The way of the samurai is often a subject of fascination for many filmmakers, and no other warrior classification in history has attracted so much mysticism and artistic representation. Perhaps we can even count Rurouni Kenshin and its constant re-imagining every other decade or so as proof of how entertaining and oddly relatable samurai movies and media are.
But all good things will eventually come to an end, and even the newest Rurouni Kenshin remake will only last for 24 episodes. After that, what will you do? Meditate under a waterfall until the next remake comes along? Well, we can suggest a better pastime: watching the following samurai movies to whet that edge and keep your mind sharp, sort of.
These samurai movies are mostly about Ronin or masterless, disillusioned, rogue, or wandering samurai, a circumstance similar to Rurouni Kenshin’s titular pacifist protagonist.
The Twilight Samurai (2002)
Speaking of disillusioned samurai, The Twilight Samurai is mostly a drama movie instead of a dedicated action-oriented sword flick. It features the legendary Hiroyuki Sanada as Seibei– a samurai whose wife died and must now live as a bookkeeper rather than a warrior in a rural village in order to support his two daughters.
It’s a more endearing take on samurai and traditional masculinity where a father is forced to live in the way he least expects, with all the constraints of his society and family weighing heavily on his shoulders. And don’t worry; there’s still plenty of samurai action to be had here, as is the case with most Hiroyuki Sanada films.
13 Assassins (2010)
13 Assassins is an impressive samurai rebellion movie where a group of angry samurai and their unlikely ally band together in order to assassinate the corrupt and cruel successor of their once esteemed lord. The premise is simple, but the execution here is stellar and jaw-dropping, with a pay-off that will leave a lot of action movie fans speechless.
13 Assassins is also an obvious callback and homage to samurai films of old, such as Seven Samurai, where there’s a big emphasis on the chemistry between the rag-tag group of warriors in their noble yet somewhat dishonorable task of rebelling against authority.
Zatoichi (2003)
Samurai are already cool, but you know what would make them even cooler? Blindness. That’s what Zatoichi is all about: a blind samurai who lives as a masseuse and moonlights as some kind of vigilante in an era where ‘might makes right.’ And because he’s blind, his judgments in dishing out justice are equal for everyone, giving a new meaning to the term, ‘blind justice.’
2003’s Zatoichi movie is also a remake of an old title already, but it’s one of the most memorable ones. It sees the blind swordsman on a reluctant quest to protect ‌downtrodden villagers amid local gang wars and tyrannical crime bosses.
There’s also a whole collection of Zatoichi films to choose from once you’re done with this, in case you want more of that blind justice and some masseuse massacres from time to time.
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto
Musashi Miyamoto was one of the most important philosophical figures and most proficient warriors in Eastern history. He’s practically the Sun Tzu of Japan, except his existence as a single person is more probable.
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto is a dramatization of Musashi’s origin story. He was once a warmongering soldier who fought for a lord, seeking glory, but after a dishonorable defeat, a Buddhist monk accepted him under his tutelage and taught him the ways of the samurai until he eventually became the anti-war, anti-establishment, and anti-Shogunate sword saint whose mind was as sharp as his blade.
There’s a trilogy for this set of films now, and all of them showcase actor Toshiro Mifune’s magnetic portrayal of the quintessential cinema samurai.
Harakiri (1962)
A lot of the most popular samurai films in Japan have a strong anti-Shogunate and even anti-samurai message that challenges the integrity and rigidity of their culture. Harakiri is one of those, and it’s often touted as one of the best samurai movies of all time.
It’s about an old ronin who decided to hold a public seppuku or ritual suicide in front of his former lord and other samurai. The lord, meanwhile, thought that it was a pity ploy to gain employment once more and that another samurai also committed the same scheme but ended up following through with the seppuku.
To everyone’s surprise, the old ronin admitted that that particular samurai was his son-in-law and revealed some groundbreaking truths that shattered the foundation of a clan that masked itself with honor.
Yojimbo (1961)
To say that Hollywood owes a lot to Yojimbo is an understatement. Films like A Fistful of Dollars and a lot of Spaghetti Western films are quite literally Western adaptations of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai movies, and Yojimbo is what catalyzed this movement.
Yojimbo is the story of a nameless wandering samurai or ronin who stumbles upon a town being ripped apart by two warring criminal gangs. Seeing an opportunity, the nameless samurai (played by Toshiro Mifune again) sought to work for both sides to prolong their conflict and profit off their gang war. However, he didn’t account for certain disruptions to his plans, such as ‌poor villagers and his hidden sympathetic side.
Apart from having a unique story for its time, Yojimbo is also a masterclass in action cinematography in an era where most films had static dialog and anemic movements. More importantly, it inspired a new generation of films with its trendsetting.
Seven Samurai (1954)
Before Yojimbo redefined action framing in cinema, Seven Samurai, by the same director Akira Kurosawa, was already making strides in filmmaking. It was Kurosawa’s magnum opus and would later have countless homages due to its introduction of a storytelling template that became a timeless trope that almost everyone loves.
Seven Samurai tells the story of the titular band of seven rag-tag ronin after they were hired by a poor farming village for protection due to bandits threatening to raid the village in a year’s time. It’s simple yet powerful and effective.
This samurai epic was a statement of humanism—one that challenged tradition and establishment. It was also a beautiful movie with some unique filmography techniques that paved the way for more modern filmmaking, particularly in action movies.
