100 Years of Japanese Cinema

The on and off-screen character of Toshiro Mifune, Japan’s first international movie star, is explored in this illuminating documentary exploring the life and legacy of this mercurial icon.

A soulful new voice emerges in Elizabeth Lo’s evocative award-winning debut documentary, which details life on the streets of Istanbul from the perspective of the city’s stray dogs.

The power of kinship is explored in Carol Morley’s drama-documentary, drawn from real life and resonant with the way we live now.

The taped crusader: VHS nerds, media scholars and archive enthusiasts will appreciate this documentary about the African-American activist who recorded 30 years of TV news.

Sam Pollard's resonant exploration of the US government's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr.

A poetic reflection on sovereignty, perspective, space and futurisms.

Farmers hire a band of samurai to defend them against marauding bandits in Kurosawa’s influential epic, a touchstone for action movies ever since.

Akira Kurosawa’s visually spectacular epic transplants Shakespeare’s King Lear from Celtic Britain to feudal Japan.

Credited with bringing Japanese cinema to worldwide audiences, Akira Kurosawa’s breakthrough tells the story of a murder in the woods from four differing perspectives.

A constant fixture in critics' polls, Yasujiro Ozu's most enduring masterpiece is a beautifully nuanced exploration of filial duty, expectation and regret.

Comedy turns to pathos in Yasujiro Ozu's tale of a group of businessmen who conspire to match-make for a widow and her daughter.

Ozu's deft comedy takes an ironic look at the decline of paternal authority.

Koreeda's lyrical fantasy challenges the viewer to reflect on the experiences that most make life worth living.

Koreeda’s first fiction feature is an exquisite meditation on loss, loneliness, uncertainty, and coming to terms with the past.

The on and off-screen character of Toshiro Mifune, Japan’s first international movie star, is explored in this illuminating documentary exploring the life and legacy of this mercurial icon.

Koreeda’s subtle, moving account of the tensions within a family is his most Ozu-like film.

Mikhail Kalatozov’s epic about the Cuban Revolution is breathtaking both for its scope and the audacity.

Koreeda’s drama about four children left to fend for themselves is a heartbreaking study of childhood neglect.