scans_daily | Return of Bruce Wayne #430 Jul 2010 at 11:49pm
All the images of showdowns in the Wild West and noir movies and samurai movies and THIS is what you come up with? Where is the drama? Where is the emotion? where is the tension? where is the iconography? And so much space WASTED on the ...
Old world of cinema halls and bubbling excitement19 Jul 2010 at 11:00am
Until today I consider the great Japanese film-maker, Akira Kurosawa, a sheer genius in storytelling and I watched all of his Samurai movies, starring Toshiro Mifune, with great appreciation and satisfaction. At the same time, ...
What are some good ninja/samurai movies?30 Jul 2010 at 12:17am
I'm not looking for little kids movies (although I am quite fond of the turtles, myself), but for some good adult movies. I'm not gonna put a minimum or.
The 47th Samurai: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel Discounts At Amazon!15 Jul 2010 at 10:57am
He does his research on Japan by watching old samurai movies and seems to wish to fight much better trained individuals with a sword to prove a point. This is rationalised as being more sensible to use a sword than to carry a gun in ...
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 were remakes, and some have just been dubbed
versions of popular Japanese titles. Mosgt of the movies have been worthy enough to win the
audience's fancy.
The Last Samurai', starring Tom Cruise, set in the times when
the Samurai were at a decline, went on to enjoy big success. The movie was
nominated for 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 - among individuals as well as
large scale batle, 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.
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 continued to be made very
prolifically and enjoyed by 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 problably a consequence of the general decline in the film industry
that Japan saw in this period.
However, warrior movies still continue to be made today. Sanurai stories still continue to be
spun and
movie-goers don't seem to have had their fill of samurai movies yet.
Here is a list of some popular Japanese samurai movies (Note: Where available for purchase, movies are
linked to Amazon):
1949 Jakoman and Tetsu - directed by Senkichi Taniguchi
- directed by Akira Kurosawa
- directed by Akira Kurosawa
- directed by Hiroshi Inagaki
- directed by Hiroshi Inagaki
- directed by Hiroshi Inagaki
- directed by Hiroshi Inagaki
aka Spider Web Castle - directed by Akira Kurosawa
- directed by Akira Kurosawa
aka The Bodyguard - directed by Akira Kurosawa
- directed by Hiroshi Inagaki
- directed by Masaki Kobayashi - Won a prize at the Cannes Film
Festival
- directed by Gosha Hideo
aka Samurai - directed by Kihachi Okamoto
- directed by Kihachi Okamoto
- directed by Masaki Kobayashi Rebellion won the Fipresci
Prize at the
- directed by Hiroshi Inagaki
- directed by Kihachi Okamoto
- directed by Kihachi Okamoto
- directed by Hiroshi Inigaki
- directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
- directed by Tsugunobu Kotani
- directed by Kinji Fukasaku
- Directed, written and starring Shintaru Katsu
- directed by Yoji Yamada and nominated for a best foreign film Oscar.
- directed and starring Beat Takeshi and Silver Lion award winner
at Venice Film