| Shape of Night | Noboru Nakamura | drama film |
| Three Outlaw Samurai | Hideo Gosha | drama film, samurai cinema |
| Yearning | Mikio Naruse | drama film |
| Bad Girl | Kirio Urayama | drama film |
| High and Low | Akira Kurosawa | drama film, film noir, police procedural, neo-noir, film based on a novel |
| Warring Clans | Kihachi Okamoto | pirate film, Jidaigeki |
| Chūshingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki | Hiroshi Inagaki | samurai cinema, historical film |
| Harakiri | Masaki Kobayashi | drama film, samurai cinema, historical film, action film, historical drama |
| The Tale of Zatoichi Continues | Kazuo Mori | adventure film |
| Miyamoto Musashi | Tomu Uchida | drama film |
| Good for Nothing | Yoshishige Yoshida | drama film |
| Rickshaw Man | Hiroshi Inagaki | comedy film, action film, kung fu film |
| Scar Yosaburo | Daisuke Itō | drama film, action film |
| Submarine I-57 Will Not Surrender | Shūe Matsubayashi | war film |
| Nichiren to Mōko Daishūrai | Kunio Watanabe | war film |
| The Ballad of Narayama | Keisuke Kinoshita | drama film |
| Yogoreta Nikutai Seijo | Michiyoshi Doi | LGBTQ-related film |
| Keisatsu Nikki | Seiji Hisamatsu | drama film |
| The Crucified Lovers | Kenji Mizoguchi | drama film |
| Kimi no Na wa | Hideo Ōba | drama fiction |
| Mother | Mikio Naruse | drama film |
| Portrait of Madame Yuki | Kenji Mizoguchi | drama film |
| Flame of My Love | Kenji Mizoguchi | romance film, drama film |
| Gokumontō | Sadatsugu Matsuda | — |
| Women of the Night | Kenji Mizoguchi | drama film |
| The Love of the Actress Sumako | Kenji Mizoguchi | drama film |
| War and Peace | Satsuo Yamamoto | drama film |
| No Regrets for Our Youth | Akira Kurosawa | drama film |
| Kato hayabusa sento-tai | Kajirō Yamamoto | drama film, war film |
| The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum | Kenji Mizoguchi | drama film |
| Avalanche | Mikio Naruse | romance film, drama film |
| Beauty's Sorrows | Yasujirō Ozu | silent film |
| The Lady and the Beard | Yasujirō Ozu | silent film, romantic comedy |