Kinema Junpo is Japan's oldest and premiere cinema magazine. Once a decade they poll Japanese critics to name the best Japanese films of all time. 2009 was their biggest poll yet, with just short of 200 films listed
Its interesting to see how a country's critics see their own cinema and how it contrasts with western tastes in Japanese moves (I.e, few samurai films and anime). Also notable how DVD companies like Criterion can shape Japanese "canon" in the west just by what they've made available.
The poll is broken into tiers of several ties. The last tie is a little odd, with films from almost every year being represented. I wish I could find more info on how the…
Kinema Junpo is Japan's oldest and premiere cinema magazine. Once a decade they poll Japanese critics to name the best Japanese films of all time. 2009 was their biggest poll yet, with just short of 200 films listed
Its interesting to see how a country's critics see their own cinema and how it contrasts with western tastes in Japanese moves (I.e, few samurai films and anime). Also notable how DVD companies like Criterion can shape Japanese "canon" in the west just by what they've made available.
The poll is broken into tiers of several ties. The last tie is a little odd, with films from almost every year being represented. I wish I could find more info on how the poll was conducted but nothing seems to be translated
EDIT: It now occurs to me that the final 100 films were just every other titles voted on, hence not having a round number for the total
7-9 tied for seventh
10-12 tied for tenth
13-16 tied for thirteenth
17-22 tied for seventeenth
23-35 tied for twenty-third
36-58 tied for thirty-sixth
59-105 tied for fifty-ninth
106 on is a huge, bizarre tie for last place
