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Harakiri

Masaki Kobayashi
1962 • 133 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #302 Editions: DVD, Blu-ray, Hulu Plus

Following the collapse of his clan, unemployed samurai Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the manor of Lord Iyi, begging to commit ritual suicide on his property in Masaki Kobayashi’s fierce evocation of individual agency in the face of a corrupt and hypocritical system.

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The Hidden Fortress

Akira Kurosawa
1958 • 139 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #116 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

A general and a princess must dodge enemy clans while smuggling the royal treasure out of hostile territory with two bumbling, conniving peasants at their sides; it’s a spirited adventure that only Akira Kurosawa could create.

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Kagemusha

Akira Kurosawa
1980 • 180 minutes • 1.85:1 • Japan
Spine: #267 Editions: DVD, Blu-ray, Collector’s Sets

In his late, color masterpiece, Akira Kurosawa returns to the samurai film and to a primary theme of his career—the play between illusion and reality. Sumptuously reconstructing the splendor of feudal Japan and the pageantry of war, Kurosawa creates a meditation on the nature of power.

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Kill!

Kihachi Okamoto
1968 • 114 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #313 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

In this pitch-black action comedy by Kihachi Okamoto, based on the same source novel as Akira Kurosawa’s Sanjuro, a pair of down-on-their-luck swordsmen arrive in a dusty, windblown town, where they become involved in a local clan dispute.

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Kwaidan

Masaki Kobayashi
1965 • 161 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #90 Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

Kwaidan features four nightmarish tales in which terror thrives and demons lurk. Adapted from traditional Japanese ghost stories, this lavish, widescreen production drew extensively on Kobayashi’s own training as a student of painting and fine arts.

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Onibaba

Kaneto Shindo
1964 • 103 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #226 Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

In Kaneto Shindo’s chilling folktale, a mother and her daughter-in-law eke out a desperate existence in the lonely marshes of war-torn medieval Japan. When a neighbor returns from the skirmishes, lust, jealousy, and rage—and a horrifying fate at the hands of an ominous, ill-gotten demon mask—ensue.

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Ran

Akira Kurosawa
1985 • 160 minutes • 1.85:1 • Japan
Spine: #316 Edition: DVD

With Ran, legendary director Akira Kurosawa reimagines Shakespeare’s King Lear as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan. Majestic in scope, the film is Kurosawa’s late-life masterpiece, a profound examination of the folly of war.

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Rashomon

Akira Kurosawa
1950 • 88 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #138 Editions: DVD, Blu-ray, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus, iTunes

A riveting psychological thriller that investigates the nature of truth and the meaning of justice Rashomon is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made.

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Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto

Hiroshi Inagaki
1954 • 93 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #14 Editions: Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus, iTunes

In the first part of the epic Samurai Trilogy, Toshiro Mifune thunders onto the screen as the iconic title character.

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Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple

Hiroshi Inagaki
1955 • 103 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #15 Editions: Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus, iTunes

Toshiro Mifune furiously embodies swordsman Musashi Miyamoto as he comes into his own in the action-packed middle section of the Samurai Trilogy.

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Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island

Hiroshi Inagaki
1956 • 104 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #16 Editions: Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus, iTunes

A disillusioned Musashi Miyamoto (Toshiro Mifune) has turned his back on the samurai life, becoming a farmer in a remote village, while his nemesis Kojiro (Koji Tsuruta) now works for the shogun.

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Samurai Rebellion

Masaki Kobayashi
1967 • 121 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #310 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

Toshiro Mifune stars as an aging swordsman in director Masaki Kobayashi’s Samurai Rebellion, the gripping story of a peaceful man who finally decides to take a stand against injustice.

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Samurai Spy

Masahiro Shinoda
1965 • 100 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #312 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets

Years of warfare end in a Japan unified under the Tokugawa shogunate, and samurai spy Sasuke Sarutobi, tired of conflict, longs for peace. When a high-ranking spy named Tatewaki Koriyama defects from the shogun to a rival clan, however, the world of swordsmen is thrown into turmoil.

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The Samurai Trilogy

Hiroshi Inagaki
Japan
Editions: DVD, Blu-ray

The Samurai Trilogy, directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring the inimitable Toshiro Mifune, was one of Japan’s most successful exports of the 1950s, a rousing, emotionally gripping tale of combat and self-discovery.

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Sanjuro

Akira Kurosawa
1962 • 96 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #53 Editions: DVD, Blu-ray, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus, iTunes

In Kurosawa’s sly companion piece to Yojimbo, jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan’s evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a “proper” samurai on its ear.

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Sanshiro Sugata

Akira Kurosawa
1943 • 79 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Editions: Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

Kurosawa’s effortless debut is a thrilling martial arts action tale, but it’s also a moving story of moral education that’s quintessential Kurosawa.

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Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two

Akira Kurosawa
1945 • 83 minutes • 1.37:1 • Japan
Editions: Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

Kurosawa’s first film was such a success that the studio leaned on the director to make a sequel. The result is a hugely entertaining adventure, reuniting most of the major players from the original.

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Seven Samurai

Akira Kurosawa
1954 • 207 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #2 Editions: DVD, Blu-ray, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus, iTunes

In Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai), sixteenth-century villagers hire the eponymous warriors to protect them from invading bandits. This thrilling three-hour ride is one of the most beloved movie epics of all time.

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The Sword of Doom

Kihachi Okamoto
1966 • 119 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #280 Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus, iTunes

Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune star in the story of a wandering samurai who exists in a maelstrom of violence. A gifted swordsman—plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule—Ryunosuke kills without remorse, without mercy. It’s a way of life that leads to madness.

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Sword of the Beast

Hideo Gosha
1965 • 85 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #311 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha’s Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his ministers as part of a reform plot. His comrades then turn on him and, his sense of honor shaken, he decides to live in the wild, like an animal.

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Three Outlaw Samurai

Hideo Gosha
1964 • 93 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #596 Editions: DVD, Blu-ray, Hulu Plus

This first film by the legendary Hideo Gosha is among the most canonized chambara (sword-fighting) films.

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Throne of Blood

Akira Kurosawa
1957 • 109 minutes • 1.33:1 • Japan
Spine: #190 Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus

Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood reimagines Macbeth in feudal Japan. Starring Kurosawa’s longtime collaborator Toshiro Mifune and the legendary Isuzu Yamada as his ruthless wife, the film tells of a valiant warrior’s savage rise to power and his ignominious fall.

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Yojimbo

Akira Kurosawa
1961 • 110 minutes • 2.35:1 • Japan
Spine: #52 Editions: DVD, Blu-ray, Collector’s Sets, Hulu Plus, iTunes

To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily masterless samurai Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune) turns a range war between two evil clans to his own advantage in Akira Kurosawa’s visually stunning and darkly comic Yojimbo.

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