10 Essential Films to Get You Started

Seven Samurai may be the obvious first choice, but there's a strong argument that Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri is the greatest samurai flick of all time. Tatsuya Nakadai stars as a poor ronin (masterless samurai) who arrives at the palace of a thriving samurai clan to request permission to commit ritual suicide (harakiri). He is given a cautionary tale when the clan leader recounts the grim fate of another ronin who recently attempted the same. From there, a slow burn revenge story unfurls as Nakadai dismantles the facade of honor and authority in feudal Japan. Kobayashi (The Human Condition) has never been better, using stylistic camerawork, intricate plotting, and utlizing the magnetic Nakadai to his full potential, all in service of the director's favorite theme, connecting the injustices of post-war Japan to its feudal history.

If you enjoy Harakiri, Kobayashi made another excellent contribution to the genre with Samurai Rebellion, featuring a similarly biting critique of Japanese power structures, plus an epic showdown between Toshiro Mifune and Nakadai.

More of an exploitation film than a true samurai film, Toshiya Fujita's manga adaptation Lady Snowblood is centered on an orphaned girl who dedicates her life to avenging her mother's murder by becoming a deadly assassin. Quentin Tarantino fans will immediately recognize the influence on Kill Bill: Vol. 1, down to reusing Lady Snowblood's main theme during the climactic showdown between Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu. Stylish and violent, Lady Snowblood is elevated by the great actress Meiko Kaji in the title role. Known from her previous work in other exploitation films, Kaji's beauty and cool (just check out those kimonos) complements her vicious thirst for vengeance which fuels this cult classic.

For more like this, check out the sequel, Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance, as well as Kaji's other roles in series like Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion and Wandering Ginza Butterfly.

Seven Samurai may be Akira Kurosawa's most celebrated samurai film, but nipping at its heels is Yojimbo, a film that turned the genre on its head and laid the groundwork for the modern Western movie. Toshiro Mifune gives an iconic performance as the wandering ronin, a gruff agent of chaos who moseys into a corrupt town and quickly pits rival gangs against one another in this blackly comic tale. Remade as A Fistful of Dollars in 1964 by Sergio Leone, Mifune's character became the inspiration for Clint Eastwood's “man with no name” persona and an archetype of westerns ever since.

Mifune reprises his role in Kurosawa's excellent sequel, Sanjuro. It's a looser, funnier follow-up with a final battle you won't soon forget.

What's not to love about the concept? A disgraced shogun's executioner becomes an assassin-for-hire, pushing his (adorable) infant son across Japan in a wooden cart equipped with hidden weapons. Unconventional leading man Tomisaburo Wakayama embodied the stoic and deadly Ogami Itto across six films in the episodic Lone Wolf series, based on the manga by Kazuo Koike. A product of its time, the films contain plenty of the gore and sex you'd expect from an exploitation movie of the 1970s. If you can see past the seedier moments, it makes for fun midnight viewings.

For a bigger film series challenge, seek out the blind swordsman/masseuse Zatoichi, who was played by Shintaro Katsu over 26 films from the 1960s to 1980s, starting with The Tale of Zatoichi.

There's a moment early on in Takashi Miike's remake of Eiichi Kudo's 1963 film that hints at the revelry to come. When a veteran samurai (Koji Yakusho) is called upon to lead a mission to assassinate an evil lord, he can barely hide his excitement. “How fate smiles on me,” he says. “I've been wishing for a noble death.” From there, Yakusho (Tampopo, Shall We Dance?) methodically assembles his team and devises a strategy which director Miike uses to set up the film's final set piece, an epic 45-minute action sequence for the ages.

Like so many samurai movies, Yoji Yamada's The Twilight Samurai is about the transition from traditional power structures to modern ones. But while these themes typically play out in the violent arena of samurai swordplay, Yamada zooms in on the human and relatable characteristics of his main character, Seibei, a poor widower samurai who works in his clan's grain warehouse while caring for his ailing mother and two young daughters. Hiroyuki Sanada is perfect as the charmingly modest and tender samurai, trying his best to become human as his samurai identity becomes obsolete in the emerging world. A touching drama and a must-see, but don't go in expecting swordplay and action.

Probably the second-most recognized actor in the genre behind Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai give another performance of a lifetime in Kihachi Okamoto's The Sword of Doom (the others being Harakiri and Kurosawa's Ran). Based on a newspaper serial that ran for over three decades starting in 1913, the story follows an emotionless and cold-blooded killer descend into madness. If this sounds enticing, be warned. The stark nihilism of the story, made even more chilling by Nakadai's stone-cold stare, is exceptionally bleak. There's no redemption here, and in fact, no conclusion. The abrupt ending of The Sword of Doom is jarring and confusing. Is it setting up the sequel that never came? Or is it a natural conclusion for a soul destined to be haunted forever by his demons?

If spooky tales are your thing, there are samurai movies for you! Director Kaneto Shindo's Onibaba relegates samurai to the background, focusing on the effects of civil war on two peasant women. After her son and his friend go off to fight, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by murdering stray samurai and selling off their swords and armor. When the son's companion returns alone, he moves to seduce his late friend's widow, arousing the suspicion (and jealousy) of the mother. Things get creepy after the arrival of a demon-masked samurai becomes a catalyst for some supernatural intervention. Gorgeously shot in black and white, Onibaba is a claustrophobic, sweaty, sensual, and tragic exploration of the societal collapse in wartime.

Other great supernatural jidaigeki films to try on include Shindo's Kuroneko (“Black Cat”) and the classic horror omnibus Kwaidan, directed by Masaki Kobayashi.