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BFI's "Best Japanese Films from 1925 to Now" (2020 Edition)

In 2020, BFI celebrated a hundred years of Japanese cinema. Here's their list of the best films, picked from each year, starting in 1925. Read the full article, with explanations of their process and more details on the selected films, here.

Check out additional lists for Kinema Junpo's Best Films of the Year (1927-Present) and The Japan Academy Film Prize for Picture of the Year (1978-Present)

Block or Report
  • Serpent
  • A Page of Madness
  • Chuji's Travel Diary: Koshu tate hen
  • Chuji's Travel Diary: Story of Bloody Shinshu
  • Chuji's Travel Diary: The Chuji Patrol Episode
  • Crossroads
  • Days of Youth
  • What Made Her Do It?
  • The Neighbour's Wife and Mine
  • I Was Born, But...
  • Japanese Girls at the Harbor
  • Our Neighbor, Miss Yae
  • Wife! Be Like a Rose!
  • Sisters of the Gion
  • Humanity and Paper Balloons
  • Fallen Blossoms
  • The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum
  • Spring on Leper's Island
  • Ornamental Hairpin
  • The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya
  • The Life of Matsu the Untamed
  • Army
  • Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors
  • Utamaro and His Five Women
  • The Ball at the Anjo House
  • Children of the Beehive
  • Late Spring
  • Rashomon
  • Repast
  • The Life of Oharu
  • Tokyo Story
  • Seven Samurai
  • The Eternal Breasts
  • Crazed Fruit
  • A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era
  • Giants and Toys
  • Fires on the Plain
  • The Naked Island
  • Bad Boys
  • Harakiri
  • The Insect Woman
  • Woman in the Dunes
  • A Fugitive from the Past
  • Silence Has No Wings
  • Branded to Kill
  • Death by Hanging
  • Funeral Parade of Roses
  • Eros + Massacre
  • Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets
  • Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
  • Battles Without Honor and Humanity
  • Sandakan No. 8
  • The Shiranui Sea
  • The Watcher in the Attic
  • The Yellow Handkerchief
  • The Demon
  • The Man Who Stole the Sun
  • Zigeunerweisen
  • Muddy River
  • I Are You, You Am Me
  • The Family Game
  • The Funeral
  • Fire Festival
  • To Sleep So as to Dream
  • The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On
  • Akira
  • Tetsuo: The Iron Man
  • The Cherry Orchard
  • Only Yesterday
  • Porco Rosso
  • Sonatine
  • Katatsumori
  • Like Grains of Sand
  • Shall We Dance?
  • Cure
  • Ringu
  • Audition
  • Eureka
  • Spirited Away
  • The Twilight Samurai
  • Wild Berries
  • Nobody Knows
  • Linda Linda Linda
  • Paprika
  • United Red Army
  • Love Exposure
  • Summer Wars
  • Villain
  • I Wish
  • Flashback Memories 3D
  • The Tale of Iya
  • The Light Shines Only There
  • Happy Hour
  • Harmonium
  • Hanagatami
  • Shoplifters
  • Domains