I will be the first to admit that my knowledge of Japanese cinema is extremely limited, but that’s never stopped me before! In fact, I have found that writing reviews is the best way to force me to broaden my knowledge on a film industry. But to fill in these enormous gaps, I have turned to a few sources that have proven very helpful. The books from Mark Schilling in particular have been very valuable and I recommend them to one and all – his books "The Yakuza Movie Book", "Contemporary Japanese Film" and "Japanese Pop Culture". Though the accuracy of Thomas Weisser’s "Japanese Cinema" is known to be a bit sketchy at times it can still be very helpful as he has useful information on a huge amount of films that no one else has written about.

My interest in Japanese film is all over the place and there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the films I have reviewed so far - just ones that piqued my interest at the time or were sitting on my shelf. There are not many reviews of current films primarily because they are covered so well elsewhere and generally I would prefer writing about lesser known films that looked like fun. I probably won't be reviewing anime or giant monster films as they are just not my thing and I will definitely leave directors like Ozu and Akira Kurosawa to the experts to write about.



 
Film Title
Year
Rating
Aegis
2005
6.0
Always, Sunset on Third Street
2005
7.5
Attack of the Mushroom People
1963
6.0
Baptism of Blood
1996
5.5
Battlefield Baseball
2003
5.0
Bayside Shakedown Series
1998
NR
"Beautiful" series of films
1994
NR
Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust
2007
7.5
Cat's Eye
1997
7.0
Crimson Bat Series 1-4
1969
7.5
Dimension Travelers, The
1998
5.5
Dragon Blue
1995
5.0
Edo Girl Detective
1958
7.0
Exte
2007
8.0
Female Slave Ship
1960
6.5
First Love
2006
5.5
Fourteen
2006
6.0
Girlfriend, Someone Please Stop the World
2004
7.5
Hanzo the Razor Series
1972
NR
Heavenly Forest
2006
5.5
Heaven's Bookstore
2004
6.0
Kamome Diner
2006
8.0
Kunoichi: Lady Ninjas/Deadly Mirage
1997
6.5/3.5
Leave it to the Nurses
2002
7.5
Linda, Linda, Linda
2005
8.0
Lost in Tokyo
2006
6.0
Love & Pop
1998
7.0
Most Terrible Time in My Life, The
1993
7.5
Nada Sou Sou
2006
6.0
Nana 2
2006
6.5
Oh! My Zombie Mermaid
2004
7.5
Perfect Blue
2002
5.5
Prisoner Maria - The Movie
1995
5.5
Professional Killers
1973
6.0
Red Peony Gambler Series (1-3)
1968
8.0
Rough
2006
6.5
Sad Whistle/Tokyo Kid
1949
8.0/7.0
Sailor Suit and Machine Gun/The Little Girl who Conquered Time
1981
7.5
Samurai Chicks
2004
4.0
Samurai Commando Mission 1549
2006
6.0
Second is a Christian, The
1985
6.0
Shoot My Darlin'
1997
5.5
Stacy
2001
6.0
Sugar & Spice
2006
5.5
Tange Sazen Films - Various
NR
NR
Udon
2006
7.0
Unholy Women
2006
7.5
Village Album, The
2005
8.0
We Shall Overcome Someday (Pacchigi)
2004
8.0
Wicked Priest Series 3-5
1969
7.0
Wives of the Yakuza Series 1-2
1986
NR
Woman Transformation
2006
7.0
Zeiram I & 2
1991
6.5/7.0
Zero Woman Series
NR
NR