Greatest SAMURAI flicks EVER...LIST...?

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:45 pm

Nah, not exactly.

It is a super famous story, but it's a three part story.

Sword of Doom is only part 1. So yes, it is a cliff-hanger, and they were originally planning on making the other two parts. I can't remember why it didn't happen, but it was probably budgetary related reasons.

However, Raizo Ichikawa (who is awesome) did star in a complete version back in the fifties. I don't think they've been released stateside before, but if you're curious, it's Daibosatsu Toge 1, 2, and 3. PS, all three are directed by the great Kenji Misumi.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:55 pm

StormShadow wrote:Nah, not exactly.
However, Raizo Ichikawa (who is awesome) did star in a complete version back in the fifties. I don't think they've been released stateside before, but if you're curious, it's Daibosatsu Toge 1, 2, and 3. PS, all three are directed by the great Kenji Misumi.

these are actually available outside of japan, i've seen them, they are not as good as sword of doom. they make the dude look sympathic in some parts, big mistake. that's why i said SoD was teh definitive version

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 10:52 pm

the subtitle options with Criterion's THRONE OF BLOOD...? Which version do you guys think is better? I'm about to sit down a second time and check this Richie's version out. Off the strength of their personal description, I'm thinkin Hoagland's might be better.

Linda Hoagland's or Donald Richie's...?

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 12:07 am

drizzle wrote:
StormShadow wrote:Nah, not exactly.
However, Raizo Ichikawa (who is awesome) did star in a complete version back in the fifties. I don't think they've been released stateside before, but if you're curious, it's Daibosatsu Toge 1, 2, and 3. PS, all three are directed by the great Kenji Misumi.
these are actually available outside of japan, i've seen them, they are not as good as sword of doom. they make the dude look sympathic in some parts, big mistake. that's why i said SoD was teh definitive version

Didn't see this post before.

Only reason I don't think SoD could ever be the definitive version is because it only tells one third of the story.

Oh, and my understanding is that the dude is supposed to be more sympathetic as the story goes along. But I could be wrong on that. But hopefully they don't soften him up in the first part.

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:45 am

Fuk'n A wrote:

=

FUCK YES!

this movie was soooo fucking badass! def one of the best samurai flics ive ever seen!!! this movie was so deep!!!

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 5:23 pm

darkwingduck wrote:these are the samurai flicks I got...Which movies should be in my library?

- Ghost Dog
- Kill
- Last Samurai (2003)
- Leon
- Ninja Scroll
- Ronin
- Le Samourai
- Samurai Jack (season 1)
- Samurai Spy
- Seven Samurai
- Sword of Doom
- Yojimbo
- Zatoichi 'One the Road' #5
- Zatoichi 'The chest of gold' #6
- Zatoichi 'Zatoichi and the Doomed Man' #11

that list was all over the place. now that my tastes in chambara has aged well...this is what im looking at now...

Harakiri
Incident at Blood Pass
Kagemusha
Kill!
Ran
Samurai Rebellion
Samurai Spy
Seven Samurai
Shogun Assassin
Sogun's Samurai: The Yagyu Clan Conspiracy
Sword of Doom
Throne of Blood
Yojimbo
Zatoichi #5 - On the Road
Zatoichi #6 - Chest of Gold
Zatoichi #11 - Doomed Man
Zatoichi #20 - Meets Yojimbo
Zatoichi #21 - Festival of Fire

i want to continue to find the films worth copping. just to re-cap, lots of good recs in this thread. anyone care to state the obvious and tell me what my collection is missing...?

dont mean to beat a horse, but shit!!! im totally obsessed with all things samurai right now.

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 6:45 pm

Assuming that already own the movies on your second list, I'd say hey, more Zatoichi never hurt anybody!

The Hanzo the Razor movies are dope as hell. Just buy the box.

Check out animeigo.com and peruse their samurai movies, they've got some good ones.

You like Kurosawa, so check out Sanjuro and The Hidden Fortress, both good. I know Drizzle loves Sanjuro (I like it, but it's not near my favorite).

I guess you could check out Samurai 1, 2, and 3. Mifune, Criterion, nuff said. Don't spend too much on these though, they're barebones and wouldn't be up to Criterion's audio/visual standards these days.

I'll leave it to Drizzle for now, I'm tired.

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 6:49 pm

Also I just now found a website simply called http://samuraidvd.com that looks almost too good to be true. I assume these are high quality bootlegs, but no less a source than Stephen Hunter raved about the website (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00436.html). I'm pretty positive I'll spending a lot of money there.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:12 pm

StormShadow wrote:Assuming that already own the movies on your second list, I'd say hey, more Zatoichi never hurt anybody!

The Hanzo the Razor movies are dope as hell. Just buy the box.

Check out animeigo.com and peruse their samurai movies, they've got some good ones.

You like Kurosawa, so check out Sanjuro and The Hidden Fortress, both good. I know Drizzle loves Sanjuro (I like it, but it's not near my favorite).

I guess you could check out Samurai 1, 2, and 3. Mifune, Criterion, nuff said. Don't spend too much on these though, they're barebones and wouldn't be up to Criterion's audio/visual standards these days.

I'll leave it to Drizzle for now, I'm tired.

stormy covered it pretty well here

def get the Hanzo box, def get sanjuro (i told you, should've gotten the criterion double), def get more zatoichis - doesn't matter which, they're all pretty great

get Shadow Hunters 1&2, get Demon spies - all 3 are great and should be easy to find

there should be an animeigo lone wolf and cub box floating around the internet, def worth getting

i'm pretty sure there's a Samurai 1-3 boxset that's not criterion out there that's worth while.

check out Sex & Yakuza and the Female Yakuza Tale - they're not exactly chambara, the actual genre is called ninkiyo yakuza i believe (i'm very likely wrong on the name). The genre concentrates specifically on the yakuza around the late 19th/early 20th century. That's actually what Zatoichi movies really are. Anyways, these two are full of boobs and swordfights and whatnot, so they're pretty awesome. Personal faves actually

That bootleg site stormy put up looks quality but i've never used it. I can suggest http://www.kurotokagi.com/ - had some very positive exprience with them. Start with Hideo Gosha stuff, can never go wrong with him - Hunter in the Dark if you're looking for a specifi recomendation.

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 3:24 am

i may be a bit over zealous when i say this...generally i think every chambara i watch is the greatest thing ever, especially the catalog criterion comes out with...but COT DAMN!!!!!

im not one to get into lengthy descriptions of how i feel about movies like some learned film critics...but lemme just say this...of all the chambara that ive seen...samurai rebellion takes the cake. hands down. not only in samurai films. this movie holds weight with just about all films. top 5 for me. The ending scene in this was

if you havent seen this shit...fuck man, what are you waiting for...?

Director kobayashi has a leg up on kurosawa in my book, based soley off this film. FUCKIN BRILLIANT!

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 11:54 am

^^^ damn dude, don't be stylin on tha big K dog

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:03 am

from a credible source, i was told that...(roughfly translated) THE CRUEL LIFE OF THE SAMURAI or THE CRUEL STORY OF THE SAMURAI is one of Japanese most favored chambara flics ever. right up there with Yojimbo...the actor KINNOSUKE NAKAMURA is the main dude...anyone know which flick im talking about? I wanna see this one BAD!!! help me find this flic.

all i got is from IMBD site...

[quote]Bushid

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:30 am

Sorry dog, not ringing a bell here.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:47 am

never heard of it either, none of the bootleg sites carry it as far as i can tell

where did your friend see this? doesn't look like it was ever put in english

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:43 pm

drizzle wrote:never heard of it either, none of the bootleg sites carry it as far as i can tell

where did your friend see this? doesn't look like it was ever put in english

my mother in law. shes a film OTAKU. she loves watching movies...shes japanesse. she is very impressed by my chambara collection. many of which she saw in the theaters when she was young.

i suppose i can settle for a non-subtitled version. Ill just have to Mystery Science theater what everyone is saying.

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Mon May 07, 2007 2:37 am

i just stumbled onto this. looks pretty good.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Mon May 07, 2007 10:55 am

^^ this isn't out yet i thought. it's supposed to be good though

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 1:33 pm

Bringing this baby back for some ninja goodness. It's crazy that they actually put this out on legit dvd.

Shinobi Nomo - this was a huge treat as i'm a big fan of all things ninja. Allegedly this is the movie that kicked off the modern ninja craze, and I believe that assessment. Pretty much all the staple elements of this sub-genre or at least the ground work for them is present here, from the sped-up running to the ninja agent in the guise of a short old warrior priest with the big round hat. It's somewhat light on the action, but full of history and all sorts of background info on the subject. What little action that is there is great in that 'blink and you miss it' way that the Japanese love, and a little training sequence is included to supplement the actual fighting. The emphasis is definitely on the story, which isn't half bad and manages to hit some effective dramatic notes and place the heros in a historical context. A real ninja master was used as an advisor on the film, which lends the proceedings a definite air of authenticity. A solid cast of genre favorites is more than up to the task, I actually liked Raizo here more than I did in Sleepy Eyes and Y

LONDON · Post by **LONDON** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 10:57 am

shogun assassin
________
Synthetic Weed

BusinessMan · Post by **BusinessMan** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 1:58 pm

darkwingduck wrote:
darkwingduck wrote:these are the samurai flicks I got...Which movies should be in my library?

- Ghost Dog
- Kill
- Last Samurai (2003)
- Leon
- Ninja Scroll
- Ronin
- Le Samourai
- Samurai Jack (season 1)
- Samurai Spy
- Seven Samurai
- Sword of Doom
- Yojimbo
- Zatoichi 'One the Road' #5
- Zatoichi 'The chest of gold' #6
- Zatoichi 'Zatoichi and the Doomed Man' #11
that list was all over the place. now that my tastes in chambara has aged well...this is what im looking at now...

Harakiri
Incident at Blood Pass
Kagemusha
Kill!
Ran
Samurai Rebellion
Samurai Spy
Seven Samurai
Shogun Assassin
Sogun's Samurai: The Yagyu Clan Conspiracy
Sword of Doom
Throne of Blood
Yojimbo
Zatoichi #5 - On the Road
Zatoichi #6 - Chest of Gold
Zatoichi #11 - Doomed Man
Zatoichi #20 - Meets Yojimbo
Zatoichi #21 - Festival of Fire

i want to continue to find the films worth copping. just to re-cap, lots of good recs in this thread. anyone care to state the obvious and tell me what my collection is missing...?

dont mean to beat a horse, but shit!!! im totally obsessed with all things samurai right now.

I'm not quite familiar with how the Zatoichi series is put together. Whenever I search for them I find Zatoichi Episodes ie. like a TV Show I think. Is this what I should be getting? For example, when you say Zatoichi #6 - Chest of Gold does that refer to the 6th episode? They also come in Volumes, ie. "Zatoichi TV Series Vol.1 E01-05"

I'm confused...

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 2:20 pm

The tv series is seperate from the movie series

I mean, same actor, same character, but in this instance, and most instances, he's referring to the movies

so he means the fifth, sixth, 11th, 20th, and 21st movies in the series, of which there were 26

also, definitely gonna check out that shinobi joint when I get a chance

BusinessMan · Post by **BusinessMan** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 8:12 pm

I'm not sure if it's against the TOS or not, but I happen to have a torrent link, with quite a nice DL speed, containing every single Zatoichi movie (all 26). I have already acquired the first 17. If anyone is interested and this is not against the TOS just let me know and I will post it.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:01 pm

by all means man, put it up. i don't fuck with torrents personally but a lot of people on here do, i'm sure somebody can put the info to good use

BusinessMan · Post by **BusinessMan** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:12 pm

Thats the link to ALL 26 Zatoichi MOVIES, these are NOT the series episodes.

http://btjunkie.org/torrent/Zatoichi-19 ... ad.torrent

Man, I'm about 3/4 through Zatoichi #1 (1962), had to stop because I had a few things to do, but seriously

this movie is OFF THE HOOK!!! I can relate to the "warm" feeling Stormshadow (I Think??) was talking about, this is EXACTLY what I needed... Thank you all for recommending this ridiculously awesome series.

BTW, are all the movies this great?

and how is the series?

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:16 pm

BusinessMan wrote:Thats the link to ALL 26 Zatoichi MOVIES, these are NOT the series episodes.

http://btjunkie.org/torrent/Zatoichi-19 ... ad.torrent

Man, I'm about 3/4 through Zatoichi #1 (1962), had to stop because I had a few things to do, but seriously this movie is OFF THE HOOK!!! I can relate to the "warm" feeling Stormshadow (I Think??) was talking about, this is EXACTLY what I needed... Thank you all for recommending this ridiculously awesome series.

BTW, are all the movies this great?

and how is the series?

the movies vary in quality consistance by about a half-star each way. Some are a little better, some are a little worse, but having seen about 20 of them so far I've yet to see one bad one or one I didn't enjoy.

The series is pretty much the same. A good way to describe the episodes is like this - a feature movie usually consists of 2 or 3 concurring plots/subplots in which Zatoichi is involved which all interconnect somehow, while the series pairs it down to only 1 plot thread. So you get 40 minutes of somewhat simplified goodness as opposed to 90-100.

BusinessMan · Post by **BusinessMan** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:21 pm

drizzle wrote:
BusinessMan wrote:Thats the link to ALL 26 Zatoichi MOVIES, these are NOT the series episodes.

http://btjunkie.org/torrent/Zatoichi-19 ... ad.torrent

Man, I'm about 3/4 through Zatoichi #1 (1962), had to stop because I had a few things to do, but seriously this movie is OFF THE HOOK!!! I can relate to the "warm" feeling Stormshadow (I Think??) was talking about, this is EXACTLY what I needed... Thank you all for recommending this ridiculously awesome series.

BTW, are all the movies this great?

and how is the series?
the movies vary in quality consistance by about a half-star each way. Some are a little better, some are a little worse, but having seen about 20 of them so far I've yet to see one bad one or one I didn't enjoy.

The series is pretty much the same. A good way to describe the episodes is like this - a feature movie usually consists of 2 or 3 concurring plots/subplots in which Zatoichi is involved which all interconnect somehow, while the series pairs it down to only 1 plot thread. So you get 40 minutes of somewhat simplified goodness as opposed to 90-100.

wow... I have many many many hours of enjoyment ahead of me.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:24 pm

you have no idea

Keep in mind too that the 1st one is story/character oriented and not the most exciting as far as action goes. Some of them have a lot more swordplay.

The only thing is they can get a bit repetetive if you watch a lot at once, space them out

BusinessMan · Post by **BusinessMan** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:38 pm

drizzle wrote:space them out

you obviously have no idea who you're talking to

When I like something, I tend to go a little overboard.

ie. 4 seasons of entourage in 1 week
ie2. 11 seasons of southpark in few weeks
etc.
etc..

Theres a reason I've almost acquired all 26 movies

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:47 pm

nah man, i do teh same and i'm telling you - you'll enjoy them more if you watch like 1 a week or something like that. None of them have the same plot but similar elements do crop up, which is inevitable at this volume of work. There's only so many times you can see him square off against a ronin who is Zatoichi's friend even though he's working for a rival clan or something before you start to get bored

BusinessMan · Post by **BusinessMan** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 10:03 pm

drizzle wrote:nah man, i do teh same and i'm telling you - you'll enjoy them more if you watch like 1 a week or something like that. None of them have the same plot but similar elements do crop up, which is inevitable at this volume of work. There's only so many times you can see him square off against a ronin who is Zatoichi's friend even though he's working for a rival clan or something before you start to get bored

Yea I'll probably end up spacing these ones out a little only because it's a busy period for me right now, but god damn this series is tempting the shit out of me.