100 Years of Japanese Cinema Archive propels argument in this fascinating exploration of the social and cultural importance of Japan's film heritage. Documentary 1996 52 mins Nagisa Oshima The Bad Sleep Well The first film made by Akira Kurosawa's own production company is a dark tale of greed, corporate corruption and revenge. Crime 1960 151 mins Akira Kurosawa Dodes'Ka-Den Akira Kurosawa’s first colour film is an eccentric and joyous account of a group of disparate people living in a city dump. Drama 1970 140 mins Akira Kurosawa Floating Clouds Mikio Naruse’s masterpiece about a wandering woman trying to find her identity amid the devastation of post-war Japan. Drama 1955 123 mins Mikio Naruse Godzilla The original Godzilla - arguably the definitive monster movie - both a bold metaphor for the atomic age and a thrilling powerhouse of pioneering special effects. Horror Science Fiction 1954 92 mins Ishiro Honda The Hidden Fortress Akira Kurosawa’s thrilling mix of fairy story and samurai movie - a story of rival clans, hidden gold and a princess in distress - was famously a key inspiration for George Lucas’ Star Wars. Martial arts 1958 139 mins Akira Kurosawa High and Low Akira Kurosawa’s procedural crime masterpiece, from Ed McBain’s gritty novel, follows an industrialist who faces an agonising choice as a result of a botched kidnapping by ruthless criminals. Crime Police drama 1963 143 mins Akira Kurosawa Ikiru A bureaucrat’s life finds new meaning in Kurosawa’s classic original, the source for Bill Nighy’s brilliant drama, Living. Drama 1952 143 mins Akira Kurosawa I Live in Fear Toshiro Mifune delivers an outstanding performance as a paranoid man striving to move his family to Brazil to escape the nuclear holocaust which he fears is imminent. Drama 1955 103 mins Akira Kurosawa Late Chrysanthemums The story of four ageing geishas as they struggle to make ends meet in post-war Japan, from acclaimed filmmaker Mikio Naruse. Drama 1954 101 mins Mikio Naruse The Lower Depths Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s novel, in which inhabitants of a slum revel in illusions to avoid bitter reality. Drama 1957 125 mins Akira Kurosawa The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail Adapted from Noh and Kabuki theatre, Kurosawa’s classic tale of deception sees a lord and his bodyguard disguise themselves as monks to bypass an enemy roadblock. Martial arts 1952 59 mins Akira Kurosawa The Most Beautiful Akira Kurosawa’s artful propaganda film provides a fascinating portrait of female volunteer workers in an optics factory during wartime. War 1944 85 mins Akira Kurosawa The Mysterians The team behind Godzilla (1954) reunites for Toho’s first colour widescreen sci-fi, an arresting spectacle about the arrival of an alien race and their giant, destructive robot. Science Fiction 1957 85 mins Ishiro Honda No Regrets for Our Youth Kurosawa's first post-war film stars Setsuko Hara as the privileged daughter of a professor who takes up arms against the Japanese military. Drama 1946 111 mins Akira Kurosawa One Wonderful Sunday Kurosawa’s bitter-sweet story of young love set in the devastation of post-war Tokyo. Drama 1947 109 mins Akira Kurosawa Ran Akira Kurosawa’s visually spectacular epic transplants Shakespeare’s King Lear from Celtic Britain to feudal Japan. Drama 1985 154 mins Akira Kurosawa Rashomon 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. Crime Period drama 1950 88 mins Akira Kurosawa Red Beard Kurosawa’s episodic, poignant story of a 19th-century doctor (Toshiro Mifune) working in a clinic for the poor and his tumultuous friendship with a young intern. Drama 1965 180 mins Akira Kurosawa Sanjuro In Akira Kurosawa's comedy of manners, a ronin runs rings around nine young, clean-cut samurai while cleaning up a spot of corruption in local government. Comedy Crime 1962 96 mins Akira Kurosawa Sanshiro Sugata Kurosawa’s assured debut film about a young man’s spiritual journey through the study and practice of judo. Crime Drama 1943 79 mins Akira Kurosawa Sanshiro Sugata part two This sequel reunites most of the principal cast from the original and follows Sanshiro face a new set of enemies whilst continuing his quest to become a judo master. Crime 1945 79 mins Akira Kurosawa Seven Samurai Farmers hire a band of samurai to defend them against marauding bandits in Kurosawa’s influential epic, a touchstone for action movies ever since. Drama 1954 207 mins Akira Kurosawa Stray Dog Akira Kurosawa’s masterful mix of film noir and police thriller set on the sweltering mean streets of occupied Tokyo. Crime Police drama 1949 122 mins Akira Kurosawa Throne of Blood A master of period-drama, Kurosawa (Rashomon, Seven Samurai) recasts Macbeth as a Japanese warlord in one of the greatest Shakespearean adaptations Drama 1957 110 mins Akira Kurosawa When a Woman Ascends the Stairs Mikio Naruse’s best-known film is a masterful study of a Ginza hostess struggling under constant pressures to compromise her honour. 1960 111 mins Mikio Naruse Woman of the Dunes Hiroshi Teshigahara's mystifying, serene and provocative fable about an entomologist who becomes trapped in a young widow’s desert shack. Animation & Artists Moving Image 1964 147 mins Hiroshi Teshigahara Yojimbo Kurosawa’s classic about a drifting samurai who plays two gangs off against each other, famously remade as A Fistful of Dollars. Crime Martial arts 1961 111 mins Akira Kurosawa
