Cinematic samurai are known for their fierce loyalty, deadly precision with the sword,
and an unswerving commitment to a code of honor. From Japanese classics to American
takes, these are the samurai movies you absolutely need to watch before you die.
The name that rightly dominates any discussion of great samurai movies is Akira Kurosawa.
The late Japanese director made some of the best samurai movies ever, and he's generally
regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time.
"I think he comes from a generation of filmmakers that were still influenced by silent films."
The film most often associated with Kurosawa is 1954's Seven Samurai. The heroes of this
epic film are ronin, which are samurai without masters. The seven warriors unite to protect
a farming community from merciless bandits. They also train the villagers into a makeshift
militia, and the whole thing culminates in a huge, bloody battle.
If the plot of Seven Samurai sounds familiar, that's because it's been copied over and over
again. The classic western The Magnificent Seven is a remake of Seven Samurai, and plenty
of other Westerns have found similar inspiration. The story of veteran heroes training peaceful
townsfolk into soldiers has been copied in everything from comedies like Three Amigos
to episodes of shows like The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian. And the trope of assembling
a team has echoes in heist films like Ocean's Eleven, war movies like The Dirty Dozen, and
superhero flicks like The Avengers. Basically, if you love movies, then you've almost definitely
seen something influenced by Kurosawa.
If you're a fan of Westerns, you're likely familiar with 1992's Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood's
Oscar-winning film about an aging gunslinger who sets out on one last job.
"I'll see you in hell, William Munny."
But what you may not know is that Korean director Lee Sang-il remade Unforgiven in 2013, with
Japanese actor Ken Watanabe as retired samurai Jubei.
Set in Japan's Hokkaido frontier, the plot of 2013's Unforgiven hews pretty closely to
the original's. Jubei and his old friend Kingo are lured out of retirement by the promise
of a handsome reward for killing two brothers who have disfigured a sex worker. They're
joined by the younger Goro, who makes bold claims about a triumphant and violent past.
The trio clash with the local lawman, who's determined to stop anyone looking to make
good on the sex workers' contract. This is clearly destined to end badly for everyone
involved. Unforgiven is a visually rich, morally challenging epic. It's a faithful echo of
its source material, with the added benefit of Watanabe's singular talent.
2002's The Twilight Samurai is a different kind of samurai movie. Its hero, Seibei Iguchi,
is a low-level, poor samurai who works as a clerk. His wife dies early in the film,
leaving him to raise his two daughters alone on a modest stipend. When his old friend Tomoe
begins to regularly visit him and help take care of the girls, Seibei falls in love. Sadly,
though, he is ashamed of his social status and initially refuses to marry his old friend.
While The Twilight Samurai has its share of swordplay, neither action nor adventure is
the focus of the film. It's more interested in character than other typical elements of
the genre and, as such, Seibei is a lot more relatable than your average fictional samurai.
Most samurai movie fans probably don't deal with a lot of far-reaching adventures involving
assassination and revenge in their own lives. But things like loss, love, and the difficult
balance between work and family are much more universal concepts.
The Twilight Samurai is a refreshing and uncharacteristically upbeat samurai film, and that distinction
helped it earn a dozen Japanese Academy Awards, along with an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign
Language Film.
In the wake of The Twilight Samurai's success in 2002, the doors opened for more filmmakers
to dive back into the long-neglected genre. Among them was Takashi Miike who earned praise
for his 2010 remake of the 1963 classic 13 Assassins. Set in 1844, the story follows
a group of samurai determined to take down a powerful and cruel lord whose rule could
mean nothing but horror for the future of Japan.
Despite its direct source material, 13 Assassins often feels a lot like Seven Samurai, including
its length. At close to two and a half hours, 13 Assassins begins relatively slowly but
climaxes with a spectacular and prolonged battle between the heroes and the villain's
army. It's an epic set piece that includes an abandoned town converted into a deadly
labyrinth of booby traps.
The film is heralded as one of Miike's best, and it also went a long way to revitalize
the dormant samurai genre. It was nominated for 10 Japanese Academy Awards and won four
of them. And as Spectrum Culture critic David Harris wrote,
"Miike has created a reverential and vital film in a genre that many may have thought
as moribund and passé as its subject."
The plays of William Shakespeare have remained relevant for centuries after they were first
written. His works have been adapted into countless movies because they still speak
to audiences today. Akira Kurosawa proved this better than anyone with 1957's Throne
of Blood, his adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. While Macbeth is set in Scotland,
Throne of Blood takes place in Japan. But besides the setting change, the two stories
are otherwise remarkably similar.
Throne of Blood's protagonist is General Washizu, who at first seems as loyal to his lord as
any samurai. After he's visited by a strange spirit who tells him that one day he'll become
the lord of Spider's Web Castle, he tells his wife Asaji about the prophecy. Just as
Lady Macbeth did with her husband, Asaji urges her partner to make the spirit's prediction
come true by killing the lord and taking his place. After that, just like his Shakespearean
inspiration, Washizu finds himself well past the point of no return and on a road that
can only end with a bloodbath. Throne of Blood is not only essential for samurai fans but
for Shakespeare devotees well. As The Guardian critic Derek Malcolm put it,
"It remains a landmark of visual strength...and is possibly the finest Shakespearean adaptation
ever committed to the screen."
"This clever reimagination of a Shakespearean classic is always included among Kurosawa's
best."
One of the most unique entries on this list is Jim Jarmusch's 1999 crime drama Ghost Dog:
The Way of the Samurai. This one doesn't take place in Japan, and stranger still, we're
not sure exactly where in America it's meant to be set, as no city name is ever provided
within the film itself.
Forest Whitaker stars as the titular hitman who binds himself in service to local mobster
Louie, after Louie saves his life. But Ghost Dog isn't just any old hitman. When he's not
working, he tends to his pigeons, meditates, and studies Hagakure, a collection of conversations
from the early 18th century about the meaning of the code of bushido. Ghost Dog sees himself
as a samurai and is a strict follower of bushido.
"I follow a code. I've always given you my respect."
The fact that Ghost Dog continues to work for Louie, and eventually begins taking out
his boss' competition when Louie's life is in danger, is proof enough of his devotion
to the code. Even after it becomes clear that Louie isn't returning Ghost Dog's loyalty,
the hitman refuses to lift a hand against him. Ultimately, Ghost Dog: The Way of the
Samurai is a uniquely moving and surprisingly funny film about a man who refuses to let
go of who he is in the face of a hostile world.
By the early 60s, Japanese actor Toshirô Mifune had already starred in multiple Akira
Kurosawa films. In 1961, the two of them teamed up once again for the first of a pair of films
in which Mifune played impoverished samurai Sanjuro, a name that means "30 years old."
Each movie would prove to be some of the best in the entire canon of the genre. When we
first meet Sanjuro in Yojimbo, he's found himself in a town where a feud between two
warring clans is raging. Rather than work for one clan or the other, he winds up getting
hired by both sides as part of a secret plan that he hopes will wipe out both groups.
In 1962, Mifune starred in the follow-up, Sanjuro, in which the title hero teams up
with a group of samurai intent on fighting a corrupt lord. Some of the most influential
aspects of Yojimbo and Sanjuro are felt in Western cinema. Yojimbo's antihero is credited
as the prototype for the similarly amoral Man With No Name, as played by Clint Eastwood
in Italian director Sergio Leone's spaghetti western Dollars trilogy. The similarities
between these two characters aren't especially clear in the more comedic Sanjuro, but in
the much darker Yojimbo, their shared characteristics are obvious enough for anyone to recognize.
Kill Bill is a stylistically beautiful revenge epic and a story too big for a single film.
It's also Quentin Tarantino's love letter to martial arts and samurai cinema. In 2003's
Kill Bill: Volume 1, Uma Thurman's merciless ex-assassin is known only as "the Bride."
When we first meet her, we have no idea why she's arrived at Vernita Green's suburban
home in a garish yellow truck, or why the two women proceed to beat the crap out of
each other.
"You can take my word for it. Your mother had it coming."
Eventually, we learn that the Bride left the employ of the enigmatic Bill to pursue a normal
life. But at the rehearsal for her wedding, Bill found her, and he and his top assassins
killed all of the guests and left the Bride for dead. Miraculously, though, she survived
and began her path of vengeance.
The first film is heavier on action, particularly in the climax in the Japanese restaurant,
The House of Blue Leaves. It's there that the Bride has a darkly hilarious and visually
stunning showdown against the sword-wielding Crazy Eighty-Eights. Kill Bill: Volume 2 arrived
into theaters just one year later. It dives deeper into the Bride's background and the
reasons for her war with Bill. The entire two-film saga is a wonderful cinematic achievement
that all action movie fanatics should experience at least once.
American audiences may not be familiar with the name "Zatoichi," but in Japan, the fictional
blind swordsman is eminently recognizable. Between 1962 and 1989, Japanese actor Shintaro
Katsu starred as Zatoichi in 26 films, along with 100 episodes of the Zatoichi TV series
that aired from 1974 to 1979. In 2003, Takeshi Kitano revitalized the hero with The Blind
Swordsman: Zatoichi, which he directed, wrote, and starred in as the legendary samurai character.
In the film, Zatoichi is an otherwise peaceful swordsman who helps a pair of sisters in their
quest to make criminals pay for killing their parents. The movie is a series of contradictions
that shouldn't work together, but somehow, they do. It's as bloody as a typical samurai
film, while it also manages to be hilarious and often beautiful. Kitano's unique style
makes these warring notes work perfectly, with big laughs and bigger, stylized bloodletting.
As Time Out critic Geoff Andrews put it,
"[The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi is] without doubt fast, funny, fabulous to behold."
In many ways, 1965's Samurai Assassin is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. Its
hero is Tsuruchiyo Niiro, a ronin who knows he's the illegitimate son of a powerful nobleman.
Desperate to be recognized as a true samurai, he joins a plot to assassinate a controversial
lord. He hopes that this will earn his father's pride and encourage him to reveal himself.
Based on an actual incident in Japanese history, Samurai Assassin can at times get bogged down
with the exposition that provides historical context. But its payoff is a stunning, brutal
battle in the snow at the end of the film, which makes the wait more than worth it.
Fans of happy endings may want to skip Samurai Assassin, as it includes a surprise twist
that makes everything that unfolds seem even starker and more senseless. Regardless, it's
a captivating presentation of tragic historical events that eventually lead to the end of
the samurai.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite
stuff are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss
a single one.