The 40 most popular 1970s japanese movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Sex Rider: Wet Highway
1971 · 1h 8m
country: Japan
On the eve of her wedding and while cheating with another man, a woman gets involved into a dangerous new world of experiences.


In the Realm of the Senses
1976 · 1h 42m
country: Japan
A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.


Younger Sister
1974 · 1h 32m
country: Japan
Akio's sister, Neri has separated from her boyfriend. They lived in Kamakura. She moves in with her brother. Her ex-boyfriend's sister, Eiko comes to see Neri. She wonders if the separation occurred due to her because the three of them used to live together. Eiko's brother has disappeared in the meantime.


The Castle of Cagliostro
1979 · 1h 42m
country: Japan
After a successful robbery leaves famed thief Lupin the Third and his partner Jigen with nothing but a large amount of expertly crafted counterfeit bills, he decides to track down the forgers responsible—and steal any other treasures he may find in the Castle of Cagliostro, including the 'damsel in distress' he finds imprisoned there.


Oxen Split Torturing
1976 · 1h 20m
country: Japan
Two short stories set in Edo during the Shogun era. The first, during a time when Christians are persecuted vehemently, Iori falls in love with a young Christian girl. When she and her family are captured during a raid, his sadistic master takes her as his personal slave to torment Iori. The second follows Sutezo who, forced to serve the barbarous master of a brothel in order to repay his debts, befriends a young girl. Together, they both escape and struggle to get by on scams and petty theft.


Student Mistress: Taste of a Virgin
1976 · 1h 8m
country: Japan
No overview available


Girl’s Pleasure: Man Hunting
1977 · 1h 17m
country: Japan
Two high school friends. One witnesses the breakup of her family after a brutal home invasion. The other loses her virginity to an African-American soldier. Together they make a vital discovery and exact violent revenge.


Lady Momoko's Adventure
1979 · 1h 8m
country: Japan
Momoko wakes up from a 17-year slumber and returns to her husband. However, during the day, Momoko is a free-spirited woman who pursues the man of her dreams and leads him to ruin, and at night, she is a chaste young wife. Her young body and double sex life hide a serious secret...


Bridal Doll
1979 · 1h 10m
country: Japan
At a park a listless young man becomes intrigued by a wandering woman in white as she exits an exhibit of torture at a wax museum. He is slowly drawn into her forbidden world of pain and discipline.


Rope Hell
1978 · 1h 9m
country: Japan
Akiko is the heir to a yakuza clan. Hitoshi, who has been kicked out of the rival Hono Clan after attempting to seduce Akiko, kidnaps her at the behest of Hanamura. Hanamura has formed a new gang and intends to use Akiko as a hostage to take over her clan's territory. During the torture and abuse sessions which follow, Akiko comes to enjoy the treatment and forsakes her gangland empire.


Confessions of Lady Mantis
1975 · 1h 6m
country: Japan
Midori Satsuki stars as a serial seducer who destroys one man’s life after another. Finally she seduces a professional killer, with disastrous consequences.


Godzilla vs. Megalon
1973 · 1h 18m
country: Japan
Inventor Goro Ibuki creates a humanoid robot named Jet Jaguar. It is soon seized by an undersea race of people called the Seatopians. Using Jet Jaguar as a guide, the Seatopians send Megalon as vengeance for the nuclear tests that have devastated their society.


One Million-Year Trip: Bander Book
1978 · 1h 32m
country: Japan
Bander is a 17-year-old boy from Earth who lives on a distant planet, which is populated by human shape-shifters who feed off of vegetables and animal tails. Violence soon breaks out, as invaders launch an attack on Bander's new planet. This was Japan's first 2-hour animated film for television. The program received high ratings when broadcast as part of a set of 24-hour TV programs called "Ai wa Chikyu wo Sukuu" on Nippon Television. After a long gap since his last animated film for television, this work fully reflects Osamu Tezuka's desire to achieve theatrical quality with this production.


Apartment Wife: Night of the Rape
1973 · 1h 12m
country: Japan
The story depicts the process of a happy family being destroyed by someone taking advantage of a traffic accident caused by buying a car to show off to the neighbors.


The Hateful Beast
1970 · 1h 10m
country: Japan
In the Edo era, two man arrive in a village and engage in criminal activity. While one of them becomes successful and rich, the other gets betrayed and ends up in prison, burning for revenge. The truth changes with the viewpoint in this Wakamatsu film, which has inspired comparisons to Rashomon.


Girl Boss Guerilla
1972 · 1h 24m
country: Japan
Sachiko is the leader of a girl gang from Shinjuku who wind up in Kyoto and make a bid to take over the local girl gangs there.


House
1977 · 1h 28m
country: Japan
Hoping to find a sense of connection to her late mother, Gorgeous takes a trip with her friends to visit her aunt's ancestral house in the countryside. The girls soon discover that there is more to the old house than meets the eye.


Kaoru Kiri: The Best Lesbian in Japan, Authentic Account
1974 · 1h 14m
country: Japan
A backstage documentary and interview with the real life lesbian stage performer Kaoru Kiri mixed with a fictional life of her rejected lover.


The Perennial Weed
1975 · 1h 27m
country: Japan
A detective wonders that his sister is a murder suspect.


Female Yakuza Tale
1973 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
Ocho is accidentally captured by a drug trafficking cartel who use Chinese women to smuggle drugs into Japan by hiding it in their vaginas. She is tortured, and manages to escape, fighting both the male yakuzas and a gang of female thieves.


Lupin the Third: The Mystery of Mamo
1978 · 1h 42m
country: Japan
While attempting to win the affections of a beautiful rival, a master thief risks death to learn the secret intentions of a wealthy and seemingly immortal, but certainly ruthless, recluse.


Empire of Passion
1978 · 1h 45m
country: Japan
A married woman and her lover murder her husband and dump his body into a well, but his ghost returns to haunt them as the local gossip intensifies.


Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion
1972 · 1h 27m
country: Japan
After being cruelly set up and deceived by Sugimi, a detective in cahoots with the mob with whom she was whole-heartedly in love, Matsushima’s desire for revenge knows no bounds.


Love Is in the Green Wind
1974 · 1h 33m
country: Japan
A youthful film depicting the sexual awakening of a boy who has just entered adolescence and his heartbreaking romance during the summer holidays with a young sprightly girl.


Space Battleship Yamato
1977 · 2h 15m
country: Japan
When vile aliens known as the Gamilons wreak nuclear havoc on Earth, a group of survivors refit the Japanese battleship Yamato for intergalactic travel and set off on a mission to retrieve a neutralizer that will eradicate the radiation from Earth's atmosphere.


Apartment Wife: Unforgettable Night
1972 · 1h 7m
country: Japan
A married office lady is assaulted in the dark at a company outing. At work she doesn’t know who to suspect but thoughts of the attack strangely excite her.


The Yellow Handkerchief
1977 · 1h 49m
country: Japan
A convict, newly released from prison for murder, joins two strangers on a road trip through Hokkaido to visit his ex-wife, whom he hasn't seen in four years, knowing that if she puts a yellow handkerchief on the window, it would mean that she wants him back at home.


Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs
1974 · 1h 28m
country: Japan
Agent Zero is a cop that uses her own methods for dealing with criminals. After she unlawfully kills a rapist in a violent fashion, she is sent to prison and stripped of her badge. But very soon after, a rich politician's daughter is kidnapped by a ruthless gang. Agent Zero is let out of prison with the mission of going undercover to find the politician's daughter and return her safely. Using her deadly red handcuffs, she disposes of the criminals one by one.


Vengeance Is Mine
1979 · 2h 20m
country: Japan
A thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu is on the run from the police.


Deep Throat in Tokyo
1975 · 1h 17m
country: Japan
Kumi Taguchi is a model who leaves her boxer boyfriend after he sustains an injury. She meets and quickly marries Hideo, the heir to a corporate empire. Hideo's father, Takehiko, lusts after Kumi. Takehiko sends his son away, ostensibly on a business trip, but actually so that he can be murdered by Takehiko's henchmen. Takehiko seduces Kumi, but is frustrated when she refuses to perform oral sex on him. Angered, Takehiko forces Kumi to undergo surgery in which her clitoris is transferred to her throat, thereby requiring that she engage in oral sex in order to have an orgasm. Hideo, the supposedly murdered son, returns having paid off his assassins. Hideo shoots and kills his father, but Kumi grabs the gun and kills Hideo so that she can inherit the family's fortune


Godzilla vs. Hedorah
1971 · 1h 25m
country: Japan
An ever evolving alien life-form arrives on a comet from the Dark Gaseous Nebula and proceeds to consume pollution. Spewing mists of sulfuric acid and corrosive sludge, neither humanity nor Godzilla may be able to defeat this toxic menace.


Cleopatra: Queen of Sex
1970 · 1h 53m
country: Japan
Three people from the future, who travel spiritually to the era of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII Philopator and her Roman lovers Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, become their closest friends as they try to unravel the nature of the plan developed in their own time by a sinister enemy.


Dan-no-ura Night
1977 · 1h 34m
country: Japan
Taken out of the pages of history itself, this is the story of the sizzling love between Kenreimon-in of the Taira Clan and Yoshitsuné of the Minamoto Clan. When the Taira Clan had met ignominious defeat at the hands of Yoshitsuné, Kenreimon-in had jumped into the sea with her son, the infant Emperor, but only she had been rescued by Yoshitsuné. A rough-hewn warrior, Yoshitsuné had taken her by force until he awakened an answering love in the Empress with his chamber techniques.


Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice
1972 · 1h 34m
country: Japan
Fearless Edo-period police inspector Hanzo Itami, nicknamed The Razor, has developed his own unique way of extracting information for his inquiries. His first adventure sees him investigating his superior officer's mistress, whom he suspects of having ties with a reputed criminal on the loose.


Galaxy Express 999: The Movie
1979 · 2h 8m
country: Japan
In the future, one can achieve immortality by obtaining a mechanized body. Orphaned, young Tetsuro hitches a ride on the space train Galaxy Express 999 in the hope of obtaining a cyborg body to avenge his mother's death. Along the way, he meets Maetel, who is the spitting image of his dead mother.


Oryu's Passion: Bondage Skin
1975 · 1h 16m
country: Japan
When the boss of a yakuza clan in 1920s Osaka is assassinated, Oryu, his mistress, vows revenge. Her search for the killer takes her out of the city. The old boss' son proves a poor leader, only interested in Omitsu, his high-class girlfriend. Yajima, the second-in-command, is taking advantage of the situation to accumulate power for himself...


Belladonna of Sadness
1973 · 1h 27m
country: Japan
An evil feudal lord rapes a village girl on her wedding night and proceeds to ruin her and her husband's lives. After she's eventually banished from her village, the girl makes a pact with the devil to gain magical ability and take revenge.


Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
1974 · 1h 24m
country: Japan
An Okinawan prophecy that foretells the destruction of the Earth is seeming fulfilled when Godzilla emerges to return to his destructive roots. But not all is what it seems after Godzilla breaks his ally Anguirus's jaw. Matters are further complicated when a second Godzilla emerges, revealing the doppelgänger as a mechanical weapon.


Terror of Mechagodzilla
1975 · 1h 23m
country: Japan
A submarine expedition to salvage the remains of Mechagodzilla is thwarted by a massive dinosaur named Titanosaurus. An Interpol investigation leads biologist Ichinose to uncover the work of Dr. Mafune and his mysterious daughter Katsura. Aligned with the Black Hole Aliens, Katsura's life becomes entwined with the resurrected machine.


Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight
1973 · 1h 21m
country: Japan
A Ronin with a death wish reluctantly joins the Clan of the Forgotten Eight, a nasty crew of ronin who are wrapped up in a clan war over local prostitution.
The 1970s are widely considered American cinema's strongest decade, when the studio system's collapse handed a generation of young directors unusual freedom. It ended with Jaws and Star Wars inventing the modern blockbuster.
Japanese cinema gave the world Kurosawa's samurai epics, Ozu's domestic dramas, Godzilla and the kaiju film, and the J-horror wave that Hollywood spent the 2000s remaking. It also sustains the most developed animation industry on earth.