Best Classic Japanese Movies on Netflix 2026
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Our pick of the best Classic Japanese Movies on Netflix right now, ranked by audience rating out of the 37 titles in category code 31853. Tap any title for full details and where to watch.
See all 37 Classic Japanese Movies What are Netflix codes?
1. Rashomon (1950)
Rated 8.3/10 on IMDb, one of IMDb's Top 250, from 1950, 1h 28m. What is true? What is false? Several witnesses see an event differently in Akira Kurosawa's Oscar-winning masterpiece.
2. An Autumn Afternoon (1962)
Rated 8.3/10 on IMDb, from 1962, 1h 52m. In director Ozu's last film, an aging widower struggles with modernity and loneliness as he searches for a suitable husband for his daughter.
3. Tokyo Story (1953)
Rated 8.2/10 on IMDb, one of IMDb's Top 250, from 1953, 2h 15m. An elderly couple in post-World War II Japan travel to Tokyo to visit their children but are received rather coldly by their offspring.
4. Twenty-Four Eyes (1954)
Rated 8.1/10 on IMDb, from 1954, 2h 35m. Starting a decade before World War II, a young teacher works to give her 12 students hope, even as the growing shadow of global conflagration looms.
5. Doro no Kawa (1981)
Rated 8/10 on IMDb, from 1981, 1h 45m. A young boy growing up in a poor neighborhood of postwar Osaka makes a new friend and slowly becomes aware of the ways the adults around him survive.
6. Floating Weeds (1959)
Rated 8/10 on IMDb, from 1959, 1h 58m. An aging actor returns to a small town with his troupe and reunites with his former lover and illegitimate son, sparking jealousy from his mistress.
7. Vengeance Is Mine (1979)
Rated 7.8/10 on IMDb, from 1979, 2h 20m. Legendary Japanese director Shohei Imamura (The Eel) helms this chilling tale of horror and revenge based on actual events about a seemingly harmless young man who blossomed into a cold-blooded, remorseless murderer.
8. Intentions of Murder (1964)
Rated 7.8/10 on IMDb, from 1964, 2h 29m. Downtrodden housewife Sadako seizes an unlikely opportunity to escape her oppressive life after she is raped by a robber in her home.
9. Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)
Rated 7.8/10 on IMDb, from 1968, 2h 54m. An engineer from mainland Japan arrives to survey a remote Okinawan island and gets entangled with a superstitious, incestuous local family.
10. Shiawase no Kiiroi Hankachi (1977)
Rated 7.5/10 on IMDb, from 1977, 1h 48m. A man who's just been dumped quits his job to take a road trip.