Category: best 10 list

Best 10 Japanese documentaries – my list

As a reminder that you still have a month to join the poll “Best 10 Japanese documentaries of a time” I’ve put together my list. I left out many good and inspiring documentaries made in recent years (Genpin, No Man’s Zone, Flashback Memories and others) and I’ve cheated twice, but anyway:

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Fighting Soldiers (戦ふ兵隊, 1939 Kamei Fumio)

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Children Who Draw (絵を描く子どもたち, 1956 Hani Susumu)

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A.K.A. Serial Killer (略称・連続射殺魔, 1969 Adachi Masao, Iwabuchi Susumu, Nonomura Masayuki, Yamazaki Yutaka, Sasaki Mamoru, Matsuda Masao)

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Onikko (鬼ッ子　闘う青年労働者の記録, 1969) and
Motoshinkakarannu (沖縄エロス外伝　モトシンカカランヌー 1971) by NDU/Nunokawa Tetsurō

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Minamata: The Victims and Their World (水俣 患者さんとその世界, 1971 Tsuchimoto Noriaki)

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Sanrizuka: Heta Village (三里塚 辺田部落,1973) and
Magino Village – A Tale / The Sundial Carved With A Thousand Years of Notches (1000年刻みの日時計 牧野村物語, 1986) by Ogawa Pro

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Song of the Akamata–The life histories of the islanders, Komi, Iriomote Islands, Okinawa (海南小記序説・アカマタの歌-西表・古見, 1973 Kitamura Minao)

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Extreme Private Eros 1974 Love Song (極私的エロス・恋歌1974, 1974 Hara Kazuo)

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The Cherry Tree with Gray Blossoms (薄墨の桜, 1977 Haneda Sumiko)

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Memories of Agano (阿賀の記憶, 2004 Satō Makoto)

Poll: Best 10 Japanese documentaries of all time

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If you’re a movie critic, a movie fan, a scholar or just a Japanese cinema lover, I’d like to hear your opinion about Japanese documentary/non-fiction. I know that very few works are available on DVD (even in Japan) or with English subtitles, and I’m also aware that the only chance to see them is at festivals, nonetheless I would really like to know which are your favourite Japanese documentaries of all time, so please name your best 10 (or 5)!
It doesn’t matter if you haven’t seen so many or if you only saw documentaries produced in Japan over the last two/three decades. One of the aims of this poll is also to discover which are the docs usually watched (or available to watch) by a non-Japanese audience.
You can leave a comment on this post or send an email to: matteojpjp at gmail.com, of course you’re free to add some lines of explanation and your name, if you wish. The deadline is February 6th. The results will be published on this blog at the end of February, so you have plenty of time, please spread the word! Thank you.

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