Welcome to the end of summer on the stream! As per usual, I'm including as many movies as I can per each category as I scour Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, HBO Max, Peacock, Fandor, Shudder, Arrow Video, Tubi, Midnight Pulp (a "+" will be included wherever subscription fees apply), VUDU’s free selections, The Roku Channel, Popcorn Flix, Crackle, Dark Matter TV, Night Flight, Shout Factory TV (though most of their titles can also be watched via Amazon Prime). This month I've also added Paramount+ and AMC+.
Again, be warned – all of the free apps have ad breaks (I know, it sucks) and the video quality is inconsistent from app to app. Sometimes it's genuine HD, other times, it's sub-VHS. I've also included links to my own reviews of some of these films.
Kinji Fukasaku Movies
Street Mobster (1972) – Arrow
Battles Without Honor and Humanity/Yakuza Papers Series: Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973), Hiroshima Death Match (aka: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima, 1973), Proxy War (1973), Police Tactics (1974), Final Episode (1974) – Tubi, Arrow, and Midnight Pulp +
New Battles Without Honor and Humanity Series: New Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1974), Head of the Boss (1975), Last Days of the Boss (1976) – Arrow
Graveyard of Honor (1975) – Arrow
Cops vs. Thugs (1975) – Arrow, Night Flight, and Midnight Pulp +
Doberman Cop (1977) – Arrow
Message from Space (1978) – Paramount+
Virus (1980) – Popcorn Flix and Tubi
Samurai Reincarnation (1981) – The Roku Channel and Tubi
Fall Guy (1982) – Criterion Channel
Legend of the Eight Samurai (1983) – Tubi
Battle Royale (2000) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV), VUDU Free, The Roku Channel, Plato TV, and Tubi
Seijun Suzuki Movies
The Madness of Youth (1960) – Criterion Channel
Take Aim at the Police Van (1960) – Criterion Channel
Teenage Yakuza (1962) – Arrow
Youth of the Beast (1963) – Criterion Channel
Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards (1963) – Arrow
Gate of Flesh (1964) – Criterion Channel
Born Under Crossed Stars (1965) – Tubi
Story of a Prostitute (1965) – Criterion Channel
Fighting Elegy (1966) – Criterion Channel
Tokyo Drifter (1966) – Criterion Channel
Branded to Kill (1967) – Criterion Channel
Zigeunerweisen (1980) – Arrow
Kagero-za (1981) – Arrow
Yumeji (1991) – Arrow
Takashi Miike Movies
Shinjuku Triad Society (1995) – Arrow and Midnight Pulp
Rainy Dog (1997) – Arrow, Tubi, and Midnight Pulp
Ley Lines (1999) – Arrow and Midnight Pulp
Audition (1999) – Shudder, Arrow, AMC+, and Tubi
Dead or Alive Series: Dead or Alive (1999), Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000), Dead or Alive: Final (2002) – Arrow and Midnight Pulp +
Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) – Arrow, Midnight Pulp, and Tubi
Ichi the Killer (2001) – Shudder, VUDU Free, and Tubi
Graveyard of Honor (2002) – Arrow and Midnight Pulp
One Missed Call (2003) – Shudder, Arrow, Midnight Pulp, AMC+, and Tubi
Gozu (2003) – Midnight Pulp
Three… Extremes (anthology co-directed with Fruit Chan and Park Chan-wook, 2004) – AMC+ and Tubi
Zebraman (2004) – Tubi
Sukiyaki Western Django (2007) – Peacock, VUDU Free, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, and Tubi
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2007) – Fandor
Thirteen Assassins (2010) – HULU and Tubi
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011) – VUDU Free and Tubi
Over Your Dead Body (2014) – Tubi
Yakuza Apocalypse (2015) – VUDU Free, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Tubi
Terra Formars (2016) – Arrow and Tubi
Blade of the Immortal (2017) – VUDU Free and Tubi
First Love (2019) – Amazon Prime and Tubi
Meiko Kaji Movies
Outlaw: Gangster VIP 2 (Keiichi Ozawa, 1968) – Arrow
Stray Cat Rock Series: Delinquent Girl Boss (Yasuharu Hasebe, 1970), Wild Jumbo (Toshiya Fujita, 1970), Sex Hunter (Yasuharu Hasebe, 1970), Machine Animal (Yasuharu Hasebe. 1970), and Beat ’71 (Toshiya Fujita, 1971) – Arrow
Blind Woman’s Curse (Teruo Ishii, 1970) – Arrow and Midnight Pulp
Female Prisoner Scorpion Series: #701: Scorpion (Shunya Ito, 1972), Jailhouse 41 (Shunya Ito, 1972), Beast Stable (Shunya Ito, 1973), Grudge Song (Yasuharu Hasebe, 1973) – Amazon Prime (missing the first movie), Shudder, AMC+, Arrow, Midnight Pulp, and Tubi (missing Jailhouse 41)
Lady Snowblood Series: Lady Snowblood (1973) and Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance (1974, both directed by Toshiya Fujita) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
(She also appears in Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima)
Toshio Masuda Movies
Rusty Knife (1958) – Criterion Channel
The Tragedy of Today (1958) – Criterion Channel
Outlaw: Gangster VIP (1968) – Arrow
Shinya Tsukamoto Movies
Tetsuo the Iron Man (1989) – Arrow
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992) – Arrow
Tokyo Fist (1995) – Arrow
Bullet Ballet (1999) – Arrow
A Snake of June (2003) – Arrow
Vital (2004) – Arrow
Nightmare Detective (2007) – VUDU Free and Tubi
Kotoko (2011) – Arrow
Hideo Nakata Movies
Ringu (1998) – Shudder, AMC+, Arrow, Midnight Pulp, and Tubi
Ringu 2 (1999) – Shudder, AMC+, Arrow, Midnight Pulp, and Tubi
Dark Water (2002) – AMC+, Arrow, Night Flight, and Tubi
BONUS: Spiral (George Iida, 1998) – Arrow, Midnight Pulp, and Tubi
BONUS: Ringu 0 (Norio Tsuruta, 2000) – Shudder, AMC+, Arrow, Midnight Pulp, and Tubi
Kiyoshi Kurosawa Movies
The Guard from the Underground (1992) – Fandor
Cure (1997) – Criterion Channel
Pulse (2001) – Tubi, Crackle, and VUDU Free
Creepy (2016) – The Roku Channel and Tubi
Samurai Franchises
Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice (Kenji Misumi, 1972), The Snare (Yasuzō Masumura, 1973), and Who’s Got the Gold (Yoshio Inoue, 1974) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (Kenji Misumi, 1972), Baby Cart on the River Styx (Kenji Misumi, 1972), Baby Cart to Hades (Kenji Misumi, 1972), Baby Cary in Peril (Buichi Saito, 1972), Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (Kenji Misumi, 1973), White Heaven in Hell (Yoshiyuki Kuroda, 1974) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max (the re-edited American release, Shogun Assassin, is also available via Criterion Channel)
All 25 original Zatoichi movies are on Criterion Channel exclusively.
Bloodthirsty Trilogy
The Vampire Doll (Michio Yamamoto, 1970) – Arrow and Tubi
Lake of Dracula (Michio Yamamoto, 1971) – Arrow and Tubi
Evil of Dracula (Michio Yamamoto, 1974) – Arrow and Tubi
Japanese Horror, Ghost Stories, Other Weirdo Genre Stuff
This is a quite large and quite broad category, so take this as recommended movies that I assume haven’t been as widely seen as, say Ringu (1998) or Ju-on (2002).
Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1959) – Criterion Channel
Jigoku (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1960) – Criterion Channel
Matango (Ishirō Honda, 1963) – Tubi
Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi, 1964) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Onibaba (Kaneto Shindō, 1964) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
The Face of Another (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966) – Criterion Channel
Kuroneko (Kaneto Shindō, 1968) – Criterion Channel
The Living Skeleton (Hiroshi Matsuno, 1968) – Criterion Channel
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (Hajime Sato, 1968) – Criterion Channel
Wolf Guy (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1975) – Arrow and Midnight Pulp
Hausu (aka: House; Nobuhiko Ōbayashi, 1977) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Rubber's Lover (Shozin Fukui, 1996) – Midnight Pulp +
Versus (Ryûhei Kitamura, 2000) – Fandor
Marebito (Takashi Shimizu, 2004) – VUDU Free
One Cut of the Dead (Shinichiro Ueda, 2017) – Shudder and AMC+
Other Crime/Yakuza Movies
The Sun’s Burial (Nagisa Oshima, 1960) – Criterion Channel
Danger Pays (Kô Nakahira, 1962) – Midnight Pulp and Tubi
Black Lizard (Umetsugu Inoue, 1962) – Criterion Channel
Cruel Gun Story (Takumi Furukawa, 1964) – Criterion Channel
Iron Finger (Jun Fukuda, 1965) – Criterion Channel
A Colt Is My Passport (Takashi Nomura, 1967) – Criterion Channel
Violence at Noon (Nagisa Oshima, 1966) – Criterion Channel
Massacre Gun (Yasuharu Hasebe, 1967) – Arrow
Golden Eyes (Jun Fukuda, 1968) – Criterion Channel
Vengeance is Mine (Shohei Imamura, 1979) – Criterion Channel and Fandor
Onimasa: A Japanese Godfather (Hideo Gosha, 1982) – Midnight Pulp
Godzilla Series
Godzilla (Japanese: Gojira; Ishirō Honda, 1954) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Godzilla Raids Again (Motoyoshi Oda, 1955) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Mothra vs. Godzilla (Ishirō Honda, 1964) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (Ishirō Honda, 1964) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Invasion of the Astro-Monster (Ishirō Honda, 1965) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (Jun Fukuda, 1966) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Son of Godzilla (Jun Fukuda, 1967) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Destroy All Monsters (Ishirō Honda, 1968) – Criterion Channel, HBO Max, and Tubi
All Monsters Attack (Ishirō Honda, 1969) – Criterion Channel
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (Yoshimitsu Banno, 1971) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Godzilla vs. Gigan (Jun Fukuda, 1972) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Godzilla vs. Megalon (Jun Fukuda, 1973) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (Jun Fukuda, 1974) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Terror of Mechagodzilla (Ishirō Honda, 1975) – Criterion Channel, and HBO Max
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (Takao Okawara, 1993) – The Roku Channel
Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (Kensho Yamashita, 1994) – The Roku Channel
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (Masaaki Tezuka, 2000) – The Roku Channel
Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla (Masaaki Tezuka, 2002) – The Roku Channel
Gamera Series
Gamera (Noriaki Yuasa, 1965) – Amazon Prime and Arrow
Gamera the Invincible (American re-edit; Noriaki Yuasa & Sandy Howard, 1965) – Amazon Prime, Pluto TV, Shout Factory TV, and Tubi
Gamera vs. Barugon (Shigeo Tanaka, 1966) – Arrow, Amazon Prime, and Tubi
Gamera vs. Gyaos (Noriaki Yuasa, 1967) – Arrow, Amazon Prime, Pluto TV, and Tubi
Gamera vs. Viras (Noriaki Yuasa, 1968) – Arrow, Amazon Prime, and Tubi
Gamera vs. Guiron (Noriaki Yuasa, 1969) – Arrow, Amazon Prime, and Tubi
Gamera vs. Jiger (Noriaki Yuasa, 1970) – Arrow, Amazon Prime, and Tubi
Gamera vs. Zigra (Noriaki Yuasa, 1971) – Arrow, Amazon Prime, and Tubi
Gamera: Super Monster (Noriaki Yuasa, 1980) – Arrow, Amazon Prime, Shout Factory TV, and Tubi
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (Shusuke Kaneko, 1995) – Amazon Prime and Arrow
Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion (Shusuke Kaneko, 1996) – Arrow, Amazon Prime, and Tubi
Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (Shusuke Kaneko, 1999) – Arrow, Amazon Prime, and Tubi
Gamera the Brave (Ryuta Tasaki, 2006) – Arrow, Amazon Prime, and Tubi
Other Kaiju Movies
Rodan (Ishirō Honda, 1956) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
War of the Gargantuas (Ishirō Honda, 1966) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
Daimajin (Kimiyoshi Yasuda, 1966) – Arrow
Return of Daimajin (Kenji Misumi, 1966) – Arrow
Daimajin Strikes Again (Issei Mori, 1966) – Arrow
The X from Outer Space (Kazui Nihonmatsu, 1967) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max