Its golden age of cinema had been largely built on the refined, pastoral calm of Mizoguchi Kenji and Ozu Yasujiro.

CNN: Kurosawa Akira

This turbulent and grim family melodrama, from 1957, is steered away from the maudlin and given emotional depth and philosophical heft under the direction of Yasujiro Ozu.

NEWYORKER: Tokyo Twilight

Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story, from 1953, is ranked third - bettering its 2002 placement at five - while Jean Renoir's La Regle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game) drops one place, from three to four.

BBC: Vertigo is named 'greatest film of all time'

With this weak, tepid brew of message movie and family drama, the sensei moves further away than ever from his trademark imagistic energy toward the contemplative style of previous Japanese masters. (Even the title recalls Ozu.) In this tri-generational story, four children vacation with their grandmother (Sachiko Murase) in the country outside Nagasaki while their parents visit a granduncle and his half-American son (Richard Gere) in Hawaii.

NEWYORKER: Rhapsody in August