Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "japanese-history"
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51. Atsuhime (2008)
45 min | Drama, History
The 47th NHK Taiga Drama is a life story of Atsuhime who was born in Kagoshima Prefecture, then called Satsuma, and became the wife of Tokugawa Iesada, the 13th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Stars: Takehiro Hira, Aoi Miyazaki, Yumiko Takahashi, Marina Kozawa
Votes: 254
52. Gô-hime (1992)
142 min | Drama, History
Chronicles the trials and tribulations of Oribe, the successor to tea-master Rikyu, Usu, his gardener, and Princess Goh, who attempt to balance artistic expression and duty amid political intrigue in feudal Japan.
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara | Stars: Rie Miyazawa, Tatsuya Nakadai, Toshiya Nagasawa, Kôshirô Matsumoto
Votes: 273
53. 1st to Fight: Pacific War Marines (2020)
60 min | Documentary, History, War
The Battle for Guadal Canal, as told by the men who were there. Narrated by Jon Seda, there are side-by-side images of the island today. A stirring documentary, told in real time.
Director: Tim Gray | Stars: Jon Seda, Bill Finnegan, Daniel Martinez, Lou Imfeld
Votes: 11
54. War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory: Herstory (2019)
22 min | Documentary, Short
"Herstory" is the 1st of 5 films that make up "War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory". Two historians discuss WWII Japanese war brides, how they survived the bombing of Japan, and met and married their former enemies during the US Occupation.
Director: Yayoi Winfrey | Stars: Regina F. Lark, Lily Anne Yumi Welty Tamai
55. Sword of Honor (1996 Video)
R | 97 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Officer Johnny Lee sets out to avenge his partner's mysterious death. With the help of his partner's sister and an ancient sword, Lee becomes a one man deadly strike force.
Director: Robert Tiffe | Stars: Steven Vincent Leigh, Angelo Tiffe, Sophia Crawford, Jerry Tiffe
Votes: 174
56. Shinobi No Mono 4: Siege (1964)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama
Tokugawa Ieyasu is the ruler of all Japan. But one last loose thread must be tied up before his domination is complete -- the destruction of the Toyotomi clan, now beseiged in Osaka castle.... See full summary »
Director: Tokuzô Tanaka | Stars: Raizô Ichikawa, Saburô Date, Midori Isomura, Ganjirô Nakamura
Votes: 233
57. Flame of My Love (1949)
96 min | Drama, Romance
A woman's struggle for equality in Japan in the 1880s. Eiko Hirayama leaves Okayama for Tokyo, where she helps the fledgling Liberal Party and falls in love with its leader Kentaro Omoi, ... See full summary »
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Mitsuko Mito, Kuniko Miyake, Ichirô Sugai
Votes: 481
58. Daredevil in the Castle (1961)
95 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Mohei is a wandering swordsman. He arrives in the city of Osaka, where the Toyotomi clan accepts him and comes to depend upon his courage and his battlefield skills. Those skills are sorely... See full summary »
Director: Hiroshi Inagaki | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Kyôko Kagawa, Yuriko Hoshi, Yoshiko Kuga
Votes: 214
59. Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War (1957)
113 min | Drama, History, War
Meiji Tenno portrayed the ramp up to the Russo-Japan War. In addition to showing the political events that led to war, it also showed the era from the story of a farm family in rural Japan ... See full summary »
Director: Kunio Watanabe | Stars: Kanjûrô Arashi, Kusuo Abe, Minoru Takada, Shin Takemura
Votes: 39
60. Puraido: Unmei no toki (1998)
161 min | Drama, History, War
In 1946, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and twenty-seven other Japanese officials stood trial for war crimes at the Tokyo Trial. This is their story.
Director: Shun'ya Itô | Stars: Masahiko Tsugawa, Scott Wilson, Ronny Cox, Gitan Ôtsuru
Votes: 102
61. Yoshitsune (2005– )
Action, Biography, Drama
Fictionalized account of the last years of Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-1189), one of the great folk heroes of Japan, and the political intrigues that sealed his fate.
Stars: Hideaki Takizawa, Noriko Nakagoshi, Mutsumi Fujita, Tatsuo Ito
Votes: 100
62. Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009)
90 min | Documentary
Untangling the web of cultural and historical ties underlying Japan's deep fascination with insects.
Director: Jessica Oreck
Votes: 227 | Gross: $0.01M
63. Touken Ranbu: The Movie (2018)
101 min | Action, Drama, Fantasy
A sage travels to the past and collects a set of legendary swords, which he brings to life as a gang of talented but dysfunctional young men, to fight a battle against evil.
Director: Saiji Yakumo | Stars: Yoshihiko Aramaki, Yûta Chatani, Tomoki Hirose, Masami Horiuchi
Votes: 89
64. Bakumatsu (1970)
120 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The story of Ryoma Sakamoto, considered to be the architect behind the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate. He was considered an outlaw by his own clan, hunted by his government, and was ... See full summary »
Director: Daisuke Itô | Stars: Kinnosuke Nakamura, Toshirô Mifune, Keiju Kobayashi, Tatsuya Nakadai
Votes: 142
65. 3.11: Surviving Japan (2013)
Not Rated | 90 min | Documentary, History
The True Story of an American Volunteer that lived through and witnessed the 2011 Japanese Fukushima Nuclear disaster cover-up.
Director: Christopher Noland | Stars: Christopher Noland, Kouichi Oyama, Helen Caldicott, Mike Connolly
Votes: 92
66. Battle of Okinawa in Color (2017)
Documentary, History, War
From white-knuckle, high-speed dogfights to brutal land combat, witness the Battle of Okinawa in vivid color.
Stars: Jeff Wilburn, Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., Chester W. Nimitz, Mitsuru Ushijima
Votes: 21
67. Shinobi no mono: Shin kirigakure Saizô (1966)
87 min | Action, Drama
The dream of Tokugawa Ieyasu has come true: together with his son Hidetada he rules all over Japan.
Director: Kazuo Mori | Stars: Raizô Ichikawa, Shiho Fujimura, Yûko Kusunoki, Takahiro Tamura
Votes: 139
68. Children of Nagasaki (1983)
128 min | Drama, War
The atom-bombing of Nagasaki, Japan in 1945 is recalled by a survivor.
Director: Keisuke Kinoshita | Stars: Gô Katô, Yukiyo Toake, Masatomo Nakabayashi, Mami Nishijima
Votes: 170
69. Kurosawa's Way (2011)
52 min | Documentary
Eleven major filmmakers from Europe, Asia and America talk about Akira Kurosawa and explore some ways on which he influenced their own work.
Director: Catherine Cadou | Stars: Theodoros Angelopoulos, Bernardo Bertolucci, Clint Eastwood, Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Votes: 152
70. War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory: The Brides (2019)
54 min | Documentary
"The Brides" is the 2nd of 5 films that make up "War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory". Asako-san ("The Best Ambassador") married a white GI while Fumiko-san ("Kitchens and a Priest") married a black one.
Director: Yayoi Winfrey | Stars: Fumiko Kiyamura Caine Alderman, Myokei Caine-Barrett, Asako Sakaguchi Miller Kimes, Diane Caine Shirey
71. Shinobi no mono: Zoku Kirigakure Saizô (1964)
91 min | Action, Drama
In part five of the 8-part Shinobi No Mono Ninja film series the heroic ninja Kirigakure Saizo (Raizo Ichikawa, of Sleepy Eyes of Death fame) serves the daimyo Sanada, played by Lone Wolf ... See full synopsis »
Director: Kazuo Ikehiro | Stars: Raizô Ichikawa, Yukiko Fuji, Shiho Fujimura, Saburô Date
Votes: 151
72. Handmade in Japan (2017)
90 min | Documentary
A look at traditional Japanese crafts and craftspeople. Each edition of the series follows the work of those making a culturally important product in the time-honoured way.
Votes: 46
73. MAGI Tensho Keno Shonen Shisetsu (2019)
Adventure, Drama, History
An Italian missionary arrived in Japan during the Middle Ages in order to proselytize, evangelize and recruit people to his religion. He instituted seminaries around the country and picked ... See full summary »
Stars: Fernando Gil, Simón Andreu, Kai Inowaki, Yûki Morinaga
Votes: 38
74. Hayabusa: The Long Voyage Home (2012)
136 min | Drama
Based on the true story of the Hayabusa asteroid probe, which collected samples from the asteroid Itokawa in the world's first-ever sample return after landing on a solid-surfaced celestial body outside Earth's gravisphere.
Director: Tomoyuki Takimoto | Stars: Ken Watanabe, Yôsuke Eguchi, Yui Natsukawa, Yukiyoshi Ozawa
Votes: 84
75. Shinobi no mono: Iga-yashiki (1965)
89 min | Action, Drama
The story of Saizo's son, Kirigakure Saisuke, who after seeing his father die at the Battle Of Shimabara, grows up to be an expert ninja.
Director: Kazuo Mori | Stars: Raizô Ichikawa, Kaoru Yachigusa, Isao Yamagata, Kenji Imai
Votes: 131
76. Matsuchiyo - Life of a Geisha (2018)
69 min | Documentary, Biography, Family
The trials and tribulations of the ultimate Japanese cultural enigma that is - The Life of a Geisha.
Director: Ken Nishikawa | Stars: Chizuko Nishikawa, Ken Nishikawa, Mike 'in Tokyo' Rogers, Sheena Rogers
77. Byakkotai (2007– )
240 min | Drama, History
This TV-drama follows Sakai Shintaro, descendant of Sakai Mineji -a Byakkotai samurai-, and traces the tragedy of the Byakkotai, a military force composed of 340 16 to 17 years old boys during the Boshin War (Aizu war).
Stars: Shun Sugata, Tomohisa Yamashita, Meisa Kuroki, Yutaka Matsushige
Votes: 556
78. Bakumatsu jyunjyoden (1991)
105 min | Romance
In the last days of the Tokugawa shogunate, there was a cute warrior, Souji Okita, who belonged to the armed police of the shogunate in Kyoto. Very few knew that Souji was not a boy, but a ... See full summary »
Director: Mitsuyuki Yakushiji | Stars: Ken Watanabe, Riho Makise, Tetta Sugimoto, Masatô Ibu
Votes: 30
79. War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory: BFF's; Buddhist Friends Forever (2019)
34 min | Documentary, Short
"BFF's: Buddhist Friends Forever" is the 5th of 5 films that make up "War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory". Two families and the daughter of a Japanese war bride are all linked through their Buddhist religion.
Director: Yayoi Winfrey | Stars: William Michael Factory Jr., Doris Factory, Kim Farrison, Mihoko Yoshihara Farrison
80. Behind 'The Cove' (2015)
110 min | Documentary, History
Negative media coverage on the never-ending whaling issue prompted first-time documentary filmmaker Keiko Yagi to find out more about the topic. With no budget, limited experience in ... See full summary »
Director: Keiko Yagi | Stars: David Hance, Katsunori Horihata, Joji Morishita, Hideki Moronuki
Votes: 270
81. Hayabusa (2011)
Adventure
Under the guidance of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) the Hayabusa 'Falcon' spaceship shoots for an asteroid in order to correct samples and conduct scientific studies and then ... See full summary »
Director: Yukihiko Tsutsumi | Stars: Yûko Takeuchi, Toshiyuki Nishida, Masahiro Takashima, Shirô Sano
Votes: 126
82. Senkan Yamato (1953)
104 min | War
Director: Yutaka Abe | Stars: Tôru Abe, Minoru Arita, Hiroshi Ayukawa, Miyuki Chigira
Votes: 12
83. Boy Soldiers: The Secret War in Okinawa (2018)
114 min | Documentary, History, War
Okinawa, the chain of islands at the southernmost tip of Japan that are currently tattooed by US military bases. These islands became the bulwark to protect the Japanese mainland toward the... See full summary »
Directors: Chie Mikami, Hanayo Oya | Stars: Chie Mikami, Hanayo Oya
84. Sakurada Gate Incident (2010)
137 min | History
The Sakurada Gate Incident recounts the story of Mito Domain Samurai coming off house arrest named Seki Tetsunosuke (played by Osawa Takao). He along with other prominent Mito Clansmen are ... See full summary »
Director: Jun'ya Satô | Stars: Takao Osawa, Kyoko Hasegawa, Minosuke Bandô, Akira Emoto
Votes: 86
85. War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory: The Culture (2019)
58 min | Documentary
"The Culture" is the 4th of 5 films that make up "War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory". M. Fumie, Diana and Sophia (Yoshi), discuss their Japanese heritages. Michelle, Stephanie, and Hannah talk about being 3rd generation "quapa".
Director: Yayoi Winfrey | Stars: Yoshi Childs, M. Fumie Craig, Michelle Craig, Hannah Martinez
86. Admiral Yamamoto and the Allied Fleets (1956)
101 min | Biography, War
Director: Toshio Shimura | Stars: Shin Saburi, Kusuo Abe, Minoru Takada, Ureo Egawa
87. War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory: The Kids (2019)
49 min | Documentary
"The Kids" is the 3rd of 5 films that make up "War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory". Roleta, Andy, Elaine, Naomi, Joan and Jean are all adult children of Japanese war brides, but each has their own unique story about growing up mixed-race.
Director: Yayoi Winfrey | Stars: Elaine Ambrose, Andy Campbell, Naomi M. Herrera, Jean H. Lahn
88. Sen-hime (1954)
95 min | Drama, History
During the Warring States era of early 17th century Japan, teenage princess Sen is besieged with other members of her family in Osaka Castle, by a rival force led by her grandfather.
Director: Keigo Kimura | Stars: Machiko Kyô, Kenji Sugawara, Shinobu Araki, Chieko Higashiyama
Votes: 9
89. Mibu gishi den: Shinsengumi de ichiban tsuyokatta otoko (2002 TV Movie)
498 min | Drama, War
The story of a man who was feared by Isami Kondo, respected by Toshizo Hijikata, admired by Soji Okita, and loved by everyone.
Director: Shingo Matsubara | Stars: Ken Watanabe, Naoto Takenaka, Reiko Takashima, Takashi Naitô
90. The Samurai (2003 TV Movie)
Documentary, History, War
Director: Tony Long | Stars: Edward Herrmann, Toshishiro Obata, Michael Shu, James Wong
Votes: 19
91. Wasurerarenu hitobito (2000)
121 min | Drama, War
The story of 3 men who served together in the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII. The story is told in flashbacks from modern day Japan to scenes on the island they are defending. In modern... See full summary »
Director: Makoto Shinozaki | Stars: Tatsuya Mihashi, Minoru Ôki, Tomio Aoki, Keiko Utsumi
Votes: 57
92. Takeda Shingen (1990– )
Drama
During the 16th Century Japan was involved in the Sengoku Period, an era of Civil Wars and the powerful Warlords who fought them. One of the earliest and strongest of these men was the ... See full summary »
Stars: Shin'ichi Chiba, Mao Daichi, Shohei Hino, Kimiko Ikegami
Votes: 50
93. Welcome Home, Hayabusa (2012)
114 min | Drama
Director: Katsuhide Motoki | Stars: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Kôsuke Toyohara, Anne Watanabe, Tomokazu Miura
Votes: 28
94. Kyoiku terebi no gyakushu: Yomigaeru kyosho no kotoba (2009 TV Special)
119 min | Talk-Show
Directors: Hideki Jô, Ken'ichi Yamanaka | Stars: Yûji Tanaka, Hikari Ôta, Taro Okamoto, Hideki Yukawa
95. Général Ishiwara - L'homme qui déclencha la guerre (2012 TV Movie)
52 min | Documentary, Biography, History
From 1889 to 1949, General Ishiwara's military, ideological and political career took in the key moments of Japanese History, in a most spectacular way: the forced opening to the West, Hiroshima, the China war and Pearl Harbour.
Director: Paul Jenkins | Stars: Luce Mouchel, Frédéric Pellegeay, Ikuhiko Hata, Yôichi Higuchi
Votes: 26
96. Pearl Harbor: The View from Japan (1994 Video)
Not Rated | 70 min | Documentary, History, War
Analyzes the attack on Pearl Harbor from the Japanese point of view and focuses on Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese military mastermind who (though bitterly opposed) planned the attack on the U.S. fleet anchored in Hawaii.
Director: Kunio Kurita | Stars: Eric Conger, Peter Davis, Mizuho Suzuki
97. Samurai History - Kawakami Gensai Documentary the REAL Rurouni Kenshin (2018 Video)
Short, History
A short on Japanese assassin Gensai Kawakami.
Stars: Okada Izo, Soke Anshu Christa Jacobson, Gensai Kawakami, Sakuma Shozan
98. Japon: Le retour aux sources (2015)
51 min | Documentary
In the Land of the Rising Sun during the Golden Week, the Japanese celebrate the arrival of spring; get in touch with their proud past, and follow in the footsteps of their ancestors, in a country still marked by the rich Zen philosophy.
Director: Martin Jean-Hubert | Star: Anatole de Bodinat
99. Watari-gawa (1994)
90 min | Documentary, History
Directors: Duk-chul Kim, Yasuyuki Mori | Star: Hisashi Igawa
100. Hijikata Toshizô - Shiro no Kiseki (2004 Video)
32 min | Animation, Short, Action
A biographical sketch of the life and ideals of Hijikata Toshizô, Vice Commander of the Shinsengumi, fighting to uphold the Shogunate during the Meiji revolution.
Director: Chie Uratani | Stars: Tomohisa Asô, Yukitoshi Hori, Naoki Imamura, Tetsu Inada
Votes: 10