Japanese Movie Listing - B
Clearly the most obvious set of movies on any listing of Japanese films beginning with the letter B is going to be the Baby Cart series. These popular films all talk about a samurai who loyally protects his darling son. Bridge over the River Kwai also stands out as a multi-award-winning film.Baby Cart at River Styx (1972) D: Kenji Misumi
Second in the Baby Cart series featuring samurai Ogami Itto and his little son. In this one, Ogami's enemy, Yagyu Retsudo, sends a band of female ninja against the samurai. Ogami also faces three traitors known as "The Gods of Death". Baby Cart Series Info
Baby Cart to Hades (1972) D: Kenji Misumi
Third in the Baby Cart series featuring samurai Ogami Itto and his little son. Ogami resists torture to save an innocent girl, and is then hired to kill a corrupt governor. Much death ensues. Baby Cart Series Info
Baby Cart in Peril (1972)
Ogami takes on a job to kill Oyuki, a tattooed martial artist female. Ogami also runs into the person whom he beat out for his original position as Chief Executioner, Gunbei, and has a duel with him. Baby Cart Series Info
Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1972) D: Kenji Misumi
Fifth in the Baby Cart series featuring samurai Ogami Itto and his little son. Ogami must fight five samurai and get information from each one. Then he must kill an insane daimyo. Baby Cart Series Info
The Bad Sleep Well (1960) 135m.
Filmed in the 1940s style of crime dramas - tale of rising executive (Toshiro Mifune) and corruption. D: Akira Kurosawa
The Ballad of Narayama (Narayama-Bushi-Ko) (1983) D: Shohei Imamura.
Run, don't walk, to your local video store and pick up this one. One of the greatest movies ever made, IMHO. It's about life in a Japanese village (in the late 1800s I think). [Jim Holman] A subtle and moving story that takes place a vague century ago. In compliance with village law designed to control population among the poverty-stricken peasants, a healthy seventy-year-old woman must submit to solitary starvation atop a nearby mountain. We follow her as she sets into motion the final influence she will have in the lives of her children and grandchildren. Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto, Tonpei Hidari. [Daniel Richard]
The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958-US) 105m.
John Wayne miscast as Ambassador Harris from 19th century to romance a Japanese beauty. D: John Huston.
Battle in Outer Space (1960) 74m.
Unexciting sci-fi - Earth prepares for attack from outer space. Special FX. D: Inoshire Honda.
Behind the Rising Sun (1943-US) 89m.
Japanese man (J. Carrol Naish) urges his Americanized son (Tom Neal) to become involved in Sino-Japanese war during 1930s, but doesn't like what happens as a result. Interesting for WWII-era point of view. Robert Ryan, Gloria Holden, Don Douglas. D: Edward Dmytryk.
The Big Wave (1960) 60m.
From the Pearl S. Buck novel about two boys who were childhood friends but later clash over love for a girl. Slow. D: Tad Danielewski.
Black Eagle (1988)
Sho Kosugi plays a Japanese born CIA agent who races to recover a military jet which crashed in the ocean, before the Russians do. (He fights with Jean-Claude Van Damme in this one. The fights are short and fast. This is the only film in which Sho doesn't use a sword. All in all, it is probably my least favorite of his films. Somewhat boring. I expected the fights between Sho and Van Damme to be more spectacular. They go by to fast. -- Richard ) [Daniel Richard]
 | Black Rain (1989-US) Michael Douglas and his partner Andy Garcia are delivering a prisoner to Japan when the pair is intercepted by Yakuza. Andy is killed, and Michael must team up with a local Japanese cop in order to bring the killers to justice. Interesting portrayal of the Yakuza and the NYC/Japan culture clashes. D: Ridley Scott |
Black Rain (Kuroi Ame) (1988)
A powerful portrait of a post-Hiroshima family five years after the bombing. Yoshiko Tanaka plays a young woman who, having been caught in a shower of black rain (radioactive fallout) on an ill-timed visit to Hiroshima, returns to her village to find herself ostracized by her peers and no longer considered marriage worthy. (Winner of numerous awards, including 5 Japanese Academy Awards). Kazuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara. Directed By: Shohei Imamura
Blind Fury (1989)
A Vietnam vet (played by Rutger Hauer) who was blinded in an explosion in the war comes back to the U.S. to look up an old war buddy. During his stay there, he was taught how to use a sword by an old Asian man. He carries it concealed in a walking stick, and makes deadly use of it whenever trouble arises. After his buddy's wife is murdered, he teams up with her young son and together they go to Las Vegas to find the boy's father, who is being forced to make drugs for a local crime boss. The crime boss hires a Yakuza assassin (played by Sho Kosugi), to deal with the blind swordsman. They battle to the death in a spectacular sword duel. (Interestingly enough the story was based on a screenplay by Ryozo Kasahara who scripted a few of the "Zatoichi" films. This film is obviously an American version of "Zatoichi". A good movie, made even better by the appearance of Sho Kosugi :-) -- Richard) [Daniel Richard]
Blood on the Sun
(1945-US) 98m. James Cagney, in Japan during the 1930s, smells trouble coming but is virtually helpless; good melodrama. Sylvia Sydney, Wallace Ford, Rosemary DeCamp, Robert Armstrong. D: Frank Lloyd.
The Bodyguard (1976)
The Yakuza and New York's crime families face-off in this martial arts action flick. Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba (not the Costner film by the same name)
 | The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957-British) 161m. British soldiers in Japanese prison camp build a bridge as a futile exercise while William Holden plots to destroy it. Psychological battles of will combined with high-powered action sequences make this a blockbuster. Seven Oscars include picture, Director (David Lean), Actor (Alec Guinness) and Screenplay (Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, based on Piere Boulles novel. The writers were blacklisted, so Boulle was credited with the script.) Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa, Geoffrey Horne, James Donald. |
Bridge to the Sun (1961-US) 113m.
Well-intentioned telling of Southerner Carroll Baker who marries Japanese diplomat James Shigeta and moves to Japan at the outbreak of WWII. D: Etienne Perier
The Burmese Harp (1956) 116m. (Harp of Burma)
A private volunteers to persuade a group of mountain fighters to surrender at the end of WWII and undergoes a religious experience, becoming obsessed with a desire to bury war casualties. Extraordinary anti-war drama. D: Kon Ichikawa.
The Bushido Blade (1979) 104m. (The Bloody Bushido Blade)
Toshiro Mifune, James Earl Jones, Richard Boone. 19th century samurai action. Commodore Perry leads a band of his men in the recovery of a treasured sword. Lisa thought this movie was pretty hideous. D: Tom Kotani.
Japanese Movies by Title
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Japanese Movie Listing Main Page | Lisa's Favorite Japanese Movies | Japanese Movies By Director
Note that since each of these movies was seen by a normal human being, what you read here is just one person's opinion :) Your own opinion may of course be different! If you notice that a movie listing is missing or incorrect, please Contact Me (Really!! WRITE ME!!!) so I can update the list!
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