Classic Samurai Films

[Kurai Tsuki]

Does anybody on this forum enjoy watching old Japanese samurai films, particularly those that star the late Toshiro Mifune and/or are directed by Akira Kurosawa? I’ve recently become interested in these classics and would like to list some of them as recommendations. I’ll update this post later on with plot summaries and comments.

Many of these films were the inspiration for American movies. Seven Samurai was turned into The Magnificent Seven, Yojimbo was made into Fistful of Dollars and The Hidden Fortress was the inspiration for Star Wars. The general movie style also greatly influenced Quintin Tarentino, in fact, Kill Bill was based on a modern Japanese film, Lady Snowblood. And the song on the soundtrack, Shura no Hana, was actually from that movie. But unfortunately I have not seen that one, I don’t think its been released yet in the ‘states.

Toshiro Mifune has also acted in a few American movies, such as Red Sun (the plot of which Shanghai Noon seems to be a rip-off of), Tora Tora Tora, and Shogun. Rashomon
Seven Samurai
Yojimbo
Sanjuro
The Samurai Trilogy (titles are simply Samurai 1, 2, 3)
The Hidden Fortress

[truthaddict11]

i dont remember watching any samurai movies but as a kid i would always watch those Bruce Lee and old Jackie Chan movies and some Kung Fu episodes. I'll have to look into those though, can you give a list of distributors?

[MysticArcher]

Seven Samurai was the best, Yojimbo is also a classic

I liked a movie called Heaven and Earth, it was about the clash between these two warlordds ( I forgot their names) during the Japanese civil war, lots of large battle scenes and a good plot

[Kurai Tsuki]

Originally posted by [email protected] 18 2004, 01:18 AM
i dont remember watching any samurai movies but as a kid i would always watch those Bruce Lee and old Jackie Chan movies and some Kung Fu episodes. I'll have to look into those though, can you give a list of distributors?
They can be found on Amazon, many entertainment (music/movies etc) stores, or large video rental stores.

[canikickit]

I have seen Yojimbo and Seven Samurai.
I found them both very enjoyable, although they can be painfully slow at times.

Due to the fact that they are quite old, and the cultural differences, some moments just do not work. Sometimes there just seems to be pure silence on screen and just the two actors staring at each other (and they're not even trying to build tension or anything).

I liked the last couple of lines in Seven Samurai very much. I won't repeat them here for fear of spoiling the end, but I thought it was a very well made point, particularily the subsequent panning of the camera to the hill and what is on top of it.

[Umoja]

I realize this isn't a Samurai movie, but Quentin Tarantino and a Chinese director are making a movie staring Jet Li called 'Hero'. It looks insane too say the least, CGI's of a thousand archers shooting arrows. Oh Em Gee.

[truthaddict11]

Originally posted by [email protected] 18 2004, 06:01 PM
I realize this isn't a Samurai movie, but Quentin Tarantino and a Chinese director are making a movie staring Jet Li called 'Hero'. It looks insane too say the least, CGI's of a thousand archers shooting arrows. Oh Em Gee.
um that movie has been out for a long time, it was nominated for an oscar in 2003. Its on DVD in China right now (not as a bootleg) on region 0 so it will play in any DVD player, some sites sell it and you can always use eBay, I got one there for 17 bucks including shipping. Should come next week, the film wont see a US release tilll probally Fall/Winter 2004 it was supposed to come out this past friday but Miramax pushed it back because of Vol 2. And QT is just presenting the film at its hollywood premiere thats all.