Best Samurai Movie

[tljenkin]

What is the best samurai movie that you walk away from feeling like the samurai's are badasses with high moral character besides the Seven Samurai?

 

[matadorpoeta]

yojimbo

 

[Get Smart]

By far, "Hunters in the Dark" directed by Hideo Gosha and starring Tatsuya Nakadai. Not easy to find, but cinematically and story-wise it is stunning, a very layered story and some of the most amazingly beautiful shots I've ever seen in a samurai film. It's from the late 70s but doesn't look dated in any way. The cool thing is that this film shows their 'morality' at odds, not so cut/dry.

A bit cheesier but still a good watch is the "Samurai" series starring Mifune Toshiro about legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. It is from the 50s (I think it won an academy award for best foreign film back then) and is a 3 part trilogy. There's a certain campiness and melodrama to it, but what do you expect from a 1950s Japanese film. Still very fun, almost soap-opera like. It really plays up the "morality" issue of samurais, in a gunslinger kinda way.

 

[Kent Wang]

If you could sit through Seven Samurai perhaps you will like the 4+ hour epic The 47 Ronin.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

Shogun Assassin !
But only because Ninja Scroll doesn't count.

 

[skalogre]

Do you mean chambara film or a film set in the old days (Edo and prior)? Not a fan of prior but like the latter. Personally I would not categorise most of Kurosawa's period films as the former, although Sanjuro is close... One of the best - and most realistic probably - is a modern film, Tasogare Seibei. But I digress. I agree that the "Samurai Trilogy" on everyone's favourite super kenshi, Musashi, starring everyone's favourite actor, Mifune is much more chambara than serious film. P.s. a huge chunk of Mifune's non-Kurosawa directed filmography is basically much closer to the pulp film chambara side of things, although the vast majority are not nearly as good as his films done under "Tenno"

P.s.2 I readily admit I take cinema too seriously, so I am sorry in advance. I'll admit that I can be a picky bastard

 

[Gradstudent78]

Well if you want absolute badass, but not necessarily the high moral character (the main character is pretty much a psychopath), I would go with Sword of Doom.

 

[skalogre]

Ok, reread your post. Just sounds like you are more in to the equivalent of westerns in reality, chambara films. Serves me right for replying while sleepy. Don't have much to add which is useful as I don't usually watch that stuff...

 

[Arethusa]

Tasogare Teibei (Twilight Samurai) and Samurai Fiction.

 

[LabelKing]

How about The Last Samurai?

 

[Oldboy]

Not the best, but I really liked Takeshi Kitano's take on Zatoichi.

 

[Arethusa]

Originally Posted by Oldboy

Not the best, but I really liked Takeshi Kitano's take on Zatoichi.
Yes.

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by LabelKing

How about The Last Samurai?

Jon.

 

[denimdestroyedmylife]

and then get the soundtrack recline your seat and drive around real slow-like smoke pouring out your window

 

[Get Smart]

Originally Posted by Arethusa

Tasogare Teibei (Twilight Samurai) .

a great movie, might be a bit too "quiet" for one to leave thinking it was badass.

Kitano's "zatoichi" is great, as are all the original films from the 60s