If you are looking for a collection of the best samurai movies of all time, then this is the perfect stop. We got a list of the 40 best Samurai films, including Anime, Japanese, and Hollywood movies. All you need to do is get a bowl of popcorn, sit back, and enjoy your binging.
The list range from movies with mystical elements in them to ones at par with documentaries. Funny or gore, it’s your time to choose.
40. 13 Assassins (2010)
- Director: Takashi Miike
- Writer: Daisuke Tengan
- Cast: Kôji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Iseya
- IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 95%
- Platforms Available: VUDU, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV
Action movies without gang wars are like social media without BuzzFeed. This anime series is rumored to be based on real-life incidents. It has battle sequences, bloody to gore and evil to madness in the entirety of the plot. A samurai master hires twelve assassins to hunt down an evil lord of ancient Japan, and how their journey goes from there. The realistic projections of the background in the plot make it a predecessor of the concept used by Ghibli productions.
This anime series was one of the Japanese samurai films that became popular worldwide.
39. 47 Ronin (2013)
- Director: Carl Rinsch
- Writer: Chris Morgan, Hossein Amini
- Cast: Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano
- IMDb Rating: 6.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 16%
- Platforms Available: VUDU, Amazon Prime, Apple TV
47 Ronin stars our Matrix hero, Keanu Reeves. If that ain’t a good enough reason to watch this movie, there’s more. It’s one of the best samurai movies, which depicts a real-life story from the Tokugawa period. The movie is a pure spectacle as the story starts unfolding around a masterless samurai and their epic journey.
A classic tale of avenging the death of their leader by unusual collaboration will remind you of Thor and Loki working together.
38. Blade of the Immortal (2017)
- Director: Takashi Miike
- Writer: Tetsuya Oishi
- Cast: Takuya Kimura, Hana Sugisaki, Sôta Fukushi
- IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%
- Platforms Available: VUDU, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Netflix
Who doesn’t like the idea of immortality? Well, apparently, it’s our hero Manji. A samurai is cursed with immortality by a nun who looks harmless. Better said than done, Manji starts looking for his life over time. A young woman approaches him to play as her bodyguard while she’s out on her mission.
These memorable characters give a big-time Wolverine vibe and are one of the greatest samurai movies of all time.
37. Blood of the Samurai (2001)
- Director: Aaron Yamasato
- Writer: Aaron Yamasato
- Cast: Michael Ng, Bryan Yamasaki, Shawn Forsythe
- IMDb Rating: 5.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: Unavailable
- Platforms Available: For Rent on Amazon Prime
We come across samurai movies that have historical pillars. We come across samurai movies with blood and gore. But how often do we come across a samurai film which is a supernatural epic? Rarely.
Blood of Samurai is a samurai film with mystical traits to its plot. Two friends come across abandoned samurai swords. One attains the quality to use it like professions. The other gets the wisdom to gibber-jabber threats like a warlord. The duo set out on an epic journey.
36. Chūshingura (1963)
- Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa
- Writer: Teinosuke Kinugasa
- Cast: Tomio Aoki, Juzaburo Bando, Kôtarô Bandô
- IMDb Rating: 5.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: Unavailable
- Platforms Available: For Rent on Amazon Prime
Chūshingura is one of the samurai films of Japanese cinema, which have a baseline plot. A boss is tricked by a villain and is pushed behind bars. It ignites the human spirit of vengeance among the boss’s underlings. Wham the perfect setting for a gang war. This setting has been used for Tokugawa period dramas as well as current ones.
What makes this movie a grindhouse classic, you ask? It is the impeccable portrayal of its fictional character in Japanese cinema.
35. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
- Director: Jim Jarmusch
- Writer: Jim Jarmusch
- Cast: Forest Whitaker, John Tormey, Cliff Gorman
- IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 83%
- Platforms Available: For Rent on Amazon Prime
Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog is one of the best samurai movies in history. Our protagonist is a renegade samurai who works for a small mobster. For Ghost Dog, there are rules, no regulations, and no morals. In short, he is everything a samurai should not be, except for his exceptional fighting skills. What is the one thing that keeps grounded to this small-time mobster? This mobster saved his life years ago.
So does that make Ghost Dog in debt to him for the entirety of his life? Or maybe not.
34. Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011)
- Director: Takashi Miike
- Writer: Kikumi Yamagishi
- Cast: Ebizô Ichikawa, Eita, Hikari Mitsushima
- IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 76%
- Platforms Available: For Rent on Amazon Prime and VUDU
The term Hara-Kiri in itself designates the process of killing oneself in the Japanese Samurai Culture. It is considered an honor for a samurai to draw a sword in himself in the face of defeat. This samurai movie depicts the beauty of this ancient ritual. But it also highlights the pain and glory that comes with it. While the hero is about to perform this ritual, a story of another samurai is told and how fate dealt with him.
The movie shows a story within a story. If you are a fan of Inception, this movie is your go-to.
33. The Hidden Fortress (1958)
- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- Writer: Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryûzô Kikushima, Hideo Oguni
- Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Misa Uehara, Minoru Chiaki
- IMDb Rating: 8.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 97%
- Platforms Available: HBO max, and for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Akira Kurosawa’s samurai movies are a guaranteed hit. The Hidden Fortress not only has a samurai rebellion but also people trying to profit from such war. The setting itself can be made into a movie. In such a scenario, the failed profiteers are joined by two people in disguise. The ones under fake identity are non-other than the Princess and the general.
The combo of war profiteers with war strategists is the ultimate eye-grabber and attention retainer.
32. Kagemusha (1980)
- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- Writer: Masato Ide
- Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara
- IMDb Rating: 7.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 88%
- Platforms Available: VUDU, and for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Under Akira Kurosawa’s direction, the movie Kagemusha is action-comic production, like Ryan Reynold’s movies. The protagonist is a petty thief with a desire for simple pleasures and not-much knowledge of the samurai world. In exchange for his freedom from jail, he is offered the deal to catch a warlord that is his lookalike. The deal sounds all fun with no consequence for our hero.
His happy bubble bursts when he figures out he has stumbled into leading a war.
31. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
- Director: Quentin Tarantino
- Writer: Quentin Tarantino
- Cast: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox
- IMDb Rating: 8.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 85%
- Platforms Available: HBO max, VUDU, and for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
It is one of Tarantino’s attempts to make a samurai movie with a tinge of Hollywood fashion. We come across an assassin named The Bride. Now if you have seen Charlie’s Angels, you would know how deadly these assassins can be. She is left pregnant and in a coma by the ex-boss of her corporation. The journey of vengeance starts when she wakes up from a coma after four years.
Action genre and Quentin Tarantino. Need we say more?
30. Kill! (1968)
- Director: Kihachi Okamoto
- Writer: Kihachi Okamoto, Akira Murao
- Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Etsushi Takahashi, Yuriko Hoshi
- IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: Unavailable
- Platforms Available: for Rent on Netflix
You are aware of applying for freelancing in current times. But this movie displays the concept of freelancing during the feudal era. The protagonist is a samurai who left his previous lifestyle of pride, honor, and morals.
He becomes a freelance killer and starts getting hired by people to deal with their landlord problems.
But this freelancing of our hero gets him into a moral dilemma. The situations presented before him demand his emotional and moral responsibility for choosing the correct side to fight with.
29. Lady Snowblood (1973)
- Director: Fujita Toshiya
- Writer: Norio Osada
- Cast: Meiko Kaji, Toshio Kurosawa, Masaaki Daimon
- IMDb Rating: 7.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%
- Platforms Available: HBO max, and for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Vengeance is the name of the winning factor in most movies. It applies to the Japanese samurai movies too. Though it is uncommon for the 90s era to have a female lead as the protagonist. This movie shattered the glass ceiling by having a female lead and the plot revolving around her vengeance.
Raised by priests, the lead of this movie is the yin-yang of the Japanese Character portrayal. She imbibes violence as well as peace.
28. Le Samouraï (1967)
- Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
- Writer: Joan McLeod, Jean-Pierre Melville, Georges Pellegrin
- Cast: Alain Delon, Nathalie Delon, François Périer
- IMDb Rating: 8.0/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: Unavailable
- Platforms Available: for Rent on Amazon Prime and Netflix
We see a killer in this movie at the start. He is alleged to have killed the owner of a pub. Unlucky him, not many people turn to his alibi. It goes on to become a struggle for rights and justice. But more than that, it has become a new way of directing movies, especially samurai ones.
This movie was one of a kind. It tried to present to its audience something new. So now, it could be called French.
27. Lone Wolf and Cub 2: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)
- Director: Kenji Misumi
- Writer: Goseki Kojima
- Cast: Tomisaburô Wakayama, Akiji Kobayashi, Akihiro Tomikawa
- IMDb Rating: 7.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%
- Platforms Available: VUDU
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons had a second part to it. And guess what? It was even better than the previous one, like the Matrix series. As the name suggests, Lone Wolf and Cub 2: Baby Cart at the River Styx is the second part of the Lone Wolf and Cub series.
Far from reality but attention-grabbing. We see how a baby nurses his father when he gets wounded. It may be a little hard to believe, but hey, it’s a top samurai movie.
26. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973)
- Director: Kenji Misumi
- Writer: Tsutomu Paul Nakamura
- Cast: Tomisaburô Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa
- IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 87%
- Platforms Available: VUDU, HBO max, and for Rent on Apple TV
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons is one of the most spectacular movies that are there in the history of samurai movies and Japanese movies combined. It has stealth, Honor. It fights for survival. And it also has collaboration between unexpected people to win.
If thrill and action are a demand, then Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons is the perfect choice for a samurai movie. It is one of the best samurai films of all time.
25. Love and Honor (2006)
- Director: Yôji Yamada
- Writer: Yôji Yamada
- Cast: Takuya Kimura, Rei Dan, Mitsugorô Bandô
- IMDb Rating: 7.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 81%
- Platforms Available: VUDU
Feudal cultures revolved around the concepts of pride, glory, and honor. It goes the same for the Japanese culture too. The movie Love and Honor depicts a similar concept. We are a couple in love. A blind samurai and an ardent woman in love. This love story takes its share of twists of turns when their faithfulness is put into question. The periodic movie, with a romantic angle, explores the vices of society.
Will the woman be willing to prove her love? Moreover, does she need to?
24. Ninja Scroll (1993)
- Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri
- Writer: Yoshiaki Kawajiri
- Cast: Koichi Yamadera, Emi Shinohara, Takeshi Aono
- IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 94%
- Platforms Available: Hulu
Who does not like a story which has action combined with a little romance on the side to keep the plot moving? Ninja scroll belongs to one of that categories. In this movie, we see a ninja and Samurai falling in love. Oh, but what happens when they find out they belong to the clan of rivalry?
A love story that was bound to be doomed? Star-crossed lovers all over again? It is a given now that nothing will happen if these stories don’t make it to the audience’s favorites.
23. Azumi (2003)
- Director: Ryûhei Kitamura
- Writer: Isao Kiriyama, Rikiya Muzushima
- Cast: Aya Ueto, Shun Oguri, Hiroki Narimiya
- IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 47%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
We know for now how every Japanese cultural movie portrays the warlords as evil and needs to be tackled. Similar is the story of Azumi. Azumi is a trained ninja who is under the wing of a samurai. The samurai has the vision of protecting the people from the evil warlords and their goons.
The plot gets interesting when the warlord unleashes a psychopathic killer to do away with Azumi and her associates. It rests on the shoulders of Azumi to protect the villagers and her samurai guru from the wrath.
22. Ran (1985)
- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- Writer: Masato Ide, Hideo Oguni, William Shakespeare
- Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Mieko Harada, Akira Terao
- IMDb Rating: 8.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 96%
- Platforms Available: VUDU, for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Another best classic by Kurosawa is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. We see how the Lord divides his empire between three sons, and one of them turns rogue. Japan, being an Asian country, is bound to have issues that are common in that part of the world. One of them being family complications.
Kurosawa outdoes herself by incorporating social issues with classical concepts of samurais. As a result, this movie makes it into the collection of the best samurai movies of all time.
21. Red Sun (1972)
- Director: Terence Young
- Writer: Terence Young
- Cast: Charles Bronson, Ursula Andress, Toshirô Mifune
- IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 40%
- Platforms Available: VUDU, for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Red Sun is a movie that is action pack in nature and thriller by genre. This Japanese movie has vibes of Hollywood and the concept of stealth being recovered with the help of hiring stronger beings. In this movie, we see how a precious sword gets stolen by unexpected characters. To get it back, help from a renounced samurai is taken.
The twist comes in the plot when we figure out who stole the sword. Till the movie’s climax, the audience is made to keep guessing.
20. Rurouni Kenshin Part I: Origins (2012)
- Director: Keishi Ohtomo
- Writer: Kiyomi Fujii, Keishi Ohtomo
- Cast: Yû Aoi, Teruyuki Kagawa, Yosuke Eguchi
- IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: Unavailable
- Platforms Available: VUDU
Rurouni Kenshin Part I: Origins is not the movie you want to see if you are looking forward to bloodshed. Yes, it is a samurai movie. And yes, it has a historical association to it. The story is set against the backdrop of the Bakumatsu War. We come across a samurai who lives a life of disguise. A samurai who is aware of his code and conduct but also of the hardships people face after the war.
He goes around saving the ones in need, with the swearing of not taking anyone’s life. War is a testing time, and it does the same for our samurai.
19. Samurai Rebellion (1967)
- Director: Masaki Kobayashi
- Writer: Shinobu Hashimoto
- Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa
- IMDb Rating: 8.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%
- Platforms Available: VUDU
Samurai Rebellion is a movie that tries to depict the complications that occur in Asian families. The period and the social strata do not make a difference in these complications. Questions of honor, pride, and respect govern the decisions of many. One standing for what they believe is right gets contradicted by societal norms creating havoc.
Amidst these scenarios, we see the setting of the feudal culture of Japan in this movie, along with similar family complications.
18. Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival (1970)
- Director: Kenji Misumi
- Writer: Shintarô Katsu
- Cast: Shintaro Katsu, Reiko Ôhara, Kazuko Yoshiyuki
- IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: Unavailable
- Platforms Available: for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival is the exact movie that has a perfect balance of realism and Fantasy. We are introduced to the Samurai Zatoichi in previous movies of the series. This movie is a spin-off of the character’s life. The life of this samurai has to be filled with battles and wars. In this movie, we see how he battles against a villainous warlord.
This yakuza boss, who is blind, by the way, has made a living hell of our samurai’s life, and he aims to fix it.
17. Sanjuro (1962)
- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- Writer: Ryûzô Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Shûgorô Yamamoto
- Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Takashi Shimura
- IMDb Rating: 8.0/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%
- Platforms Available: for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Have you come across Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo? Yes, you have. It is a classic samurai movie. Sanjuro is a spin-off of the same movie and makes its place in the classics. Despite the movie being of the black and white era, it is no less popular than the Charlie Chaplin movies. If anything, they are contemporary competitors.
Sanjuro means above 30 in Japanese. Hinting at the plot of this movie, Sanjuro revolves around the later life of the protagonist in the Yojimbo movie.
16. Satan’s Sword (1960)
- Director: Kenji Misumi
- Writer: Teinosuke Kinugasa, Kaizan Nakazato
- Cast: Raizô Ichikawa, Kôjirô Hongô, Fujiko Yamamoto
- IMDb Rating: 6.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: Unavailable
- Platforms Available: Netflix
As the name suggests, this samurai movie ought to be dealing with the supernatural. Anything less would have been a disappointment for the audience. Satan’s Sword also belongs to an era that saw the thriving of such supernatural movies. What’s more, we also get to see the lifestyle of a samurai. Not just any Samurai. The movie revolves around his life and depicts his unconventional ways of approaching any situation in a sword man’s life.
One that has gone rogue by regular standards. One that has a different style by his standards.
15. Seven Samurai (1954)
- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- Writer: Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni
- Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba
- IMDb Rating: 8.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%
- Platforms Available: FANDANGO, HBO max, and for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is one of the classics of the samurai genre. It is packed with a neat and tight storyline, with bomb cinematography and impeccable character portrayal. We also have the legendary Toshiro Mifune playing a role in this movie. The movie may be one of the films in his early career, but his acting stayed iron.
Kurosawa and Mifune come together to pitch a story where the Feudal culture is shown. Farmers hire unemployed samurais to protect them from bandits.
14. Shogun Assassin (1981)
- Director: Kenji Misumi, Robert Houston
- Writer: Kenji Misumi, Robert Houston
- Cast: Tomisaburô Wakayama, Masahiro Tomikawa, Kayo Matsuo
- IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 80%
- Platforms Available: Hulu
If you have a love for samurai movies, you are bound to come across the name of lone wolf and cub. Shogun Assassin is a compilation of the same. How can a story with compiled plot be a classical hit? Well, the answer lies in the spin-offs in the movie and the high rate of fans’ love for this piece. Shogun Assassin is a series of 6 seasons based on Japanese manga.
With peer pressure to earn higher to family pressure to be better, Shogun Assassin is the perfect binging series this season.
13. Shogun’s Shadow (1989)
- Director: Yasuo Furuhata
- Writer: Yasuo Furuhata
- Cast: Ken Ogata, Tetsurô Tamba, Hiroki Matsukata
- IMDb Rating: 7.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: Unavailable
- Platforms Available: Netflix
Shogun’s Shadow is a part of the collective series Shogun Assassin. We have seen how love is the root of all problems. In this show, we see how a father is resistant toward his youngest son and gives all his property to the elder ones. Why does the plot sound similar? It is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear in the Japanese samurai style.
When we say Netflix and chill, this is the show that should be on the binging list. Be it with a lover or be it with an ex, Shogun’s Shadow is the next best.
12. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
- Director: Dave Filoni
- Writer: Henry Gilroy, Steven Melching, Scott Murphy
- Cast: Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor
- IMDb Rating: 5.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 18%
- Platforms Available: Disney Plus
Been a Star Wars fan forever? Can’t get over the cute Baby Yoda memes on your Instagram feed? But also craving for something Samurai in nature? You know it. It’s gotta be Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It got action and humor. It got the scent of your childhood and some good dialogues to keep you unhooked from your phone for hours.
If anything, it’ll lead you to get a bowl of popcorn and go on a binge-watching spree for all the Star Wars movies.
11. Tales of Ugetsu (1953)
- Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
- Writer: Matsutarô Kawaguchi
- Cast: Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, Kinuyo Tanaka
- IMDb Rating: 8.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%
- Platforms Available: FANDANGO, HBO max, and for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Most Japanese samurai films revolve around supernatural fanatics or stories of vengeance. They are good but far from depicting the reality of contemporary times. Tales of Ugetsu is unlike those movies. The story revolves around two labor-class peasants who try to make their living in times of war. The hardship and brutality of survival will leave you feeling blessed for what you have.
It is as close as a movie can get to the documentation of lives during the civil war.
Related: The 32 Best Samurai Anime Right Now (2023)
10. The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003)
- Director: Takeshi Kitano
- Writer: Kitano Takeshi
- Cast: Beat Takeshi, Tadanobu Asano, Michiyo Ohkusu
- IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 87%
- Platforms Available: VUDU and for Rent on Apple TV
As the name suggests, The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi presents itself with a samurai who pretends to be blind. An expert in his art, this Samurai gets pissed off by the warring clans in feudal Japan. He decides to do something about it and take the matter into his own hands.
What plan does he come up with? You guessed right. He plays like a blind swordsman and does his deed to bring a change.
9. The Last Samurai (2003)
- Director: Edward Zwick
- Writer: John Logan, Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Timothy Spall
- IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 66%
- Platforms Available: VUDU, Netflix, and for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
The star of Mission Impossible, Tom Cruise, is hired to do a next-to-impossible task. He is assigned the duty of training soldiers on how to fight amidst a samurai rebellion. To fight them, our hero Captain Nathan Algren tries to understand the fighting skills of these samurais. What happens next? A love story in the making. Captain falls in love with the samurai style and embraces it with a rock soundtrack playing in the background.
It sure as hell was an expensive samurai movie.
8. The Sword of Doom (1966)
- Director: Kihachi Okamoto
- Writer: Shinobu Hashimoto, Kaizan Nakazato
- Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Toshirô Mifune, Yûzô Kayama
- IMDb Rating: 7.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 80%
- Platforms Available: For Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
A sociopath samurai in a supernatural setting, The Sword of Doom is creme on the brownie. Set in feudal Japan, we see a samurai with no code of conduct. A samurai unhinged, with no sense of discipline, who kills at will. Emotional attachments also seem to fail before this Samurai gives in to his sociopathic urges. He kills his competition, his rivals, and his mistress too.
What startles him? The view of his victims’ ghosts on a killing spree. This samurai movie sure won the audience’s attention.
7. The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
- Director: Kenji Misumi
- Writer: Minoru Inuzuka
- Cast: Shintaro Katsu, Masayo Banri, Ryuzo Shimada
- IMDb Rating: 7.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%
- Platforms Available: for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
How does the idea of having a blind swordsman sound to you? If it sounds appealing to you, The Tale of Zatoichi is the movie you need. In this movie, we see an exceptional samurai who is blind. If he does not sound like a superhero yet, wait till you find out more about him. He gets hired by a gang Leader as a masseur.
A set of hands that can be rough and gentle when needed, what more can we ask for?
6. Three Outlaw Samurai (1964)
- Director: Hideo Gosha
- Writer: Hideo Gosha, Eizaburo Shiba, Keiichi Abe
- Cast: Tetsuro Tamba, Isamu Nagato, Mikijirō Hira
- IMDb Rating: 7.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 80%
- Platforms Available: Hulu
What is the common trait of most great samurai movies? It’s usually a revenge plot, going to the world cinema. Three outlaw samurai are different. We see three noob farmers with no combat skills kidnap the daughter of a Japanese nobleman. Why do you ask? Coz they wanted that corrupt nobleman to reduce the taxes.
Even though the storyline sounds estranged, the farmers are saved by a reformed samurai. The plot set in feudal Japan gets exciting as the samurai fights the goons in the final climax.
5. Throne of Blood (1957)
- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- Writer: Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryûzô Kikushima, Hideo Oguni
- Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura
- IMDb Rating: 8.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 95%
- Platforms Available: HBO max, and for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
The movie Throne of Blood is a Japanese film starring Toshiro Mifune as the lead under Akira Kurosawa’s direction. That is a hit combination for a samurai-class plot.
It is one of the best samurai films. The protagonist becomes a rogue samurai in the Japanese film, given the writing of the plot. The film’s climax adds a twist to the story and makes Throne of blood one of the best samurai films of the time.
4. Twilight Samurai (2002)
- Director: Yôji Yamada
- Writer: Yôji Yamada, Yoshitaka Asama
- Cast: Hiroyuki Sanada, Rie Miyazawa, Nenji Kobayashi
- IMDb Rating: 8.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 99%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
When we think of a samurai movie, what do we expect? A character with a life of discipline. It says no to their moral vices and criminality—a character following the code of conduct that we fail to imbibe in our own lives. And when a samurai cinema displays such potential, it rightfully deserves a place in the award-winning category.
Twilight samurai has won 12 Japanese Academy Awards and is regarded as one of the best Japanese samurai films. Need we say more?
3. Unforgiven (2013)
- Director: Sang-il Lee
- Writer: Sang-il Lee
- Cast: Ken Watanabe, Jun Kunimura, Yûya Yagira
- IMDb Rating: 7.0/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 94%
- Platforms Available: for Rent on Amazon Prime
The hit formula of samurai movies, actor Ken Watanabe stars in this movie. A young woman is brutally mutilated, and her associates want to avenge their work sister’s death. What do they do next? They hire a wandering samurai and two others to get to the villain. It is a classic tale of making scores equal, life for life, death for death.
But hey, those are the stories we want to see. Where justice is served, one way or another.
2. When the Last Sword Is Drawn (2003)
- Director: Yojiro Takita
- Writer: Takehiro Nakajima
- Cast: Kiichi Nakai, Koichi Sato, Yui Natsukawa
- IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 85%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
What have we not done for love and survival? Doing things that go against our moral values and ideologies. The Japanese film industry kept it in mind while writing this plot. Our hero of this samurai movie is no different. But instead of doing odd jobs, he joins the most dangerous gangs in the town and starts rolling.
Is it a bad decision for Kanichiro? Yeah. Do the bad decisions make it one of the best in samurai cinema? Hell yeah!
1. Yojimbo (1961)
- Director: Akira Kurosawa
- Writer: Ryûzô Kikushima,
- Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Eijiro Tono
- IMDb Rating: 8.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 95%
- Platforms Available: HBO max, and for Rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV
The word Yojimbo means Bodyguard in Japanese culture. That gives a pretty good idea as to what the film’s plot may be. It’s one of Kurosawa’s Samurai movie’s top hits. Isn’t it impossible to put humor in crime fiction? Even before Deadpool, it has been used in Yojimbo. A movie that big a hit deserves a sequel, and it got one too. Sanjuro, its sequel is also a Toshiro Mifune movie.
Spoiler alert, in the film’s final scene of the movie, Toshiro Mifune wins against the samurai with more wit and less strength.
Japanese culture is famous for its depiction of samurais and the duel that exists between them and the warlords. The feudal culture also has elements of honor, pride, and a disciplined lifestyle. While some movies tried to depict it, others chose to display a contradictory perspective through their narrative. The samurai movie was not limited to the Asian film circle but established its dominion over the world cinema. Directors like Kurosawa contributed majorly to the expansion of this genre of movie.
