Has anyone seen one that was phenomenal or recommended or terrible? I'm not too crazy about period pieces in any language but I'm sure some of these can be quite worthwhile. Thanks.

Edit: I should have typo'd the 's' off this topic header. That'd be fun.

I was a fan of "Jin" (doctor gets sent back in time to edo period, time travel shenanigans ensue, a bit overly dramatic at points but i like the sound track and the acting isnt too weird/bad, just a bit much in certain places)

In terms of movies, the "Azumi" series was one of my first movie forays into j-dramas, I thought it was fun to watch at the time (woman trained as a sword-wielding assassin, read the summary for more info)

"Ichi" was an ok movie in my opinion, I guess it just wasnt my taste although it was interesting at times to watch, and it's on netflix so that might be a plus

I've tried to watch Sakuran a couple times, but that seems to be all about visual saturation. I have always liked Ozu but I'm not huge on samurai films. Genji be the only Kubozuka film I haven't watched all the way through, but perhaps I need to know the book a bit better to follow. I guess I'm looking for more involved period stuff, maybe with some historical juxtaposition and like 'Mad Men' (though I've never seen it). I'll check out "Jin" for sure. I'd like to watch 浪花の華〜緒方洪庵事件帳 but I don't know where/how to see/find it.

i'm also not a fan of samurai films, so i usually choose jidaigeki without it.

'under the blossoming cherry trees' was an excellent ghost story with great visuals and characters. same director, masahiro shinoda, also made a film about ancient shaman queen called 'himiko'. it's a modern, new-wave interpretation of that legend that looks somewhat like fellini's 'satyricon'. there are butoh sequences by hijikata and the whole film feels like one ritual scene after the another.

tomu uchida did many jidaigeki, but one of the most interesting for me was 'chikamatsu's love in osaka'. it's a well-known story told with a twist - the author of the story we are watching is present in the film, so we follow him as he is creating it. it's basically spike jonze's 'adaptation', but 40 years earlier and set in edo japan.

hideo gosha is great and 'goyokin' is one of the rare samurai films that i really enjoyed. 'sword of the beast' is also good.

'irezumi' is one of masamura's more normal films, about kidnapped woman with giant spider tattoo that goes on revenge spree, but it's still very good. ayako wakao is great here.

'utamaro's world' is about, well, utamaro. it's brilliantly directed and is worth watching for mise-en-scene and shot framings alone. akio jissoji seems to be orson welles of japan, but is virtually unknown outside the country.

if you like ozu maybe try with sadao yamanaka? 人情紙風船 is on youtube

I recommend JIN. It's not completely a jidaigeki so it makes it more appealing to a viewer whose not into them IMO. Give it a few eps and you should be hooked. I never thought I'd ever watch a jidaigeki but then I saw JIN. One of the best jdramas I've seen with good acting, good bgm, costumes and everything. It got high ratings an do think it won best jdrama of the year. There's japanese subs on daddicts. It has a medicine component too in case that intrigues you

It was fun listening and learning the japanese in JIN

I thought the film 大奥 was good.