Tag Archives: japanese

Sixteen Candles

IMDB Rating: 6.90
15078 votes

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 Storyline
Samantha's life is going downhill fast. The fifteen-year-old has a crush on the most popular boy in school, and the geekiest boy in school has a crush on her. Her sister's getting married, and with all the excitement the rest of her family forgets her birthday! Add all this to a pair of horrendously embarrassing grandparents, a foreign exchange student named Long Duc Dong, and we have the makings of a hilarious journey into young womanhood.
Actors
Samantha BakerMolly Ringwald
Mike BakerJustin Henry
Jake RyanMichael Schoeffling
Also posted in 1984, Comedy, Drama, High IMDB rating, Romance | Comments (0)

The Bridge on the River Kwai

IMDB Rating: 8.40
33567 votes

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 Storyline
The film deals with the situation of British prisoners of war during World War II who are ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage the bridge but, under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), they are persuaded that the bridge should be constructed as a symbol of British morale, spirit and dignity in adverse circumstances. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather than compromise his principles for the benefit of the Japanese commandant Saito (Sessue Hayakawa). He is an honorable but arrogant man, who is slowly revealed to be a deluded obsessive. He convinces himself that the bridge is a monument to British character, but actually is a monument to himself, and his insistence on its construction becomes a subtle form of collaboration with the enemy. Unknown to him, the Allies have sent a mission into the jungle, led by Warden (Jack Hawkins) and an American, Shears (William Holden), to blow up the bridge.
Actors
Cmdr. ShearsWilliam Holden
Maj. WardenJack Hawkins
Col. NicholsonAlec Guinness
Also posted in 1957, Adventure, Drama, High IMDB rating, War | Comments (1)

Akira

IMDB Rating: 7.80
25735 votes

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 Storyline
Kaneda is a bike gang leader whose close friend Tetsuo gets involved in a government secret project known as Akira. On his way to save Tetsuo, Kaneda runs into a group of anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists and a powerful military leader. The confrontation sparks off Tetsuo's supernatural power leading to bloody death, a coup attempt and the final battle in Tokyo Olympiad where Akira's secrets were buried 30 years ago.
Actors
Shôtarô KanedaMitsuo Iwata
Tetsuo ShimaNozomu Sasaki
KeiMami Koyama
Also posted in 1988, Action, Adventure, Animation, High IMDB rating, Sci-Fi, Thriller | Comments (0)

The Great Raid

IMDB Rating: 6.90
4732 votes

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 Storyline
Set in the Philippines in 1945 towards the end of WWII, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci and Captain Robert Prince, the 6th Ranger Battalion undertake a daring rescue mission against all odds. Traveling thirty miles behind enemy lines, they intend to liberate over 500 American Soldiers from the notorious Cabanatuan Japanese POW camp in the most audacious rescue ever.
Actors
Lt. Colonel MucciBenjamin Bratt
Captain PrinceJames Franco
Captain FisherRobert Mammone
Also posted in 2005, Action, Drama, High IMDB rating, War | Comments (0)

The Last Samurai

IMDB Rating: 7.80
56635 votes

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 Storyline
In the 1870s, Captain Nathan Algren, a cynical veteran of the American Civil war who will work for anyone, is hired by Americans who want lucrative contracts with the Emperor of Japan to train the peasant conscripts for the first standing imperial army in modern warfare using firearms. The imperial Omura cabinet's first priority is to repress a rebellion of traditionalist Samurai -hereditary warriors- who remain devoted to the sacred dynasty but reject the Westernizing policy and even refuse firearms. Yet when his ill-prepared superior force sets out too soon, their panic allows the sword-wielding samurai to crush them. Badly wounded Algren's courageous stand makes the samurai leader Katsumoto spare his life; once nursed to health he learns to know and respect the old Japanese way, and participates as advisor in Katsumoto's failed attempt to save the Bushido tradition, but Omura gets repressive laws enacted- he must now choose to honor his loyalty to one of the embittered sides when the conflict returns to the battlefield...
Actors
Shin Koyamada
KatsumotoKen Watanabe
Nathan AlgrenTom Cruise
Also posted in 2003, Action, Adventure, Drama, High IMDB rating, War | Comments (9)

Lost in Translation

IMDB Rating: 7.90
77219 votes

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 Storyline
Bob Harris is an American film actor, far past his prime. He visits Tokyo to appear in commercials, and he meets Charlotte, the young wife of a visiting photographer. Bored and weary, Bob and Charlotte make ideal if improbable traveling companions. Charlotte is looking for "her place in life," and Bob is tolerating a mediocre stateside marriage. Both separately and together, they live the experience of the American in Tokyo. Bob and Charlotte suffer both confusion and hilarity due to the cultural and language differences between themselves and the Japanese. As the relationship between Bob and Charlotte deepens, they come to the realization that their visits to Japan, and one another, must soon end. Or must they?
Actors
CharlotteScarlett Johansson
Bob HarrisBill Murray
Ms. KawasakiAkiko Takeshita
Also posted in 2003, Comedy, Drama, High IMDB rating | Comments (2)

Antwone Fisher

IMDB Rating: 7.30
7484 votes

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 Storyline
A sailor (Derek Luke) prone to violent outbursts is sent to a naval psychiatrist (Washington) for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family he never knew.
Actors
Antwone Quenton 'Fish' FisherDerek Luke
Antwone Fisher Age 7Malcolm David Kelley
Antwone Fisher Age 14Cory Hodges
Also posted in 2002, Biography, Drama, High IMDB rating, Romance | Comments (0)

Windtalkers

IMDB Rating: 5.80
10912 votes

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 Storyline
In the close quarters and brutal fighting of the World War II Pacific Theater, the U.S. Intelligence services desperately seek a fool-proof encryption code, immune to the code breakers of the Japanese. The answer is soon discovered in the ancient language of the Navajo. Enlisted into the Marine Corps are several "Windtalkers" who are deployed to frontline areas in the Pacific, to use their language as an impossible-to-crack secret code. A drawback, however, is that the U.S. military soon puts forth a directive that the Windtalkers must never be captured alive by the enemy, so additional Marines are assigned to make certian that this directive is carried out to the letter.
Actors
Sergeant Joe EndersNicolas Cage
Private Ben YahzeeAdam Beach
Gunnery Sergeant HjelmstadPeter Stormare
Also posted in 2002, Action, Drama, War | Comments (11)

Pearl Harbor

IMDB Rating: 5.30
52048 votes

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 Storyline
The above summaries do a great job of describing the dynamics of the love triangle that develops between the two pilots that fall in love with the same nurse. The movie also does a credible job of displaying the war from the American side with FDR and our side. It also shows the strategy of Japan as they plan for and execute all facets of the attack on Pearl Harbor. While all details may not be historically correct, I believe that they do the job well - all things considered. Historic events that were altered were probably done so in an attempt to also make this movie the entertaining epic that it is.
Actors
Capt. Rafe McCawleyBen Affleck
Capt. Danny WalkerJosh Hartnett
Nurse Lt. Evelyn JohnsonKate Beckinsale
Also posted in 2001, Action, Drama, Romance, War | Comments (24)

The Thin Red Line

IMDB Rating: 7.20
29413 votes

from $1.99

 Storyline
In World War II, the outcome of the battle of Guadalcanal will strongly influence the Japanese's advance into the pacific. A group of young soldiers is brought in as a relief for the battle-weary Marine units. The exhausting fight for a key-positioned airfield that allows control over a 1000-mile radius puts the men of the Army Rifle company C-for-Charlie through hell. The horrors of war forms the soldiers into a tight-knit group, their emotions develop into bonds of love and even family. The reasons for this war get further away as the world for the men gets smaller and smaller until their fighting is for mere survival and the life of the other men with them.
Actors
First Sergeant Edward WelshSean Penn
Corporal FifeAdrien Brody
Private WittJames Caviezel
Also posted in 1998, Action, Drama, High IMDB rating, War | Comments (0)