1. The Hidden Fortress (隠し砦の三悪人)
In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who guides them to a fortress hidden in the mountains.
It has an average vote of 7.951 on TMDB.
2. Kagemusha (影武者)
Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler. He soon begins to appreciate life as Shingen, but his commitment to the role is tested when he must lead his troops into battle against the forces of a rival warlord.
It has an average vote of 7.816 on TMDB.
3. The Bad Sleep Well (悪い奴ほどよく眠る)
In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.
It has an average vote of 7.686 on TMDB.
4. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (人間の條件 第１部純愛篇／第２部激怒篇)
After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labor chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts, and moves to Manchuria with his newly-wed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.
It has an average vote of 8.022 on TMDB.
5. High and Low (天国と地獄)
A shoe company executive who has mortgaged everything he has becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped and is conflicted over whether he should pay the ransom.
It has an average vote of 8.311 on TMDB.
6. 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 8.091 on TMDB.
7. Lisa, Lisa
A group of three criminals on the run from the law, go about terrorizing the local townsfolk of a small community, before descending on an isolated farm which is home to a young girl named Lisa and her paralyzed grandfather. After being sexually assaulted by two of the gangsters, she retaliates using an axe and a razor blade.
It has an average vote of 5.5 on TMDB.
8. Cremaster 3
CREMASTER 3 is set in New York City and narrates the construction of the Chrysler Building, which is in itself a character - host to inner, antagonistic forces at play for access to the process of transcendence. These factions find form in the struggle between Hiram Abiff or the Architect ...
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
9. Violated Angels (犯された白衣)
Based on the factual case of a young man who broke into a nurses' home in Chicago, mutilating and killing several of the inmates, Wakamatsu's film is a precise, sad delineation of a particular aspect of masculine sexual consciousness.
It has an average vote of 6.2 on TMDB.
10. All the Boys Are Called Patrick (Charlotte et Véronique, ou Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick)
A pickup artist/womanizer named Patrick inadvertently pursues two young women who happen to be roommates.
It has an average vote of 6.6 on TMDB.
11. Long Day's Journey Into Night
Over the course of one day in August 1912, the family of retired actor James Tyrone grapples with the morphine addiction of his wife Mary, the illness of their youngest son Edmund and the alcoholism and debauchery of their older son Jamie. As day turns into night, guilt, anger, despair, and regret threaten to destroy the family.
It has an average vote of 6.888 on TMDB.
12. Kill! (斬る)
A pair of down-on-their-luck swordsmen arrive in a dusty, windblown town, where they become involved in a local clan dispute. One, previously a farmer, longs to become a noble samurai. The other, a former samurai haunted by his past, prefers living anonymously with gangsters. But when both men discover the wrongdoings of the nefarious clan leader, they side with a band of rebels who are under siege at a remote mountain cabin.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
13. The Mouse That Roared
The Duchy of Grand Fenwick decides that the only way to get out of their economic woes is to declare war on the United States, lose and accept foreign aid. They send an invasion force to New York and they arrive during a nuclear drill that has cleared the streets.
It has an average vote of 6.332 on TMDB.
14. Zatoichi the Fugitive (座頭市兇状旅)
After arriving in the town of Shimonita, Ichi finds that a price has been put on his head by a local yakuza boss. He's drawn into a trap, but after hearing of the slaying of a former love, Ichi furiously fights his way through the entire clan to face the killer, a hired ronin.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
15. Ikiru (生きる)
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.
It has an average vote of 8.303 on TMDB.
16. Lesson of the Evil: Prologue (悪の教典 序章)
Follows high school teacher Seiji Hasumi's background history and in the process depicts the horror inherent in daily life.
It has an average vote of 5.4 on TMDB.
17. The Lower Depths (どん底)
Residents of a rundown boardinghouse in 19th-century Japan, including a mysterious old man and an aging actor, get drawn into a love triangle that turns violent. When amoral thief Sutekichi breaks off his affair with landlady Osugi to romance her younger sister, Okayo, Osugi extracts her revenge by revealing her infidelity to her jealous husband.
It has an average vote of 7.1 on TMDB.
18. Tom Jones
Tom loves Sophie and Sophie loves Tom. But Tom and Sophie are of differering classes. Can they find a way through the mayhem to be true to love?
It has an average vote of 5.969 on TMDB.
19. Passage of Venus (Passage de Venus)
Photo sequence of the rare transit of Venus over the face of the Sun, one of the first chronophotographic sequences. In 1873, P.J.C. Janssen, or Pierre Jules César Janssen, invented the Photographic Revolver, which captured a series of images in a row. The device, automatic, produced images in a row without human intervention, being used to serve as photographic evidence of the passage of Venus before the Sun, in 1874.
It has an average vote of 6.21 on TMDB.
20. Blacker Than the Night (Más negro que la noche)
When four women move into an old house left by one woman's aunt, strange things begin to happen. Bizarre voices, visions of ghosts, and mysterious noises lead them to discover the darkest powers of evil and a horror and agony beyond terror.
It has an average vote of 6.9 on TMDB.
