JAPAN
MEDIEVAL JAPAN
The Taira Clan Saga (1955)
Ugetsu (1953) -- two peasants in search of success in war-torn Japan
Kagemusha (1980)
James Clavell's Shogun (1980) -- based on the achievements of the first Englishman in Japan
Seven Samurai (1954) (Akira Kurosawa) -- wandering ronin (i.e., unemployed samurai) defend a peasant village from bandits
Ran (1985) (Akira Kurosawa) -- Japanese lord finds his kingdom disintegrating as his sons go to war with each other (adaptation of Macbeth)
The Samurai Trilogy (1967) -- based on the novel that has been called Japan's Gone With the Wind
Life of Oharu (1952)
The Last Samurai (2003) -- American civil war veteran hired to teach the Emperor's troops how to defeat the last of the samurai
PRE-WAR JAPAN:
Fall of Eagles (1974) (TV miniseries) -- part of it deals with the 1904-1905 the Russo-Japanese War from the perspective of Russia.
Sisters of the Gion (1936)
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
WORLD WAR II -- JAPAN
The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) in 1925, he predicted Japanese attack on U.S.
Blood on the Sun (1945)
The War in China and Burma
The Last Emperor (1987) -- Pu Yi, emperor of China & emergence of Communist China
Story of a Prostitute (1965) -- love story set during Sino-Japanese War between a soldier and a comfort woman
Empire of the Sun (1987) -- a British boy becomes a victim of the Japanese invasion of China
Devils on the Doorstep (2000) -- Chinese villagers hold two Japanese prisoners of war
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) -- service in China and reaction to Japanese invasion
Flying Tigers (1942) -- fighting the Japanese in Burma and China
Bombs Over Burma (1942) -- devoted woman risks life for sake of China on espionage mission
Merrill's Marauders (1962) Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill, battling Japanese in Burmese jungle
Objective, Burma! (1945) WWII Brits invade Burma
Biruma no tategoto (Burmese Harp) (1956) -- Brits have to attack Japanese forces in Burma as late as July, 1945
The USA Finally Gets into the War
Tora! Tora! Tora! -- Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
War and Remembrance (1988) -- 12 part mini series
Wake Island (1942) -- Japanese have a hard time taking a small island between Guam and Midway
Ambush Bay (1966) -- US marines on a Japanese-held Philippine island try to hook up with Filipino guerillas
MacArthur (1979) -- loses Philippines, but comes back
MacArthur, The Rebel General (1977)
Corregidor (1943) -- Battle of Corregidor, Philippines
Bataan (1943) -- fight against Japanese take over of the Philippines
American Guerilla in the Philippines (1950) -- resistance to Japanese after fall of the Philippines
Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
Three Come Home -- Borneo taken by the Japanese; Europeans sent to prison camps; focus on a woman in prison
USA Strikes Back
Battle of the Coral Sea (1959) May, 1942
Midway (1976) -- Battle of Midway, June 5, 1942
Gung Ho (1943) -- 2nd Marine Raider commandos, under Lt. Col. Evans Carlson, raided the Japanese base at Makin Atoll prior to Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal Diary (1943) -- Battle of Guadalcanal, began August 7, 1942
The Thin Red Line (1998) -- Battle of Guadalcanal, 1942
Sullivans (1944) -- five brothers serving on the same ship die serving at Guadalcanal
Tarawa Beach Head (1958) -- costly invasion of the island, November 20-23,1943
Raiders of Leyte Gulf (1963) -- Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 23-26, 1944, kicks off reconquest of the Philippines
Battle Stations (1956) -- kamikaze attacks on the USS Franklin and USS Bunker Hill, October, 1944
The Walls of Hell (1965) -- fight in the walled city of Intramuros in the Philippines, February, 1945
Back to Bataan (1945) -- John Wayne leads Philippine guerillas
The Great Raid (2005) -- rescue of American POWs in the Philipines
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) -- Battles of Tarawa and Iwo Jima, Feb.-March, 1945
Okinawa (1952) -- largest amphibious assault in the Pacific campaign, April to June, 1945
Away all Boats (1956) -- life on the USS Belinda, Attack Transport PA22, which served at Okinawa
Mission of the Shark (1991) -- dropped off key parts for the atomic bomb, then sunk June 1945 and attacked by sharks
Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) -- story of Los Alamos atomic bomb project
Above and Beyond (1952) -- bombing of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) by Col. Paul Tibbetts, commander of the Enola Gay
Hiroshima (1995) -- August 6, 1945
The Winds of War (1983) -- world's leaders at the time
King Rat (1965) -- WW2 Japanese POW camp
Prisoners of the Sun (1990) -- Japanese internment of Australian soldiers
Overlanders (1946) -- fear of Japanese invasion in Australia causes cattlemen to push their herds overland halfway across the country.
To End all Wars (2001) -- very good movie on Japanese prisoner of war camp in Thailand
Windtalkers (2002) -- Navajo codetalkers use their own language as the unbreakable code.
Come See the Paradise (1990) -- Japanese-American internment
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) -- prejudice against Japanese-Americans
Post-War Japan
Stray Dog (1949) -- a cop solves a murder in desperate, war-ravaged, U.S.-occupied Tokyo
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) -- a budding romance is overshadowed by memories of the horrors of the A-bomb
Rhapsody in August (1991) -- memories of the atomic bomb and its aftermath
Mishima -- Japanese novelist dies 1970
Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (1972) --Japan wrestles with their brutal military performances in World War II