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20 titles. Sort by List order. 1. Seven Samurai. 1954 3h 27m Not Rated. 8.6 (367K) Rate. 98 Metascore. Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him. Director Akira Kurosawa Stars Toshirô Mifune Takashi Shimura Keiko Tsushima. 2. Harakiri. 1962 2h 13m Not Rated.
- Seven Samurai
- Samurai Trilogy
- Throne of Blood
- Yojimbo
- Harakiri
- Sanjuro
- The Tale of Zatoichi
- Chūshingura
- Three Outlaw Samurai
- The Sword of Doom
Director:Akira Kurosawa 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. Kurosawa had famously extended production costs, along with the timeline Toho Studios had wanted him to adhere to. It worked out, as the film would go on to be...
Director:Hiroshi Inagaki Is it cheating to allow for the inclusion of a trilogy on this best samurai movies list? I suppose so, since it’s fairly difficult to watch just one of these. That means setting aside 300+ minutes for director Hiroshi Inagaki’s masterpiece depiction of the legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto. I will grant you that’s a lot of...
Director:Akira Kurosawa Throne of Blood is quite possibly the finest marriage of Shakespeare with feudal Japan. It is yet another extraordinary collaboration between Toshiro Mifune, playing essentially Macbeth, and Akira Kurosawa, who was no stranger to using outside influences to tell decidedly Japanese stories. Throne of Blood is perhaps best app...
Director:Akira Kurosawa The truth of the matter is that there isn’t a bad Kurosawa/Mifune collaboration in the bunch. It is even more impressive when you consider the variety in the stories they told together. Yojimbo is considerably more lighthearted than anything else they ever did. It is still packed with suspense, as well as some of the most en...
Director:Masaki Kobayashi A deeply effecting mediation on hypocrisy, the madness of a code, and similar subjects, Harakiri is one of the most emotionally devastating entries on this list. While this high drama by director Masaki Kobayashi has some memorable fight scenes, particularly close to the end, this is more of a human story than anything els...
Director:Akira Kurosawa Just one year after the success of Yojimbo, Toshiro Mifune and Akira Kurosawa teamed up again to take the character into a darker territory. The result is Mifune playing the character with a little less aloofness, in a story in which Sanjuro assists a group of young men who are trying to obliterate corruption from their clan...
Director: Kenji Misumi The first in a long series of successful films from Dalei Studios, The Tale of Zatoichi accomplishes two things. It is a wonderful introduction to Zatoichi, played here (and for the course of this film series) by the immensely talented Shintaro Katsu. It is easy to fall in love with Zatoichi’s loner ideals, and with the fact ...
Director:Hiroshi Inagaki Of the many cinematic versions of the famous 47 Ronin story, the Hiroshi Inagaki-directed Chūshingura is perhaps my favorite. Running 207 minutes, this is another entry on the list that will demand a lot of your time. Samurai narratives lend themselves well to epic film storytelling. Chūshingura is a clear example of that. ...
Director:Hideo Gosha A prequel film for a popular TV series, Hideo Gosha made a ferocious feature film debut that has since come to be regarded as one of the most enjoyable and accessible samurai movies of all time. Three Outlaw Samurai benefits from great characters, particularly the three titular outlaws. At the same time, the movie also keeps th...
Director:Kihachi Okamoto Directed by the fascinating Kihachi Okamoto, The Sword of Doom is one of the great showcases for Tatsuya Nakadai, who is no stranger to list of great samurai movies at this point. A samurai of questionable morals, Ryunosuke Tsukue is compelling but insufferable, when we first meet him. This is just the beginning of a redemp...
- Jeremy Urquhart
- 'Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril' (1972) The fourth Lone Wolf and Cub movie, 1972's Baby Cart in Peril, represents the series at its absolute peak.
- 'Throne of Blood' (1957) There are too many great Shakespeare film adaptations out there to count them all, but Throne of Blood is rightly held up reasonably often as one of the very best.
- 'Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival' (1970) Right before Zatoichi met The One-Armed Man, he also went to the fire festival, in the appropriately titled 21st film in the series, Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival.
- 'The Sword of Doom' (1966) The Sword of Doom is unapologetically dark, bloody, and oftentimes shocking. It follows an expert swordsman who doesn't seem to have much sense of morality, taking on various violent tasks, and seeing himself become more and more evil with every violent act he does.
Apr 12, 2024 · Thirteen sagas of honor and revenge released in the modern era. Cinema has always had a fondness for the tales of samurai. Whether it's thrilling action films, heartbreaking dramas, or even love...
- Blade of the Immortal (2017) – 86% Available on Tubi, Vudu, Pluto TV, and Hulu. The hundredth—yes, one with two zeros behind it—film from Japanese director Takashi Miike, Blade of the Immortal is an adaptation of a manga of the same name, and many worried what it might become in Miike's hands, as he was responsible for the largely-disliked live-action version of Jojo's Bizzare Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable from the same year.
- Zatoichi (2003) – 87% Available to purchase on Prime Video. Zatoichi, the remake of a similarly-rated 1962 film, is every bit as deserving as a successor to the title's legacy.
- Kagemusha (1980) – 88% Available to purchase on Prime Video. In this 1980 Akira Kurosawa epic, a thief is spared from execution due to his uncanny resemblance to a feudal lord, and, when that lord is later killed, he must act as a stand-in to prevent further political turmoil.
- Ninja Scroll (1993) – 94% Available on Hulu. In the early 1990s, interest in anime began to surge in North America, with films like Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke and Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell launching the medium into the pop culture stratosphere.
Apr 26, 2024 · 1. The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail Year: 1945. Director: Akira Kurosawa. We’ll be hearing much more from Akira Kurosawa throughout this list, so it’s worth it to have a look...
Jan 29, 2024 · From 13 Samurai to The Last Samurai, we pick the 10 best samurai movies that you need to rewatch today
