Films about 1960s Japan

I’m trying to make a list of Japanese films portraying life in 1960s Japan (not Japanese films made in the 1960s, unless they’re about that period).

I have zero expertise on the subject, but to provide some context, someone in my family was watching broadly post-WWII Soviet films and wanted to compare them to what was being made in Japan during that period that portrayed contemporary life, to contrast the broad ‘quality’ or style of filmmaking, I suppose (though to me it sounds like a pretty vague undertaking, so I’m struggling a bit with what to suggest). And for the record, the assumption is that the Soviet filmmaking ‘quality’ is inferior, for what that’s worth. Personally, I don’t have a view whatsoever.

Of course I’m reading up on it, too, but know there are MoFos with an in-depth understanding of Japanese cinema, so I thought I’d ask for recs.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Maybe but not 100% sure;
A Colt Is My Passport 1967 拳銃は俺のパスポート Takashi Nomura
The Bad Sleep Well 1960 悪い奴ほどよく眠る Akira Kurosawa
High and Low 1963 天国と地獄 Akira Kurosawa

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Well possibly the best film ever made is The Naked Island (1960), which - contrary to initial appearances - is contemporary.


2nd JC's nomination of High and Low (1963) which I'm delighted to say I'm watching at the cinema a week today.

Pop arty new wave Branded to Kill (1967) is also decent.

Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)

"that period that portrayed contemporary life, to contrast the broad ‘quality’ or style of filmmaking"
Just wondering, is the contemporary life to get a sense of contemporary life in 1960s Japan as portrayed by films (which, it often feels like folly to get a good representation of day to day life from films, unless maybe you're going 1950s and want to go Ozu) or you're just trying to filter out feudalistic set historically movies (or even 1920s set movies) because the period piece quality of the film skews how one interacts with the film as the film is skewed by the eras relationship with the past?

Anyhow, I like the Funeral Parade of Roses rec (and personally love the movie). The Nake Island is also very solid, but despite being contemporary, is set in the rural islands, which I heard some of Shindo's peers didn't like that image of Japan being presented.

Oshima had a good number of outlaw youth in his earlier stuff (kids disaffected by a rotten society turning towards crime and violence - hence my comment about realism in cinema) - you stuff like Violence at Noon, The Man Who Left his Will on Film, Sing a Song of Sex, and if you're more interested in film making, probably his best from that category of films is Death by Hanging.

Speaking of Ozu, he did have one in 1960, Late Autumn. Slice of life stuff.

Imamura is one I keep thinking I don't quite groove with, but Vengeance is Mine, The Pornographers, and The Insect Woman are probably something you should check out.

A lot of the Shinoda films I like are set in the past, but Pale Flower and With Beauty and Sorrow are contemporary. I really like the former, a neo-noir that has that death pull that I feel is similar to Cronenberg's Crash, a comparison that will probably give incorrect expectations though.

If you're interested in the filmmaking and not accurately portraying life, then Suzuki (already mentioned) is a lot of fun. Well, Youth of the Beast and Take Aim at the Police Van are a lot of fun (). Branded to Kill is his more somber, serious, crazy crime movie. All worth watching.

For Teshigara, I'd recommend both The Face of Another and Woman in the Dunes.

If we're going sleazy exploitation, Blind Beast and... the other set of movies I was thinking of were from the early 70s. So Blind Beast has artistic merit and would be a good place to start. Circling back to Suzuki, Gate of Flesh sort of falls in this category.

Doing a u-turn and including serious melodramas, Naruse had Yearning and When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. I don't know if I particularly like Naruse's melodramas or if it's Hideko Takamine in his melodramas because she seems to capture the tone of his movies pitch perfect.

Sadly all of the Kobayashi I've seen from that decade I think are not set in contemporary times, so I don't have anything to recommend there.

This list also has a few movies from the 60s not mentioned yet. A couple of which sound like theyr'e set in contemporary times:
https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/best-ja...-from-1925-now

Exactly this. Thank you for the incredibly in-depth recommendations! I have seen relatively few Japanese films to begin with, so this looks like a great rabbit hole to get lost in.

This was incredible. Thank you for putting it on my radar.

I like Ozu movies very much. Others too, but don’t have time to look for them.

Interesting thing about Japan is that their entire mode of dressing changed post WWII. Western clothes prevailed & the kimono, etc. became less popular. I probably have that all wrong, but there ya go.

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"entire mode of dressing changed post WWII" sounds misleading, since I knew western clothing was adopted in Japan well before WWII, but I'd also suspect you'd get a major shift for both economic and occupied based reasons. So, just googling:


This person sounds like they have a detailed sense of it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistoria...earing_kimonos

Japanese Neo noir in the 1960’s might be a good start. Look up Seijun Suzuki. Some really good films from him.
Face of Another gets seconded by me.
Shohei Imamura had some contemporary films during that time.
Shinoda’s Pale Flower.
The various Godzilla and Gamera films during that period as well. (Don’t laugh)

Okay, then stuff set a little bit before the 1960s that don't seem overly obsessed with the styles of the past might be fair game as well.

I left of Floating Clouds for Naruse because part of it is a flashback to a colony set during WW2 and that's still probably my current favorite of his, but I wasn't sure if you specifically wanted films about life during the 1960s (though the other part of the film is contemporary, post-war stuff when people are struggling financially - lots of the neo-noir from about 1960 is centered around that).

Seijun Suzuki - has a crazy satire, Fighting Elegy, set in the 1930s (though it would be good to be aware of that various coups or political assassinations happened during that decade), and Story of a Prostitute was set in WW2, which was a pretty powerful, yet energetic pop-art, drama.

Kobayashi also finished up his Human Condition trilogy in 1961 (though you'd have to go back to the late 50s to start it), which is his WW2 epic story.

Those were the ones I left off because I wasn't sure if you were specfically wanted stuff set in the 60s or "in recent feeling times". (In contrast to the 1970's Watcher in the Attic, set in the 20s, where the wardrobe does feel like costumes; people have the whole 1920's flapper-look going, etc).