles of the people around him.

A classic of Japanese literature, I Am a Cat is one of Soseki's best-known novels. Considered by many as the most significant writer in modern Japanese history, Soseki's I Am a Cat is a classic novel sure to be enjoyed for years to come.

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“[A] one-in-a-billion story . . . designed to wrench from self-respecting critics all the blurby adjectives we normally try to avoid: It is amazing, unforgettable, gripping, harrowing, chilling, and inspiring.”

—New York

 “Staggering . . . mesmerizing . . . Hillenbrand’s writing is so ferociously cinematic, the events she describes so incredible, you don’t dare take your eyes off the page.”

—People

Author: Laura Hillenbrand

Year: 2010

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Summary:

In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
 
Unbroken is an unforgettable testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit, brought vividly to life by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand.

Book description credit: Amazon

Unbroken is also a film

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"This is one of those books you read to the last page without ever finishing; you keep going back for more-and finding it. . . . Zen and Japanese Culture covers familiar territory in unfamiliar ways."

-Japan Times

"As one turns the pages of this delightful book, one seems to catch intimations of how and why certain aspects of the 'spirit of Zen' are making themselves felt in America today."

-New York Times 

Author: D.T. Suzuki

Year: 1973-1987

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Summary:

Zen and Japanese Culture is a classic that has influenced generations of readers and played a major role in shaping conceptions of Zen’s influence on Japanese traditional arts. In simple and poetic language, Daisetz Suzuki describes Zen and its historical evolution. He connects Zen to the philosophy of the samurai, and subtly portrays the relationship between Zen and swordsmanship, haiku, tea ceremonies, and the Japanese love of nature. Suzuki uses anecdotes, poetry, and illustrations of silk screens, calligraphy, and architecture. The book features an introduction by Richard Jaffe that acquaints readers with Suzuki’s life and career and analyzes the book’s reception in light of contemporary criticism, especially by scholars of Japanese Buddhism. Zen and Japanese Culture is a valuable source for those wishing to understand Zen in the context of Japanese life and art, and remains one of the leading works on the subject.

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