/film/ - FILM

>>3799

>I wonder what the new commentary track has to say about it.

About the sequel? I listened to the commentary track and there's no further information, but it sounded like Sword of Doom underperformed at Japanese theaters. That likely contributed to the decision to abandon the project. The film was, however, more successful with Western audiences.

One more interesting point was that the source material never properly concluded either. It was an ongoing newspaper serial from 1913 to 1941(!). The author Kaizan Nakazato died in 1944.

>>3678

I second this. Underrated gem.

>>6427

or a genius for picking a fucking fantastic samurai film for a western.

like, if it wasn't for yojimbo and eastwood, i'm sure fistful of dollars would have been shit.

Don't really care of samurai shit. 13 assassins got me and Seven Samurai, but nothing else really.

>>6432

It wouldn't existed in the first place

And honestly The Man with no Name is small time compared to the character Sanjuro is, instead of the Mary Sue that was somewhat fixed in other movies with a suspicious similar shooter but with a different director

>>6443

>The Man with no Name is small time compared to the character Sanjuro is

i'm not sure what you mean by this

because eastwood has had a much larger impact on culture n stuff

>>4072

youtube(dot)com/watch?v=ZXwoqeQnvzc

was looking for other videos about kurosawa and found this if it helps.

>>6966

Maybe, Sanjuro was just as good as Yojimbo- in regards to sequels

>>6960

They're not very good films imo, some of the scenery is incredible, especially the final fight in the final film, but all in all it's a very inferior Samurai product compared to other classics of the time.

The story seems incoherent and disjointed a lot of the time.

I only really enjoyed Mifune's performance.

>>7152

There's a movie? Anyways I read the manga and I thought it was great, I know it's a film board but I would also recommend Lone Wolf and Cub

>>7172

Not a movie, no. 12 episodes anime. It's not a complete story arc, be forewarned. Very unique and very tense, 10/10 imo but it's a point of contention.

okay, here's a fun battle scene from Holy Weapon

>>7152

>>7192

Not samurai related but you should check out Texhnolyze. It's by the same director as Shigurui. I'd argue it's the greatest anime ever made. It's a slowburn but considering you're on this board you probably won't have an issue with that.>>7192

>>7152

>>7192

Not samurai related but you should check out Texhnolyze. It's by the same director as Shigurui. I'd argue it's the greatest anime ever made. It's a slowburn but considering you're on this board you probably won't have an issue with that.

>>4033

Japanese history is very easy to get into because it's so short and they are so isolated. All you need to do is read a single good book on Japanese history while looking up pictures of clothing and some maps and you will have a fairly solid grasp of their history.

>>10717

> Japanese history is very easy to get into because it's so short

How is it short? I would think it's a long history, more like England than the US.

>>10718

Realistically not much happened in Japan until almost the mid millennium AD. 1500 years is a very short history. Human habitation was longer but in terms of history rather than anthropology it doesn't go back much father.

By contrast the Roman Empire lasted 2000 years. Not the Italic of Greek peoples but Rome as a political state is longer than the recorded history of the Japanese as a people.

>more like England than the US.

Comparing Japan and England isn't particular fruitful since in one you are comparing a nation against land with people on it. If you are going to be fair you have to talk of the history of the people of the British isles versus the history of the Japanese people in which case the Japanese come short in terms of length.

I have never been interested in watching samurai films, but after reading this thread and looking at the videos some of you have posted, all I can say is that Im VERY much interested in them now!

One of the videos is Hong Kong martial arts >>10709

it's more flashy ans less moody than the Japanese samurai films

>>2749

>Lone Wolf and Cub

Does anyone know of any other samurai films that feature more visceral, colorful violence?

>>10726

>>10725

Awesome, thanks

>>11030

>visceral, colorful violence

Can you explain what you mean exactly? I have not seen that one. Compare it to Sword of Doom for instance. Do you want something that is more focused on action than atmosphere?

>>11039

Hi. What I meant is actually far more trivial than action or atmosphere. The Lone Wolf and Cub films feature graphic, stylistic, even over the top blood sprays and gore upon impacts I was asking if anyone knows of any similar samurai films that feature this relatively unique feature.

>>11041

Lady Snowblood is bloody but maybe less than what you want

>>11042

Thank you, this is stellar. When filmstruck first started streaming I added this to my watch list and finally gave it a view. Just what I was looking for, now only if there was one that is a little bit more hidden than a criterion-core title...

>>11067

Notable directors:

1) Tomu Uchida (1898-1970):

>Uchida, a well-known director from Japan’s silent film era in the ’20s and ’30s, remains largely unknown in the West, even though his films are considered foundational to the samurai genre. In his youth he gave himself the nickname Tomu as a variant on the Anglo name "Tom," which he spelled with kanji characters meaning "to spit out dreams".

- Chiyari Fuji (1955)

- Souls in the Moonlight 1 - 3

- Miyamoto Musashi 1 - 6

2) Hideo Gosha (1929-1992):

>Hideo Gosha helped create the archetype of the samurai outlaw. Gosha's films are as important as Kurosawa's in terms of their influence, visual style and content, yet are not as well known in the West. Gosha's films often portray the struggle between traditional and modernist thought and are decidedly anti-feudal. According to the film historian Alain Silver, Gosha's 1969 film, Tenchu, is "one of the most accomplished examples of the samurai genre since World War II".

- Sanbiki no samurai (1964)

- Sword of the Beast (1965)

- Tange Sazen: The Secret of the Urn (1966)

- Samurai Wolf (1966)

- Samurai Wolf 2 (1967)

- Goyokin (1969)

- Hitokiri AKA Tenchu! (1969)

- Bandits vs Samurai Squadron (1978)

- Hunter in the Dark (1979)

3) Eiichi Kudo (1929-2000):

>Eiichi Kudo has garnered a reputation as one of the outlaw rebels of Japanese cinema, but he started out his career very much a cog in the Toei studio machine. He initially aspired to work in contemporary films and felt reluctant when the studio assigned him to duty in its jidai-geki department. Along with his colleagues Tadashi Imai and Tai Kato, Kudo spearheaded a movement at Toei to explore more realistic and artistically ambitious territory amidst the commercial chambara fare. The result was a flourishing of cruel jidai-geki features, generally shot in black and white scope and focusing on injustice and dishonor in the samurai era.

>[The stories of Eiichi Kudo's Samurai Trilogy] functioned as mirrors to the hot topics of the 1960s: rebellion and political assassination.

>13 Assassins was a kind of reworking of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. [However,] Kudo - and scriptwriter Kanao Ikegami - brought a different perspective to the Seven Samurai story; whereas Kurosawa's film pitted lowly samurai against each other for the benefit of a despised class - namely, the peasantry -, Kudo's film sees samurai fight merely among each for the benefit of samurai society - the bakuhan. In a way, Kudo's film is darker than Kurosawa's as it describes a corrupt world fostering unrewarding violence.

>In The Great Killing, Kudo took more liberty and replaced the high rank samurai of 13 Assassins with characters of a condition more suited to his social conscience: poor, marginalized samurai, whom he might have looked on as the students of the conflicted 1960s.Kudo has stated very clearly that his masterpiece The Great Killing was a reworking, under the guise of jidai-geki, of events surrounding the student movements. [During] the postproduction of the movie...Eiichi Kudo inserted in the sound tracks of the frenzied melee sequence a recording of student demonstrations against the ANPO treaty, thus revealing his empathy with the student movements.Misao Arai also reveals that scriptwriter Kanao Ikegami did synthesize in the script Eiichi Kudo's aspirations for rebellion against corrupt authorities.This revelation would seem to imply that The Great Killing is the triumphant expression of Kudo's ideals. But the three films are far from that; their revenge plots lead merely to chaos and despair. There is no triumph in killing. Moreover, the great killing of the film will not change much about the social order. As Dirty Kudo puts it, 'the movie shows but mangy dogs nibbling at the political system'. The pessimistic view of violence, once again, makes The Great Killing more than just another swordplay movie. It is also a nouvelle vague film with a political and moral bias. It may be seen both as a metaphor of student activism but also as the moral stance of a director who stemmed directly from samurai lineage and saw violence as the twilight of enlightenment. 11 Samurai, as Arai put it, 'shows human beings dazed and alienated by their own violence in a metaphorical environment'. (- Robin Gatto)

The Samurai Revolution Trilogy:

- The Thirteen Assassins (1963)

- Dai Satsujin AKA The Great Duel (1964)

- Eleven Samurai (1967)

- Bounty Hunter 2: The Fort of Death (1969)

- Ansatsu shirei AKA Assassination Orders (1984)

>>11068

4) Daisuke Ito (1898-1981):

>Daisuke Ito originated the sword fight film, which recreated the fight scenes of previously filmed Kabuki and Shimpa plays with greater cinematic realism.

>He, almost single-handedly, pushed the period film to its greatest heights. Even though most of Ito’s films from his most glorious period, the 1920s and 1930s, are now lost, enough of his silent-era work remains to prove that he was one of the greatest of Japanese filmmakers. Second to none at filming dazzlingly complicated ballets of action, Ito was also blessed with a sensibility that was exactly in tune with the romantic nihilism that characterized the late Edo period, a favoured era for jidai-geki. His work shows not only astonishing kineticism, merciless pace, visual invention, and terrific style, but also an understated realism that still feels contemporary today. Ito was noted for the violent realism of his films or, more particularly, for the amount of blood and horror he managed to show on screen. Ito's philosophy of rebellion and his exaltation of the nihilist hero pervades his films. For example, his film Zanjin Zamba Ken AKA Man-Slashing, Horse-Piercing Sword (1930) denounces the "exploiting classes"; in effect, it's social criticism hidden under the armor of the samurai.

>Sources: The Japanese Film: Art & Industry, Melodrama and Asian Cinema

- Chokon (1926) - [one reel (15 minutes) has survived thanks to the National Film Center of Japan, which screened it two years ago. Mifune - The Last Samurai (2016) features a stunning excerpt.]

- Zanjin zanbaken AKA Man-Slashing Horse-Piercing Sword (1929) - [a 26-minute excerpt has been saved and restored by Tokyo's National Film Centre. It's been screened at various film festivals. Its availability in digital format for home consumption is unknown.]

- Initiation of the Two-Sword Style (1943)

- Five Men of Edo (1951)

- The Vassal's Neck (1955)

5) Hiroshi Inagaki (1905-1980):

>Hiroshi Inagaki is considered one of the founding fathers of jidai-geki films. In the West, this sword-drama specialist is primarily known for his 1950s Miyamoto Musashi Trilogy, starring Toshiro Mifune.

- Date Masamune (1942)

- Sasaki Kojiro (1950)

- Sengoku burai AKA Sword for Hire (1952)

- Miyamoto Musashi 1 - 3

- Daredevil in the Castle (1961)

- Whirlwind (1964)

- Sasaki Kojiro (1967)

6) Tai Kato (1916-1985):

>Having worked as assistant director to greats like Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon), Tai Kato debuted as film director in 1951 with a chanbara effort, Kennen Jonan AKA Trouble over Swords and Women. Interestingly, prior to Kato virtually none of the new directors of the postwar period chose to make their directorial debut with a samurai movie.When viewed against the background of the contemporary trend toward a modernization of attitudes modeled after American-style democracy, Kato's decision to start making samurai films in 1951 reveals a directorial stance that was decidedly against the spirit of the times. In Tai Kato's mind, his most important formative experience prior to becoming a director himself was his assistant directorship under Daisuke Ito. To him, the word 'movie' itself was all but equivalent to the samurai films of this great director.

>After long years of shooting chanbara, Tai Kato established a unique style all his own. Central to it was the long, low-angle, fixed shot. Unlike Mizoguchi, Kato almost always avoided crane shots and pans, choosing rather to keep the camera at an extremely low angle - sometimes even to the extent of imbedding the camera in the floor. Furthermore, while Kato had been an avid admirer of Ozu's work since the silent era, his low-angle shots are distinguished from those of his predecessor in that they do not assume as a precondition the agreement of camera viewpoint and action. Kato's low angles define and enliven a small corner of disorderly space in which lonely men and women, though fated to remain apart, may coexist for a brief time.

>Source: Samurai Loyalty - A Film Genealogy of Kato Tai by Hasumi Shigehiko

- Genji Kuro (1957)

- Genji Kuro 2 (1958)

- Hizakura Daimyo Aka The Hectic Lord (1958)

- Tange Sazen (1962)

- Cruel Story of the Shogunate's Downfall (1964)

- Miyamoto Musashi (1973)

>>11069

7) Kihachi Okamoto (1923-2005)

>Okamoto was one of the main proponents of the wave of chanbara filmmakers that, in the wake of Akira Kurosawa, took a very critical attitude to bushido, the samurai lifestyle, and Tokugawa society in general. Starting from the early 1960s... the emphasis of the genre was no longer on honour and heroism, but on the death and misery that inevitably follow those who live by the sword and those who cross their paths.

>After starting work in chanbara, with 1963's Warring Clans, [Okamoto] began designing a very rhythmic approach to filming and editing action sequences. He carefully timed the placement of sound effects and music to fit camera movement and movement within the frame, creating a very rhythmic, almost musical whole." (- Tom Mes)

- Sengoku yaro AKA Warring Clans (1963)

- Samurai Assassin (1965)

- The Sword of Doom (1966)

- Kiru AKA Kill (1968)

- Akage AKA Red Lion (1969)

- Tokkan AKA Battle Cry (1975)

- Vengeance for Sale (2001)

8) Sadatsugu Matsuda (1906-2003)

>Sadatsugu Matsuda was the illegitimate son of Shozo Maкино, the legendary director credited as the founding father of Japanese cinema.Throughout his career, Matsuda specialized in jidai-geki, frequently starring chanbara luminaries like Chiezo Kataoka and Utaemon Ichikawa. Working within the confines of the Japanese studio system, Matsuda's films displayed the virtues of a classical training: economy, pace and graceful choreography of action. Matsuda is a representative example of the proficient but anonymous artisans working in jidai-geki between the 1920s and 1960s.

- Swordsman of the Two-Sword Style (1956)

- Seven from Edo (1958)

- Sanguine Battle (1959)

- Shingo's Original Challenge 1 - 5

- Restoration Fire (1961)

- Duel of Blood and Sand (1963)

9) Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998):

- Seven Samurai (1954)

- Yojimbo (1961)

- Sanjuro (1962)

10) Masahiro Maкино (1908-1993)

>The son of Shozo Maкино, Masahiro first directed at the age of 18 for his father's company, initiating a productive career in which he was to make 261 films. Specializing in jidai-geki, he first achieved critical esteem during the silent era with two downbeat samurai films.

- Sozenji baba (1928)

- Ronin-gai (1928)

- Ronin-gai (1929)

- Chikemuri Takadanobaba (1937)

- Musashi & Kojiro (1952)

- Ronin-gai AKA Street of Ronin (1957)

- Echo in the Mountains (1959)

- Kurama tengu AKA Goblin in Stirrups (1959)

- Evil Man of Edo (1960)

- Mask of the Moon: Tsukigata Hanpeita Story (1961)

11) Yoji Yamada (1931-)

>Veteran film director Yoji Yamada's first foray into the samurai genre was at the age of 65. His samurai trilogy is representative of modern samurai cinema. These films represent a more contemporary view of women and family. The needs and even opinions of female characters are now significant. This outlook is greatly divergent from past samurai films.

- The Twilight Samurai (2002)

- The Hidden Blade (2004)

- Bushi no ichibun AKA Love and Honor (2006)

>>11148

Did you watch the 3d version?

>>11171

No, I don't think it even got to the cinemas in my country. But I would always choose the regular version, anyway.

>>11068

>>11069

>>11070

Awesome, thanks

>>11428

There's more to it, maybe I will add the rest sometime.

>>11429

Cool, I am having difficulty finding a lot of the movies. Is there any site you would suggest, even if it were subscription based I wouldn't mind; I just don't have the money to buy each video individually.

>>11438

>>11439

Thanks fam

>>11447

It's kind of the same thing as Lone Wolf and Cub

>>11531

It was very lighthearted in comparison to other works, but i found the use of black & white in particular very, very good.

The use of rich textures and their respective light and shadow results to create dense-to-the-eye backgrounds is excellent, sometimes with movement too (flowing sake madness, the silly encounter in the middle of smoking the mansion, destroyed guard house).

Sounds pretentious but that kind of level of detail did impress me, especially when it was one of the first Kurosawa i saw too.

Sanjuro takes on a slightly more serious note but it's just as silly later on in terms of violence and some acting. It does retain the quality level in most aspects, it wasn't a shameless sequel.