Sorry to hear about the Mizoguchi print quality, Manicmo. I've mainly got videos of his films, either British or from France internet shopping- Fnac- which work ok, despite being a different system to our PAL, as they're in black and white.

Anyway, however, you get them, here's my objective list of highly rated films. Some i've not seen- unavailable in Britain, but perhaps USA has them.

Mizoguchi: Sansho Dayu*, Ugetsu Monogatari*, Life of Oharu, Story of the Late Chrysanthemums, Tales of the Taira Clan.

Ozu: Tokyo Story*, Late Spring, I was Born But

Kurosawa: Seven Samurai*, Rashomon*, Hidden Fortress, Ran, Throne of Blood, High and Low, Ikiru

Kitano: Hana-Bi, Sonatine

Miyazaki (animations): Spirited Away*, My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke.  

Imamura: The Eel, Ballad of Narayama, Vengeance is Mine

Ichikawa: Enjo, The Burmese Harp, Fires on the Plain, An Actor's Revenge.

Kore-eda; Maborosi, After Life

Kobayashi: The Human Condition (trilogy), Kwaidan

Oshima: Ai no Corrida, Death by Hanging, The Ceremony
Naruse: Floating Clouds

Fukasaku: Battle Royale

Miike: Audition

Suzuki: Tokyo Drifter, Branded to Kill

Teshigahara: Woman of the Dunes

Itami: Tampopo

Shinoda: Double Suicide

Suo: Shall we Dance

Takahata (animation): Grave of the Fireflies

Otomo (animation): Akira

Yamanaka; Humanity and Paper Balloons

Kinugasa: Page of Madness

Aoyama: Eureka

Nakata: Ring

Tsukamoto: Tetsuo

Kinoshita: Twenty Four Eyes

It's just occurred to me that you could also check under the section for countries here, and on the Internet Movie Database (imdb), but i think my list covers most styles, genres and major names and films. Setting aside personal taste, i've asterisked the most essential films. The major classic directors are Kurosawa, Mizoguci, Ozu. Of contemporary names, Kitano and Miyazaki have big followings.