Feature Films in the Library
The Last Samurai (2003)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.A3 L37 2004Tormented Civil War veteran Capt. Nathan Algren is coerced by a mercenary officer to train the Japanese Emperor's troops in the use of modern weaponry.
Barefoot Gen (1983)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.A6 B37 2006The bombing of Hiroshima as seen through the eyes of an elementary student living in Japan during WWII
Mishima - A Life in Four ChaptersCall Number: MOH AV Video PN1995.9.B55 M45 1986A view of the life of Japan's famous postwar writer, Yukio Mishima, as a tortured modern man struggling to find his future in Japan's imperial past and who commits suicide after a doomed attempt to reverse the Westernization of Japan.
Lost in Translation (2003)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.C55 L58 2003A middle-aged actor and the wife of a workaholic photographer meet while in Tokyo. They strike up an unusual friendship in the hotel bar that helps them both overcome boredom and loneliness.
Snow Falling on Cedars (2000)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.D7 S59 2000A murder trial has upset the quiet community of San Piedro, and now this tranquil village has become the center of controversy. For a local reporter the trial strikes home when he finds his ex-lover is linked to the case.
Flower Drum Song (1961)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.M86 F383 2006Set in San Francisco's Chinatown in the late 1950's. Pretty Mei Li has stowed away on a Chinese steamer with her professor father to become a mail-order bride for nightclub owner Sammy Fong. (Includes Japanese- & Korean-American actors)
The Dragon Painter (1919)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.S5 D75 2008Tatsu, a wild youth living in the mountain forests of Japan, spends all his time painting. Although Tatsu creates beautiful art, local villagers believe that he is insane, as he claims that he has a beloved princess fiancée who has been turned into a dragon.
American Pastime (2007)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.W3 A57 2007Faced with a country that doubted their loyalty following Pearl Harbor, uprooted and sent to relocation camps, Japanese-American families turned to baseball as a way to stand up for themselves.
The Magnificent Seven (1960)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.W4 M17 2001The citizens of a small Mexican farming village hire seven gun fighters to defend them from a ruthless and exploitative group of bandits led by Calvera. Based on the Japanese film classic, The Seven Samurai
Short Streaming Videos about Doing Business and Working in Japan
Foreign Language Films
Lust, Caution (2007)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.C5 S34 2008Set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, a young woman finds herself swept up in a radical plot to assassinate a ruthless and secretive intelligence agent.
Fear and Trembling (2003)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.F7 S846 2005A dream job rapidly becomes a nightmare for Amelie, a Japanese-born Belgian woman, who suffers a series of increasingly humiliating demotions after she lands a job as an interpreter at a large Japanese corporation.
Cherry Blossoms (2008)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 K47 2009Only Trudi knows that her husband Rudi is suffering from a terminal illness. She decides not to tell him and convinces him to visit their family in Berlin. When Trudi dies suddenly, Rudi vows to make up for her lost life and takes his last journey to Tokyo in the midst of the cherry blossom festival.
Intervista (1987)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.I8 I58 2005A Japanese film crew interviews Fellini about his career as he films the memories of his life as a young journalist walking into his beloved studio Cinecitta for the first time
Godzilla (1954)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.J3 G67 2012A remarkably humane and melancholy drama made in Japan at a time when the country was still reeling from nuclear attack and H-bomb testing.
Dersu Uzala (1975)Call Number: MOH AV Video PN1995.91.R8 D3 1993The story of an elderly Goldi hunter who, at the turn of the century, agrees to shepherd a Russian mapping expedition through the most treacherous passages of the eastern Siberia.
Streaming Videos
- Joanna Lumley's Japan, Episode 1Absolutely Fabulous star Joanna Lumley travels across Japan from the icy Siberian seas of the north to the subtropical islands of the south. This episode shows her in Hokkaido, at the Snow Festival in Sapporo, and meeting with members of the Ainu people.
- Joanna Lumley's Japan, Episode 2In this episode she flies over Tokyo in a helicopter, sees a Japanese girl band in a nightclub, travels to the Kiso Valley to walk the Nakasendo Way, , an ancient route that once linked Tokyo to Kyoto, and talks with a Geisha.
- Joanna Lumley's Japan, Episode 3In this episode, she goes to the island of Shikoku hoping to gain a better understanding of Japanese Buddhism, visits the world's first robot hotel on Kyushu, meets with students at Shiroyama Elementary school in Nagasaki, one of the only buildings to survive the atomic bomb dropped on the city in 1945, travels to Sakurajima to see an active volcano, and ends her trip at Okinawa.
Japanese American Cross Cultural Films
Know Your Enemy -- Japan (1945)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) D810.P7 U5285 2005Explains how the religious, political, cultural, and economic history of Japan contributed toward making her a formidable foe. Intended to show the American serviceman the fighting characteristics of his Japanese counterpart.
The Essence of Being JapaneseCall Number: MOH AV Video DS821 .E77 1989Covers the events of the 20th century, but the primary focus is on what makes Japan Japanese.
Japanese Nonverbal Communication (1978)Call Number: MOH AV Video DS821 .J346 1978Examines common Japanese facial and body gestures in a variety of formal and informal social and business situations. Explores the rationale for cultural differences in social interactions such as seating arrangements, bowing, and serving food.
The Japanese Version (1991)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) DS822.5 .J27 2000Explores Japan's fascination with things American, pointing out that in borrowing from other cultures, there emerges a distinct Japanese slant on such things as American baseball, the 1950's, weddings, cowboys and "love hotels."
Struggle and Success: The African American Experience in Japan (1993)Call Number: MOH AV Video DS832.7.N4 F85 1993African Americans discuss conflicting views of race relations in Japan based on their personal experiences.
Lawson Fusao Inada: What it Means to Be Free (2001)Call Number: MOH AV Video (DVD) PS3559.N3 Z75 2004Lawson Inada reads ten poems from his books Legends from camp and Drawing the line. An internee in Japanese American internment camps in the United States, Inada discusses his experiences and poems about growing up in the camps.