Ninja and Samurai Movies you must see!

As a huge fan of Chanbara /Jidai Geki, or Samurai era films, I thought I'd do a quick list of some of my favourite "Ballets of Blood". This list is not extensive, so feel free to comment on this post adding your own favourites. My criteria for a good film is simple - Lots of action, some story line (but not enough to get in the way of the action), 'Rivers of Blood', staunch main character (with or without humourous witicisms), wicked sword work. Desirable but not essential are Ninja or Yakuza, exotic weapons and psychotic bad guys.

Akira Kurosawa's movies are good, great acting, high brow sort of stuff. Seven Samurai has a great sword duel, imparting some important lessons about Budo. RAN has some bloody battle scenes.

Toshiro Mifune in anything usually makes for a good film. His role in the Miyamoto Musashi trilogy is good, but as always I preferred the book (by Eiji Yoshikawa). Having said that, their is plenty of sword work, the intial battle scene is cool and the duel with Shishido Baiken, the Kusarigama master, fulfills my need for exotic weapons. See an excerpt from this series here, notice also the use of Hasso No Kamae and Yoko Aruki. Musashi also keeps his back to the rising sun and fights with Bokken vs Live Blade.

I've watched quite a few others in the genre, but that real stand outs for me are two series, the Lone Wolf and Cub series and the Zatoichi series. Now whilst I liked the Takeshi Kitano (aka Beat Takeshi) version of Zatoichi, I LOVE the 1960's & 70's series starring Shintaro Katsu.

The wicked backhand sword style of Yakuza/Blind Massuer Ichi, is so inspirational that Bruce Lee wanted to do a version of Zatoichi as part of a series of period dramas. I used to have a VHS video tape (you remember these right?) which had a picture of Lee dressed up as Zatoichi. Watch some great backhand sword carnage here and here, also here, here and here! Zatoichi has a keen sense of humour and justice (for a criminal) and is not a man to gamble with...

Lone Wolf and Cub is also awesome. The actor who plays Lone Wolf, Tomisaburo Wakayama, is the brother of the dude who plays Zatoichi, Shintaro Katsu. I don't know what their mum fed them but I wish I could get some, then maybe my swordwork would improve! Or maybe I should just practice more ;)

Lone wolf is the Shogun's executioner. but the Shogun fears his power and tries to have him killed. Bad move. Lone wolf is out, so his wife is killed instead. This forces Lone Wolf (Ito Ogami) to 'walk the path of demons' as a sword for hire, leaving behind 'rivers of blood'. He takes his infant son, Daigoro, with him in the pram from hell and spends his time killing Ninjas, Samurai and Yakuza. He has no sense of humour, never sleeps and goes on with gritty determination despite various wounds. Again the sword work is wicked. Check out his Seagull style Kenjutsu here. Oh yeah, he's also an equl opportunity killer, as shown here.

These two series are my favourite, both are available for purchase online. Having said that, these two brothers made a whole lot of other films, you should check 'em out.

ps. I just found some footage of Tomisaburo Wakayama playing a ninja, rather than killing them. It is from a film called "The Black Hood", which I hope to see soon. Check it out here. Even has a bo shuriken being thrown in it.