Akira Kurosawa Samurai Films

From Seven Samurai, a 1954 film by Akira Kurosawa to Last Samurai the recent box office sensation, Samurai the famed Japanese warrior has been the subject in hundreds of films. The Samurai is classically depicted sporting a top knot-chonmage- carrying two swords and has been portrayed not just as a warrior an expert swordsman buy as a gentleman with discipline and principles that are consistent with bushido.

Akira Kurosawa Samurai Films

Two basic dramatic styles are exhibited by Samurai films. The first is jidai-geki(period drama)  and the chanbara(sword fighting films). Jidai-geki are character based stories while the chanbara are action packed with some dramatic sword fighting scenes.  Films in samurai genre deal with masterless samurai (‘ronin’), while demonstrating strong elements of both styles as it is exhibited in Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa (1954) and Yojimbo of 1961 as well as many films about legendary Musashi Miyamoto.

Akira Kurosawa Samurai Films

Besides Yojimbo and Seven Samurai , samurai classics  by Kurosawa, The Hidden Fortress of 1958 and 1963’s Sanjuro all star Toshiro Mifune the ‘samurai incarnate,’ actor. Kurosawa’s later films Kagemusha of 1980 and Ran of 1985 were not based on samurai but are set in feudal times with samurai playing a significant role.

Kurosawa’s films   have greatly influenced film industry in Japan and the West although in his career, he gained more notoriety and support for his films overseas than he got at home. Seven Samurai was a basis for American film director.

Akira Kurosawa Samurai Films

The Seven Samurai was the basis for The Magnificent Seven (1960) by John Sturges an American film director, Yojimbo for 1964s A Fist full of Dollars – the first in series of 3 ‘spaghetti westerns’  a creation by Italian film director Sergio Leone and The Hidden Fortress that influenced Star Ways(1977) by George Lucas. The parallels between cowboy archetypes ,The Samurai  and the influence each had on the other is evident in Yojimbo as it is in 1992 motion picture Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven.
Toshiro Mifune starred in 134 film during his career(1920-1997) playing either a classical samurai of  ordinary man with  ‘samurai principles’ in almost half of them. In addition to Kurosawa films, Mifune too starred in several Hiroshi Inagaki’s samurai films.

Akira Kurosawa Samurai Films

These include the classic(1954) Musashi Miyamoto. His worldwide reputation landed him several starring roles in Western productions such as Shogun (1980) the award winning TV mini-series based on James Clavell novel. Mifune was also in the Kihachi Okamoto’s 1970 film called Zatoich meets Yojimbo playing ‘yojimbo’ (bodyguard). Zatoich in the film is a legendary ‘blind swordsman’, a subject in many films –with historical and also modern adaptations- with most recent being the 2003 Takeshi Kitano’s film called Zatoichi. Also in 2003 he appeared in The Last Samurai by Edward Zwick and Yoji Yamada’s Twillight Samurai. Both are in jidai-geki style and Quentin Tarantino’s contemporary chanbara’ thriller Kill Bill Volume 1; are evidence to immorality of samurai genre in the film.