1. Someone (何者)
5 university students gather to exchange information on their job search activities. They encourage each other and post their thoughts & worries on Twitter, but behind that they have a lot on their minds. Takuto Ninomiya observes those around him. His roommate Kotaro Kamiya has a bright personality and communicates well with others. Mizuki Tanabe is Kotaro Kamiya’s ex-girlfriend. Takuto Ninomiya has feelings for his roommate's ex-girlfriend. Rika Kobayakawa is determined to land a job. Takayoshi Miyamoto is critical of job-seeking activities, but he later tries to get a job.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
2. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (子連れ狼 三途の川の乳母車)
In the second film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto battles a group of female ninja in the employ of the Yagyu clan and must assassinate a traitor who plans to sell his clan's secrets to the Shogunate.
It has an average vote of 7.308 on TMDB.
3. The Door into Summer (夏への扉 ―キミのいる未来へ―)
A pioneering roboticist awakens in 2025 after decades in cryosleep. To change the past and reunite with his adopted sister, he seeks a way back to 1995.
It has an average vote of 6.1 on TMDB.
4. We Made a Beautiful Bouquet (花束みたいな恋をした)
Two people meet each other after missing the last train home, leading to a beautiful relationship over five years.
It has an average vote of 7.7 on TMDB.
5. Rashomon (羅生門)
Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, "Rashomon" is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.
It has an average vote of 8.09 on TMDB.
6. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (人狼 JIN-ROH)
A member of an elite paramilitary counter-terrorism unit becomes traumatized after witnessing the suicide bombing of a young girl and is forced to undergo retraining. However, unbeknownst to him, he becomes a key player in a dispute between rival police divisions, as he finds himself increasingly involved with the sister of the girl he saw die.
It has an average vote of 7.4 on TMDB.
7. The Bridge on the River Kwai
The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.
It has an average vote of 7.831 on TMDB.
8. Dolls (ドールズ)
Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.
It has an average vote of 7.55 on TMDB.
9. Lost in Translation
Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.
It has an average vote of 7.397 on TMDB.
10. Zatoichi (座頭市)
Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.
It has an average vote of 7.242 on TMDB.
11. Hokusai (Hokusai)
The unknown life of Ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai in the Edo period, who is said to have painted more than 30,000 works throughout his life, such as "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji"
It has an average vote of 6.487 on TMDB.
12. Un samouraï au Vatican (Un samouraï au Vatican)
(Un samouraï au Vatican)
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
13. The Man Who Assassinated Ryoma (竜馬を斬った男)
The Man Who Assassinated Ryoma is a movie about a haunted blood-thirsty Bakufu officer who might have killed Ryoma Sakamoto.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
14. Twinkle (きらきらひかる)
Shoko and Mutsuki get married to satisfy their worried parents, but she is well past the age at which a 'good' Japanese woman should marry, and he is in love with a young male college student. The film is less a realistic exploration of gay life than a fairy tale of three young Japanese trying to construct an alternative to the sexual and familial roles given to them by a society turning increasingly emotionally barren.
It has an average vote of 4.3 on TMDB.
15. Black Rain
Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. However, in Japan he manages to escape, and as they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game—the Japanese way.
It has an average vote of 6.59 on TMDB.
16. Koi (Koi)
There's no definitive separation as long as there is memory'. Since the Tsunami hit the northern part of Japan's coast in 2011, more than 20 thousand people lost their lives, and many others are still missing. As time went by the families of the victims abandoned all hope and stopped looking for their loved ones. However, this is the story of two men that are still fully committed to their respective searching activities. Even though their backgrounds are extremely different, both share a strong force of will and firmly wish to keep alive the memories of the ones that went missing. Perseverance is what pushed an ex-convict to look for redemption by helping the victims' families to find the remains of their loved ones, and perseverance is what brought a bus driver to start to dive in order to search for his wife.
It has an average vote of 7.8 on TMDB.
17. Bushido (蠢動-しゅんどう-)
1732, in the era of Yoshimune Tokugawa. West Japan suffers from a severe famine. Three years after wards, it appeared as though calm had been restored to the domain, but there is word that Jyuzo Matsumiya, the sword fighting instructor sent by the shogunate, is taking some suspicious actions.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
18. In the Realm of the Senses (愛のコリーダ)
A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.
It has an average vote of 6.611 on TMDB.
19. John Rabe (John Rabe)
A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38.
It has an average vote of 7.1 on TMDB.
20. Minamoto Yoshitsune (源義経)
A historical scroll depicting the story of the tragic fate of the young samurai Minamoto Yoshitsune, based on the novel by Genzo Murakami. The action of the first part takes place in the late Heian period, when the Taira clan came to power, and Genji was oppressed. The great dream and ambitions of Genkuro Yoshitsune in his youth are depicted, he joins forces with his older brother Yoritomo to raise an army to defeat the Taira clan, and the second part depicts the fall of the clan, persecution and murder.