Koto—The Lake of Tears

Kawasaki, a high school student from Ichiko, walks along a mountain path toward Amagi and encounters a troupe of traveling performers. He becomes captivated by Kaoru, a black-haired dancer carrying a drum on her back. Deciding to travel with the troupe to Shimoda, Kawasaki finds that Kaoru also harbors a tender affection for him.

Popularity: 10.0

In 1939, Sakura Nishi is a young army nurse who is sent to the field hospitals in China during the Sino-Japanese war. She has to assist the surgeon Dr. Okabe with an incredible number of amputations. In the crowded wards, she gives sympathy to some of the soldiers, including sexually servicing one who has lost both arms and has no hope of returning home. She falls in love with Dr. Okabe, and follows him to the front, even though he is impotent from his morphine addiction.

Popularity: 7.6

A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens' boarding school. Slowly, they reveal themselves to each other, finding that they have something deeply in common.

Popularity: 7.3

Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.

Popularity: 7.2

A dream-like meditation on post-industrial life in Communist Poland.

Popularity: 6.7

A blind, uneducated white girl is befriended by a black man, who becomes determined to help her escape her impoverished and abusive home life.

Popularity: 7.6

Kawasaki, a high school student from Ichiko, walks along a mountain path toward Amagi and encounters a troupe of traveling performers. He becomes captivated by Kaoru, a black-haired dancer carrying a drum on her back. Deciding to travel with the troupe to Shimoda, Kawasaki finds that Kaoru also harbors a tender affection for him.

Popularity: 10.0

In 1939, Sakura Nishi is a young army nurse who is sent to the field hospitals in China during the Sino-Japanese war. She has to assist the surgeon Dr. Okabe with an incredible number of amputations. In the crowded wards, she gives sympathy to some of the soldiers, including sexually servicing one who has lost both arms and has no hope of returning home. She falls in love with Dr. Okabe, and follows him to the front, even though he is impotent from his morphine addiction.

Popularity: 7.6

A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens' boarding school. Slowly, they reveal themselves to each other, finding that they have something deeply in common.

Popularity: 7.3

Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.

Popularity: 7.2

A dream-like meditation on post-industrial life in Communist Poland.

Popularity: 6.7

A blind, uneducated white girl is befriended by a black man, who becomes determined to help her escape her impoverished and abusive home life.

Popularity: 7.6

In the Carpathian Mountains of 19th-century Ukraine, love, hate, life and death among the Hutsul people are as they’ve been since time began. Ivan is drawn to Marichka, the beautiful young daughter of the man who killed his father. But fate tragically decrees that the two lovers will remain apart.

Popularity: 7.6

A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.

Popularity: 7.6

A Huangmei opera produced by Shaw Brothers about a carp spirit who transforms into an identical copy of a beautiful woman to win the heart of a lonely male scholar.

Popularity: 6.7