Foreigners in Japan
A list of movies that deal with the experience of foreigners, or gaijin, in Japan, or immersed in Japanese culture. Please feel free to suggest recommendations.
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- DirectorSofia CoppolaStarsBill MurrayScarlett JohanssonGiovanni RibisiA faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.Bill Murray as an aging actor doing promotion for a Japanese whiskey plays the befuddled gaijin perfectly. A brilliant film!
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsMichael DouglasAndy GarciaKen TakakuraTwo NYC cops arrest a Yakuza member and must escort him when he's extradited to Japan.Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia are two NYC cops 'lost' in Japan, dealing with a whole new way of policing.
- DirectorPhilip KaufmanStarsSean ConneryWesley SnipesHarvey KeitelWhen an escort girl is found dead in the offices of a Japanese company in Los Angeles, detectives Web Smith and John Connor act as liaison between the company's executives and the investigating cop Tom Graham.Strictly speaking, the movie takes place in LA, not Tokyo. But it isn't the LA that tourists see. Rather the wholly Japanese Los Angeles, which still delivers the profound sense of alienation for an American dealing with Japanese culture.
- DirectorGérard KrawczykStarsJean RenoRyôko HirosueMichel MullerIn Japan for the funeral of his long-lost love, a tough French detective learns that he also has a teenage daughter and that her life is in danger from the Yakuza.A fun and silly French film starring the incomparable Jean Reno, playing again the tough guy, but this time in the completely foreign world of Tokyo.
- DirectorEdward ZwickStarsTom CruiseKen WatanabeBilly ConnollyIn 19th century Japan, Nathan Algren, a US army captain, is hired by the Japanese emperor to train his army in the modern warfare techniques. Captain Algren finds himself trapped in a struggle between two eras and two worlds.While I'm no fan of Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe is a genius! This film turns the usual tale slightly on its head, as it is the Japanese during the Meiji restoration who are dealing with the mystery of Western culture in their own land.
- DirectorLewis GilbertStarsSean ConneryAkiko WakabayashiMie HamaJames Bond and the Japanese Secret Service must find and stop the true culprit of a series of space hijackings, before war is provoked between Russia and the United States.A James Bond classic sees 007 married to a local Japanese girl and navigating, if only in a very brief moment, becoming 'Japanese' to defeat a criminal. Other scenes in the film help accentuate the differences between Japanese culture (albeit of the 60s) with Western attitudes.
- DirectorFred SchepisiStarsTom SelleckKen TakakuraAya TakanashiJack Elliot, once a great baseball player, is forced to play in Japan where his brash, egotistical ways cause friction with his new teammates and friends.A lighthearted tale of the brash American hotshot coming to grips with the completely foreign world of Japanese baseball.
- StarsRichard ChamberlainToshirô MifuneYôko ShimadaAn English navigator becomes both a player and pawn in the complex political games in feudal Japan.The classic tale of an English sailor in medieval Japan, navigating the complexities of a foreign culture.