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1950s Japanese Movies

Public list by WPS with 293 movies or TV shows/series

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291 movies found (page 1/10):

Godzilla(1954)

1h 36min | Thriller, Horror, Science Fiction
3.8/5 (with 386 votes)

Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Yemani soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well.

Directed by Ishirō Honda - With Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Haruo Nakajima, Kokuten Kōdō, ...
Rent Apple / iTunes Store | Buy Apple / iTunes Store

Seven Samurai(1954)

FSK: 16+ years
| 3h 27min | Action, Drama
4.3/5 (with 1,498 votes)

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa - With Takashi Shimura, Toshirō Mifune, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaki, Isao Kimura, Keiko Tsushima, ...

Godzilla Raids Again(1955)

FSK: 12+ years
| 1h 22min | Science Fiction, Horror
3.0/5 (with 100 votes)

Two fishing scout pilots make a horrifying discovery when they encounter a second Godzilla alongside a new monster named Anguirus. Without the weapon that killed the original, authorities attempt to lure Godzilla away from the mainland. But Anguirus soon arrives and the two monsters make their way towards Osaka as Japan braces for tragedy.

Directed by Motoyoshi Oda - With Haruo Nakajima, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Hiroshi Koizumi
Rent Amazon Instant Video | Rent Apple / iTunes Store | Buy Amazon Instant Video | Buy Apple / iTunes Store

Godzilla, King of the Monsters!(1956)

FSK: 12+ years
| 1h 21min | Science Fiction, Horror
3.3/5 (with 99 votes)

During an assignment, foreign correspondent Steve Martin spends a layover in Tokyo and is caught amid the rampage of an unstoppable prehistoric monster the Japanese call 'Godzilla'. The only hope for both Japan and the world lies on a secret weapon, which may prove more destructive than the monster itself.

Directed by Terry O. Morse, Ishirō Honda - With Raymond Burr, Momoko Kōchi, Akira Takarada, Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Kenji Sahara, ...

Rashomon(1950)

FSK: 16+ years
| 1h 28min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
4.1/5 (with 913 votes)

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.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa - With Toshirō Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki

Tokyo Story(1953)

FSK: 12+ years
| 2h 17min | Drama
4.1/5 (with 429 votes)

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

Directed by Yasujirō Ozu - With Chishū Ryū, Setsuko Hara, Chieko Higashiyama, Eijirō Tōno, Sugimura Haruko, Kyōko Kagawa, ...

Good Morning(1959)

1h 34min | Comedy, Kids & Family, Drama
3.9/5 (with 102 votes)

A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of inter­generational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.

Directed by Yasujirō Ozu - With Chishū Ryū, Keiji Sada, Yoshiko Kuga, Sugimura Haruko, Taiji Tonoyama, Kuniko Miyake, ...

Throne of Blood(1957)

FSK: 16+ years
| 1h 48min | Drama, History
4.0/5 (with 336 votes)

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa - With Toshirō Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Akira Kubo, Seiji Miyaguchi, ...

Ikiru(1952)

2h 23min | Drama
4.2/5 (with 448 votes)

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.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa - With Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Bokuzen Hidari, Kamatari Fujiwara, Makoto Kobori, Nobuo Kaneko, ...

Sansho the Bailiff(1954)

2h 4min | Drama
4.1/5 (with 152 votes)

In medieval Japan, a woman and his children journey to find the family's patriarch, who was exiled years before.

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi - With Kinuyo Tanaka, Kyōko Kagawa, Eitarō Shindō, Ken Mitsuda, Masahiko Tsugawa, Masao Shimizu, ...

The Hidden Fortress(1958)

2h 19min | Adventure, Drama, Action, Comedy
4.0/5 (with 243 votes)

Japanese peasants Matashichi and Tahei try and fail to make a profit from a tribal war. They find a man and woman whom they believe are simple tribe members hiding in a fortress. Although the peasants don't know that Rokurota is a general and Yuki is a princess, the peasants agree to accompany the pair to safety in return for gold. Along the way, the general must prove his expertise in battle while also hiding his identity.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa - With Toshirō Mifune, Misa Uehara, Minoru Chiaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Takashi Shimura, Susumu Fujita, ...

Hiroshima Mon Amour(1959)

FSK: 16+ years
| 1h 32min | Drama, History, Romance / Love
3.9/5 (with 325 votes)

The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress forms the basis of this celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. Set in Hiroshima after the end of World War II, the couple -- lovers turned friends -- recount, over many hours, previous romances and life experiences. The two intertwine their stories about the past with pondering the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city.

Directed by Alain Resnais - With Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Bernard Fresson, Pierre Barbaud
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Early Summer(1951)

2h 15min | Drama
3.9/5 (with 65 votes)

A 28-year-old single woman is pressured to marry.

Directed by Yasujirō Ozu - With Setsuko Hara, Chishū Ryū, Chikage Awashima, Ichirō Sugai, Chieko Higashiyama, Sugimura Haruko, ...

Ugetsu(1953)

FSK: 16+ years
| 1h 36min | Fantasy, Drama, Mystery
4.0/5 (with 228 votes)

In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to profit from warfare. Genjuro's pursuit of both riches and the mysterious Lady Wakasa, as well as Tobei's desire to become a samurai, run the risk of destroying both themselves and their wives, Miyagi and Ohama.

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi - With Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyō, Kinuyo Tanaka, Eitarō Ozawa, Mitsuko Mito, Ryōsuke Kagawa, ...

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love(1959)

3h 26min | War, Drama, History
4.0/5 (with 94 votes)

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.

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi - With Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Keiji Sada, Chikage Awashima, Ineko Arima, Sō Yamamura, ...

Floating Weeds(1959)

1h 55min | Drama
3.8/5 (with 66 votes)

A troupe of travelling players arrive at a small seaport in the south of Japan. Komajuro Arashi, the aging master of the troupe, goes to visit his old flame Oyoshi and their son Kiyoshi, even though Kiyoshi believes Komajuro is his uncle. The leading actress Sumiko is jealous and so, in order to humiliate the master, persuades the younger actress Kayo to seduce Kiyoshi.

Directed by Yasujirō Ozu - With Machiko Kyō, Ayako Wakao, Chishū Ryū, Nakamura Ganjirō II, Sugimura Haruko, Hiroshi Kawaguchi, ...

The Burmese Harp(1956)

1h 56min | Drama, Music, War
3.9/5 (with 60 votes)

In the War's closing days, when a conscience-driven Japanese soldier fails to get his countrymen to surrender to overwhelming force, he adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.

Directed by Kon Ichikawa - With Jun Hamamura, Rentarō Mikuni, Shōji Yasui, Taketoshi Naito, Kō Nishimura

Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple(1955)

1h 43min | Drama, Action, Adventure
3.6/5 (with 43 votes)

After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of fencing. To prove his valor and skill, he walks deliberately into ambushes set up by the school's followers. While Otsu waits, Akemi also seeks him, expressing her desires directly. Meanwhile, Takezo is observed by Sasaki Kojiro, a brilliant young fighter, confident he can dethrone Takezo. After leaving Kyoto in triumph, Takezo declares his love for Otsu, but in a way that dishonors her and shames him. Once again, he leaves alone.

Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, Jun Fukuda - With Toshirō Mifune, Mariko Okada, Kōji Tsuruta, Kaoru Yachigusa, Michiyo Kogure, Mitsuko Mito, ...

Street of Shame(1956)

1h 27min | Drama
3.9/5 (with 52 votes)

The personal tales of various sex workers who occupy a Japanese brothel.

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasuzō Masumura - With Machiko Kyō, Ayako Wakao, Kenji Sahara, Daisuke Katō, Michiyo Kogure, Sadako Sawamura, ...

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto(1954)

1h 33min | Drama, Action, Adventure
3.6/5 (with 66 votes)

Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Miyamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior.

Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki - With Toshirō Mifune, Mariko Okada, Akihiko Hirata, Rentarō Mikuni, Eitarō Ozawa, Kaoru Yachigusa, ...

Rodan(1956)

1h 12min | Horror, Science Fiction
3.3/5 (with 64 votes)

Mining engineer Shigeru investigates the disappearance and death of his fellow coworkers when prehistoric nymphs are discovered emerging from the mines. After an attack on the local village, Shigeru heads deeper into the mines only to make a more horrifying discovery in the form a prehistoric flying creature. Soon a second monster appears as the two converge in Fukuoka.

Directed by Ishirō Honda - With Kenji Sahara, Yumi Shirakawa, Haruo Nakajima, Akihiko Hirata, Yoshifumi Tajima

Tokyo Twilight(1957)

2h 21min | Drama
3.7/5 (with 46 votes)

Two sisters find out the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot accept the fact that she was abandoned as a child.

Directed by Yasujirō Ozu - With Ineko Arima, Kamatari Fujiwara, Setsuko Hara, Nobuo Nakamura, Chishū Ryū, Seiji Miyaguchi, ...

The Crucified Lovers(1954)

1h 42min | Drama, Romance / Love
3.9/5 (with 55 votes)

In 17th century Kyoto, Osan is married to Ishun, a wealthy miserly scroll-maker. When Osan is falsely accused of having an affair with the best worker, Mohei, the pair flee the city and declare their love for each other. Ishun orders his men to find them, and separate them to avoid public humiliation.

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi - With Ichirō Sugai, Kazuo Hasegawa, Kyōko Kagawa, Yōko Minamida, Eitarō Shindō, Eitarō Ozawa, ...

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island(1956)

1h 45min | Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance / Love, History
3.6/5 (with 42 votes)

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year's time but rejects Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers against a band of brigands. He seeks Otsu's forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest.

Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki - With Toshirō Mifune, Kaoru Yachigusa, Mariko Okada, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Daisuke Katō, ...

The Life of Oharu(1952)

2h 16min | Drama
4.0/5 (with 73 votes)

Follows a woman's fight and survival amid the vicissitudes of life and the cruelty of the society.

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi - With Kinuyo Tanaka, Ichirō Sugai, Toshirō Mifune, Chieko Higashiyama, Takashi Shimura, Jūkichi Uno, ...

Fires on the Plain(1959)

1h 48min | Drama, War
3.8/5 (with 41 votes)

In the closing days of WWII remnants of the Japanese army in Leyte are abandoned by their command and face certain starvation.

Directed by Kon Ichikawa - With Osamu Takizawa, Mickey Curtis, Eiji Funakoshi

I Live in Fear(1955)

1h 43min | Drama
3.6/5 (with 44 votes)

Kiichi Nakajima, an elderly foundry owner, is convinced that Japan will be affected by an imminent nuclear war, and resolves to move his family to safety in Brazil. His family decides to have him ruled incompetent and Dr. Harada, a Domestic Court counselor, attempts to arbitrate.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa - With Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Ken Mitsuda, Masao Shimizu, ...

The Ballad of Narayama(1958)

1h 38min | Drama
3.8/5 (with 31 votes)

In Kabuki style, the film tells the story of a remote mountain village where the scarcity of food leads to a voluntary but socially-enforced policy in which relatives carry 70-year-old family members up Narayama mountain to die. Granny Orin is approaching 70, content to embrace her fate. Her widowed son Tatsuhei cannot bear losing his mother, even as she arranges his marriage to a widow his age. Her grandson Kesa, who's girlfriend is pregnant, is selfishly happy to see Orin die. Around them, a family of thieves are dealt with severely, and an old man, past 70, whose son has cast him out, scrounges for food. Will Orin's loving and accepting spirit teach and ennoble her family?

Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita - With Kinuyo Tanaka, Seiji Miyaguchi, Ken Mitsuda, Yūko Mochizuki, Teiji Takahashi, Yūnosuke Itō, ...

The Idiot(1951)

2h 46min | Drama, Romance / Love
3.5/5 (with 45 votes)

Kameda, who has been in an asylum on Okinawa, travels to Hokkaido. There he becomes involved with two women, Taeko and Ayako. Taeko comes to love Kameda, but is loved in turn by Akama. When Akama realizes that he will never have Taeko, his thoughts turn to murder, and great tragedy ensues.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa - With Setsuko Hara, Yoshiko Kuga, Toshirō Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Noriko Sengoku, ...

The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail(1952)

59min | Drama, Comedy, History, Thriller
3.4/5 (with 33 votes)

Yoshitsune Minamoto, disguised with his retinue as monks, must make do with a comical porter as their guide through hostile territory en route to safety.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa - With Takashi Shimura, Susumu Fujita, Denjirō Ōkōchi, Kenichi Enomoto, Masayuki Mori, Yoshio Kosugi, ...
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Tags: #movies #japanese #decade #1950
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