The world's archives

1–48 of 4,228 films, free to watch, from the world's open archives.

Where these films come from, and who sees what

Every film here plays from the archive that keeps it: the Internet Archive, Wikimedia Commons, the NASA Image and Video Library, the Library of Congress and Open Images (the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision). Nothing is copied to this site. Each film's page names its archive, links to its page there, and states its licence or status as the archive does.

Archive films carry no age ratings, so each is placed from the collections it sits in and the subjects the archive gives it, cautiously. Sexual content and nudity are left out altogether.

Little OnesFilms for young children by name: nursery rhymes, lullabies, preschool.
KidsCartoons and animation, children's and family films, and educational films, unless they deal with war, propaganda, crime, horror or drugs, or carry racial caricature.
TweensDocumentaries, science, nature and space, classic comedies, newsreels, commercials and lectures.
TeensEverything else, including anything we cannot tell about; war, crime, horror and westerns go no lower.
AdultSexual themes (such as the old "sex hygiene" films), gore, surgery, slaughter, atrocity footage.
Internet Archive Yojimbo 1961 · Feature The incomparable Toshiro Mifune stars in Akira Kurosawa's visually stunning and darkly comic Yojimbo. To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily… Internet Archive Pleasures Of The Flesh 1965 · Feature A corrupt businessman blackmails the lovelorn reprobate Atsushi into watching over his suitcase full of embezzled cash while he serves a jail sentence. Rather… Internet Archive Kagemusha 1980 · Feature When a warlord dies, a peasant thief is called upon to impersonate him, and then finds himself haunted by the warlord’s spirit as well as his own ambitions.… Internet Archive High And Low 1963 · Feature Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in High and Low ( Tengoku… Internet Archive Throne Of Blood 1957 · Feature A vivid, visceral Macbeth adaptation, Throne of Blood, directed by Akira Kurosawa, sets Shakespeare’s definitive tale of ambition and duplicity in a ghostly,… Internet Archive Pulse (Kairo) [2001] 2001 · Feature · Subtitles Pulse ( 回路 , Kairo ) is a 2001 Japanese techno-horror film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa . The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2001… Internet Archive Sanjuro 1962 · Feature Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Akira Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed Sanjuro. In this sly companion piece to… Internet Archive The Hidden Fortress 1960 · Feature The Hidden Fortress stars the inimitable Toshiro Mifune as a general charged with guarding his defeated clan’s princess (a fierce Misa Uehara) as the two… Internet Archive The Human Condition ( Parts 1 & 2) 1959 · Feature Masaki Kobayashi’s mammoth humanist drama is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three parts, the… Internet Archive The Bad Sleep Well 1963 · Feature A young executive hunts down his father’s killer in director Akira Kurosawa’s scathing The Bad Sleep Well. Continuing his legendary collaboration with actor… Internet Archive Tokyo Story 1953 · Feature A profoundly stirring evocation of elemental humanity and universal heartbreak, Tokyo Story is the crowning achievement of the unparalleled Yasujiro Ozu. The… Internet Archive The Idiot 1951 · Feature After finishing what would become his international phenomenon Rashomon , Akira Kurosawa immediately turned to one of the most daring, and problem-plagued,… Internet Archive House 1977 · Feature How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House ( Hausu )? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode… Internet Archive Drunken Angel 1959 · Feature In this powerful early noir from the great Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune bursts onto the screen as a volatile, tubercular criminal who strikes up an unlikely… Internet Archive Kwaidan 1965 · Feature After more than a decade of sober political dramas and socially minded period pieces, the great Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi shifted gears dramatically… Internet Archive Stray Dog 1949 · Feature A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover,… Internet Archive Samurai Rebellion 1967 · Feature Toshiro Mifune stars as Isaburo Sasahara, an aging swordsman living a quiet life until his clan lord orders that his son marry the lord's mistress, who has… Internet Archive Red Beard 1965 · Feature A testament to the goodness of humankind, Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard ( Akahige ) chronicles the tumultuous relationship between an arrogant young doctor and a… Internet Archive Good Morning 1959 · Feature A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of inter­generational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two… Internet Archive Tokyo Drifter 1966 · Feature In this jazzy gangster film, reformed killer Tetsu’s attempt to go straight is thwarted when his former cohorts call him back to Tokyo to help battle a rival… Internet Archive Sanshiro Sugata 1943 · Feature Kurosawa’s effortless debut is based on a novel by Tsuneo Tomita about the rivalry between judo and jujitsu. Starring Susumu Fujita as the title character,… Internet Archive Samurai I Musashi Miyamoto 1955 · Feature In the first part of the epic Samurai Trilogy, Toshiro Mifune thunders onto the screen as the iconic title character. When we meet him, Miyamoto is a… Internet Archive Ugetsu 1953 · Feature By the time he made Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a… Internet Archive An Autumn Afternoon 1962 · Feature The last film by Yasujiro Ozu was also his final masterpiece, a gently heartbreaking story about a man’s dignifed resignation to life’s shifting currents and… Internet Archive I LIve In Fear 1967 · Feature Both the final film of this period in which Akira Kurosawa would directly wrestle with the demons of the Second World War and his most literal representation… Internet Archive The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail 1952 · Feature The fourth film from Akira Kurosawa is based on a legendary twelfth-century incident in which the lord Yoshitsune and a group of samurai retainers dressed as… Internet Archive The Life Of Oharu 1952 · Feature A peerless chronicler of the soul who specialized in supremely emotional, visually exquisite films about the circumstances of women in Japanese society, Kenji… Internet Archive The Human Condition ( Parts 3 & 4) 1959 · Feature Masaki Kobayashi’s mammoth humanist drama is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three parts, the… Internet Archive The Lower Depths 1957 · Feature In a Japanese slum, various residents play out their lives, dreaming of better things or settling for their lot. Among them is a man who pines for a young… Internet Archive Samurai II Duel At Ichijoji Temple 1955 · Feature Toshiro Mifune furiously embodies swordsman Musashi Miyamoto as he comes into his own in the action-packed middle section of the Samurai Trilogy. Duel at… Internet Archive Godzilla 1954 Official Toho Colorization 2020 · Feature Colorized footage from Godzilla 1954 shown only once, at Godzilla Fest Online 2020. Also available here: https://twitter.com/14_kaiju/status/1718805684404486609 Internet Archive No Regrets For Our Youth 1946 · Feature In Akira Kurosawa's first film after the end of World War II, future beloved Ozu regular Setsuko Hara gives an astonishing performance as Yukie, the only… Internet Archive Sansho The Bailiff 1954 · Feature When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually… Internet Archive Scandal 1950 · Feature A handsome, suave Toshiro Mifune lights up the screen as painter Ichiro, whose circumstantial meeting with a famous singer (Yoshiko Yamaguchi) is twisted by… Internet Archive One Wonderful Sunday 1947 · Feature This affectionate paean to young love is also a frank examination by Akira Kurosawa of the harsh realities of postwar Japan. During a Sunday trip into… Internet Archive Samurai III Duel At Ganryu Island 1956 · Feature A disillusioned Musashi Miyamoto (Toshiro Mifune) has turned his back on the samurai life, becoming a farmer in a remote village, while his nemesis Kojiro… Internet Archive The End Of Summer 1961 · Feature The Kohayakawa family is thrown into distress when childlike father Manbei takes up with his old mistress, in one of Ozu's most deftly modulated blendings of… Internet Archive Hanawa Hekonai meitô no maki (1917) 1917 · Feature Namakura Gatana, meaning “dull-edged sword,” is a four-minute comedy about a samurai who, thanks to his dull instrument, loses every time he attacks a weak… Internet Archive kill 1968 · Feature In this pitch-black action comedy by Kihachi Okamoto, a pair of down-on-their-luck swordsmen arrive in a dusty, windblown town, where they become involved in… Internet Archive When A Woman Ascends The Stairs 1960 · Feature When a Woman Ascends the Stairs might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse's finest hour—a delicate, devastating study of a woman, Keiko (played heartbreakingly… Internet Archive The Insect Woman 1963 · Feature Born in a rural farming village in 1918, Tomé survives decades of Japanese social upheaval, as well as abuse and servitude at the hands of various men. Yet… Internet Archive 22 - Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman 1971 · Feature It’s East meets East when one of Japan’s action idols crosses paths with an iconic kung-fu hero from Hong Kong. While traveling the countryside, Zatoichi… Internet Archive A Colt Is My Passport 1967 · Feature One of Japanese cinema’s supreme emulations of American noir, Takashi Nomura’s A Colt Is My Passport is a down-and-dirty but gorgeously photographed yakuza… Internet Archive The Human Condition ( Parts 5 & 6) 1959 · Feature Masaki Kobayashi’s mammoth humanist drama is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three parts, the… Internet Archive Another [2012] 2012 · Feature Another ( Japanese : アナザー , Hepburn : Anazā ) is a 2012 Japanese school mystery horror film directed by Takeshi Furusawa , starring Kento Yamazaki , Ai… Internet Archive Gate Of Hell 1953 · Feature A winner of Academy Awards for best foreign-language film and best costume design, Gate of Hell is a visually sumptuous, psychologically penetrating work from… Internet Archive The Makioka Sisters 1983 · Feature This lyrical adaptation of the beloved novel by Junichiro Tanizaki was a late-career triumph for director Kon Ichikawa. Structured around the changing of the… Internet Archive Sweet Home ( The Mamiya House) [1988] 1988 · Feature Sweet Home (Japanese: スウィートホーム - Hepburn: Suwīto hōmu) also known as "The Mamiya House" is a 1988 Japanese horror film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and…