1
Shichinin no samurai aka Seven Samurai (1954)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni
Cast Toshira Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima
Plot Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, and he gathers six other samurai to join him.
2
Rashomon (1950)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Ryanosuke Akutagawa, Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto
Cast Toshira Mifune, Machiko Kya, Masayuki Mori
Plot The rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.
3
Ran (1985)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Masato Ide
Cast Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu
Plot In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him.
4
Ikiru (1952)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni
Cast Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori
Plot A bureaucrat tries to find meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.
5
Yojinbo aka Yojimbo (1961)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Ryaza Kikushima
Cast Toshira Mifune, Eijira Tano, Tatsuya Nakadai
Plot A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.
6
Tsubaki Sanjuro aka Sanjuro (1962)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Ryaza Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Akira Kurosawa
Cast Toshira Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiju Kobayashi
Plot A crafty samurai helps a young man and his fellow clansmen trying to save his uncle, who has been framed and imprisoned by a corrupt superintendent.
7
Nora inu aka Stray Dog (1949)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Ryaza Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa
Cast Toshira Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji
Plot During a sweltering summer, a rookie homicide detective seeks advice from a seasoned colleague while trying to track down his stolen Colt pistol.
8
Kagemusha aka Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Masato Ide, Akira Kurosawa
Cast Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ken'ichi Hagiwara
Plot A petty thief with an utter resemblance to a samurai warlord is hired as the lord's double. When the warlord later dies the thief is forced to take up arms in his place.
9
Dersu Uzala (1975)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Yuriy Nagibin, Vladimir Arsenev
Cast Maksim Munzuk, Yuriy Solomin, Mikhail Bychkov
Plot The Russian army sends an explorer on an expedition to the snowy Siberian wilderness where he makes friends with a seasoned local hunter.
10
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
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Director John Sturges
Writer William Roberts, Akira Kurosawa, Walter Bernstein
Cast Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson
Plot Seven gunfighters are hired by Mexican peasants to liberate their village from oppressive bandits.
11
Yoidore tenshi aka Drunken Angel (1948)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Keinosuke Uekusa, Akira Kurosawa
Cast Takashi Shimura, Toshira Mifune, Reizabura Yamamoto
Plot A drunken doctor with a hot temper and a violence-prone gangster with tuberculosis form a quicksilver bond.
12
Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru aka The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Hideo Oguni, Eijira Hisaita, Akira Kurosawa
Cast Toshira Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kyako Kagawa
Plot A vengeful young man marries the daughter of a corrupt industrialist in order to seek justice for his father's suicide.
13
Waga seishun ni kuinashi aka No Regrets for Our Youth (1946)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Eijira Hisaita, Akira Kurosawa, Keiji Matsuzaki
Cast Setsuko Hara, Susumu Fujita, Denjira akachi
Plot The daughter of a politically disgraced university professor struggles to find a place for herself in love and life, in the uncertain world of Japan leading into WWII.
14
Shizuka naru ketto aka The Quiet Duel (1949)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Kazuo Kikuta, Akira Kurosawa, Senkichi Taniguchi
Cast Toshira Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Miki Sanja
Plot A surgeon gets syphilis from a patient when he cuts himself during an operation. The doctor's life is destroyed, but unlike the patient, he doesn't destroy others along with him.
15
Subarashiki nichiyobi aka One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Keinosuke Uekusa
Cast Isao Numasaki, Chieko Nakakita, Atsushi Watanabe
Plot During a Sunday trip into war-ravaged Tokyo, despairing Yuzo and optimistic Masako look for work and lodging, as well as affordable entertainments to pass the time.
16
Yume aka Dreams (1990)
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Director Akira Kurosawa, Ishira Honda
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Ishira Honda
Cast Akira Terao, Mitsuko Baisha, Toshie Negishi
Plot A collection of tales based upon eight of director Akira Kurosawa's recurring dreams.
17
Sugata Sanshiro aka Sanshiro Sugata (1943)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Tsuneo Tomita
Cast Denjira akachi, Susumu Fujita, Yukiko Todoroki
Plot Sugata, a young man, struggles to learn the nuance and meaning of judo, and in doing so comes to learn something of the meaning of life.
18
Tora no o o fumu otoko-tachi aka The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Nobumitsu Kanze, Akira Kurosawa, Gohei Namiki
Cast Denjira akachi, Susumu Fujita, Ken'ichi Enomoto
Plot A Japanese general and his men disguise themselves as monks in order to pass an enemy border patrol.
19
Donzoko aka The Lower Depths (1957)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Maxim Gorky, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni
Cast Toshira Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Kyako Kagawa
Plot In a Japanese slum, various residents play out their lives, dreaming of better things or settling for their lot. Among them is a man who pines for a young woman but is stymied by her deceptive family.
20
Zoku Sugata Sanshiro aka Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (1945)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Tsuneo Tomita, Akira Kurosawa
Cast Denjira akachi, Susumu Fujita, Ryanosuke Tsukigata
Plot Sugata returns to prove his judo mastery in a match against Western opponents.
21
Ikimono no kiroku aka I Live in Fear (1955)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Shinobu Hashimoto, Fumio Hayasaka, Akira Kurosawa
Cast Toshira Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki
Plot An aging Japanese industrialist becomes so fearful of nuclear war that it begins to take a toll on his life and family.
22
Shubun aka Scandal (1950)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Ryaza Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa
Cast Toshira Mifune, Shirley Yamaguchi, Yako Katsuragi
Plot A celebrity photograph sparks a court case as a tabloid magazine spins a scandalous yarn over a painter and a famous singer.
23
Hakuchi aka The Idiot (1951)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, Eijira Hisaita, Akira Kurosawa
Cast Setsuko Hara, Masayuki Mori, Toshira Mifune
Plot A Japanese veteran, driven partially mad from the war, travels to the snowy island of Hokkaido where he soon enters a love triangle with his best friend and a disgraced woman.
24
Ichiban utsukushiku aka The Most Beautiful (1944)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Akira Kurosawa
Cast Takashi Shimura, Saji Kiyokawa, Ichira Sugai
Plot World War II film about female volunteer workers at an optics plant who do their best to meet production targets.
25
Dodesukaden aka Dodes'ka-den (1970)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto
Cast Yoshitaka Zushi, Kin Sugai, Toshiyuki Tonomura
Plot Various tales in the lives of Tokyo slum dwellers, including a mentally deficient young man obsessed with driving his own commuter trolley.
26
Runaway Train (1985)
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Director Andrey Konchalovskiy
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Djordje Milicevic, Paul Zindel
Cast Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay
Plot Two escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a speeding train with no brakes and nobody driving.
27
Ginrei no hate aka Snow Trail (1947)
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Director Senkichi Taniguchi
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Senkichi Taniguchi
Cast Toshira Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Kosugi
Plot Three bank robbers on the run from the police hide out in a remote mountain lodge high up in the snowy Japanese Alps.
28
Madadayo (1993)
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Director Akira Kurosawa, Ishira Honda
Writer Ishira Honda, Akira Kurosawa, Hyakken Uchida
Cast Tatsuo Matsumura, Hisashi Igawa, George Tokoro
Plot Following World War II, a retired professor approaching his autumn years finds his quality of life drastically reduced in war-torn Tokyo. Denying despair, he pursues writing and celebrates his birthday with his adoring students.
29
The Magnificent Seven (2016)
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Director Antoine Fuqua
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni
Cast Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke
Plot Seven gunmen from a variety of backgrounds are brought together by a vengeful young widow to protect her town from the private army of a destructive industrialist.
30
Living (2022)
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Director Oliver Hermanus
Writer Kazuo Ishiguro, Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto
Cast Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp
Plot In 1950s London, a humorless bureaucrat decides to take time off work to experience life after receiving a grim diagnosis.
31
Hachigatsu no rapusodi aka Rhapsody in August (1991)
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Director Akira Kurosawa
Writer Kiyoko Murata, Akira Kurosawa, Ishira Honda
Cast Sachiko Murase, Richard Gere, Hisashi Igawa
Plot Three generations' responses to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
32
Ame agaru aka After the Rain (1999)
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Director Takashi Koizumi
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Shagora Yamamoto
Cast Akira Terao, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Shira Mifune
Plot During a downpour, a generous ronin and his supporting wife are stranded at a country inn. The ronin comes to the attention of a lord who wants to hire him as an instructor for his men, who treat the ronin with disrespect.
33
Last Man Standing (1996)
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Director Walter Hill
Writer Ryaza Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa, Walter Hill
Cast Bruce Willis, Bruce Dern, William Sanderson
Plot A drifting gunslinger-for-hire finds himself in the middle of an ongoing war between the Irish and Italian mafia in a Prohibition era ghost town.
34
The Outrage (1964)
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Director Martin Ritt
Writer Michael Kanin, Akira Kurosawa, Ryanosuke Akutagawa
Cast Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom
Plot Travelers in the 1870s Southwest discuss a recent murder trial in which all the principals told differing stories about the events.
35
Uma (1941)
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Director Kajira Yamamoto
Writer Akira Kurosawa, Kajira Yamamoto
Cast Hideko Takamine, Chieko Takehisa, Kamatari Fujiwara
Plot Ine Onoda, the eldest daughter of a poor family of farmers, raises a colt from birth and comes to love the horse dearly. When the horse is grown, the government orders it auctioned and sold to the army. Ine struggles to prevent th...
