Lee Cantrell
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A list of 20 classic and acclaimed films featuring samurai warriors, directors, and themes. From Akira Kurosawa's masterpieces to modern adaptations, explore the best of the samurai genre on IMDb.
Apr 12, 2024 · A list of modern samurai films from various directors and genres, ranging from action to drama to comedy. Find out which movies made the cut and why, from Zatoichi: The Last to 47 Ronin.
A user-created list of 65 movies featuring samurai, the Japanese warrior class, from various directors and periods. The list includes classics like Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, and Harakiri, as well as modern adaptations like Rurouni Kenshin and Love and Honor.
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- TV-MA
- Seven Samurai
- Samurai Trilogy
- Throne of Blood
- Yojimbo
- Harakiri
- Sanjuro
- The Tale of Zatoichi
- Chūshingura
- Three Outlaw Samurai
- The Sword of Doom
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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...
A list of the greatest samurai movies ever made, from classics by Akira Kurosawa to modern adaptations. Explore the history, themes, and styles of this enduring genre across different countries and eras.
- 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.
May 5, 2024 · Samurai movies have long been popular for their stories, characters, and action sequences set against the backdrop of feudal Japan. Each movie has made a contribution to the genre, illustrating varying aspects of the lives and struggles samurai faced during this period in history.
Dec 5, 2003 · A 2003 action drama film about a US army captain who is hired by the Japanese emperor to train his army in modern warfare, but gets caught in a conflict between two eras and two worlds. The film features Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Billy Connolly and other stars, and was nominated for four Oscars.
