Great Samurai Movies You Should Watch 

Zatoichi, the blind Samurai

Rurouni kenshin trilogy and the anime series...It might not be a perfect example for a samurai movie but i really love the story of a cold blooded killer turned wanderer and his reversed blade katana

The Rurouni Kenshin movies. All 4 are on Netflix. Rurouni Kenshin: Origins, Kyoto Inferno, The Legend Ends, and The Final. The Beginning just released in Japan.

@@bruh918 Yes! Did you see The Final? Loved it! Also, the OVAs Trust and Betrayal and Reflections (even though Reflections is not canon) are some of the best I've seen.

"When the last sword Is drawn" aka "The last Sword" is a fantastic movie. A Swansong of the Samurai.

agreed! IMO Harakiri is not only the best samurai movie but the best movie ever made.

@@snagogh9804 I fully agree with u

Different breeds- the think with harakiri was the magnificent Tatsuya Nakadai. He literally carried the movie; but Kurosawa is Kurosawa,man. Look at how innovative 7 samurai still is,all his movies are. He has the most masterpieces of all directors.

Wonderful film.

Beautiful movie about a samurai eschewing the more traditional, shall we say toxic elements of bushido and masculinity, trying to be honourable as well as being a good father. Ultimately, his honour is his downfall. It's incredibly moving. See also The Hidden Blade by the same director for a similar tale of a man trying to balance his honour as a man and as a samurai.

@@GrainneMhaol Thanks for the suggestion! But I think, to Iguchi, honour didn't really value as much as his family. He even said he'd rather be a farmer than a sumurai, and refused the killing mission many times. I think it was more out of necessity that he had to take on the mission in order to provide for his family. He was a lowely ranked samurai with little income and even had debt on his shoulders. Well, this is just my opinion, and it's a great movie nontheless!

@@leslieher4600 True, but he can't quite surrender the samurai life, in spite of his promises. In the end, his love interest transcends her samurai family position by visiting a peasant festival, but he cannot, or will not resign his position. Anyway, It's a wonderful movie.

@@GrainneMhaol That does make me wonder what the samurai identity means to him. Good point!

Harakiri original was a masterpiece but the remake doesn't hold up well at al...

@@ihaveeyesbutimustntlook1668 Do remakes ever hold up?

@@genustinca5565 sadly, true

They aren’t ranked.

@@littleturdlets5294 yeah, they are ranked m8

Yes they have been very helpful!

Same thoughts. Quickly became one of my favorites and really building the community and highlighting their voices alongside these well thought out video essays was such an inspired decision.

I think for us Ran has to be top 3 or even second favorite Samurai movie👍 It is just so beautiful and distinct from other films.

Harakiri( original) is better imho

Kagemusha, the final battle, one of the most violent things I never 'saw' all conveyed fantastically through the face of the Kagemusha as he sends his regiments in one by one and we HEAR them being slaughtered, just watching the horror on the Kagemusha's face as he doesn't know how to get out of it! INCREDIBLE!

@@SteveChiverton yeah, totally. Kurosawa truly is a genius, he blew me away with black and white back in the day, and in color with Ran, Kagemusha and Dreams.

@@SteveChiverton Ye sadly it was zo short some people say the Japanese version had a longer battle.

RRK is based on an anime and manga... there's bound to be some cheese

@@rumblefish9 what?

Ruruoni Kenshin is a really fun series - especially as a 'lightener' if you've recently done a 'Kurosawa collection' binge followed by a Takashi Miike one! I view them as sort of 'bubblegum samurai' movies. And I think the fourth release which I watched last night - 'The Final' is FANTASTIC [if you're a fan of the RK movies]- possibly the best of the series to bow out on. I haven't done the manga versions - somehow they have just never appealed to me, but I do enjoy the 'live action' adaptations.

@@ihaveeyesbutimustntlook1668 he means that when you translate an anime/manga into live action while also staying faithful to the source material things can get weird but I think they did a really good job with this one

@@SteveChiverton I like ur term “ bubblegum samurai” lmao, definitely gotta check out the new RRK though haven’t gotten around to watching it

One of the very very few good live action anime/manga movies.

Which one of the four?

THIS!

@@cfbilly70 All 4

It was quite different to the anime, the main character was quite changed tonally.

I will take that bet

The Rurouni Kenshin movies. All 4 are on Netflix. Rurouni Kenshin, Kyoto Inferno, The Legend Ends, and The Final. The Beginning just released in Japan. I highly recommend them.

Yeah I’m worried about that honestly, like I do want it finished but I also know the weight on the assistance’s shoulders must be immense. If it isn’t the legend himself, fans will see it a lesser by default... either way, Rest In Peace Miura.

The six movies are great as well, if you haven't seen them.

@@Tenpouin I've seen all of the movies in this video. A while back, I was in the hospital and I was recovering at home. I watched tons of samurai movies all week. The Samurai Trilogy with Toshiro Mifune is good, too.

@@Poisonedblade it's good to know you have a made full recovery, or so it seems. Any other recommendations? I'm a big fan of samurai movies (I too have watched all the movies in the video lol) and you seem to know your stuff

@@Tenpouin Samurai Champloo is a fun anime. Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba is an awesome sword anime and is breaking records. I can't think of any great recent samurai movies. They're all in the Mifune / Nakadai era. Hidden Fortress was good, too.

Three Outlaw Samurai starred Tetsuro Tamba, you might be confusing it with Kobyashi Masaki’s Samurai Rebellion which does star Toshiro Mifune and explores similar themes that his Hari Kiri did.

Sanjuro changed all that.

Enjoy 👍

Much appreciated 👍

" I will not waste your food. " I like how in the background rikichi bows.

Yep, Seven Samurais was an epic, 3 hours movie in black and white.

Yes he was👍

@@demonfromhell2022 Without Hidden Fortress there is no Star Wars! And I think without Yojimbo there is no Clint Eastwood!

There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.

@@sub7se7en hell yeah brother

Ryomaden is good too.

Man,you made me curious to rewatch Kagemusha again. It was my first Kurosawa movie,at age 15,and it caught my attention. Didn't blew me away,that was the second movie from Him that i saw,namely Rashomon. That got me hooked in Kurosawa,and i think i saw 25-26 of his movies since then. Also,i became a movie buff,but still,there is no director that literally caught my attention like Him. The range of emotions that man made you feel,is absolutely outstanding. He really is the biggest God in the Pantheon of movie creators. And mind you,i am european,and sometimes i find asian movies boring,or too similar from the hundreds i've seen(although they produce more quality that hollywood,that's for sure) The acting is subdued,there are no feelings shown...There were famous japanese directors that bored me to death;Maybe Kurosawa was indeed,the most western japanese director. His mix of drama,action,powerful message and flawless creative cinematography is what makes him unique. He is Shakespeare of cinema

@@alakhazom "Kagemusha" is one of the most Japanese of Kurosawa's samurai movies to the point that it left many Western viewers puzzled. Pauline Kael admitted she had no idea what it was about. By contrast, no one wondered whast the epic tale, "Seven Samurai," was about. When you watch it play close attention to the scenes in which the double appears to be possessed by the spirit of Takeda Shingen. Brilliant and very Japanese.

@@haroldbridges515 What's your opinion on Ozu? I read and read about him for years,but when i tried to watch some of his movies,i simply found them boring...very static,and i don't mean that it lacked physicality,just it was very-very low-key in dynamism between characters. Very formal,as their etiquette usually is

@@alakhazom I understand that the Japanese directors themselves regard Kurosawa as a Western director, which would explain why his films are so accessible to us Westerners. Ozu, by contrast, is clearly the most Japanese director of all, which is naturally going to make his work a lot less accessible to Westerners, but a taste for which is worth acquiring. His subject is always the family and usually its dissolution. American films assert a view of family life in which everyone can and indeed should be happy somehow. Japanese culture in Ozu's representation recognizes that even if someone succeeds there are always losers. So, in "Late Spring" the father, played by Chishu Ryu, recognizes that his daughter of marrigeable age, the incandescent Setsuko Hara, is too content to stay home and take care of her father. So, he contrives a small feint to push her gently out of the nest so that she will have her own married life. And so she does leaving him with days as he says that are "a little too long." The understatement heightens then emotion in a receptive viewer. I have never found any scene in an Ozu movie to be boring. In the first movie of his that I ever saw a young woman takes a train ride from the country into the city. Nothing happens. There is no eye contact with another passenger nor some unexpected mishap. She sees the trees through the train window. The scene takes some time and is a marvel. Ozu has made completely undramatic everyday life satisfying to watch. We come out of an Ozu movie, not awed by the great drama that Kurosawa gives us, but glad to have our life as human beings with other people. Understatement is an essential element of traditional Japanese aesthetics, perhaps more so than in any other culture. In "Tokyo Story" the old couple take a much anticipated train trip to the city to visit their adult children only to find that they are too absorbed in their own lives to spend time with the parents whom they then send off to some resort by themselves. A young girl in the family is upset at the heartlessness she has witnessed and is consoled by her aunt, Setsuko Hara again, that "Other people are really a little disappointing, aren't they?" And that line is the climax of the movie. Even Ozu's silent movies remain compelling while most of the silent movies from Hollywood just seem like curiosities now. In addition to the thematic content, Ozu's cinematograhy is distinctly Japanese. Scenes in a home are shot with the camera at the height of the eyes of a person sitting seiza-style on his heels on the floor. I never saw any other director do that. But most of all the characters are often just facing directly into the camera and talking to some character whose position is now taken by the audience. This breaks all the rules of dynamic cinematography and yet it works every time. (Actually director Mike Nichols broke the same rule in the same way when he shot Wallace Shawn's play, "The Designated Mourner" as a series of soliloquys straight at the camera. A brilliant and great film." So, Ozu is an acquired taste. But after you have watched some few of his films, try to find a copy of "Tokyo Ga," an homage to Ozu by another great director, Wim Wenders. There is a scene in that where Wenders is interviewing Ozu's cinematographer or cameraman with whom the director had worked closely for decades. The cameraman tells how Ozu liked to continue to hold a shot long after the character's reaction has registered. As he tells the story he breaks down weeping at the memory of his old boss and waves Wenders away, telling him to stop shooting. Wenders holds the shot.

@@haroldbridges515 Well,thanks for the long answer. I reckon that it takes a little bit of knowledge to get into Ozu,as it portrays japanese normal life;which is very formulaic,what is not said is as important as what is said,and customs are the norm of any situation. Funny,in all my travels all over the globe(i worked in an airline)i found the taiwanese to be the most shy persons i saw in my life. Even more than japanese. I remember trying to get into some taiwanese directors,yet again,until now,couldn't make myself watch a whole movie. Btw, another 3 favorites of mine are Wong-Kar Wai,and Yimou Zhang,and Chang Park Wook. Different stiles,all of them,yet important in their own rights;probably you know about them. But i would like to recommend the movies of Johnnie To,he is a prolific Hong Kong director,who makes really catchy movies. I would recommend The mission 1999,as a staring point. Action movie,yet natural in flowing of the plot,with super stylish execution

Also, "Love and Honor" the third one from the trilogy is a must if you like the first two.

Sword of Deception, The Samurai I Loved, the original 13 Assassins, newer Harakiri, Shinsengumi, When the Last Sword is Drawn

Unforgiven is really good, extremely rare on Blu Ray, I paid allot for my copy, but I am a Huge Chambara fan, all the movies I have listed I own on Blu Ray (if they were made) or DVD and sometimes both

Loved that one too.

bry4n3 The Rurouni Kenshin movies. Watch them. They're on Netflix right now... all 4 movies. They're great. the RRK movies really changed the way sword fights were done because Blade of the Immortal's fight scenes were inspired by the RRK movies.

As a kid growing up in Melbourne in the mid-60's most of us wanted to BE Shintaro at playtime, not a cowboy! And it is from that early exposure that my lifelong love of all things Samurai has come, my entire movie collection is Samurai!

Yes

The book is amazing. All that asian saga by Clavell is jaw-dropping. Page turners

Yeah it's gorgeous.

Rurouni Kenshin movies are good too.

Except all his non samurai movies lol

@@FeebleBird903agreed

@@kenxiong6830 his non samurai movies are still gold, just not samurai gold.