Japanese cinema nowadays has built a reputation for itself, but, once upon a time, the golden age of Japanese movies was in the 1950s. Some of the tropes, characters, and symbolism that continue to appear in movies from the island country still appear today in movies, but they actually originated in the 50s. It was during this time that Japan was also recovering from World War II, completely rebuilding cities that were devastated by warfare and bombings. The impacts of the war bled into the psyches of the directors and writers working directly after the post-war era. This can be spotted in the work of directors during this time.
Directors Yasujirō Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi, and Kenji Mizoguchi are only a few directors who made it big internationally during this time. The American occupation of Japan ensured a diversification of what stories and kinds of filmmaking were being funded by local studios. Kurosawa’s Rashomon, released in 1950, was a kickstart to a legendary time in Japanese film history, one that hasn’t been seen again since. Several movies made during this decade are now considered classics today, landing spots on the most prestigious lists for the best films ever made. These are the best Japanese movies from the 1950s.
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10 Floating Weeds
Shochiku
Floating Weeds was one of the final movies that Yasujirō Ozu made during his lifetime, and it was a remake of one of his own movies from 1934. Although it was released over 20 years after the original came out, the movie would gain a status where it is now claimed to be one of the best films ever made and one of the underrated highlights of Ozu’s filmmaking career. In Floating Weeds, it is the summer of 1958. A theater troupe arrives on an island to find new work around town, and the lead actor and owner meet a former flame, one who secretly had a son with him and he never knew. However, his current lover, an actress in the troupe, doesn’t like the fact his old love lives here, and makes it a mission to try and mark her status as his current girlfriend.
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9 Early Summer
Yasujirō Ozu released Early Summer in 1951, which utilizes social realism to tell a story about Japan after the war. In the suburbs of Tokyo, an extended family all lives together under one household. The elderly parents, their daughter Noriko, and her brother and his family all live in the same house, but when an elderly uncle arrives to visit them, he raises issues about how Noriko is not married yet. The plot then teases out the status of women in post-war Japan, many of whom are working and divided between being married or employed, and the issues that come when the traditional perspectives meet modern ideologies. Noriko’s family becomes concerned with how she isn’t married, leading to complications in her personal life.
8 Ugetsu
Distributed by Daiei Film
Ugetsu came out in 1953, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, but the story it was inspired from is a classic in Japanese literature. The storyline merges two tales from a 1776 book called Ugetsu. Thus, the film is set in the distant past during a period of Japanese history in the late-1500s — one where a civil war broke out on the island nation. In a farming village, a potter brings his brother-in-law on a trip to sell his merchandise. His brother-in-law dreams of becoming a samurai, and when they chase after the wealth and glory of being a merchant, war and violence completely uproot their lives. As the potter continues to try and make money, he loses sight of what really mattered to him in the first place.
7 Hiroshima mon amour
Argos Films
Hiroshima mon amour is an early example of what could happen when two national cinemas collide and collaborate on a grand scale. The movie was directed by a French director, Alain Resnais, written by a French author, Marguerite Duras, but was co-produced by France and Japan. Hiroshima mon amour is technically a part of the French New Wave, but it is also a Japanese movie. In it, a French actress meets a Japanese architect. Shot in both countries involved with the production, over the course of 24 hours, these two have a series of conversations and experiences that dangle between love and companionship as they discuss what’s happening right now for them, including the Hiroshima bomb being dropped.
6 Ikiru
Toho
One of Akira Kurosawa’s most well-known movies, Ikiru was originally inspired by a Leo Tolstoy novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Its protagonist, Kanji Watanabe, is dying. He discovers he has stomach cancer and will not live longer than a year, and has worked in the government for three decades. Feeling estranged from his son, especially after the death of his wife, he decides to go out into Tokyo and rediscover the meaning of life even as he gradually comes to a close. Somewhere in the streets of Tokyo, he must learn the secrets of what it means to be alive before it is too late.
5 Tokyo Story
Tokyo Story, directed by Yasujirō Ozu, was released in 1953 and is one of the director’s most recognizable movies to cinema fans all over the world. An aging, retired couple decides to visit Tokyo and see their children who live there. They had five children over the course of their lifetime, and while one stayed with them, the rest have moved on with their lives. Upon visiting their children in Tokyo, they discover the children think that they don’t have enough time for their elderly parents due to work, insinuating clashing beliefs over the generations present. When something major happens to them, they may come to regret how they neglected to make time for their parents.
4 Throne of Blood
Throne of Blood is one of Akira Kurosawa’s period dramas, although the story for Throne of Blood takes inspiration from Shakespeare’s Macbeth and transplants it into a Japanese setting. Frequent Kurosawa collaborator Toshiro Mifune stars as a samurai who works under a local lord. With a fellow samurai commander in the woods one day, they learn from a spirit that their futures look a specific way, but this prophecy has ominous warnings. When Mifune’s character’s wife learns about the spirit’s message, she urges him to kill his lord, sparking a series of events that follows the plotline of Macbeth loosely. Throne of Blood merges the traditional Shakespearean elements with traditional Japanese Noh, a dramatic form that existed for centuries.
3 Rashomon
Daiei Film
One of the biggest Akira Kurosawa movies, Rashomon came out in 1950 with a splash. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and even received an Academy Honorary Award. Like several other of Kurosawa’s movies, Rashomon is a period piece set in the Heian era (798-1185) of Japanese history. Based on two short stories, an assault and murder take place in the forest. Several individuals have differing tales about what happened, fueled by their own self-interests. Rashomon explores their stories and what they have to say about the crime, asking the audience who really gets to tell a true story.
2 Godzilla
Although many may know the name Godzilla, quite a few people have not seen the original Godzilla movie. It came out in 1954 and spawned a heavily-edited American version that brought the franchise to life and made the monster into a figment of contemporary popular culture. In Godzilla, a giant monster appears off the coast of Japan, sparking concern from local authorities. After he decimates an entire village, the monster continues to wreak havoc in the area. The movie holds strong themes about the impacts of nuclear weapons and what a nuclear holocaust might look like, and the monster was made via a stunt performer wearing a suit.
1 Seven Samurai
Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is one of the best samurai movies to grace theaters all over the world. Released in 1954, this period drama is set in the late 1500s of Japanese history and has inspired filmmakers all over the world. In the year 1586, a village elder decides that they need to hire samurais to protect them from bandits. Without any money to hire the best samurai, the townsfolk head out to find those willing to help them. As the villagers and samurai learn to work together to fight the impending threat, Seven Samurai boasts impressive characters and plotlines full of action and drama.
