Japan
The Red Spectacles (1987) TMDB WikiData IMDb
紅い眼鏡
director: Mamoru Oshii actor: Shigeru Chiba / Machiko Washio
other title: 紅い眼鏡
Summer 1995. With the arrival of the "Age of Cats", the former Kerberos police unit is now disbanded. However one member remains, a stray dog who returns to his old roost after a three-years exile. This wild dog no longer has a master, but now the "Young Lady of Fate" will guide him on his journey.
American Yakuza (1993) IMDb WikiData
American Yakuza
director: Frank A. Cappello actor: Viggo Mortensen / Ryo Ishibashi
When Nick Davis leaves prison after one year in solitairy, he is hired to operate a forklift in a warehouse in the harbor owned by the Japanese Yakuza patriarch Isshin Tendo. The place is assaulted by the Italian Mafia lead by Dino Campanela and Nick rescues and saves the life of Shuji Sawamoto, who is the representative of Yakuza interests in America. Shuji hires Nick to work for Yakuza and becomes his godfather in the family after his oath to join Yakuza. However, Nick is a lonely FBI undercover agent assigned to penetrate the criminal organization. When the FBI discovers that Campanela is organizing a massive attack to destroy the Yakuza, Nick's boss Littman calls off the operation to leave the dirty work to the Italian Mafia. But the connection of Nick with Shuji and his goddaughter Yuko forces him to help his Japanese family.
Nov. 30, 2025 watched
Saw it originally in the cinema in the UK in 1994, thought then it was a superior low-budget action flick with a superior star, then unknown Viggo Mortensen. A lot of action but also character, too. I even got the cinema to give me the promotional cardboard cutout once its run was over.

I'll try not to wait another three decades before seeing it again!
1990s Action AnzuLawson Crime FrankACappello
Ikiru (1952) NeoDB TMDB Douban IMDb Melon Log WikiData
生きる
director: Akira Kurosawa actor: Takashi Shimura / Haruo Tanaka
other title: Vivere / At leve
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.
The X from Outer Space (1967) WikiData IMDb
宇宙大怪獣ギララ
director: Kazui Nihonmatsu actor: Shunya Wazaki / Itoko Harada
other title: Odissea sulla Terra / Guila - Frankensteins Teufelsei
The spaceship AAB-Gamma is dispatched from FAFC headquarters in Japan to make a landing on the planet Mars and investigate reports of UFOs in the area. As they near the red planet, they encounter a mysterious UFO that coats the ship's hull with unusual spores. Taking one of the specimens back to earth, it soon develops and grows into a giant chicken-lizard-alien monster that tramples Japan.
Nov. 24, 2025 watched
Space gorditas, space spores, space bossa nova: this movie's got it all!

Watched in #MonsterMiru #WatchParty on Mastodon after #Monsterdon
1960s Japan Kaiju MonsterMiru SciFi
Night and Fog in Japan (1960) NeoDB TMDB Douban WikiData IMDb
日本の夜と霧
director: Nagisa Ōshima actor: Miyuki Kuwano / Fumio Watanabe
other title: Notte e nebbia in Giappone / Nacht und Nebel über Japan
Long takes and a highly theatrical visual approach combine to form a tense and confrontational look at the decline of a socialist student activists' movement in Japan.
Nov. 22, 2025 to watch "A film about the failure of left-wing anti-imperialists. '16 years later, nothing much had changed,' to quote a more recent one on the same theme... Highly theatrical and innovative." 4/5
@ishmaellasting@mastodonapp.uk
1960s Drama Japan
Ichi the Killer (2001) TMDB Douban NeoDB IMDb WikiData
殺し屋1
director: Takashi Miike actor: Tadanobu Asano / Nao Omori
other title: Ichi The Killer / Ichi - O Assassino
As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.
Tomboy Samurai (1958) WikiData TMDB IMDb
女ざむらい只今参上
director: Kunio Watanabe actor: Hibari Misora / Jun Tazaki
other title: 女ざむらい只今参上
The beautiful daughter of a merchant with a penchant for danger proves to be too much to handle for her worried father. Disguising herself as a man and changing her name, she heads for the capital...
Crossroad (1956) NeoDB IMDb Douban
死の十字路
director: Umetsugu Inoue actor: Rentaro Mikuni / Michiyo Aratama
other title: 死の十字路
Ise, a successful entrepreneur, accidentally murders his lunatic wife after he is spotted having an affair with his secretary, Harumi. In his attempt to perfect his crime, he drives to a remote quarry to bury his wife’s body, but along the way, he finds another dead body in the back of his car! Given no choice, Ise dumps both bodies. Meanwhile, Yoshie begins her search for her missing brother, Yoshihiko. After surprising twists and turns, Ise faces his fate.
Onibaba (1964) IMDb WikiData NeoDB TMDB Douban ReviewDB
鬼婆
director: Kaneto Shindō actor: Nobuko Otowa / Jitsuko Yoshimura
other title: Onibaba - Le assassine / A Mulher Demónio
While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.
Paprika (2006) NeoDB Douban TMDB IMDb
パプリカ
8.6 (32 ratings) director: Satoshi Kon actor: Megumi Hayashibara / Tohru Emori
other title: Paprika - Sognando un sogno / Paprica
When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patient's dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist can stop it and recover it before damage is done: Paprika.
Cloud (2024) IMDb TMDB WikiData
Cloud クラウド
director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa actor: Masaki Suda / Daiken Okudaira
other title: Cloud クラウド
Ryōsuke Yoshii, an ordinary reseller, carelessly earns grudges by people and becomes entangled in a life-threatening struggle.
War of the Ninja Monsters: Jaron vs Goura (2024) NeoDB TMDB IMDb
忍獣大戦記 蛇龍対號羅
director: Shinpei Hayashiya actor: Mizuho Yoshida / Keiki Hayashiya
other title: 忍獣大戦記 蛇龍対號羅
Two men, tired from work, visit the town of Chichibu to enjoy their favorite hobby - exploring caves. But little do they know, the town has been secretly protected by the descendants of the righteous Shinobi ninja since the Sengoku period. The two unlucky friends accidentally break a spell that awakens two colossal beasts, Jaron and Goura. The area’s rival clans manipulate them into a fierce battle, bringing chaos to the area. But a righteous female ninja steps up, wanting to stop the destruction and restore the seal. Can she defeat the evil ninjas that stand in her way before Chichibu is completely destroyed by two kaiju?
Sept. 22, 2025 watched
Not a lot of war, ninjas or monsters. A lot of tone shifts & grating comedy music.

Watched in the #MonsterMiru #WatchParty on miru.miyaku.media and Mastodon, after #Monsterdon's showing of 'The Angry Red Planet' (1959).
2020s Horror Japan Kaiju MonsterMiru
Ninja vs Shark (2023) IMDb WikiData
妖獣奇譚 ニンジャVSシャーク
director: Koichi Sakamoto actor: Kohshu Hirano / Shun Nishime
other title: 妖獣奇譚 ニンジャVSシャーク
In the Edo period, at the remote village of Okitsu, the evil cult leader Koushirou uses ninjutsu to bewitch sharks and forces them to attack local pearl divers so the cult can steal the pearls from their mangled corpses. Desperate for help, the village chief hires Kotaro Shiozaki, a guard at a nearby temple, but Kotaro soon finds his path blocked by lady ninja Kikuma and a gigantic shark that doesn't seem like something from this world.
July 26, 2025 watched
The thing you have to understand about 'Ninja vs Shark' is that for the first hour it's a low-budget but good, serious, dramatic samurai movie with betrayal, conflict, family drama, unrequited love, emotionally significant flashbacks, melodramatic villains, geysers of CGI blood, curses, giant sharks, magical ninjas, devil worship, zombies, sorcery, human sacrifice, decapitations, and homoerotic shape-shifting vampiric ninja weresharks... and only then does it get crazy. Absolutely unhinged!

Watched for #SharkWeek on BMovieBonanza https://piefed.social/post/1076908
2023 BMovieBonanza Horror Japan Ninja
The 47 Ronin (1941) TMDB
元禄 忠臣蔵
director: Kenji Mizoguchi actor: Chōjūrō Kawarasaki / Kan'emon Nakamura
other title: I 47 ronin ribelli / 47 Ronin
In 1701, Lord Takuminokami Asano has a feud with Lord Kira and he tries to kill Kira in the corridors of the Shogun's palace. The Shogun sentences Lord Asano to commit suppuku and deprives the palace and lands from his clan, but does not punish Lord Kira. Lord Asano's vassals leave the land and his samurais become ronin and want to seek revenge against the dishonor of their Lord. But their leader Kuranosuke Oishi asks the Shogun to restore the Asano clan with his brother Daigaku Asano. One year later, the Shogun refuses his request and Oishi and forty-six ronin revenge their Lord.
The Final Piece (2025) IMDb TMDB
盤上の向日葵
director: Naoto Kumazawa actor: Kentaro Sakaguchi / Ken Watanabe
other title: 盤上の向日葵
Keisuke, a 10-year-old boy, living hard despite being abused by his father, finds a ray of light in the midst of his suffering and conflict ---- a shogi world where he fights quietly and passionately in his sharpened senses. Even though he gives up and tries to escape from the light, his passion for shogi continues to guide him thereafter. Eventually, he would learn the true meaning of life.
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) TMDB IMDb Douban WikiData
ゴジラ ファイナルウォーズ
director: Ryuhei Kitamura actor: Masahiro Matsuoka / Rei Kikukawa
other title: Gojira - Final Wars / Godzilla: Final wars
Humanity finally rids themselves of Godzilla, imprisoning him in an icy tomb in the South Pole. All is peaceful until various monsters emerge to lay waste to Earth's cities. Overwhelmed, humanity is seemingly saved by a race of benevolent aliens known as Xiliens. But not all is what it seems with these bizarre visitors. If humanity wishes to survive, they must reluctantly resurrect their most hated enemy, Godzilla.
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) WikiData IMDb TMDB
ゴジラ・モスラ・キングギドラ大怪獣総進撃
director: Shusuke Kaneko actor: Chiharu Niiyama / Ryudo Uzaki
other title: Godzilla, Mothra e King Ghidorah - Assalto di mostri giganti / Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack
Godzilla has become a distant memory for Japan when the destruction of a US submarine raises alarms for Admiral Tachibana. His estranged daughter Yuri investigates the legend of the guardian monsters, who must rise to protect Japan against the vengeful spirits within Godzilla that seek to destroy both the nation and its people for the suffering they inflicted in the Pacific conflict.
Aug. 11, 2025 watched
Great final battle... and then another final battle... and then another... and another... and another!

Seen in #Monsterdon #WatchParty
2000s Godzilla Japan Kaiju KingGhidorah