Samurai
52 Episodes
Japan’s juggernaut film industry has produced all stripes of samurai films, from pop-action spectacles to poetic period epics.
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3:27:01Episode 1
Seven Samurai
Episode 1
Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1954 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko TsushimaOne of the most thrilling movie epics of all time, SEVEN SAMURAI (SHICHININ NO SAMURAI) tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire the eponymous warriors to pro...
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Yojimbo
Episode 2
Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1961 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko TsukasaThe incomparable Toshiro Mifune stars in Akira Kurosawa’s visually stunning and darkly comic YOJIMBO. To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily masterless samurai Sanjuro turns a range war...
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1:49:51Episode 3
Throne of Blood
Episode 3
Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1957 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Minoru ChiakiA vivid, visceral “Macbeth” adaptation, THRONE OF BLOOD, directed by Akira Kurosawa, sets Shakespeare’s definitive tale of ambition and duplicity in a ghostly, fog-enshrouded landscape in feudal Japan....
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Sanjuro
Episode 4
Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1962 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiju KobayashiToshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Akira Kurosawa’s tightly paced, beautifully composed SANJURO. In this sly companion piece to YOJIMBO, jaded samurai SANJURO helps an...
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Harakiri
Episode 5
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi • 1962 • Japan
Starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Rentaro Mikuni, Akira IshihamaFollowing the collapse of his clan, an unemployed samurai (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the manor of Lord Iyi, begging to be allowed to commit ritual suicide on the property. Iyi’s clansmen, belie...
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1:37:13Episode 6
Lady Snowblood
Episode 6
Directed by Toshiya Fujita • 1973 • Japan
Starring Meiko Kaji, Ko Nishimura, Toshio KurosawaGory revenge is raised to the level of visual poetry in Toshiya Fujita’s stunning LADY SNOWBLOOD. A major inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL saga, this endlessly inventive film, set in late ni...
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1:33:34Episode 7
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto
Episode 7
Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki • 1954 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Rentaro Mikuni, Kuroemon OnoeIn the first part of the epic Samurai Trilogy, Toshiro Mifune thunders onto the screen as the iconic title character. When we meet him, Miyamoto is a wide-eyed romantic, dreaming of military glory i...
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1:36:17Episode 8
The Tale of Zatoichi
Episode 8
ZATOICHI #1
Directed by Kenji Misumi • 1962 • JapanThe epic saga of Zatoichi begins. As tensions mount between rival yakuza clans, one boss hires a formidable but ailing ronin as his clan’s muscle, while the other employs a humble, moral blind masseur named Ichi. With its lightning-fast swordpl...
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2:00:27Episode 9
The Sword of Doom
Episode 9
Directed by Kihachi Okamoto • 1966 • Japan
Starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Toshiro MifuneTatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune star in the story of a wandering samurai who exists in a maelstrom of violence. A gifted swordsman plying his craft during the turbulent final days of shogunate rule in Japan, R...
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2:01:21Episode 10
Samurai Rebellion
Episode 10
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi • 1967 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Yoko Tsukasa, Go KatoToshiro Mifune stars as Isaburo Sasahara, an aging swordsman living a quiet life until his clan lord orders that his son marry the lord’s mistress, who has recently displeased the ruler. Reluctantly, fathe...
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1:43:35Episode 11
Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple
Episode 11
Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki • 1955 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Koji Tsuruta, Kaoru YachigusaToshiro Mifune furiously embodies swordsman Musashi Miyamoto as he comes into his own in the action-packed middle section of the Samurai Trilogy. DUEL AT ICHIJOJI TEMPLE furthers Miyamoto along his ...
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1:44:45Episode 12
Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island
Episode 12
Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki • 1956 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Koji Tsuruta, Kaoru YachigusaA disillusioned Musashi Miyamoto (Toshiro Mifune) has turned his back on the samurai life, becoming a farmer in a remote village, while his nemesis Kojiro (Koji Tsuruta) now works for the shogun. Ci...
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1:56:01Episode 13
Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo
Episode 13
ZATOICHI #20
Directed by Kihachi Okamoto • 1970 • JapanAfter a two-year absence from screens, the blind swordsman returns in one of his best adventures. Zatoichi treks to a village that has always been a favorite spot of his, only to discover that it’s become a living hell, plagued by feuding f...
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59:29Episode 14
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail
Episode 14
Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1945 • Japan
The fourth film from Akira Kurosawa is based on a legendary twelfth-century incident in which the lord Yoshitsune and a group of samurai retainers dressed as monks in order to pass through a dangerous enemy checkpoint. The story was dramatized for centur...
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1:31:34Episode 15
New Tale of Zatoichi
Episode 15
ZATOICHI #3
Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka • 1963 • JapanZatoichi is back, and in color! Hoping to leave violence behind, the blind masseur wanders to a village, where he meets an old friend fallen on hard times. With a corrupt clan leader squeezing citizens dry and the brother of a past nemesis out...
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1:52:04Episode 16
THE 47 RONIN: Part 1
Episode 16
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1941 • Japan
47 samurai avenge the death of their lord in Kenji Mizoguchi's take on the famous historical event.
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1:51:19Episode 17
THE 47 RONIN: Part 2
Episode 17
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi • 1941 • Japan
47 samurai avenge the death of their lord in Kenji Mizoguchi's take on the famous historical event.
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1:12:26Episode 18
The Tale of Zatoichi Continues
Episode 18
ZATOICHI #2
Directed by Kazuo Mori • 1962 • JapanTHE TALE OF ZATOICHI proved so popular that a follow-up went into production the same year. Here, Zatoichi is hired to give a massage to a powerful political official who, he discovers, is mentally ill, a secret that the nobleman’s retinue is det...
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1:21:38Episode 19
Vendetta of a Samurai
Episode 19
Directed by Kazuo Mori • 1952 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Takashi ShimuraScripted by Akira Kurosawa and directed by period specialist Kazuo Mori, this revisionist samurai tale stars the mighty Toshiro Mifune as legendary swordsman Mataemon Araki, who aids a young man in his quest to avenge...
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1:26:12Episode 20
Zatoichi the Fugitive
Episode 20
ZATOICHI #4
Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka • 1963 • JapanZatoichi triumphs at a village wrestling match, much to the chagrin of his yakuza opponents. The defeated gang members pay a hotheaded ronin to take out the masseur; unbeknownst to them, the hired assassin is married to a former flame of Zatoi...
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1:27:44Episode 21
Zatoichi’s Conspiracy
Episode 21
ZATOICHI #25
Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda • 1973 • JapanEverything comes full circle when Zatoichi returns to his hometown. Unfortunately, he finds that a childhood friend has become a feared crime lord, keeping the locals in debt and bilking them of their rice. Capping off Zatoichi’s feature f...
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1:22:51Episode 22
Samaritan Zatoichi
Episode 22
ZATOICHI #19
Directed by Kenji Misumi • 1968 • JapanHired by a yakuza boss to eliminate an accused debtor, Zatoichi fulfills his task, only to witness the victim’s sister paying the owed amount minutes later. When the crime lord tries to possess the woman along with the cash, the blind swordsma...
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1:22:23Episode 23
Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold
Episode 23
ZATOICHI #6
Directed by Kazuo Ikehiro • 1964 • JapanAfter arriving in a small village, Zatoichi finds himself accused of stealing the citizens’ hefty tax payments. To clear his name, he must face off against a corrupt official, a succession of hired blades, and a bullwhip-wielding titan, played...
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1:27:46Episode 24
Zatoichi on the Road
Episode 24
ZATOICHI #5
Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda • 1963 • JapanThe itinerant Zatoichi comes across a dying man, who begs the masseur to escort a young woman back to her family in Edo. The honorable swordsman agrees, but in so doing, he catapults himself between two warring yakuza clans, each with its o...