111.	View Larger Image	Chushingura Actors: Koshiro Matsumoto, Yuzo Kayama Director: Hiroshi Inagaki
		From Amazon.com essential video Chushingura means "loyalty," and that potent Japanese theme runs like hot blood throughout this stately samurai epic. It's often called the Gone with the Wind of Japanese cinema, and while that may be a fitting cultural parallel, it gives an inaccurate impression of the film, based on one of Japan's most enduring and oft-interpreted historical events. A simmering, deliberately paced drama ... more Buy from Amazon

112.	View Larger Image	Red Beard - Criterion Collection Director: Akira Kurosawa
		From Amazon.com Featuring the final collaboration between esteemed director Akira Kurosawa (Kagemusha, The Seven Samurai) and actor Toshiro Mifune (Yojimbo, Hell in the Pacific), this 1965 film explores the complex and tumultuous relationship between a doctor and his protégé, and the meaning of compassion and responsibility. Mifune plays the title character, a revered but stern and unbendable physician ministering to the poor in ... more Buy from Amazon

113.	View Larger Image	September 11 Directors: Amos Gitai, Danis Tanovic, Shohei Imamura, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mira Nair, Samira Makhmalbaf, Sean Penn, Idrissa Ouedraogo, Ken Loach, Youssef Chahine, Claude Lelouch
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114.	View Larger Image	The Sword of Doom - Criterion Collection Director: Kihachi Okamoto
		From Amazon.com Boasting some of the most impressive swordplay in the history of samurai epics, Sword of Doom is a visceral masterpiece of violent style and powerful substance. Illustrating the timeless adage that "an evil soul wields an evil sword," this highly stylized classic is driven by the fierce and fearsome performance of Tatsuya Nakadai as Ryunosuke, a sociopathic samurai whose soul--and sword--are ... more Buy from Amazon

115.	View Larger Image	Pokémon Heroes Actors: Veronica Taylor, Rachael Lillis, Eric Stuart (III), Madeleine Blaustein Directors: Kunihiko Yuyama, Jim Malone
		From Amazon.com The fifth Pokémon movie takes Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu to the city of Altomare, a thinly disguised Venice guarded by the shape-shifting Pokémon Latios and Latias. Two new agents of Giovanni's, Annie and Oakley, are out to capture these rare Pokémon--reducing Team Rocket to the role of spectators. Latios and Latias are linked to an elaborate, computer-generated mechanism that defends ... more Buy from Amazon

116.	View Larger Image	Millennium Actress Actors: Miyoko Shôji, Shôzô Îzuka Director: Satoshi Kon
		From Amazon.com The second film by director Satoshi Kon and screenwriter Sadayuki Murai recalls Perfect Blue, but Millennium Actress is a more complex, subtle, and sophisticated work that evokes the history of Japanese cinema. After nearly 30 years of living in strict seclusion, the aged film star Chioyoko Fujiwara grants an interview to journalist Genya Tachibana. As their conversation begins, Kan intercuts scenes ... more Buy from Amazon

117.	View Larger Image	Ronin Gai Director: Kazuo Kuroki
		From Amazon.com A powerful remake of a popular jidai geki (period drama) that was first filmed in 1928, Ronin Gai also marks the final appearance of Shintaro Katsu, the Japanese actor best known for his title role in the long-lasting Zatoichi film series. Also known as Street of the Masterless Samurai, this intense chambera (swordplay) drama is set on the outskirts of Edo ... more Buy from Amazon

118.	View Larger Image	Story of a Prostitute (Criterion Collection) Director: Seijun Suzuki
		From Amazon.com Best known for his pop-art gangster epics like Tokyo Drifter and Pistol Opera, Japanese director Seijun Suzuki previously applied his startling camera angles, jolting editing, and hypnotic compositions to this military melodrama. Harumi (Yumiko Nogawa, who also starred in Suzuki's Gate of Flesh) is a ferociously independent prostitute who becomes a "comfort woman" for soldiers at the front of the Japan-China ... more Buy from Amazon

119.	View Larger Image	Beautiful Hunter Director: Masaru Konuma
		From Description Shion is the most merciless assassin of the Magnificat crime group. But when she hesitates to murder the man she loves, her superior marks her for death, and she must choose between a life of killing and a life on the run. ... more Buy from Amazon

120.	View Larger Image	Metropolis Actors: Scott Weinger, Toshio Furukawa Director: Rin Tarô
		From Amazon.com Adapted from Osamu Tezuka's 1949 manga, Metropolis (in Japanese with English subtitles) is an opulently beautiful film that fails to present a coherent story worthy of its extraordinary visuals. Evil Duke Red (voice by Taro Ishida) plans to rule the world from Ziggurat, his newly completed art deco tower. A new robot is being developed by his henchman Dr. Laughton (Junpei ... more Buy from Amazon