The Best History Asian Films

In the year 1716 a mysterious epidemic stickens men in the country of Japan, dropping the population of men to 1/4th of its prior state. With the drastic reduction of men, the gender roles have become reversed in Japan. Woman become the dominant members of society and males are sought out for the ability to produce children. A young man named Unoshin Mizuno (Kazunari Ninomiya) hopes to marry childhood sweetheart Onobu (Maki Horikita), but due to class differences realizes this is almost impossible. To raise his social status and also save his poor family, Unoshin Mizuno enters the Ohoku (inner chambers of the Shugun's castle) and attempts to vie among 3,000 other men for the affection of the female shogun. What Unoshin Mizuno quickly learns about the Ohoku is that the men there are all beautiful, but highly ambitious and conniving. In this environment, the 7th shogun Tokugawa passes away and the new shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa (Kou Shibasaki) takes the thrown and enters the Ohoku.

The Lady Shogun and Her Men (2010)

The year is Seitoku 2 (1712), and Japan has a new ruler. But Ietsugu, the 7th Tokugawa shogun, is only four years old. The power vacuum this creates has Edo Castle roiling in political intrigue and personal positioning of all kinds.

Oh-Oku The Women Of The Inner Palace (2006)

Towards the end of WWII, the Navy gave the Kyoto University's physics lab the secret of a bomb that makes use of nuclear fission energy. While doing research to save Japan, the researchers there wonder if they should promote the development of weapons as scientists. Research enthusiast Ishimura Osamu tries to experiment purely but is at the mercy of the time period. His brother, Hiroyuki, also has to face the truth of the war. Asakura Setsu wants only to talk about the future. A story based on historical facts about youth during the tragedy of war.

Taiyou no Ko: GIFT OF FIRE (2020)

Takeshiro Matsuura was a Japanese explorer who was the first person to document the inner reaches of what is now known as Hokkaido. He explored the area extensively during the mid 19th century and created a map of the island that included parts which had been ignored by earlier cartographers. He visited Ainu communities and compiled records of the large numbers of the population who had been conscripted for forced labor far from their homes. Matsuura suggested the name Hokkaido for the area

Eien no Nispa (2019)

On September 4, 1984, democracy movement leader Kim Jong Tae (Park Won Sang) is arrested and taken to an infamous interrogation facility in Namyeong-dong. For the next 22 days, he would be cruelly and continuously tortured in all manners by interrogators intent on forcing him to confess to communist collaboration.

National Security (2012)

With Ran, legendary director Akira Kurosawa reimagines Shakespeare's King Lear as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan. Majestic in scope, the film is Kurosawa's late-life masterpiece, a profound examination of the folly of war and the crumbling of one family under the weight of betrayal, greed, and the insatiable thirst for power.

Ran (1985)

In July 1945, during the end of World War II, Japan is forced to accept the Potsdam Declaration. A cabinet meeting has continued through days and nights, but a decision cannot be made. The U.S. drops atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. General Korechika Anami is torn over making the proper decision and the Emperor of Japan worries about his people. Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki leads the cabinet meeting, while Chief Secretary Hisatsune Sakomizu can't do anything, but watch the meeting. At this time, Major Kenji Hatanaka and other young commissioned officers, who are against Japan surrendering, move to occupy the palace and a radio broadcasting station. The radio station is set to broadcast Emperor Hirohito reading out the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War.

The Emperor in August (2015)

The prime minister's precious only son Ho-yeon has feelings for courtesan Wol-hyang. Ho-yeon's servant, Spot, who has always had unrequited love for Wol-hyang, drugs Ho-yeon. When he falls unconscious, she sells him off to a slave trader. Ho-yeon, waking from his drugged state, is frustrated because he can't prove he is not a slave. Ho-yeon soon learns the reality of the slaves who face injustice and rolls up his sleeves to try and save them from an unreasonable system.

Swine Escape (2013)

Onna Kuni Shuu Ikki is a 2002 Japanese historical drama directed by Takashi Miike. It is one of three historical films included in the 2002 DVD compilation, Kumamoto Monogatari. The other two are Kikuchi-jo Monogatari: Sakimori-tachi no Uta and Zuiketsu Genso: Tonkararin Yume Densetsu, both also directed by Miike.

Women's Kunishû Rebellion (2002)

The story follows Hwang Jin Yi, a kisaeng (female entertainer) who lived in 16th century Korea. Hwang Jin-Yi was a beautiful, talented and intelligent young woman who was able to read and write well, but because she was an illegitimate child, she had no other recourse but to become a kisaeng where she used her position to gain favor with the noble classes.

Hwang Jin Yi (2007)

An unscheduled late night train arrives at Tokyo station on 15 August, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. Boarding the train are spirits of great men who died honourable deaths in the war more than 60 years ago. They have come to the modern world to see their homeland as a peaceful country and to tell the lingering spirits of the war dead about the current conditions.

Kikoku (2010)

The Monkey Soldiers Come to the Rescue is a Hong Kong Drama starring Sammo Hung in a child role

The Monkey Soldiers Come to the Rescue (1963)