207 min This film continues its earlier plot and now it takes you to the era of Hong Kong when the British ruled this kingdom. Ken'ichi Hagiwara, Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese Jidaigeki adventure film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira... Yojimbo. The story is simple (Lone Wolf must assassinate three deadly killers), but the fights are pure entertainment; often ending in the torrents of gushing blood so loved by Tarantino. Action, Comedy, Crime. Tatsuya Nakadai, The blind masseur/swordsman comes to a town in control of warring gangs, and while bunking with a farming family, he meets two women with their own agenda. It has a slow pace that slowly and excellently builds tension and mystery as it starts to become clear that the samurai has other plans in mind. Director: Anyone who wants to get into the genre , these are the finest. | For a samurai movie that delves into the philosophies of the samurai itself, Harakiri from 1962 is a good place to start. This post was edited on 3/17 at 3:55 pm Prime Video $0.00 with a Prime membership. | Action, Drama, Mystery. Action, Adventure, Drama, Following the death of the second Tokugawa shogun, it is revealed that he was poisoned by retainers of his son Iemitsu in hopes of gaining him the shogunate despite the stammer and ... See full summary », Director: The Samurai Trilogy, starring Toshirô Mifune, tells the real-life story of Miyamoto Mushashi, one of Japan's first warrior monks. | Director: Director: Yûzô Kayama, Two ronin - an ex-samurai and an ex-farmer - get caught up in a local official's complex game of murder and betrayal. Director: 162 min | Drama, History. Action, Adventure, Drama. Toshirô Mifune, A list of 61 films compiled on Letterboxd, including The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1952), Gate of Hell (1953), Rashomon (1950), Throne of Blood (1957) and The Hidden Fortress (1958). The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped away from her husband by the lord. Yôjirô Takita Yuriko Hoshi, The husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to get her back. 46,923 Ruriko Asaoka, R Stars: | Tatsuya Nakadai, 128 min Director: Kenji Misumi | Stars: Action, Comedy, Crime. Tatsuya Nakadai, | 115 min | A guilt-haunted samurai warrior attempts to stop a massacre taking place. Yukiko Shimazaki, Votes: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tell us what you think about this feature. About this list: 1-3: PRE-MUROMACHI | BEFORE THE 14th CENTURY A.D. 4-10: THE AGE OF CIVIL WAR | 1460s – 1603 11-48: THE EDO PERIOD | ca. Director: A petty thief with an utter resemblance to a samurai warlord is hired as the lord's double. 33 titles for Best Samurai Films & Series: Seven Samurai, Harakiri, Kill!, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Samurai Rebellion, 13 Assassins, Samurai Assassin, The Hidden Fortress and Ran Akira Kurosawa A samurai goes to extraordinary lengths to provide for his family. Drama. A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town. Michiyo Aratama, A step-away from the refined samurai films of old, this movie takes glory in its extreme gory-action. The best samurai films to watch before playing Ghost of Tsushima By Caleb Clark July 29, 2020 After years of waiting and one delay, Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima is finally here. Perhaps the most famous and most revered samurai film. Toshirô Mifune, Jinpachi Nezu, 129 min | Takako Matsu, Daisuke Ryû, Votes: Stars: Eijirô Tôno, Not Rated For all the love there is towards the samurai genre it seems ironic that the top of the list goes to yet another anti-samurai masterpiece from Kobayashi. | Kinji Fukasaku | Kihachi Okamoto Action, Drama, War. While certainly not the first samurai story committed to film, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai nonetheless set a standard, pretty much from the moment it was released. | RELATED: 10 Movies You Didn’t Know Were Remakes. The go-to source for comic book and superhero movie fans. 1603 – 1860s 49-61: THE END OF THE SAMURAI … Director: Hiroyuki Nakano | Stars: Morio Kazama, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Tomoyasu Hotei, Tamaki Ogawa. 141 min $0.27M, Not Rated Masaki Kobayashi | Characters slip in and out of mist with danger ready to jump out at any second. Tatsuya Nakadai, Hidetaka Yoshioka, ... Amazon Subscription Boxes Top subscription boxes – right to your door: Eligible for Free Shipping. Isuzu Yamada, 133 min However, and with … Yui Natsukawa, RELATED: 5 Westerns & 5 Samurai Movies To Watch If You Love The Mandalorian. | Director: Ikki Sawamura, Votes: Two men, caught on the wrong side of a battle, are sequestered into helping a charismatic general transport a princess to safety. Director: Masaki Kobayashi | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Yôko Tsukasa, Gô Katô, Tatsuyoshi Ehara. Gô Katô, Stars: However, both have very little action and, Harakiri especially, are dialogue heavy so be prepared. | Samurai movies are both endearingly popular and spectacularly influential. | Yûnosuke Itô, R | | A war-hardened general, egged on by his ambitious wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become lord of Spider's Web Castle. | The Hidden Fortress is a great Samurai move as well and the movie Star Wars is based on. It follows the story of many lordless samurai in the 17th century who were forced to fight each other in search of a new master thanks to a Shogun-mandated decentralization. Stars: Votes: 10,567 A dynamic that the director utilizes to perfection when creating his images. Samurai Movies - 1: Samurai Movies - 2: Samurai Movies - 3: Samurai Movies - 4: Samurai Movies - 5: Samurai Movies - 6: Samurai Movies - 7: Samurai Movies - 8: Kaidan, Ghost and Horror: Samurai TV Series: Toshiro Mifune: Warlords: Hashizo Okawa: Ichikawa Raizo: Nakadai Tatsuya: Shintaro Katsu: Hideo Gosha: Otomo Ryutaro: War Movies… People often cite Shiniciro Watanabe's Samurai Champloo as the greatest samurari anime, but there are plenty of other greats, such as Samurai X, Afro Samurai and Ninja Scroll. | $0.04M, PG | A 19th Century samurai, held in low esteem due to an action by his late father, must resolve his history with a maid and with his close friend. Director: 110,971 Also, the list was written with the intention of adding some diversity to the list, adding Samurai movies, but also comedy-movies, realistic dramas and crime/mystery movies. 132 min | Kamatari Fujiwara, Not Rated Seven Samurai is the best of all the Samurai movies and light years better than The Last Samurai. 61,494 Its climax is one of the most exhilarating and satisfying pieces of storytelling and is exactly why the film is so highly rated. Masaki Kobayashi Hiroshi Inagaki And it’s why we’re so excited to present Paste’s list of the 50 Best Samurai Films of All Time. 162 min The most important one is that this is a documentary on the accidental movie career of Toshiro Mifune who is considered one of the most epic actors of the world cinema. Director: I think his films are the most assessable and easy to digest. A lot of Kurosawa's samurai films play on the idea of the traditional movie hero. | Lured by gold, two greedy peasants unknowingly escort a princess and her general across enemy lines. Stars: Through his unconscionable actions against others, a sociopath samurai builds a trail of vendettas that follow him closely. Stars: Yûsuke Iseya, Nenji Kobayashi, An old samurai arrives at the gate of a prestigious family and asks for their permission to commit ritual suicide. While samurai films are now a staple of pop culture, it's important to remember that 10 these films laid the foundation for modern cinema. The film is a blend of artistic filmmaking and over-the-top gory violence, as Lady Snowblood is trained in the way of the samurai warrior and uses her skills to chop and hack her way to vengeance. Toshirô Mifune, Kinnosuke Nakamura, Akira Kurosawa ... Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (English Subtitled) 2012 | CC. | Rie Miyazawa, | A fantastic achievement and one that prevented the movie from becoming confusing, bloated and overlong and made it a masterpiece. A crafty samurai helps a young man and his fellow clansmen save his uncle, who has been framed and imprisoned by a corrupt superintendent. Action, Drama. Tomisaburô Wakayama, Villages and cities are being torn apart by bandits who were once samurai soldiers. Takashi Shimura, Not Rated Stars: Yôko Tsukasa, Jinpachi Nezu, Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Stranger: Mukou Hadan is a classic samurai movie in the best way possible. Director: Director: Akira Kurosawa After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their honor. RELATED: Master of Japanese Cinema: Akira Kurosawa’s 5 Best Films (& 5 Worst). Yui Natsukawa, Drama. Start with Kurosawa, particularly the Seven Samurai. The first of Yamada’s ‘Samurai Trilogy’, comprised of The Hidden Blade (2004) and Love and Honor (2006), Twilight Samurai received a record-breaking 12 Japanese Academy Awards, and was nominated for best foreign-language film at the 2004 Academy Awards. | | Akira Kurosawa $4.14M, Not Rated Starring the legendary Tatsuya Nakadai, Sword of Doom is a fantastic antihero story. Director: Yôji Yamada Tadanobu Asano, Five warriors challenge Ogami to duels. | | It's also a philosophical study of mortality and purpose, questioning the audience on how they can support such a violent man. The Samurai Trilogy, starring Toshirô Mifune, tells the real-life... 9 Lone Wolf & Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972) - 8.0. Easily the best-known and most widely-loved of samurai anime, Kenshin is actually set after the end of Japan's samurai era — in the Meiji period of the 1870s, during Japan's early years of modernization. Over the course of the trilogy, Mushashi moves from anarchic killing machine to a Zen warrior. If you're more interested in some good old fashioned shootin', then you'll want to check out these top western anime series instead. These are the big screen noble military men who lived and died by the sword. When the warlord later dies the thief is forced to take up arms in his place. Tatsuya Nakadai, Takeshi Kitano, The film is considered to be a masterpiece and is certainly one of Kurosawa's most menacing and atmospheric films. | The shades of grey that Kurosawa created in his characters always led to dynamic and surprising storytelling, and here, he is at his absolute best. Stars: The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped away from her husband by the lord. Two massive stars, Mifune and Nakadai, are cast as rivals in this classic anti-samurai film from director Masaki Kobayashi. In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. Free Shipping by Amazon ... Amazon Subscription Boxes Top subscription boxes – right to your door: PillPack Pharmacy Simplified: Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust: Michiyo Yasuda, Action, Drama, History. Tatsuya Nakadai, As the feudal Japan era draws to a close, a widower samurai experiences difficulty balancing clan loyalties, 2 young daughters, an aged mother, and the sudden reappearance of his childhood sweetheart. Director: Akira Ishihama, While samurai films are now a staple of pop culture, it is important to remember that many of these films laid the foundation for the development of modern cinema. Jidai-geki, chanbara or simply samurai films are probably those that gave Japanese cinema the place it occupies even now in world cinema, with the entries of Akira Kurosawa, Kihachi Okamoto, Masaki Kobayashi and many others being included among the best films of all time. | It worked out. Etsushi Takahashi, 6,147 Life doesn’t seem too good for the two as they have to steal in order to survive. NEXT: 10 Japanese Books That Were Turned Into Movies, All the latest gaming news, game reviews and trailers. 13 Assassins (2010) Director Takashi Miike Watch it for the battle scenes, in which hundreds of extras charge across the screen at each other; an epic of epic proportions! To check them out in action, here are 15 of the best samurai anime. 124 min | Gross: Toshirô Mifune, Online shopping for Movies & TV from a great selection of TV, Movies & more at everyday low prices. Tetsurô Tanba, Not Rated Teruhiko Saigô, Not Rated A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves. | One of the biggest influences on Star Wars (direct parallels can be drawn to characters like C-3PO and R2DT, as well as some imagery and plot points), it is a classic example of adventure storytelling, that was often repeated. | The final samurai epic from Kurosawa, and the only time the legendary director received an Academy Award nomination. 1. Stars: Misa Uehara, Stars: Starring Toshiro Mifune (let's be honest, any list of top samurai movies is going to mention at least four with Mifune), and directed by Akira Kurosawa (same), Yojimbo is set in feudal Japan (…there's a theme going on here)(I'm not complaining; I love jidaigeki).. Mifune's character is a ronin (masterless samurai… | Stars: | When a ronin requesting seppuku at a feudal lord's palace is told of the brutal suicide of another ronin who previously visited, he reveals how their pasts are intertwined - and in doing so challenges the clan's integrity. | Gross: A one-stop shop for all things video games. | Yet another iconic role for Mifune and another masterpiece from Kurosawa. | Stars: Yôko Tsukasa, Not Rated | The Best Samurai Movies Seven Samurai. Akira Takarada, R Samurai Fiction (1998) A samurai movie for the age of irony, suffused with a snarky attitude and great physical humor, Samurai Fiction is an unusual creature: released in 1998, it’s shot in black and white, and scored with a variety of traditionally “Western” music styles from hip hop and country to blues and surf … Stars: The central murder becomes an almost visceral presence in the film, with pressure building until a huge climactic battle; influential on all future Shakespeare adaptations. Seven Samurai (1954) Hailed as not just maybe the best Samurai movie ever made, but as one of the best films of all time; Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai tells the tale of a group of Samurai that come together to help a small village defend themselves against bandits who are set to ransack their homes and … | However, these samurai have now … The legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa directed Seven Samurai as well as many other samurai movies on this list.. It’s set in 1586 in feudal Japan where a farming village is continuously under attack from bandits. 10 Best Samurai Films, Ranked According to IMDb 10 Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (1956) - 7.6. The film would go on to be the third … Minoru Chiaki, | Gross: | It's a classic rise-and-fall story with the protagonist learning that his time at the top will only be fleeting, there will always be another who will seek to challenge his place. It's set in a futuristic world that has just been through a war that has put it on the brink of extinction. Keiko Tsushima, Top 15 Best Samurai Anime of All Time Samurai are probably one of the most well-known aspects of Japanese history and culture, which also makes them a highly sought after theme in the anime world. Adventure, Drama. Mifune: The Last Samurai is a movie which is way different than rest of the Japanese movies on Netflix and there are some reasons behind it. Kurosawa used innovative staging, set design, and camera techniques to establish the men as the beating heart of the film. | Released: 1961 Yojimbo is a 1961 jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa. Its hero is a former assassin turned wanderer, his sword now symbolically reversed to demonstrate how he's … NOTE: Only three movies per director were allowed, for that reason some movies of certain directors weren’t mentioned, just take a look at the chosen Kurosawa movies… Hiroyuki Sanada, Director: His behavior towards the residents, at first, makes him seem as bad as them, but then it becomes clear he's here to clean up the town. 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Another take on Shakespeare, Ran follows three warring sons in feudal Japan, each battling to claim their warlord father's inheritance. Tatsuya Mihashi, | | | Seven Samurai (which was later remade as The Magnificent Seven) remains enduringly popular to this day, and it's not hard to see why. | | 116 min | Tatsuya Nakadai, 1-16 of over 50,000 results for "samurai movies" Skip to main search results Amazon Prime. Akira Terao, This is a broad genre, just from a the standpoint of how much history falls within it. | Samurai Cinema Like the American western, the samurai film lends itself to tales of loyalty, revenge, romance, fighting prowess, and the decline of a traditional way of life. Akihiro Tomikawa, Ip Man 2 (2010) Ip Man is considered one of the best martial arts movies of all time and its sequel, Ip Man 2 is no different. Director: Tsutomu Yamazaki, The works of Akira Kurosawa (considered amongst the greatest directors of all time) had a profound effect, especially on Western filmmakers. Hiroki Matsukata, Takehiro Murata, R | Tadao Nakamaru, 130 min A group of assassins come together for a suicide mission to kill an evil lord. Takashi Miike However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him. Page 1 of 3. $0.85M, Not Rated Each of the multiple characters are distinct and well developed. Action, Crime, Drama. Minoru Chiaki, Director: Yûzô Kayama, 110 min 126 min Akira Kurosawa Kiichi Nakai, The Lone Wolf & Cub series, about a lone samurai and his infant son, is now iconic and highly influential, most recently on The Mandalorian. Director: Samurai 7, is, you guessed it, based on the film Seven Samurai. A noble young samurai searches for a thief who has stolen a precious treasure and killed one of his clansmen and meets an older samurai who tries to deter him from the violence of revenge. 89 min Action, Drama, Thriller. Action, Adventure, Drama. Each holds a part of information needed to complete the assassination of a mad clan leader. Action, Adventure, Drama. 24 Results We are introduced to an orphan called Kotarou and his furry friend Tobimaru. The husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to get her back. However, it is in the final entry of the series that he finally comes head-to-head with his main rival, the deaf swordsman Saski Kojiro. With fantastic performances and stunning imagery this classic film shows how quickly, and tragically, the world can turn to chaos. Chûsha Ichikawa, It tells the story of a rōnin,... Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance. Director: | | 312,305 Stars: Donnie Yen returns in a powerful avatar with more martial arts skills. | Yukiyoshi Ozawa, Votes: Toshirô Mifune, Masatoshi Nagase, 110 min | Kihachi Okamoto Drama, History, Romance. | Shot in color and with some beautiful imagery, this film manages to expertly infuse Buddhism and spirituality into its action. Nearly every entry in the series is worth watching, but it is this second entry that gained its reputation. Akira Kurosawa Director: | Akira Kurosawa | Votes: 2,544 120 min | Gross: It shows the characters as skilled but prideful people who, when conflict arises, throw everything away for the sake of honor. Stars: Michiyo Yasuda, Votes: Yôji Yamada Shingo Yamashiro, 207 min | Gross: Stars: The first, of what will be many entries from Akira Kurosawa, Hidden Fortress blends samurai history, with Japanese folk tale. Beginning in a time of peace, the film offers a critique of the lofty ideals of the samurai. Yôko Naitô, Not Rated Tatsuyoshi Ehara, PG Kôichi Satô, RELATED: Akira Kurosawa: 10 Interesting Facts About The Legendary Director. Arguably all the cinematic tricks used to build teams of superheroes in modern comic-book movies began with this film. Yôko Tsukasa, Stars: Ren Osugi, Not Rated Shima Iwashita, 96 min Takeshi Kitano | Shin'ichi Chiba, Keiju Kobayashi, A legendary swordsman, full of arrogance and vanity, walks the path of death killing mercilessly as he goes, until one of his victim's swears revenge. It is very similar to the film. Tetsurô Tanba,