List of films set in Japan

While Japan has a long and distinguished history in filmmaking, it has provided an exotic and cosmopolitan backdrop to many international films set mostly or entirely in Japan. A common theme of foreign films set in Japan is the differences between Japanese and Western culture and how the characters cope with their new surroundings.

This list is of foreign films set in Japan.

For Japanese films made in Japan see List of Japanese language films

A

• Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) — directed by Michael Anderson, starring David Niven and Cantinflas
• Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) — directed by Jay Roach, starring Mike Myers, Beyoncé Knowles, and Michael Caine

B

• Back at the Front (1952) — directed by George Sherman, starring Tom Ewell and Harvey Lembeck
• The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978) — directed by John Berry, starring Tony Curtis and Jackie Earle Haley
• The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958) — directed by John Huston, starring John Wayne and Eiko Ando
• Black Rain (1989) — directed by Ridley Scott, starring Michael Douglas and Ken Takakura
• Bushido Blade (1981) — directed by Shusei Kotani, starring Timothy Patrick Murphy and Frank Converse

C

• Café Lumière (2003) — directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, starring Yo Hitoto and Tadanobu Asano
• The Challenge (1982) — directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Scott Glenn and Toshiro Mifune
• Cold Fever (1995) — directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, starring Masatoshi Nagase and Lili Taylor

D

E

• Enlightenment Guaranteed (2000) — directed by Doris Dörrie, starring Uwe Ochsenknecht and Gustav-Peter Wöhler
• Escapade in Japan (1957) — directed by Arthur Lubin, starring Cameron Mitchell and Jon Provost

F

• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) — directed by Justin Lin, starring Lucas Black and Bow Wow.
• Fear and Trembling (2003) — directed by Alain Corneau, starring Sylvie Testud and Kaori Tsuji

G

• The Grudge (2004) — directed by Takashi Shimizu, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jason Behr

H

• House of Bamboo (1955) — directed by Samuel Fuller, starring Robert Ryan and Robert Stack

I

• Into the Sun (2005) — directed by mink, starring Steven Seagal and Matt Davis

J

K

• The Karate Kid 2 (1986) — directed by John Avildsen, starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita
• Kill Bill vol. 1 (2003) — directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu

L

• The Last Samurai (2003) — directed by Edward Zwick, starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe
• Lost in Translation (2003) — directed by Sofia Coppola, starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson
• Love in Tokyo (1966) — directed by Pramod Chakravorty, starring Joy Mukherjee and Asha Parekh

M

• Mastermind (1976) — directed by Alex March, starring Zero Mostel and Keiko Kishi
• Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) — directed by Rob Marshall, starring Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi
• Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) — directed by Paul Schrader, starring Ken Ogata and Masayuki Shionoya
• Mr. Baseball (1992) — directed by Fred Schepisi, starring Tom Selleck and Ken Takakura
• Monster (2008) — directed by Erik Estenberg, starring Sarah Lieving and Erin Sullivan
• My Geisha (1962) — directed by Jack Cardiff, starring Shirley MacLaine and Yves Montand

N

O

P

• Pearl Harbor (2001) — directed by Michael Bay, starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale

Q

R

• Rhapsody in August (1991) — directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Richard Gere and Sachiko Murase

S

• Sayonara (1957) — directed by Joshua Logan, starring Marlon Brando and Miiko Taka
• Shogun (1980) — directed by Jerry London, starring Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune
• Stratosphere Girl ((2004) — directed by Matthias X. Oberg, starring Chloé Winkel.

T

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993). Set in medieval Japan.
• The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) — directed by Daniel Mann, starring Marlon Brando and Glenn Ford
• Tokyo Eyes (1998) — directed by Jean-Pierre Limosin, starring Shinji Takeda and Hinano Yoshikawa
• Tokyo Joe (1949) — directed by Stuart Heisler, starring Humphrey Bogart and Alexander Knox
• Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) — directed by Richard Fleischer and Kinji Fukasaku, starring Martin Balsam and Soh Yamamura

U

V

W

• Wasabi (2001) — directed by Gérard Krawczyk, starring Jean Reno and Hirosue Ryoko

X

Y

• The Yakuza (1975) — directed by Sydney Pollack, starring Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura
• You Only Live Twice (1967) — directed by Lewis Gilbert, starring Sean Connery and Akiko Wakabayashi

Z

References

• IMDb