films depicting High School in Japan (or suitable for teens)

Water Boys (high school clubs and school festivals)
Swing Girls
gakkou (学校) series by Youji Yamada... depicts non-traditional students who go to a night school in Tokyo. http://item.rakuten.co.jp/book/5660131/

Kinpachi-sensei (TV series), http://www.tbs.co.jp/kinpachi/
http://ishop.tbs.co.jp/tbs/special/kinpachi/index.html

Nobody Knows if you would like to show a side of Tokyo that is not typical, successful students. It is one of the saddest movies I have ever seen ...four siblings that are abandoned by their mother and have to fend for themselves in Tokyo.

Kamikaze Girls is also good for capturing pop culture.

Koko Yakyu --tells about a private HS (?Wakayama-ken) and public HS (Osaka) preparing for the national HS tournament at Koshien. There is a lot of "live" (?nama kaiwa) dialog, lots of emotional intensity, and some useful impressions of HS life.

And I like the materials at Deai, www.tjf.or.jp/deai

Erin ga chosen is pretty good, I think. It is not documentary, but has a script. Still it gives some images of life for teens these days.

=-=-=-=-=-= possibly to show in class, as well
Sen to Chihiro
Ping Pong
Hula girls
Adrenalin Drive
Kikujiro

=-=-=-=-=-= more titles, (* popularity by students)
*Totoro
Mimi wo sumaseba
Omoide boro boro
*Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)
*Sen to Chihiro (Spirited Away)
*Hotaru no Haka (Grave of the Fireflies)
*The Cat Returns
Tonari no Yamada-kun
*Howl's Moving Castle
Minwa (Kaguyahime, Tsuruno Ongaeshi)
Ohayou (Good Morning)
After Life
*Kikujiro
*Shall will Dance
*Tampopo (with some discretions)
*Daremo shiranai (Nobody Knows)
*Water Boys
Maboroshi
*Densha Otoko
*ShogunZatouichi
*Kakushi toride (Hidden Fortress)
*Kumonosujyou ( MacBeth in Japanese version by Kurosawa)
*Kwaidan ( by Masaki Kobayashi)
Miminashi Houichi and other stories
*Rashoumon

Samurai (Historical documentary from BBC)
Families of Japan (documentary)
Nihon-Sono sugata to kokoro (Japanese family life) -Documentary
Living Arts (Culture in modern Kyoto) and Friends.....Documentary
Animated Classics of Japanese Literature (12 part series)

=-=-=-=-=-= undergraduates at college
NHK documentary series, Working Poor (as well as the books the accompany them). The sections on the young working poor in Japan have resonated deeply with my [undergraduate] students.