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- “Love Life” (2022) Japanese title: LOVE LIFE. Director: Koji Fukada. Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 70% This Japanese-French drama film is inspired by a song of the same name by musician Akiko Yano, originally released in 1991.
- “Ride or Die” (2021) Japanese title: 彼女 (Kanojo) Director: Ryuichi Hiroki. Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 69% Rei’s world turns upside down when she learns that her former classmate and teenage crush, Nanae, is suffering brutal domestic violence from her husband.
- “Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop” (2021) Japanese title: サイダーのように言葉が湧き上がる (Saidaa no Yō ni Kotoba ga Wakiagaru) Director: Kyōhei Ishiguro. Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%
- “Dance with Me” (2019) Japanese title: ダンスウィズミー (Dansu Wizu Mī) Director: Shinobu Yaguchi. IMDB Rating: 6.8/10. Middle-aged office worker Shizuka Suzuki is hypnotized by a street performer into singing and dancing uncontrollably whenever she hears music.
- We Made A Beautiful Bouquet. Fresh flower bouquets, no matter how beautifully made, eventually wither away. We Made A Beautiful Bouquet tells the tearjerking 5-year love story of Mugi Yamane and Kinu Hachiya, whose relationship tragically goes from 100 to 0 and withers under the pressures of adulting.
- My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday. My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday tells the touching tale of 2 star-crossed lovers, Takatoshi Minamiyama and Emi Fujuku, who age in opposite directions and hold incongruous memories of one another with each passing day.
- The Liar and His Lover. The Liar and His Lover follows the love story of Aki Ogasawara and Riko Koeda, the former a jaded low-profile songwriter for a famous band and the latter a passionate high school band member.
- Theater. Theater tells of the turbulent relationship between the egoistic Nagata and the selfless Saki. While Nagata is a theatre director who’s hit rock bottom, Saki is an aspiring actress enrolled in university.
- The Black Devil and The White Prince
- The 100th Love with You
- I Give My First Love to You
- Kimi Ni Todoke
- Hana and Alice
- Koizora
- His
- Let Me Eat Your Pancreas
- Heavenly Forest
- We Made A Beautiful Bouquet
Having read the original manga adaptation, I had high expectations for The Black Devil and the White Prince, and thankfully I’m not disappointed. Before watching the D/s romance of Haruto Kurosaki and Yū Akabane, you’ll have first to watch the two-episode special drama Defying Kurosaki-kun. The movie continues where the drama left off. Based on the...
The 100th Love With Youis a time-travel romance movie about bandmates Aoi Hinata and Riku Hasegawa, stuck in a time loop. The movie’s heroine, Aoi Hinata, is a university student who can’t escape her dire fate-accident-induced death. She first realizes her unique ability after getting hit by a truck and waking up in a class she already attended a f...
For childhood friends Mayu Taneda and Takuma Kakinouchi, their love story doesn’t revolve around joyous memories but rather on the grim reality of Takuma’s failing heart that won’t live past 20 years. I Give My First Love To You may sound like your average “protagonist has a few years left to live” type of movie, but it goes beyond that. What I lov...
Simple, innocent, sweet love – these are the words I’d use to describe the romance between the heroine Sawako Kuronuma and Shōta Kazehaya. I’m a big fan of the anime and mangaof Kimi Ni Todoke and can say that the movie adaptation did a great job of capturing the innocent romance between the main leads. Shy and introverted, Sawako is shunned by her...
Shunji Iwai, director of the hit filmLove Letter, impresses viewers with a plot that turns the central theme of romance into a beautiful storytelling tool. This coming of age film is about inseparable friends Hana and Alice. On the outside, Hana and Alice look like two ordinary high school girls who like ballet. However, as the film progresses, we ...
The 2007 Koizora film was based on a cellphone novel that took the Internet by storm in Japan. Readers were hooked to the tragic love story of Mika Tahara and Hiroki Sakurai, two high school kids who experienced the tragedies of life in unimaginable ways. Mika first meets Hiro virtually after Hiro finds Mika’s lost phone. The two communicate throug...
To this day, the topic of same-sex relationships is still not widely accepted in Japan. That’s why when the BL film Hispremiered in 2020, it immediately caught the attention of many viewers. The story follows the life of Shun Igawa and Nagisa Hibino, college sweethearts who part ways and reunite many years later. After the impulsive Nagisa breaks t...
I’ll tell you now. This movie has no cannibalistic scenes of teenagers eating their classmates’ organs. Let Me Eat Your Pancreas is a coming-of-age film based on Yoru Sumino’s 2015 novel I Want To Eat Your Pancreas. Like A Silent Voice’s protagonist Shoya Ishida, Let Me Eat Your Pancreas’s Haruki Shiga is an awkward loner with no friends. The movie...
Have you ever liked someone so much to the point that you want to do the same hobbies they love? Shizuru Satonaka, the heroine of Heavenly Forest,falls in love at first sight with the protagonist Makoto Segawa, a socially awkward and shy university student with a passion for photography. Equally socially inept in the art of socializing, Shizuru tri...
With high school romances as the center of most Japanese romance movies,We Made a Beautiful Bouquet is a breath of fresh air in the romance genre. This movie focuses on the five-year relationship of Mugi Yamane and Kinu Hachiya. After missing their last train home, the pair decides to spend the night at a bar. As they get to know each other more, t...
- Weathering with You. Kotaro Daigo, Nana Mori, Sei Hiraizumi. 27 votes. A runaway boy and a mysterious girl with the ability to control the weather embark on a heartwarming journey of love, sacrifice, and self-discovery.
- Whisper of the Heart. Mayumi Iizuka, Minami Takayama, Shigeru Muroi. 22 votes. A young bookworm finds herself drawn into a world of music, creativity, and love as she discovers the mysterious identity of the boy who shares her taste in literature.
- The Garden of Words. Patrick Poole, Hilary Haag, David Matranga. 16 votes. A chance encounter between a high school student and a mysterious woman in a Tokyo park leads to an unusual bond, as they find solace in each other amid the rain.
- Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. Juri Ueno, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Hirofumi Arai. 10 votes. A young man's life takes an unexpected turn when he meets a wheelchair-bound girl, leading to a heartwarming journey of love and self-discovery.
- Evergreen Writer
- Drive My Car (2021) Winner of the Best International Feature Film and loosely inspired by Haruki Murakami’s collection Men Without Women and his other short stories, Drive My Car is a stunning film that explores themes of loss, infidelity, forgiveness, and the power of human connection.
- Seven Samurai (1954) Seven Samurai is an epic film that centers on a village that hires seven unemployed samurai to defend them and their home against bandits.
- Spirited Away (2001) It would be a crime not to make multiple mentions of Hayao Miyazaki in a list of best Japanese movies because the legendary director has graced us with so many masterpieces.
- Departures (2008) In Departures, we follow a cellist named Daigo Kobayashi whose orchestra has recently disbanded and he has returned to his hometown with his wife to start fresh.
May 23, 2018 · Crying Out For Love in the Center of the World is one of Japan’s most popular melodrama romances in recent memory. The film is based on a novel called Socrates in Love , which actually sold more copies than Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood in Japan.
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5 days ago · The top 10 most popular Japanese romance movies of all time. These films share wonderful stories and Japanese culture’s unique sense of passion, and beauty.
