Synergy of theme, style, and dialogue : Mizoguchi's Sisters of the Gion (1936)
More about dream, song, and symbol : Kurosawa's The drunken angel (1948)
A Meiji novel for the screen : Toyoda's The mistress (1954)
Period film par excellence : Inagaki's samurai trilogy (Musashi Miyamoto, 1954-56)
Master of simplicity moving hearts to pity : Ozu's Drifting weeds (1959)
Eros, politics, and folk religion : Shindo's Onibaba (1963)
The age-old paradox of innocence and experience : Oguri's Muddy river (1981)
Satire on the family and education in postwar Japan : Morita's The family game (1983)
Defeat revisited : Shinoda's MacArthur's children (1984)
Satire on contemporary Japan : Itami's A taxing woman (1987)
Seminal animation film : Miyazaki's My neighbor Totoro (1988)
Cultural responses to simplicity : Kurosawa's Madadayo (1993)
The danger and allure of phantom light : Koreeda's Mabaroshi (1995)
Stressed-out nineties youth in laid-back sixties dress : Kitano's Kids return (1995)
Bitter sweet childhood : Yoichi Higashi's Village of dreams (1996)
A woman director's approach to the country family : Kawase's Suzaku (1997).