With the Japanese film industry being one of the foremost prolific in the world, a plethora of films not widely known would inevitably exist. However, the fact that not many people have watched them does not diminish their value in the least. Here is a list with a number of the best ones. 1. Tony Takitani (Jun Ichikawa, 2004) Adapting Haruki Murakami 's works in cinema is definitely an arduous task, chiefly due to the surrealism and minimalism that characterize his novels. This particular movie however, managed to capture the homonymous short story 's full essence. Tony Takitani is Shozaburo 's son, a trombonist who had spent a number of years in prison, in China. When he returned to Japan, in 1946, he married a distant cousin of his and had a son that named him after an American soldier, who had treated him in a friendly fashion, thinking that the name would help him, since the American influence in Japan was increasing rapidly at the time. Nevertheless, despite his father 's good intentions, his name seems to be a continuing nuisance for Tony Takitani in school, since his classmates perceive him as shady and strange, thus resulting in his alienation. In combination with his mother 's death, when he was three years old and his father constantly being away on tour, Tony becomes a loner, detached of social relationships of any kind. Through the years, he develops a large interest for painting, with his works being elaborate, although void of sentiment. Eventually he