Ranking All Of Director Hirokazu Koreeda’s Movies
“What are Hirokazu Koreeda’s Best Movies?” We looked at all of Koreeda’s directed filmography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!
We took all of the movies directed by Hirokazu Koreeda and looked at their Rotten Tomato Critic, Rotten Tomato User, Metacritic, Metacritic User, IMDB, and Letterboxd scores, ranking them against one another to see which movies came out on top. The movies are ranked in our list below based on which movies have the highest overall score between all 6 review sites in comparison with all of the other movies by the same director. The process is all very scientific with no flaws at all.
The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page.
Happy Viewing!
The Top Film’s Of Hirokazu Koreeda
19 ) Kaidan Horror Classics (2010)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- Metacritc Critic Score: 12
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 19
- Letterboxd User Score: 16
Four short films based on ghost stories written by award winning modern Japanese writers.
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18 ) However… (1991)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- Metacritc Critic Score: 12
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 18
- Letterboxd User Score: 16
The television documentary However…, was Kore-eda’s first film made in collaboration with the independent production company TV Man Union, and was screened on Fuji TV as part of their late night NONFIX factual strand. While the film’s central focus is that of Japanese social policy and welfare, and issues surrounding the government’s response to the Minimata disease, the narrative structure introduces many strategies and techniques more familiar to fictional cinema. After researching Japan’s welfare system, Kore-eda picked two people to be the film’s protagonists, Harashima Nobuko and Yamanouchi Toyonori. Both had committed suicide, the former after having her benefit payments revoked, and the latter amidst controversy around his position as the Planning and Co-ordination Chief at the Environment Agency. © wildtyme.blogspot.b
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17 ) Hana (2006)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- Metacritc Critic Score: 12
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 15
- Letterboxd User Score: 15
In a poor district of Edo lives a young samurai named Soza. He has been sent by his clan to avenge the death of his father. He isn’t an accomplished swordsman however, and he prefers sharing the life of the residents, teaching the kids how to write etc. When he finally finds the man he is looking for, he will have to decide whether he follows the way of the samurai or chooses peace and reconciliation.
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15 ) August without Him (1994)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- Metacritc Critic Score: 12
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 13
- Letterboxd User Score: 12
Hirata Yukata became the first man in Japan to publicly acknowledge that he had contracted HIV through homosexual sex. Koreeda’s film is designed as a lament for Yukata, who had a profound impact on the filmmaker. His dying years are not presented as a time of physical deterioration, but rather an evolution of a relationship between two men, one of whom emerged from the process with a markedly changed perspective on the goal of objectivity in nonfiction film. ©http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2004winter/koreeda.html
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15 ) Air Doll (2009)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 10
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- Metacritc Critic Score: 10
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 15
- Letterboxd User Score: 13
An “air doll” suddenly come to life one day. Without her owner knowing, she goes for a walk around town and falls in love with Junichi. She starts to date Junichi and gets a job at the same store where he works. Everything seems to be going perfect for her until something unexpected happens.
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14 ) The Third Murder (2017)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 7
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 9
- Metacritc Critic Score: 9
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 17
- Letterboxd User Score: 14
Shigemori is a lawyer tasked with defending Misumi in a murder trial. Misumi has previous convictions for murder and has confessed to the crime, but evidence in the case leads to Shigemori having doubts about what really happened.
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12 ) Distance (2001)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- Metacritc Critic Score: 11
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 13
- Letterboxd User Score: 9
On the eighth anniversary of a cult’s failed chemical attack on Tokyo and their subsequent mass suicide, family members of those affected gather at the cult’s former base on the shores of a lake to observe the anniversary of their loved ones’ deaths.
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12 ) So I Can Be Alright: Cocco’s Endless Journey (2008)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- Metacritc Critic Score: 12
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 16
A documentary about the J-pop / folk rock singer Cocco.
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11 ) Going My Home (2012)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- Metacritc Critic Score: 12
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 1
- Letterboxd User Score: 16
Ryota, a timid salaryman who has difficulties fitting in at home and work has his average life changed after his estranged father falls ill. Along with his wife Sae and their only child Moe, he travels to his father’s country town, where he begins to uncover his father’s mysterious past spent searching for a mythical creature.
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10 ) Lessons from a Calf (1991)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- Metacritc Critic Score: 12
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 11
An elementary school in Japan begins an experimental program that frames the students’ curriculum around one single project: the raising of a calf from adolescence to adulthood. Through their work with the calf, the students learn about math, biology, nutrition and numerous other subjects. But after multiple years of investing energy and emotion into their beloved pet, the students begin to realize that the final days of their project may provide them with the hardest and most important lesson of all. © Joseph Montalbano
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9 ) Without Memory (1996)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- Metacritc Critic Score: 12
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 4
- Letterboxd User Score: 9
A father loses his short-term memory as the result of a botched medical procedure which causes him to develop Wernicke’s Encephalopathy. Koreeda chronicles his family’s fight to receive proper treatment and benefits from this devastating malpractice. Without Memory is an unabashed protest against the government and its disregard for health care. However, the film is also rich with thematic concerns, namely memory and loss, which infuse his later fiction films.
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8 ) Our Little Sister (2015)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 4
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 7
- Metacritc Critic Score: 7
- Metacritic User Score: 6
- IMDB User Review Score: 10
- Letterboxd User Score: 6
A story that revolves around three sisters who live in their grandmother’s home and the arrival of their 13-year-old half sister.
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7 ) After the Storm (2016)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 3
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 8
- Metacritc Critic Score: 5
- Metacritic User Score: 4
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 6
Ryota is an unpopular writer although he won a literary award 15 years ago. Now, Ryota works as a private detective. He is divorced from his ex-wife Kyoko and he has an 11-year-old son Shingo. His mother Yoshiko lives alone at her apartment. One day, Ryota, his ex-wife Kyoko, and son Shingo gather at Yoshiko’s apartment. A typhoon passes and the family must stay there all night long.
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6 ) I Wish (2011)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 4
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 5
- Metacritc Critic Score: 6
- Metacritic User Score: 3
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 6
Two young brothers at opposite ends of Kyushu devise a magical plan to reunite their separated parents.
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5 ) Like Father, Like Son (2013)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 8
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 4
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 4
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 3
Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman driven by money. He learns that his biological son was switched with another child after birth. He must make a life-changing decision and choose his true son or the boy he raised as his own.
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4 ) After Life (1998)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 2
- Metacritc Critic Score: 2
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 3
After death, people have just one week to choose only a memory to keep for eternity.
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3 ) Maborosi (1995)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
- Metacritc Critic Score: 1
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 9
- Letterboxd User Score: 3
A young woman’s husband apparently commits suicide without warning or reason, leaving behind his wife and infant. Yumiko remarries and moves from Osaka to a small fishing village, yet continues to search for meaning in a lonely world.
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2 ) Nobody Knows (2004)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 6
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
- Metacritc Critic Score: 4
- Metacritic User Score: 1
- IMDB User Review Score: 1
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
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1 ) Still Walking (2008)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
- Metacritc Critic Score: 3
- Metacritic User Score: 1
- IMDB User Review Score: 3
- Letterboxd User Score: 1
Twelve years after their beloved eldest son, Junpei, drowned while saving a stranger’s life, Kyohei and Toshiko welcome their surviving children home for a family reunion. Younger son Ryota still feels that his parents resent that he isn’t the one who died; his new wife, Yukari, is awkwardly meeting the rest of the family for the first time. Daughter Chinami strains to fill the uncomfortable pauses with forced cheer.
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Hirokazu Koreeda’s Best Movies
Hirokazu Koreeda Review Website Filmography Rankings
| Film | RT Critic | RT User | MC Critic | MC User | IMDB | Letterboxd | Overal Rank |
| Still Walking (2008) | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Nobody Knows (2004) | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Maborosi (1995) | 1 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 3 |
| After Life (1998) | 9 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 4 |
| Like Father, Like Son (2013) | 8 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
| I Wish (2011) | 4 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 11 | 6 | 6 |
| After the Storm (2016) | 3 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 6 | 7 |
| Our Little Sister (2015) | 4 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 8 |
| Without Memory (1996) | 11 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 9 | 9 |
| Lessons from a Calf (1991) | 11 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 11 | 10 |
| Going My Home (2012) | 11 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 16 | 11 |
| Distance (2001) | 11 | 10 | 11 | 7 | 13 | 9 | 12 |
| So I Can Be Alright: Cocco’s Endless Journey (2008) | 11 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 16 | 12 |
| The Third Murder (2017) | 7 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 17 | 14 | 14 |
| August without Him (1994) | 11 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 13 | 12 | 15 |
| Air Doll (2009) | 10 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 15 | 13 | 15 |
| Hana (2006) | 11 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 15 | 15 | 17 |
| However… (1991) | 11 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 18 | 16 | 18 |
| Kaidan Horror Classics (2010) | 11 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 19 | 16 | 19 |
