Your underrated JMovies/JSpecials of all time!
Ultimate list of underrated JMovies & Specials that you feel not many people have seen or that tend to get overlooked, especially by newcomers to the world of JMovies.
Feel free to add anything that you think fits the bill. (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑
Guidelines:
- Definition of underrated. ☜ (Clickable link)
- Can be from any year.
- Not just your personal favourites, must have something unique, refreshing or unusual about them. Different type of story, really good acting, great OST, unique way of filming etc. Just something unique that not many people have seen or heard of.
- Just to give a clear limit, let's say under 2500 "# of Watchers" for now. Let me know if you think this should be higher or lower.
- Once something reaches over this limit it will be removed & possibly moved to a different list yet to be created.
- Must be a JMovie or JSpecial.
- No Dramas.
- No popular Movies or Specials, that defeats the point.
- To add new items, simply scroll down & type in the search box at the bottom of this page.
Any other guidelines you feel are missing, please comment.
ElliShrax Jan 1, 2020
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![When a Woman Ascends the Stairs]()
This is the story of Mama, a.k.a. Keiko, a middle-aged hostess who must choose to either get married or buy a bar of her own. Her family hounds her for money, her ...more -
![Close-Knit]()
Tomo is a neglected 11-year-old girl. She lives with her mother, who abandons her when she falls in love with a new man. Whenever that happens, Tomo goes to live with her ...more -
![Memories of Matsuko]()
Sho, a young teenager that lives by himself in Tokyo, receives a surprise visit from his father. His father is carrying a white box, then he explains to his son, contains the ...more -
![Sweet Bean]()
Sentaro runs a small bakery that serves dorayaki pastries filled with sweet red bean paste (“an”). When an old lady, Tokue, offers to help in the kitchen he reluctantly accepts. She will ...more -
![Suspect X]()
A male body is discovered. He is strangled to death where his face pulverized beyond recognition and fingers burned to a crisp. Utsumi Kaoru is assigned to the case. The police face ...more -
![Little Forest: Summer & Autumn]()
Ichiko lived in a big city, but goes back to her small hometown Komori, located on a mountain in the Tohoku region. She is self-sufficient. Ichiko gains energy living among nature and ...more -
![Kamikaze Girls]()
Momoko yearns to be part of the Rococo aristocracy. A shame then, as she was born two centuries too late. Ardent loner, Momoko was born into the Yakuza heartland. She feels, however, ...more -
![The 8-Year Engagement]()
Hisashi and Mai are set to have their wedding ceremony in 3 months, but Mai falls ill and lapses into a coma. Hisashi does not give up on his fiance and prays ...more -
![Villain]()
Shimizu Yuichi is a young man who takes care of his grandparents in a decaying fishing village in Nagasaki. His grandparents raised Yuichi instead of his mother. Yuichi, a lonely man, works ...more -
![Chokotto Kyoto ni Sundemita]()
27-year-old Eto Kana lives in Tokyo and has never been out of the city before. She used to work as a designer and stay in a company dormitory but moved back to ...more -
![My Pretend Girlfriend]()
Noboru is a high school student who isn't at all popular. He looks up to senior student Miyazaki who is one of the school’s most popular guys. Miyazaki has two girlfriends: Momose ...more -
![Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence]()
The movie is set in the Second World War in a Japanese war camp, and explores the complex and ambiguous affinity between captors and prisoners. The two parties, already enemies because of ...more -
![Hana & Alice]()
When Alice develops a crush on a stranger at the train station, she offers her best friend, Hana, the stranger's "half brother," Masashi. Hana declines, but after watching Masashi from a distance, ...more -
![Kisaragi]()
One year after the suicide of C-list model Miki, five of her fans come together for a commemorative meeting: fan club leader Iemoto, Yuji Oda, Snake, Yasuo, and Musume Ichigo. Sitting down ...more -
![Late Spring]()
Noriko is 27 years old and is still living with her father Somiya, a widower. Noriko just recovered from an illness she developed in the war, and now the important question pops ...more -
![Late Autumn]()
A widow tries to marry off her daughter with the help of her late husband's three friends. The daughter is less than happy at the proposals, mainly because of her reluctance to ...more -
![I Just Didn't Do It]()
Teppei Kaneko is a young guy, typical of many of his generation; he works part-time, hangs out in Tokyo and tries to figure out what life has in store for him. He ...more -
![Last Quarter of the Moon]()
Do you believe in love after death? On the eve of her 19th birthday, Mizuki doesn't have a lot to celebrate about. Her mother recently committed suicide, her stepfamily bothers her, her ...more -
![Hafu]()
Until about two decades ago hafu (meaning “half-Japanese”) were viewed with a mixture of awe, envy, a bit of suspicion and a barrage of other emotions, some positive and some not. Now, ...more -
![Butterfly Sleep]()
Matsumura Ryouko is a popular novelist in her 50s who has just found out that she has Alzheimer’s disease. In order to gain some fulfilment in her life, she decides to be ...more -
![37 Seconds]()
Manga artist Yuma has cerebral palsy and sits in a wheelchair. At home her overly protective mother awaits her and when she tries to make it by herself as a manga author ...more -
![Air Doll]()
A life-size sex doll lives in a modest apartment in Tokyo, she can't speak nor move and she's the only companion of her master, a middle-aged man. He speaks to her, bathes ...more -
![Perfect World]()
Architect Ayukawa Itsuki is left paralyzed from the waist down by a sudden accident and is confined to using a wheelchair. Kawana Tsugumi works at an interior design company and one day ...more -
![Library Wars]()
Set in the year 2019 in Japan. In order to crack down on free expression, a new law is passed, which allows for the government to create an armed force to find ...more -
![Watashi ni Unmei no Koi Nante Arienaitte Omotteta]()
25. Watashi ni Unmei no Koi Nante Arienaitte Omotteta
Japanese Special - 2016, 1 episode184 points by 2 votersRiko Shirono doesn't have any big expectations for a man in her life, but she works as a love simulation game planner. She receives a request for a new love game from ...more -
![Like Father, Like Son]()
One day, Ryota receives a phone call from the hospital. The hospital informs Ryota that his 6-year-old son is not his biological son. After his birth, two babies were switched. Ryota and ...more -
![Kaiji]()
Ito Kaiji moves to Tokyo after graduating from high school. Unable to find a job and frustrated with society at large, Kaiji spends his days gambling, vandalizing cars, and drinking booze. Two ...more -
![Undo]()
Moemi is not overly pleased when Yukio brings home a couple of turtles to keep her company. Although Yukio works at home as a writer, Moemi feels neglected and desired a dog ...more -
![Harakiri]()
An elder ronin samurai arrives at a feudal lord's home and requests an honorable place to commit suicide. But when the ronin inquires about a younger samurai who arrived before him things ...more -
![Papa no Obento wa Sekai Ichi]()
Based on a true story. A newly divorced father finds himself out of depth when faced with the unfamiliar challenge of preparing his daughter’s daily lunchbox. (Source: JPF) -
![Her Love Boils Bathwater]()
Futaba, whose husband suddenly left her one year ago, lives with her shy daughter, Azumi. When Futaba abruptly receives a diagnosis of a terminal illness, she aims to use the brief amount ...more -
![Early Summer]()
Noriko lives in postwar Tokyo with her extended family. Although she enjoys her career and her friends, her more traditionally minded family worries about the fact that she’s still single at the ...more -
![Kids]()
Asato is a sensitive young man with the ability to transfer other people's wounds to his own body. His strange healing powers lead to friendship with the troubled Takeo. -
![Yurigokoro]()
The movie delves into the fate and conflicts of a sorrowful murderer who relies on the death of humans as the anchor of their life, intertwining past and present. Ryosuke discovers a ...more -
![Japanese Girls Never Die]()
Haruko Azumi is a 28 year-old woman working in a small office. She begins an awkard loveless half-relationship with an old school friend who works at a convenience store. At the same ...more -
![Linda Linda Linda]()
Only three days before their high school festival, guitarist Kei, drummer Kyoko (Aki Maeda), and bassist Nozumi are forced to recruit a new lead vocalist for their band. They choose Korean exchange ...more -
![Tokyo Story]()
An elderly couple, Shukichi and Tomi Hirayama, leaves their small coastal village in southern Japan to visit their married children in Tokyo. Their eldest son, Koichi, a doctor running a clinic in ...more -
![Gravity's Clowns]()
The movie is a haunting mystery about a Japanese family where a current series of graffiti and arson events paves the way to unraveling an unexpected family truth. ~~ Adapted from the ...more -
![Josee, the Tiger and the Fish]()
Tsuneo is an ordinary college student taking his boss's dog out for a walk one day when out of nowhere a large baby carriage barrels down a hill and bumps into a ...more -
![Every Day a Good Day]()
Noriko is a university student. By her mother’s recommendation, Noriko begins attending a Japanese tea ceremony near her house with her cousin Michiko. There, Noriko learns from Teacher Takeda. Noriko now has ...more -
![Silver Season]()
A struggling town in the Japanese Alps finds itself in a desperate search for tourists to its publicly-run ski resort. Unable to compete with the swank resort on the other side of ...more -
![La Maison de Himiko]()
Saori has always disliked her gay father and has lived her life denying his existence. One rainy day she receives a visit at work from a young man called Haruhiko. He tells ...more -
![Prodigy]()
Naruse Uta is a "unique" 13-year-old child. She possessed the talent to read sheet music even before she could speak but has now come to the point where she hates playing the ...more -
![Say Hello for Me]()
"Say Hello for Me" is a love story and talks about three people's childhood friendship and their reunion after 15 years of separation. -
![Chosyu Five]()
The arrival of Commodore Perry on the Japanese coast has cast Japan into an anti-foreigner fervor, and restrictions grow further on the closed borders of Japan. But beneath the strong facade, the ...more -
![Sansho the Bailiff]()
In mediaeval Japan a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression. ...more -
![The Kon Ichikawa Story]()
In 2006 while Ichikawa was shooting Murder of the Inugami Clan, a remake of his epic classic The Inugami Family, Iwai was shooting The Kon Ichikawa Story. Simply speaking, the documentary tells ...more -
![Woman in the Dunes]()
An amateur entomologist searching for insects by the sea is trapped by local villagers into living with a mysterious woman who spends almost all her time preventing her home from being swallowed ...more -
![Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald]()
A radio play is going to go on air at a Tokyo radio station. It is a weepy melodrama written by housewife Miyako, who is the winner of the competition run by ...more -
![Parade]()
"Parade" is the story of a strange living situation in a 2LDK apartment (having two bedrooms, a living-dining room, and a kitchen) in suburban Tokyo. There are five residents ranging in age ...more -
![Toad's Oil]()
It tells the story of the Yazawa family. Yazawa Takuro is an egocentric high-rolling day trader who likes to boast that he can earn hundreds of millions of yen in one day. ...more -
![Tokyo Idols]()
Girl bands and their pop music permeate every moment of Japanese life. Following an aspiring pop singer and her fans, Tokyo Idols explores a cultural phenomenon driven by an obsession with young ...more -
![Still Walking]()
Still Walking is a family drama about grown children visiting their elderly parents, which unfolds over one summer day. The aging parents have lived in the family home for decades. Their son ...more -
![Train Man: Densha Otoko]()
Computer engineer Otaku (the Japanese term for "geek") is an average young man, dressed in unstylish clothes and dorky glasses. But as luck would have it, he encounters a pretty young woman ...more -
![Runway Beat]()
Transfer student Biito "Beat" Mizorogi, talented in fashion design, bring classmates together to stage a fashion show for the school's annual festival. -
![Dororo]()
The hero, Hyakkimaru is a wandering "demon hunter" whose extra body parts - 48 to be exact - were grafted onto his head and trunk by a herb doctor who discovered him ...more -
![Saigo no Bansan~Keiji Tono Kazuyuki to Shichinin no Yougisha~]()
57. Saigo no Bansan~Keiji Tono Kazuyuki to Shichinin no Yougisha~
Japanese Special - 2011, 1 episode89 points by 1 voters11 customers are invited to an Italian restaurant, Osteria Da Vinci, on its opening day and get embroiled in an arson murder that takes place there. Why was that restaurant targeted? Who ...more -
![I Will Fly to the Sky on a Wheelchair!]()
The 28 year-old Johnny's talent Ninomiya Kazunari will be playing a guy from a broken family who became a delinquent due to lack of proper guidance. After he got crippled at 15-year ...more -
![Chameleon: Long Goodbye]()
Goro Noda with his three friends live a dull life making money anyway they can, even the odd wedding scam. One day, after a successful scam, they happen to witness a kidnapping ...more -
![Wild Seven]()
The film follows a seven-member team assembled by a shadowy police organization in order to combat a crime rate that has gotten way beyond the scope of typical law enforcement. Led by ...more -
![700 Days of Battle: Us vs. the Police]()
Set against the backdrop of 1979, a group of troublemaking teenagers led by Mamachari decide to prank Chuzai-san, the local police officer who caught Mamachari's friend, Saijo, for speeding on his scooter. ...more -
![Fish Story]()
"Fish Story" centres around a rock band from 1975 who decide to break up having had no success, they record one last song before the band splits up. Decades later that song ...more -
![Chicken Race]()
Story of friendship between an old man who slept for 45 years and his nurse who woke him up. (Source: D-Addicts)
