Jidaigeki and Chanbara (Japanese Period Dramas and Samurai Films)

[Galefore]

So I've been interested in classic Samurai films for a while, sparking that interest by catching a TV airing of Seven Samurai a long while ago (still my favorite movie, as common a choice as that is, because nothing has ever quite dethroned it). I've seen a few other works, but I'm still not as well versed in this genre as I'd love to be. For those here who have also gotten into this surprisingly deep genre of films, I'd love to hear which films you believe are the best. Essentially, recommendations, since I'm collecting them and I want to slowly go through all of the best films as best as I can (I'm about to actually sit down and watch the first Zatoichi film in a few minutes).

Films I HAVE seen (I may somehow be forgetting a few) NOTE THAT THIS LIST IS UPDATED WITH EACH NEW FILM I WATCH

Hara-kiri
Sansho the Bailiff
Seven Samurai
The Sword of Doom
Rashomon
Yojimbo
13 Assassins (the Miike remake)
Rurouni Kenshin
Kagemusha
Throne of Blood
Zatoichi (Takeshi's remake)
The Tale of Zatoichi
The Tale of Zatoichi Continues
New Tale of Zatoichi
Zatoichi the Fugitive
Zatoichi on the Road
Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold
Zatoichi's Flashing Sword
Fight, Zatoichi, Fight!

So... Actually not that many. Which is of course a shame... But I want to delve deep into the genre. I've heard great things from the film critic side of things on The Twilight Samurai and When The Last Sword is Drawn, as well as Miike's Hara-kiri, and I'm very interested in watching the new Rurouni Kenshin movies as a childhood fan of the series. In terms of the classics, obviously I'm gonna watch Kurosawa's other Samurai films and I'm interested in the Zatoichi series... But if anyone knows more about this and can recommend some really really good ones, fire away. And of course, feel free to discuss the genre at large as well.

[Apollo the Just]

I'm really upset because I watched like 3 of these last winter with my friend and I have forgotten the titles of every single one of them

I was super into it. Mostly for the costuming and choreography.

[Booyakasha]

'Throne of Blood' is hype. Given to understand that, at the end of the movie, they literally had a bunch of archers shooting loads of arrows at Toshiro Mifune-------man, that's nuts.

Let's see. I don't really know the terminology, what specifically constitutes a jidaigeki or a chanbara, but whatevs. Here's a couple good samurai flicks. (Warning------my list isn't of especially obscure stuff. Sorry.)

The Hidden Fortress
Yojimbo
Sanjuro
Rashomon (kind of)
Ran

The Lone Wolf and Cub series

The Samurai trilogy

The Sword of Doom

'Hidden Fortress' is famously the movie that sort of inspired 'Star Wars'. Likewise with 'Yojimbo' and 'A Fistful of Dollars'. So, like, they may be especially interesting to you in that regard, on top of being cool samurai flicks in general.

(EDIT: Incidentally, Gale, are you into comics? Because if samurai fiction is your bag, you might check out Usagi Yojimbo. Really good series.)

(EDIT2: Forgot 'Chushingura'. It's based on that story about the 47 ronin. Great movie.)

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

I haven't really watched any but just throwing this out there, The Last Samurai is great. Sorta related, The Magnificent Seven is a Western version of Seven Samurai (I don't even like many Westerns and this one is pretty good).

[Kil'jaeden]

The Fall of Ako Castle/Swords of Vengeance(赤穂城断絶). It is one of many movies about the 47 ronin.

There is a sort of horror movie called Onibaba(鬼婆) that would qualify as a period film. It is about two women that murder men(mostly samurai) for their belongings.

There is a decent movie from 1990 called Heaven and Earth(天と地と) about the battle of Kawanakajima(first one I think) between Nagao/Uesugi and Takeda.

[Galefore]

[QUOTE="Booyakasha, post: 1560615, member: 17381"]

The Lone Wolf and Cub series

The Samurai trilogy

The Sword of Doom

(EDIT: Incidentally, Gale, are you into comics? Because if samurai fiction is your bag, you might check out Usagi Yojimbo. Really good series.)

(EDIT2: Forgot 'Chushingura'. It's based on that story about the 47 ronin. Great movie.)[/QUOTE]

Those three are ones I've heard of and read about but never seen. I'm very interested in them all, though. Sword of Doom especially, since it's about a complete ******* and I think that's always very interesting to watch. Especially in the historical context of the dynamic between samurai and daimyo.

As for Usagi Yojimbo, I'm gonna give that a go sometime soon too. It's one of the many many adaptations of the legends surrounding Miyamoto Musashi and I'm a sucker for stuff about lone wandering Samurai.

^Onibaba is on my list too... I'm very interested in the early horror films of that era.

[Booyakasha]

[QUOTE="Galefore, post: 1560706, member: 29027"]As for Usagi Yojimbo, I'm gonna give that a go sometime soon too. It's one of the many many adaptations of the legends surrounding Miyamoto Musashi and I'm a sucker for stuff about lone wandering Samurai.[/QUOTE] Yeah. Don't let the anthropomorphised animal cast throw you--------UY is a really well put-together thing. Clever writing, terrific characterisation, and some really great world-building---------I think I got a better sense of the look and feel of feudal Japan from UY than any movie or tv show.

'Sword of Doom' is a weird movie. It's interesting to see one featuring a really, really bad guy as protagonist-------usually samurai stories got more of an upright moral tone than that. Samurai noir.

[Apollo the Just]

This isn't quite the topic of this thread, but I feel it's related enough - the Kenshin live action movie (I only have seen the first one so far) was so **** rad, bro. I highly recommend it.

[Galefore]

^I'm super interested in that, I've wanted to see a new adaptation of that for a loooong time

[Bomby]

Ugetsu. Quite possibly my favorite film in all of Japanese cinema.

The original Hara-kiri.

The first Lady Snowblood.

An incredibly difficult movie to find (legally), but Orochi is an excellent chanbara from the silent film era.

I'll try to think of more later. Boo gave a lot of really good suggestions. If you subscribe to Hulu Plus, they have a deal with Criterion, who has a ton of jidai-geki.

[Galefore]

^I've gotten copies of Ugetsu and Hara-kiri literally this morning, so I'll be watching those soon. I loved Sansho the Bailiff, so I definitely trust Mizoguchi's abilities in regards to Ugetsu. I also acquired pretty much every film I've heard really really good stuff about and I'm in the process of getting more obscure ones as well... I'm very into this right now. I've watched quite a bit in the last few days.

[Bomby]

Another one of my favorite Mizoguchi films is Street of Shame, though I'm not quite certain it would fall under jidai-geki. Excellent film either way.

I loved Kenji Misumi's adaptation of Yutsuya Kaidan (which I saw on film at UW Cinematheque), but it seems impossible to find. Apparently Nobuo Nakagawa's version that was released the same year is considered the "definitive" version, but I have not seen that one.

A few movies well-regarded I've been meaning to watch but haven't gotten to yet include Kuroneko, Onibaba, Gate of Hell, and Kwaidan.

[Galefore]

^Noted. I'll do some looking into those. Like I mentioned earlier, the early horror films from this genre all seem really fascinating, especially since I find Japanese horror in general to be absolutely bone-chilling. Hell, even the channeler scene in Rashomon unsettled me.

I'm currently REALLY loving the Zatoichi films. I've always been a sucker for characters like Zatoichi (who, for the One Piece fans around here, is the basis in both appearance and character for Admiral Issho, aka Fujitora) and Shintaru Katsu's portrayal is flawless. It makes me really sad that my introduction to old Ichi was through Beat Takeshi's so-so 2003 retelling, which was stylistically striking if a bit bland.

[Galefore]

Saw the Rurouni Kenshin movie... In hindsight, I realize now that Rurouni Kenshin was what actually sparked my interest in samurai fiction, along with Samurai Jack. I remember being way more interested in full-on period pieces about samurai and ninja than I was in other stuff, preferring stuff about Koga/Iga over things like Naruto, and reading Vagabond and whatever else I could find in that vein. I'm very happy with the Rurouni Kenshin film. It brought back my pleasant memories of the series without having to watch the so-so Anime adaptation (especially not the dub, which I am not at all a fan of. I'd love to see it redubbed with a more competent voice cast). The choreography was good, the storytelling was fluid, though a prior knowledge of the series certainly helped my understanding of the characters and their motives... Either way, it's exactly what I've wanted for a while: an updated take on the first piece of Samurai fiction that caught my young eye. Very cool.

I've also recently seen Sword of Doom and Yojimbo, which were both fantastic. I like watching Nakadai's acting, especially as a foil to Mifune. Nakadai portrays madness and spite so effortlessly with those strikings eyes of his, and Mifune's ability to swing from stoic master in Sword of Doom to gruff bodyguard in Yojimbo (not to mention his numerous other extremely varied performances in my favorite classic Kurosawa films) is always the perfect contrast.

As always, though I think pretty much anyone with knowledge of this genre has weighed in, if anyone's got some interesting suggestions always feel free to drop em here.