Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki • 1956 • Japan
Starring Toshiro Mifune, Koji Tsuruta, Kaoru Yachigusa
A 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. Circumstances bring them back together for one final face-off. Though it’s marked by a memorably intense final battle sequence, the rousing conclusion to the Samurai Trilogy is engaged with matters of the heart as well, as Miyamoto must ask himself what it is that makes a warrior and a man.
Up Next in Samurai
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Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo
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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The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail
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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New Tale of Zatoichi
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...