Best movies like The Great Buddha: Arrival

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A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Great Buddha: Arrival Starring Akira Takarada, Yuki Morita, Toshi Toda, Yukiko Kobayashi, and more. If you liked The Great Buddha: Arrival then you may also like: Yongary, Monster from the Deep, Negadon: The Monster from Mars, Rebirth of Mothra II, Godzilla 1985, Jason and the Argonauts and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

An all-star reboot of the lost classic 1934 film, The Giant Buddha Statue's Travel Through The Country, made with the cooperation of director Yoshiro Edamasa's grandson. From Japan, a modern kaiju story based on what may be the first kaiju film.

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Yongary, Monster from the Deep

Earthquakes in central Korea turn out to be the work of Yongary, a prehistoric gasoline-eating reptile that soon goes on a rampage through Seoul.

Negadon: The Monster from Mars

It is the near future, in the 100th year of Showa (year 2025). The population of world is more than 10 billion, and a world-class space development project called "Mars Terraforming Project" is in process. One day, a spaceship "Izanami" crashes in Japan on the way from Mars, and it revives the monster Negadon, which was captured by the spaceship. Can the human race knock down the monster !? Under the desperate situation, a middle age man Ryuichi Narasaki rises up against the monster. He is a robotics expert who lost his daughter in an accident during his experiments. Now, the desperate struggle between Narasaki and Negadon begins!!

Rebirth of Mothra II

The fairies from Infant Island discover a lost city, as well as a giant monster that is attracted to environmental calamities.

Godzilla 1985

Originally released in Japan as "The Return of Godzilla" in 1984, this is the heavily re-edited, re-titled "Godzilla 1985". Adding in new footage of Raymond Burr, this 16th Godzilla film ignores all previous sequels and serves as a direct follow-up to the 1956 "Godzilla King of the Monsters", which also featured scenes with Burr edited into 1954's "Godzilla". This film restores the darker tone of the original, as we witness the nuclear destruction of giant lizard terrorizing Japan.

Jason and the Argonauts

Jason, a fearless sailor and explorer, returns to his home land of Thessaly after a long voyage to claim his rightful throne. He learns, however, that he must first find the magical Golden Fleece. To do so, he must embark on an epic quest fraught with fantastic monsters and terrible perils.

Daimajin

A giant stone statue comes to life to protect the residents of a small town against the depradations of an evil warlord.

The Snow Woman

A master sculptor and his apprentice are trapped in a bad snow storm after finding a special tree for carving a statue for the local temple. Finding refuge in an abandoned hut they celebrate their luck in finding the tree but soon they are visited by the Snow Witch who freezes the sculptor to death but takes pity on the apprentice. He must promise to never speak of this or she'll return and kill him.

Monster Hunter

A portal transports Cpt. Artemis and an elite unit of soldiers to a strange world where powerful monsters rule with deadly ferocity. Faced with relentless danger, the team encounters a mysterious hunter who may be their only hope to find a way home.

Shin Ultraman

The Japanese government sets up a special task force to fight the giant creatures suddenly appearing across the country. Soon, the squad unexpectedly meets a giant silver humanoid who starts appearing every time a space monster attacks!

Frankenstein Conquers the World

During WWII, Germans obtain the immortal heart of Frankenstein's monster and transport it to Japan to prevent it being seized by the Allies. Kept in a Hiroshima laboratory, it is seeming lost when the United States destroys the city with the atomic bomb. Years later a wild boy is discovered wandering the streets of the city alone, born of the immortal heart.

Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris

With the Gyaos re-emerging, Gamera's ties to humanity have been severed with his bond to Asagi broken. Nagamine and Asagi investigate while an orphaned girl named Ayana discovers a new creature she names Iris. Nagamine and Asagi must reach Ayana before she takes her revenge on Gamera, who she blames for the death of her family.

Godzilla vs. Megalon

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.

Godzilla 2000: Millennium

An independent group of researchers called the Godzilla Prediction Network (GPN) actively track Godzilla as he makes landfall in Nemuro. Matters are further complicated when a giant meteor is discovered in the Ibaragi Prefecture. The mysterious rock begins to levitate as it's true intentions for the world and Godzilla are revealed.

Godzilla Minus One

In postwar Japan, a new terror rises. Will the devastated people be able to survive... let alone fight back?

Gulliver Mickey

Mickey is first seen reading Gulliver's Travels while the mice orphan children are pretending to be sailors. After ruining their game Mickey tries to make it up to them by retelling the Liliput sequences of Gulliver's Travels pretending it was a real event that happened to him by portraying the role of Gulliver. The story ends with Mickey saving the town from a giant spider (Pete). However after telling the story, one of the children dangles a fake spider attached to a fishing rod which scares Mickey out of his witts.

Senrigan

The head of a psychological research institute and a lieutenant in the Japanese Air Force are both investigating a mysterious cult known only as ‘Midori no Saru’ (The Green Monkey). Members of this group have committed a string of violent suicide-attacks on military bases and public areas. Part of the mystery seems to involve a young child and an enormous Buddha statue outside Tokyo, but how could all these pieces possibly fit together?

The President

The President is the story of a dictator of an imaginary country in the Caucasus, who is forced to escape following a coup d’état, and begins a journey to discover his country in the company of his five-year-old grandson. The two travel across the lands that the President once governed. Now, disguised as a street musician to avoid being recognized, the former dictator comes into contact with his people, which he comes to know from a different point of view.

Big Man Japan

Daisato, a second-rate, third-generation superhero, annoys his neighbors with the noise and destruction he causes on the job. But a heroic public image is the least of his concerns. Besides defending Japan from bizarre monsters, he must deal with an agent seeking to brand him with ads, a superhero grandfather with Alzheimer's and a family embarrassed by his incompetence.

The Lost Continent

An eclectic group of characters set sail on Captain Lansen’s leaky cargo ship in an attempt to escape their various troubles. When a violent storm strikes, the ship is swept into the Sargasso Sea and the passengers find themselves trapped on an island populated by man-eating seaweed, giant crabs and Spanish conquistadors who believe it’s still the 16th century.

Ultraman

Baseball superstar Ken Sato returns to his home country of Japan to pick up the mantle of Earth-defending superhero Ultraman, but quickly finds more than he bargained for when he’s forced to raise the offspring of his greatest foe.

Mars Men

A child finds a magic statue in a cave. This is a Thai idol that protects the world from an invasion by extraterrestrial giants. Edited from the Tsuburaya-Chaiyo co-production Jumborg Ace & Giant (1974), combining the special effects footage with newly shot drama scenes featuring a Taiwanese cast to create a loose adaptation of the original story that jettisons the connections to Tah Tien (1973) and Jumborg Ace (1973).

King Kong vs. Godzilla

The advertising director of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, frustrated with the low ratings of their sponsored TV program, seeks a more sensationalist approach. He orders his staff to Faro Island to capture King Kong for exploitation. As Godzilla re-emerges, a media frenzy generates with Pacific looking to capitalize off of the the battle of the century between the two most iconic movie monsters

Gamera vs. Jiger

When a giant stone statue on Wester Island is disturbed, the legendary monster Jiger appears and heads for Japan. Gamera tries to stop this new rival, only to be injured when Jiger lays eggs inside of him. As two boys in a submarine go on a dangerous quest inside of Gamera's body to save him, Jiger threatens the Expo '70 world's fair in Osaka.

Gammera the Invincible

An atomic explosion awakens Gammera, a giant fire breathing turtle monster from his millions of years of hibernation.

SSSS.Dynazenon Movie

One day after school, first-year high school student Yomogi Asanaka comes across a starving man under a bridge. Introducing himself as Gauma, the strange drifter informs Yomogi that he is a "kaiju user," a person who deals with the "kaiju"—monsters who bring harm to the city and its citizens. The following evening, Yomogi runs into Gauma and his classmate Yume Minami. Simultaneously, a kaiju appears in a populated area of the city. Due to Gauma's lack of experience controlling the kaiju, he brings out a mysterious object from a glowing pouch, summoning a giant robot known as Dynazenon. Requiring the cooperation of four people, the mecha drags Gauma, Yomogi, Minami, and Koyomi Yamanaka—an unemployed man who was wandering on the street—into its cockpit. Their encounter with the kaiju marks the beginning of their entanglement with kaiju eugenicists—kaiju users who manipulate kaiju with ill intent—and their efforts toward bringing out the full potential of Dynazenon.

Bombs Over Burma

The film tells the story of Chinese guerrillas fighting for the Allied cause in Burma during Early in World War II, Chungking schoolteacher Lin Yang is recruited to help with the dangerous mission of protecting the Allied supply line from Burma into China. In spite of the danger involved, her determination to help is strengthened when one of her young students is killed in a Japanese air raid. Some time later, she is part of a group of Allied representatives departing from Lashio, on a bus traveling the Burma Road back to China. A bridge outage forces them to spend the night in a monastery along the way, and during the night they watch in horror as a supply convoy of trucks is bombed by Japanese planes. The timing and accuracy of the raid brings them to realize that either one of their group, or perhaps the priest in the monastery, is really an enemy agent

BraveStorm

In the year 2050, mankind is extinct. The last survivors travel back in time to stop the invader, Killgis, aided by roboticist Kenichiro Kurenai. When they arrive at the past, they start to build a giant robot, Red Baron, and the pilot of the Red Baron races against time aided by reinforced humans to identify the alien in a fierce battle which starts in Tokyo for the survival of Earth. This is a re-imagining of the 1970s TV series' "Silver Kamen" and "Super Robot Red Baron".

Kaiju Mono

When a giant monster attacks Japan, the country's only hope is a research assistant who's become monstrously big himself. But there might be a price.

Valley of the Dragons

In 1881 Algeria, an American soldier and a French aristocrat are about to have a duel over a woman when a comet hurtling past the Earth draws them into its gravitational pull. The men find themselves transported to the moon, where they discover a prehistoric civilization inhabited by reptiles and humans.

The King Kong That Appeared in Edo

A lost film considered one of Japan's first Tokusatsu films. The effects were done by Fuminori Ohashi, who claims to have been a modeling consultant for Godzilla 1954 (this claim is disputed by modeler Eizo Kaimai and art staff member Shinji Hiruma). The film's synopsis published in the March 1938 issue of Kinema Junpo indicates that the "Kong" featured in this film was not actually a giant monster.

Saint☆Young Men

Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha, the founders of Christianity and Buddhism, are living together as roommates in a Tokyo apartment while taking a vacation on Earth. The comedy often involves jokes about Christianity, Buddhism, and all things related, as well as the main characters' attempts to hide their identities and understand modern society in Japan.

Return of Daimajin

The tyrannical Lord Danjo Mikoshiba covets the rich, fertile lands surrounding Lake Yakumo. During a memorial ceremony for the late Chigusa lord, Mikoshiba launches an attack, overthrowing the honorable Lord Juro. Just when all seems lost, Daimajin rises from Lake Yakumo to settle a score of his own.

Nezura 1964

A biopic based on the production of Daiei's Giant Horde Beast Nezura, the scrapped precursor to Gamera.

The Burning Buddha Man

There is a series of Buddha statue thefts in Kyoto. Beniko, a high school girl, gets the Buddha statue at her family's temple stolen and has her parents killed at the same time. She needs to know what caused the death of a parents and dreams of revenge. She goes on a fantastical journey to ultimately face the demon. The entire film is produced by hand drawing all the gods 'manifesto animation' or 'gekimation' based on the amazing hand drawings.

Attack of the Giant Teacher

ATTACK OF THE GIANT TEACHER is a classic style tokusatsu film that tells the story of Kenzo Miyazawa, an earnest teacher who works at a night school. His class is filled with unique and slightly odd students. Suddenly, the night school witnesses a drop in student numbers and has no choice but to shut down by the end of the year. Mr. Miyazawa’s class decides to create a musical for the school’s last festival. Then, an alien beast invades Earth and begins destroying the town. Mr. Miyazawa challenges the alien beast to a fight.

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