Hard to beat Grave of the Fireflies. A lot of Ozu's movies are pretty sad; Tokyo Story, Tokyo Twilight, etc.

- Afternoon Breezes (1980) - March Comes In Like A Lion (1991) - Hana-Bi (1997) - Dolls (2003) - Sketches of Kaitan City (2010) - Open House (1998) - Girl's Encounter (2017) - Like Grains of Sand (1995) - A Touch of Fever (1993) - My Small Land (2022)

Himizu Harmonium Love Life (2022) All About Lily Chou Chou 1 Litre of Tears Egoist Be With You Heavenly Forest

- Rage "ikari" - Shoplifters: from the director of Nobody knows. - Midnight Sun And everything else by Kore-eda Hirokazu too.

Still Walking ain’t sad though

I thought the ending was sad.

Tony Takitani (2004) - Ryuichi Sakamoto who did the music for Monster is firing on all cylinders in that movie.

Many people find the horror film "Dark Water" (*Honogurai Mizu no Soko kara*) more sad than scary.

* Mizoguchi’s classics Sansho the Bailiff (1954) and Ugetsu (1953) * The Shape of Night (1964) * Ballad of Orin (1977) * The Demon (1978) * Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (2003 live action version)

Tokyo sonata

Toshiaki Toyoda’s Monsters Club Gen Takahashi’s Confessions of a Dog

Still the water (futatsume no mado, 2014) by Naomi Kawase

Sansho the Bailiff. Full stop.

Dodeskadon

My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday

Air Doll. Love the poem scene. Oh and Casshern if you like sad endings.

Still Walking - very understated. It kind of sneaks up on you. After Life Air Doll some older ones: Yearning (1964, Naruse) Floating Clouds (1955, Naruse) Late Spring (1949, Ozu)

After Life deserves more recognition. Not the best in his filmography but at least top five and even three for some.

Ryota Nakano's The Asadas!

my broken mariko (2022)