Samurai Films

[englandmj7]

Other than the obvious: "Seven Samurai", "Last Samurai" etc., etc. are there any other great samurai movies you would recommend? I saw some clips of "Shogun's Samurai" last night that got me thinking.

I've seen "Lone Wolf," "Zatoichi" and those mentioned above. Still need to see "Rashomon", "Yojimbo" "Samurai I"........... Any other non-anime recommendations?

[denimdestroyedmylife]

ghost dog!

and not really a samurai movie per se but le samourai is definitely in the same spirit

[evisu 2000]

samurai fiction, sword of doom, samurai spy, samurai rebellion, the razor, kiru, samurai ii (best in the trilogy imo).

[polishmike]

[sybaritical]

Was going to say Ghost Dog but Deedee beat me to it.

Def have to see the Kurosawa movies.

And.

Try "The Twilight Samurai" for something contemporary.

[englandmj7]

I HATE Ghost Dog. Worst movie of all time. Cheers for the recommendation though.

Somehow my thread title changed from "Films" to "Flicks"........what the hell??? Odd edit.

:confused:

Also, is "Samurai Knights" any good?

[denimdestroyedmylife]

you see yojimbo?

and check out MAGNIFICENT SEVEN if you haven't seen this western adaptation of Seven Samurai

[polishmike]

I think you should see Yojimbo as soon as you can. I don't really like samurai movies but it's one of my favorite movie of all time.

[seemeugly]

The Lone Wolf and Cub series are pretty awesome samurai explotation movies.

[hawkeye]

I watched Harakiri recently and really enjoyed it.

[designersheep]

Three non-typical Samurai films!

1. Humanity and Paper Baloons (Ninjo Kami Fusen, 1937, Yamanaka Sadao): I really recommend this if you aren't necessarily looking for fight scenes. The main character is a samurai, but the entire film plays without a single sword fight. It's more about samurais losing their place and dignity in changing times.

2. The Assasin (Ansatsu, 1964, Shinoda Masahiro): More of a political thriller. A complex nihilistic samurai film.

3. Demons (Shura, 1971, Matsumoto Toshio): A film about a samurai facing deception, betrayal, etc... and going through hell. Very atmospheric, almost horror film like.

I don't know where you live, but if you do live in England, you should have easy access to the first two titles. There are UK R2 DVDs available for them. Shura could be tricky to locate.

[mufid]

I really liked Samurai Fiction...not a serious samurai movie but i thought it was quite funny

[RAISED BY WOLVES]

I knew Sheep would come through with some good recs.'

I need to brush up on my Samurai films a bit. Yojimbo is classic, as are some of the others you mentioned but I feel like there's so much left to see.

And Ghostdog is good.

Fuck what you heard.

[Head Ninja In Charge]

samurai fiction, sword of doom, samurai spy, samurai rebellion, the razor, kiru, samurai ii (best in the trilogy imo).

Dude is so cold in this movie.

[Fuuma]

IS IT POSSIBLE TO STOP POSTING PORN OUTSIDE OF THE TRASH, SOME PEOPLE SURF AT SCHOOL, IN THE LIBRARY, IN CAFES, AT WORK. I'm at home right now but I still hate you; Porno not in the trash should result in insta-ban.

A few additional suggestions:

Koreeda's latest film is a pretty good atypical samurai movie with a humanist slant:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464038/

Yamada made (dunno if the last one was released) another great trilogy about the dawn of the Samurai era:

Twilight samurai

Love and honor

Gohatto (taboo) is a somewhat entertaining social commentary about homosexual desire in the ultra-masculine (hence replete with homoeroticism) world of the samurai. Oshima is a provocateur who loves to trample all over Japanese sacred cows.

Watch all the Kurosawa classics (Sanjuro, Yojimbo, the hidden fortress, 7 samurai, Rashomon, throne of death, Ran, Kagemusha)

Some of Mizoguchi’s films could be considered samurai movies: 47 ronins, Ugetsu monogatari etc.

Just search for the word "Chambara" and you should get plenty of pages with different suggestions.

[Tyler Durden]

yojimbo is hella tight, some other black and white samurai movies can be found on www.stage6.com thats where i watch it anyways.

[Buzz]

Zatoichi....

[englandmj7]

Thanks dudes.

[superBobo]

have you seen all the orginal Lone wolf movies, or just shogun assasin? if not, very recommended.

Alot of nice stuff mentioned in this thread, but unfortunatly I dont have much to add...

[Guest jmatsu]

hattori hanzo kage no gundan/shadow warriors series.

more about shinichi chiba's ninja clan in the tokugawa bakufu era. plenty of ninja/samurai action.

someone mentioned samurai fiction. this was good, but more of a comedic parody of samurai films.

[Guest jmatsu]

have you seen all the orginal Lone wolf movies, or just shogun assasin? if not, very recommended.

Alot of nice stuff mentioned in this thread, but unfortunatly I dont have much to add...

total classic, but the ending leaves you hanging.

[mellowfellow]

the twilight samurai, the hidden blade, and i think the director is working on the third film to complete the trilogy. I like the hidden blade a little bit more.

Samurai fiction was entertaining. Red Shadow was by the same director but it was about ninjas.

Gohatto (Taboo).

I think the criterion collection have a good selections of old samurai films. You may want to check out their website for more recommendations.

[Mbrand]

Goyokin

and Sword of Doom

Are 2 very strong movies. Very dark, there's no Romantic / clever samurai in these. It's more about post-war social criticism, realism and violence.