Best Japanese Directors Who Aren't Akira Kurosawa or Hayao Miyazaki (original) (raw)

Published Feb 13, 2023, 9:00 PM EST

Jeremy has more than 2500 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows.
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Japan's film industry is one of the best and most exciting in the world, with certain directors hailing from the country becoming internationally recognized for their talents. The two most well-known of these filmmakers would likely be Akira Kurosawa, whose influence can be seen in various genres popular in the West, and Hayao Miyazaki, whose animated films have become widely recognized as some of the best - and most beautiful-looking - of all time.

In celebrating some other great Japanese filmmakers who aren't quite as famous as Kurosawa or Miyazaki, the following are also among the best to come from the island nation. Some are famous in Japan while not being as well known in the West, and some others have decently-sized fanbases internationally without necessarily being household names worldwide. Importantly, all have rich filmographies that are worth digging into for those who enjoy the cinema of Japan and want to see more.

1 Takashi Miike

Takashi Miike is one of the most prolific directors working today. He began making films in the early 1990s, and since then has directed a remarkable number of movies, reaching film #100 in 2017 with the bloody and over-the-top samurai action movie Blade of the Immortal.

With such a huge number of movies - and some individual years when he released half-a-dozen individual titles - you might expect it to be a case of quantity over quality, but that's not really a fair way to describe Miike's filmography. The vast majority of his movies are very entertaining and well-made, and some are genuine classics, namely Audition, Ichi The Killer, and 13 Assassins (2010).

2 Masaki Kobayashi

Tatsuya Nakadai in the duel scene from Harakiri (1962)

Image via Shochiku

At the height of his filmmaking powers around the same time as Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi has never quite reached the same level of fame as Kurosawa. He's a name cinephiles are likely familiar with, and of his 20-ish films, at least half a dozen are genuine classics.

The greatest of these is probably his dark revenge/mystery/samurai movie, Harakiri, which is one of the greatest movies of the 1960s. He also directed the three-part, nine-hour-long WW2 epic The Human Condition, which feels like six great movies for the price of one, and the four-part horror anthology movie Kwaidan, itself about three hours long. His filmography is an embarrassment of riches for film buffs, and even his lesser-known titles are more than worthy of being checked out.

3 Ishirō Honda

Image via Toho

Responsible for the somber, horror-heavy original Godzilla and many of its more zany sequels, Ishirō Honda's a director whose name will always be tied to cinema's king of the monsters. He directed a total of eight classic Godzilla movies, and also was the director behind spin-offs like 1956's Rodan and the original Mothra (1961).

At the same time, Honda's films that aren't tied to the Godzilla series are also worth looking into, as he had a knack for directing numerous memorable sci-fi/action movies, some being fun and goofy, and others being surprisingly dark. His movies all feel quite distinctly his own, and for how he was able to push the sci-fi/kaiju genres forward, his name deserves to be recognized.

4 Yasujirō Ozu

Tokyo Story

Image via Shochiku

Yasujirō Ozu had a remarkable and singular style as a filmmaker, and wasn't afraid to revisit similar stories and themes throughout his career either. Across approximately 50 movies, he made numerous family dramas - some funny, some heartwarming, and some tragic - with all being empathetic to their characters and quietly moving with their narratives.

His style was also very simple but effective, and he became well-known for his use of static shots and interesting framing involving multiple characters who were often featured in a single frame. His films might be best for viewers who don't mind movies that have slower pacing, but Ozu's best films are undeniably immersive and able to sneak up on you when it comes to their emotional power, making him one of the very best Japanese directors who began his career during the silent era.

5 Satoshi Kon

Image via Sony Pictures

Though his filmmaking career was unfortunately short, Satoshi Kon's four-movie run is essentially unmatched when it comes to consistency and quality in the world of animation. Perfect Blue (1997), Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), and Paprika (2006) are all critically acclaimed animated films, and all are worth watching, even for viewers who don't usually enjoy anime.

Impressively, all encompass different genres and very different stories, and Satoshi Kon was also one of the directors behind the mind-bending 2004 anime series Paranoia Agent. He tragically passed away at the age of just 46 in 2010, but his impact on Japanese animation was immeasurable, and the movies he gifted the world continue to inspire and entertain to this day.

6 Nagisa Ōshima

Few directors can claim to have pushed as many boundaries as Nagisa Ōshima did during his career. That he could also be provocative and challenging while making movies that were engaging and entertaining is a testament to his skills as a filmmaker.

His films that demonstrate this best are probably 1968's darkly comedic - and surreal - Death by Hanging, and the racy and daring 1976 film In the Realm of the Senses, which still has the power to shock almost 50 years on from release. He was also behind the David Bowie-starring Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, a unique WW2 film set in a prison camp that expertly explores the clash of cultures that inevitably happens during wartime.

7 Kinji Fukasaku

When it comes to yakuza movies, Kinji Fukasaku is the undisputed king of the genre. Throughout the 1970s in particular, he continued to churn out one great gangster film after another, including - but not limited to - the kinetic and thrilling movies in the long-running Battles Without Honor & Humanity series.

If he only made yakuza movies during the 1970s, he'd still be considered one of the best Japanese directors of all time... however, his most famous movie ended up coming out in 2000, just three years before his death at age 72. That film was Battle Royale, the infamous yet powerful movie about a group of high school students forced into battling each other to death. It's the film that Fukasaku is now most closely associated with, though many of his earlier films are just as worthy of attention.

8 Yoji Yamada

Yoji Yamada's filmmaking career took off right around the same time as Yasujirō Ozu's ended: in the early 1960s. In some ways, he feels like Ozu's successor, making movies that blend humor and pathos, and usually having them center on families. It also makes sense that the two filmmakers get compared when considering that Yamada was "a disciple" of Ozu.

Yoji Yamada's films are far from derivative, though, as his personal style became more pronounced as his career went on, with his filmography now spanning approximately 60 years. He's also behind one of the best and longest-running film series of all time: Otoko wa Tsurai yo (AKA It's Tough Being a Man), which plays out over 50 films across 50 years, with all but two having been directed by Yamada himself.

9 Hideaki Anno

Godzilla breathing purple fire in TOHO's Shin Godzilla

Image via TOHO

The main creative force behind the iconic anime franchise Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hideaki Anno has emerged as one of the most famous names in Japanese animation. The series comprises a legendary TV series and several movies, and has remained a pop culture staple in the world of anime ever since the mid-1990s.

Anno has also directed numerous live-action films, with the best known of them being 2016's Shin Godzilla. It was a particularly horrific (and sometimes darkly funny) take on the iconic monster, and showed without a doubt that Hideaki Anno's talents extended far beyond just the world of anime.,

10 Takeshi Kitano

Takeshi Kitano was once known mostly for being an actor and comedian, but branched out into directing feature films in the late 1980s. The first of these was the incredibly bleak and confronting crime film Violent Cop, and ever since then, he's amassed a cult following for the unique spin he puts on familiar crime/action movie tropes and stories.

His unique style might not be for everyone (and his films are often graphically violent, too), but few could say Kitano's style isn't unique. His deadbeat - and sometimes darkly humorous - look at the world of crime sets him apart from any other director who specializes in the genre, and makes him one of the most exciting Japanese directors to break into the film world within the last few decades.

NEXT: Iconic Directors and Their Favorite Films They Worked On