Five exciting Japanese films: what to watch this fall weekend

Brave samurai, honor and courage, sincere love and loyalty, incredible journeys and good deeds - all this is for lovers of exciting movies. UNN offers a selection of Japanese films to watch this fall weekend.

Shoplifters 2018 - Osamu, a poor Japanese worker, and his son Shota steal from supermarkets because they have a large, always hungry family waiting for them in their tiny house. One day, when the worker returns home after committing another theft, he finds a little girl on the street. Without hesitation, he decides to take her in, feed and warm her, and return her to her parents in the morning. However, it turns out that the child is not very welcome in the family home and is not loved at all, so Osamu decides to keep the girl. Suddenly, it is announced on TV that a girl has recently gone missing in their neighborhood, and the whole city is looking for her.

• Genre: Film, Drama, Crime

• Country: Japan

• Director: Hirokazu Koreeda

• Cast: Riri Frankie, Sakura Ando, Kirin Kiki, Mayu Matsuoka, Jae Kairi, Sosuke Ikematsu, Miyu Sasaki, Yuki Yamada, Moemi Katayama, Kazuaki Shimizu.

Godzilla Minus One 2023 - Set at the end of World War II, pilot Shikishima deliberately malfunctions his plane, leading to an unexpected landing on the island of Odo. There, he and his crew set up camp, but at night they are attacked by an unknown Godzilla-like creature that ruthlessly kills everyone except him and his mechanic. Two years later, Shikishima returns to Tokyo, haunted by memories of the attack and burdened by guilt for surviving. To distract himself from these intrusive thoughts, he focuses on his personal life, getting married and adopting a child. But suddenly, his carefree life comes face to face with an extremely terrible, evil, fierce enemy who has become even more powerful during these years of obscurity.

• Genre: Film, Drama, Science Fiction, Horror, Action

• Country: Japan

• Director: Takashi Yamazaki

• Cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Yuki Yamada, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Sakura Ando, Munetaka Aoki, Mio Tanaka, Yuya Endo, Kisuke Iida.

Drive My Car 2021 - Two years after the unexpected death of his wife, Yusuke Kafuku, a famous theater actor and director, receives an offer to take on a new production at the Hiroshima Theater Festival. Because of his vision problems, he is unable to drive himself, and is assigned a personal driver, a taciturn girl named Misaki. Communication with her makes the hero rethink his life and past. Yusuke begins to realize that his memories are not correct.

• Genre: Film, Drama

• Country: Japan

• Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi

• Cast: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Masaki Okada, Reika Kirishima, Park Yu-rim, Chin Dae-young, Sonia Yuan, Ahn Gwi-tae, Perry Dizon, Satoko Abe, Hiroko Matsuda.

13 Assassins 2010 – events unfold in feudal Japan in 1844. The cruel ruler of Naritsugu mocks his subjects with impunity, rapes, tortures and kills commoners and members of noble families. More and more people in the country want to remove him from power. Due to the family ties of the ruler with the Shogun, it is very difficult to do this, so in order to prevent more trouble, they decide to kill Naritsuga. 13 samurai enter into secret consent, ready to give their lives in the struggle for justice. They will face a fierce battle against 200 loyal guards of Naritsuga.

• Genre: Film, Drama, Action, Adventure

• Country: Japan, United Kingdom

• Director: Takashi Miike

• Cast: Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Isei, Goro Inagaki, Masatika Ichimura, Mikijiro Hira, Hiroki Matsukata, Tsuyoshi Igar, Arata Furuta, Ikki Sawamura.

Rurouni Kenshin 2012 - After the end of the Bakumatsu War, former assassin Himura Kenshin travels around the country helping those in need. Himura was a warrior who carried out orders for the imperialists, but one day he realized all the evil he had done to people. Himura vows not to kill anymore and becomes a wandering samurai seeking atonement for all his sins. He has to go through a difficult journey, meet interesting people, establish good relations with former enemies, and defeat the enemies who will prevent Himura from doing good deeds.

• Genre: Action, Adventure

• Country: Japan

• Director: Keishi Otomo

• Cast: J. Michael Tatum, Yu Aoi, Takeru Sato, Josh Gale, Masataka Kubota, Eric Weil.