There are not a whole lot of people that enjoy foreign movies. Watching dubbed movies or reading subtitled movies can sometimes seem like a task. The good news is that if you find it difficult watching foreign movies then you don’t have to waste one of your Netflix rentals. There are plenty of great foreign movies on Netflix Instant that you can try out if you’re not so sure about foreign films. These are 10 great Japanese films to watch on Netflix Instant.
10 Great Japanese Films on Netflix Instant: Seven Samurai
Seven Samurai is such a great Japanese film that is one of a handful of Japanese films that are well known in the United States. Seven Samurai is about a village that is being threatened by a group of bandits. The village hires seven masterless samurai to protect the village. Not only was there an American remake of Seven Samurai (The Magnificent Seven) but it was also the first movie to popularize an ensemble of heroes like in Ocean’s Eleven or the Dirty Dozen.
10 Great Japanese Films on Netflix Instant: Rashomon
In Rashomon a rape and murder take place and there are four differing accounts from the victim, the accused, a witness and the narrator. Each story is told with the final story being the true story. This technique was popularized by Rashomon. Previously movies that told a singular story several times did not necessarily end with the true story.
10 Great Japanese Films on Netflix Instant: Yojimbo
Yojimbo is another Akira Kurosawa classic about a ronin that convinces the competing crime lords to all hire him as their protection. Yojimbo then plays all the sides against each other so they will kill each other in battle and peace will be brought to the town.
10 Great Japanese Films on Netflix Instant: Tokyo Story
Kurosawa is well known but Yasujiro Ozu is another legendary Japanese director. Ozu’s best film is Tokyo Story, a film about a couple that travels to Tokyo to visit their children only to find out that their children are too busy to find time for them.
10 Great Japanese Films on Netflix Instant: Gojira
Gojira, or Godzilla, is a title that everyone should be familiar with. Godzilla was the first Japanese movie that featured a giant monster, which is saying a lot because we know how much the Japanese love their giant creatures.
10 Great Japanese Films on Netflix Instant: Twilight Samurai
The Twilight Samurai focuses less on the titular characters life as a samurai and moreso on his life as a father. Seibei Iguchi is a samurai who has lost his wife and now must balance his duties as a samurai and his duties as a father to his two daughters.
10 Great Japanese Films on Netflix Instant: Ugetsu Monogatarai
Ugetsu was directed by Kenji Mizoguchi and won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice-Film Festival for best direction. Ugetsu is about two brother-in-law peasants. One is a potter and uses his money to treat his wife as often as possible. The other desires to be a samurai, wastes his money on samurai armor and abandons his wife when he decides to follow his dream.
10 Great Japanese Films on Netflix Instant: Late Spring
This film directed by Yasujiro Ozu is based on a novel called Father and Daughter by Kazuo Hirotsu. Late Spring is about a daughter that lives with her widowed father. The daughter is content with taking care of her father and does not seem to be in a rush to get married. However, the father wishes her daughter would get married and conspires with his other married daughter to find a husband for his unmarried daughter.
10 Great Japanese Films on Netflix Instant: Branded to Kill
Branded to Kill is a film about a contract killer that falls in love, gets recruited for a job, fails the job and then is hunted by a mysterious hitman by the name of Number One Killer. The studio that made Branded to Kill was unhappy with the original script and at the last minute they hired Seijun Suzuki to rewrite and direct the movie. Suzuki came up with most of his ideas the night before filming or while he was on the set. The movie turned out to be a huge flop at the time but has gone on to gain cult classic status and has influenced many directors including Quentin Tarantino.
10 Great Japanese Films on Netflix Instant: High and Low
High and Low is another Kurosawa film, this one based on a novel called King’s Ransom by Ed McBain. High and Low is about an executive who wants to buy out the National Shoe Company in order to keep control away from the greedy executives. He must mortgage everything he has but before he can buy the company his son is kidnapped and held for ransom for the same amount of money. He must choose between saving the company or saving his son.
