{Inter} Cultural Japan

After reading Stray Dogs & Lone Wolves, I felt like making my own list of favorite samurai films and this is what I came up with:

1. Miyamoto Musashi aka Samurai (1954-56) by Inagaki Hiroshi. In three films Inagaki follows the exploits of Japan’s greatest legendary swordsman. The first film is rather sentimental (due to the time it was made, I usually prefer samurai movies from the sixties and later), but Mifune Toshiro shines in an explosive performance. The story improves in Part Two, Duel at Ichijoji Temple and Part Three, Duel on Ganryu Island.
   
2. Yojimbo (1961) by Kurosawa Akira. Kurosawa made many superb samurai films and it is difficult to choose. I prefer the compact Yojimbo because of its sardonic antihero played by Mifune Toshiro (take alone the way he scratches his back at the beginning of the film!), setting the tone for the samurai film of the sixties and also influencing spaghetti Westerns.
3. Seppuku (Harakiri) (1962) by Kobayashi Masaki. Stark, deep-cutting film that exposes the moral emptiness at the heart of Bushido. Great performance by Nakadai Tatsuya.
4. Onibaba (1964) by Shindo Kaneto. Not in Galloway’s book, and I have to confess there is no swordfight in it - instead, we have two women trapping wounded samurai to steal there weapons and armor. An aggressive masterwork that hits you squarely in the face. The huge field of waving susuki grass where the women wait for their prey dominates the film as a living organism. Read my review of the film.
5. The Tale of Zatoichi (1962) by Misumi Kenji. The first in the series of 26, starring Katsu Shintaro as the blind swordmaster. Sheer fun, as he can cut a candle in two after throwing it into the air, splitting even the wick so that both halves fall down still burning. Although I also like Kitano Takeshi’s pastiche (Zatoichi, 2003), the original series is superior!
6. Sleepy Eyes of Death: Sword of Seduction (1964) by Ikehiro Kazuo. The best of the twelve films about Nemuri Kyoshiro, starring Ichikawa Raizo. A surrealistic film about a nihilistic hero, “the son of a Portugese priest who assaulted his Japanese mother during the Black Mass.” Total pulp, as is the sword technique of Kyoshiro, who is skilled in stripping women of their clothes with one swipe of his mighty weapon.
7. Sword of Doom (Daibosatsu Toge) (1966) by Okamoto Kihachi. Dark film about a sociopathic samurai who is a murder-machine. Again featuring Nakadai Tatsuya in a fantastic act.
8. Goyokin (1969) by Gosha Hideo. Nakadai Tatsuya as a guilt-ridden samurai who tries to stop the cynical clan government from massacring a whole village.
9. Roningai (1990) by Kuroki Kazuo. A group of ronin drinks at a tavern/brothel in the outskirts of Edo. They come to the rescue of the women when samurai start killing off the prostitutes. Last film of Katsu Shintaro.
10. Twilight Samurai (2002) by Yamada Yoji. Beautiful film about the passing of the samurai age. Sanada Hiroyuki plays the poor samurai Seibei who works as clerck for a small han in northern Japan; Miyazawa Rie shines as his love interest Tomoe. The clan tries to uphold feudalism even when their time is past, which spells tragedy for unheroic (but brave and upright) Seibei.

Do you have other suggestions?