Kinejun's All-Time Greatest Japanese Films

[Mulboyne]

Film magazine Kinejun has published a list of Japan's all-time greatest films to commemorate their 90th anniversary. They did the same exercise for previous anniversaries and, each time, "Seven Samurai" took the top spot. This time, however, "Tokyo Story" was voted best. The full list:

1. Tokyo Story (東京物語 )
2. Seven Samurai (七人の侍)
3. Floating Clouds (浮雲)
4. Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (幕末太陽伝)
5. Battles Without Honour and Humanity aka The Yakuza Papers (仁義なき戦い)
6. Twenty-Four Eyes (二十四の瞳)
7. Rashomon (羅生門)
7. Sazen Tange and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo (丹下左膳余話　百万両の壺)
7. The Man Who Stole the Sun (太陽を盗んだ男)
10. The Family Game (家族ゲーム)
10. Stray Dog (野良犬)
10. Typhoon Club (台風クラブ)

The most recent film is "Typhoon Club", which came out in 1985, so it's only changing tastes and a different set of critics which have affected rankings since the 1999 list was compiled. In that one, A "Fugitive from the Past" aka "Straits of Hunger" (飢餓海峡) was ranked 4th but doesn't appear at all this year. The same goes for "Murderous Instincts" (赤い殺意) and "Tales of Ugetsu" (雨月物語). Twenty years ago, Kurosawa's "Ikiru" (生きる) and "Yojimbo" (用心棒) made that year's list but not since. "The Life of Oharu" (西鶴一代女) has also fallen slightly out of favour in the same way.

A report in the Asahi (Japanese) notes the complete absence of anime which reflects critics' preference for live action. Oddly, given their decision to ignore the last 24 years of Japanese cinema, their all-time list of great Western films appears to include Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" which was released only last year.

[Taro Toporific]

...the complete absence of anime...

... all-time list of great Western films appears to include Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" which was released only last year.

It must be that Gran Torino was an all-time great because the lead character, Eastwood.... <spoiler> committed an honorable suicide in the end of the movie</spoiler>.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

What? No RoboGeisha?

[sillygirl]

Huh. Bought Tokyo Story online just last month. Had it on video when I lived in Japan....lovely film.