Best movies like Namiko

Horror fan Tal Zimerman examines the psychology of horror around the world to find out why people love to be scared.

In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.

Asako, a comic book artist in her early forties, is devastated by the death of her precious cat, Saba, which kept her company for over 15 years, as her assistant Naomi watches on with concern. Naomi is a young woman in her early twenties, who has her set of worries about love and future. Then one day, Asako meets a new cat, Gu Gu, which brings new joy and vitality to her life. What is more, she finds potential for love in a man named Seiji. Like Asako, Naomi, too, embarks on a new life plan.

Yumiko has been invited by her cousin to spend summer vacation in a rural village. Once they arrive, she is mad to feel very unwelcome by the mysterious locals who keep referring to her as "Snake Girl."

The third film finds Ataru transformed into a pink hippopotamus, which sends Lum chasing after the wicked magician responsible, with catastrophic results. With Lum gone, her friends decide that there is no reason to remain, and so Tomobiki slowly returns to normal. The highlight of the film is a high speed chase scene with an angry Lum flying after the mysterious Ruu through the city at night and into a hall of mirrors (and illusion ). Ataru's true feelings for Lum are probably more obvious in this film than any of the others.

A metaphysical mystery involving a university student's camera getting stolen, and the thief then committing suicide. Looking back upon the event, the situation comes to be questioned if it happened at all.

A director faces creative block while working on his latest film - a reimagination of his adolescence growing up in a mountain village in rural Japan.

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

Ryoji, a wanderer, arrives in a remote mountain town, carrying a shotgun and claiming to be a hunter. He quickly becomes embroiled in a web of trouble surrounding the town's mill.

Sakiko, a young bank teller, has an unhealthy obsession with money. Thieves hold up the bank, kidnapping Sakiko in the process, but eventually crash their car, resulting in a suitcase stuffed with cash falling into a nearby river. For the remainder of the film, Sakiko begins a desperate quest to retrieve the money.

After a convenience store robbery, three unidentified men hold a group of people hostage in a hospital. Inspector Ishida and Captain Tohno handle the negotiations while one of their colleagues, Lt. Ando, tries to find out why the men decided to take the hospital hostage. Through flashbacks, relevant information is revealed to the audience. When the negotiations are finished, most things seem to be fine until they lose track of the criminals. Then, the story unveils from a different perspective, its roots in feelings of love and vengeance.

Japanese crime thriller

Near the end of Japanese civil war, several disgraced ronin living in Edo's red light district attempt to regain their honor by defending a brothel from a hostile militia bent on wiping out local prostitutes.

A naively honorable samurai comes to the bitter realization that his devotion to moral samurai principles makes him an oddity among his peers, and a very vulnerable oddity in consequence. He takes the blame for the misdeeds of others, with the understanding that he will be exiled for one year and restored to the clan's good graces after the political situation dies down. As betrayal begins to heap upon betrayal, he realizes he'll have to live out his life as a master-less ronin, if not hunted down and killed.

Shikidouji, the illustrator of Shoji Gatoh's Full Metal Panic! light novel series, revealed that production has been green-lit on a "director's cut" version of the first Full Metal Panic!! television anime series from 2002. The director's cut will consist of three films. The announcement does not state if the film trilogy will add new footage. (Source: ANN)

A taut, economical policier-cum-gang-hostage thriller.

Japanese war movie.

White Fang is born on the planes of Alaska to a wolf father and a half-wolf, half-dog mother. One day he and his mother run into an Alaskan inuit boy Mit-sah, who has long dreamed of a dog of his own, and by a marvellous twist of fate, the wolves are taken in by him and his father. But life in Alaska is harsh for humans and wolves alike, and as winter comes, hardships lie in waiting for White Fang and Mit-sah. Facing the extreme coldness of their habitat and that of humans' greedy hearts, the two journey towards what they hope to be a happier environment.

In front of a man who wants to be a movie director, Shingo, the ghost of Mr. Kawashita, who was a senior in the college film research department who committed suicide a year ago, suddenly appears on his death anniversary. Mr. Kawashita says that he was revived because he wanted to have sex with his junior, Aoi, who had a crush on him when he was in college. In order to fulfill his desire to work with Aoi-chan, Kawashita-san and Shingo will travel back in time on that day when he was in college, which was probably the only chance for Kawashita-san to work with Aoi-chan. There was a nostalgic college Aoi-chan there. Can Mr. Kawashita redo the past and do it with Aoi-chan? It's funny, but a little sad time slip love story begins.

Obayashi's take on the famous Kosuke Kindaichi series, made popular partly thanks to the numerous movie-adaptions by Kon Ichikawa, the most known being The Inugami Family. Kosuke Kindaichi is the most famous detective in Japan. Kindaichi gets a new case to figure out who has beheaded a valuable statue and made off with its head.

Helen and her associates stage a confession play in order to remedy stuttering, but things go amiss.

Mikami, an ex-yakuza of middle age with most of his life in prison, gets released after serving 13 years of sentence for murder. Hoping to find his long lost mother, from whom he was separated as a child, he applies for a TV show and meets a young TV director Tsunoda. Meanwhile, he struggles to get a proper job and fit into society. His impulsive, adamant nature and ingrained beliefs cause friction in his relationship with Tsunoda and those who want to help him.

Tormented by his first sexual stirrings, the teenager Isao dreams every night of his gym teacher Ikuko. He finally opens her heart but she rejects his advances. Frustrated, Isao invents all sorts of stratagies to disgust Ikuko´s fiance, a professor of chemistry in the same school. As his plan fails, he plans a radical solution...and the results turns out to be...

Following the journey of a caterpillar along the Japanese islands from Nagasaki to Hokkaido, this allegorical and oblique first feature film by Kuroki depicts in exquisite images a series of encounters and life's turning points.

A story of finding a place to root yourself when life’s obstacles have dispirited you. Chang-su, a former equestrian athlete for the South Korean national team, was forced to give up on his dream early. He finds himself working at a quarry in the rural town of Minawa in western Japan, where he lives with Minami and her infant daughter. Yamabuki, a teenage girl, begins to stage silent protests that blossom into community action, much to the dismay of her policeman father. The quiet surface of this rural town is gradually peeled off to reveal frustration and loneliness that, once given a voice, begin to connect people.

The stage director Shimamura, who is bringing western theatre to Japan, falls in love with the outspoken actress Sumako Matsui, and leaves his family to be with her, while trying to keep his Art Theatre solvent.

The Story of a Japanese-Canadian woman who finds friendship after her family is interned to a small town during World War II.

The fish market is to be moved to Shinagawa, and Tasuke Isshin (Jun Inoue) got in trouble. Hikosaemon Ookubo (Eijiro Tono) heard of it from Tasuke, and ask about it to Iemitsu (Ken Tanaka). However, on the contrary, Hikosaemon received penitence for a bribe that he doesn't know.

A group of friends try to find success in corporate Japan.

Ichikawa Raizo’s last film. He plays a Yakuza enforcer who kills a man on his boss's orders. He’s then sent to a provincial town to lie low, only to be caught in another war orchestrated by his original boss who has set him up.

When two sisters fall in love with the same man, one must decide to look elsewhere.

Junai Monogatari AKA Story of Pure Love is about two poor youths, Mitsuko and Kando, rebelling against society in various ways, who are desperately trying to be together despite tortuous circumstances. The film depicts their lives as thieves, menial laborers who can get little pay, society outcasts, and of course, lovers. Junai Monogatari depicts, mostly, their struggles within the Japanese reformatory system and Mitsuko's worsening sickness.

The daughter of the wealthy Soga family is kidnapped and her fiance is murdered. But the kidnappers, Tatsu and Sanko are unaware that Tatsuko is the heiress to a fortune. Two strong-arm brothers, Kosaka and Takeshi, learn of her identity and join the gang in an effort to shake down the tycoon for ten million yen. Upon joining forces, their first move is to rid themselves of the driver whose identity is known to the police because of a cap which he left behind at the scene of the crime. Upon obtaining the ransom money, the brothers murder the two kidnappers and go to the port city of Kobe. The younger brother, Takeshi, has fallen in love with the prisoner and refuses to allow her to be killed and they take her with them from one hideout to another.