1.	View Larger Image	Rashomon - Criterion Collection Actors: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô Director: Akira Kurosawa
		From Amazon.com essential video This 1950 film by Akira Kurosawa is more than a classic: it's a cinematic archetype that has served as a template for many a film since. (Its most direct influence was on a Western remake, The Outrage, starring Paul Newman and directed by Martin Ritt.) In essence, the facts surrounding a rape and murder are told from four different and contradictory ... more Buy from Amazon

2.	View Larger Image	The Transformers - The Movie Director: Nelson Shin
		From Amazon.com During the 1980s, one cartoon series ruled the airwaves... The Transformers. This paragon of consumerism was created with a dual purpose--to entertain and to galvanize children to buy the toys. Somewhere along the line, the show became a cult favorite, so in 1986 they fashioned an epic tale of good versus evil specifically for the big screen. The result looked vaguely ... more Buy from Amazon

3.	View Larger Image	The Last Emperor - Director's Cut Actors: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
		From Amazon.com essential video Everything that was good about the 163-minute theatrical release of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor in 1987 is even better in this new 218-minute director's cut. By contrast, much that was peculiarly distant and lifeless the first time around isn't really better or worse in this edition. Conclusion: the net gains are considerable if you invest time to appreciate Bertolucci's full ... more Buy from Amazon

4.	View Larger Image	House of Flying Daggers Actors: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Ziyi Zhang Director: Yimou Zhang
		From Amazon.com No one uses color like Chinese director Zhang Yimou--movies like Raise the Red Lantern or Hero, though different in tone and subject matter, are drenched in rich, luscious shades of red, blue, yellow, and green. House of Flying Daggers is no exception; if they weren't choreographed with such vigorous imagination, the spectacular action sequences would seem little more than an excuse ... more Buy from Amazon

5.	View Larger Image	Hero Actors: Zhang Yimou, Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang, Daoming Chen, Donnie Yen Director: Yimou Zhang
		From Amazon.com Director Zhang Yimou brings the sumptuous visual style of his previous films (Raise the Red Lantern, Shanghai Triad) to the high-kicking kung fu genre. A nameless warrior (Jet Li, Romeo Must Die, Once Upon a Time in China) arrives at an emperor's palace with three weapons, each belonging to a famous assassin who had sworn to kill the emperor. As the ... more Buy from Amazon

6.	View Larger Image	Kung Fu Hustle (Widescreen Edition) Actors: Stephen Chow, Wah Yuen, Qiu Yuen, Sheng Yi Huang Director: Stephen Chow
		From Amazon.com Movie-kinetics genius. Kung Fu Hustle takes the gleeful mayhem of Hong Kong action movies, the deadpan physical humor of silent comedies, and the sheer elasticity of Wile E. Coyote cartoons and fuses them into a spectacle that is simple in its joys and mind-boggling in its orchestration. A run-down slum has been poor but peaceful until a bunch of black-suited gangsters ... more Buy from Amazon

7.	View Larger Image	Inu-Yasha - The Movie 3 - Swords of an Honorable Ruler Directors: Megumi Yamamoto, Yasunao Aoki, Masashi Ikeda, Naoya Aoki
		From Amazon.com Swords of an Honorable Ruler is darker and more dramatic than the two previous Inu-Yasha features--or the broadcast series. Inu-Yasha's father Inu no Taisho, the Great Dog Demon, possessed not two but three swords: Tetsusaiga, Tenseiga, and Sounga, which are linked to Earth, Heaven, and Hell, respectively. After the human princess Izayoi gave birth to Inu-Yasha, she was killed by Takemaru, ... more Buy from Amazon

8.	View Larger Image	Spirited Away Actor: Miyu Irino Director: Hayao Miyazaki
		From Amazon.com The highest grossing film in Japanese box-office history (more than $234 million), Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (Sen To Chihiro Kamikakushi) is a dazzling film that reasserts the power of drawn animation to create fantasy worlds. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and Lewis Carroll's Alice, Chihiro (voice by Daveigh Chase--Lilo in Disney's Lilo & Stitch) plunges into an alternate reality. ... more Buy from Amazon

9.	View Larger Image	Seven Samurai - Criterion Collection Actor: Toshirô Mifune Director: Akira Kurosawa
		From Amazon.com essential video Unanimously hailed as one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of the motion picture, Seven Samurai has inspired countless films modeled after its basic premise. But Akira Kurosawa's classic 1954 action drama has never been surpassed in terms of sheer power of emotion, kinetic energy, and dynamic character development. The story is set in the 1600s, when the residents of ... more Buy from Amazon

10.	View Larger Image	Princess Mononoke Actors: Yôji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yûko Tanaka Director: Hayao Miyazaki
		From Amazon.com essential video This epic, animated 1997 fantasy has already made history as the top-grossing domestic feature ever released in Japan, where its combination of mythic themes, mystical forces, and ravishing visuals tapped deeply into cultural identity and contemporary, ecological anxieties. For international animation and anime fans, Princess Mononoke represents an auspicious next step for its revered creator, Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's ... more Buy from Amazon