Samurai Movies

One of the most popular themes as far as movie making is concerned, has to be the Samurai warrior's story. Understandably, most of these movies have originated from Japan. However, western cinema too has had its share of samurai movies. Some of them have been original, some remakes while some have just been dubbed versions of popular Japanese titles. Quite many have gone on to win the audience's fancy. 'The Last Samurai', a Tom Cruise starrer set in the times when the Samurai were at a decline, went on to enjoy big success. The movie was nominated was several major awards including the Golden globes and the Academy Awards.

One reason why samurai themes have been so popular among film-makers must be the scope for creativity that they provide. Intense fight scenes, cunning politics and the constant struggle between high moral values and everyday living are only some ideas among many others that can be played around with. Plus, the spectrum of complex stories that can be woven around the life of a samurai warrior will always keep the audience excited.

The Japanese have been very creative with this genre of movies. Starting off with making dramatic movies on the life of a Samurai, these slowly turned into action movies with exciting fight scenes. Some beautiful movies have been made based on the helpless despair of the samurai who lost their pride and sense of purpose when feudalism declined. Samurai movies were continued to be made very prolifically and also were also lapped up by the eager audiences until the early 1970s. It was at this time when a comparitive decline started on the number of samurai movies. This was a consequence of general decline in the film industry that Japan saw in this period.

However, movies still continue to be made, stories still continue to be spun and movie-goers just don't seem to have had their fill of samurai movies yet.

Here is a list of some popular samurai movies that I took the liberty of grabbing from Wikipedia:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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