7.8/10

Director: Masahiro Ando

Hair-raising anime action featuring Kotarou, a young Japanese boy on the run from China's Royal Army, who happens upon a wandering samurai. He's not i... Read more

Director: Kazuo Mori

Starring: Shintaro Katsu, Rentaro Mikuni, Hisaya Morishige, Etsushi Takahashi, Fujio Morit...

One of the best of the original series of 25, this sees our blind hero deliver the baby of a dying mother (and breastfeed it!), then set off to find t... Read more

Director: Satsuo Yamamoto

Starring: Shintaro Katsu, Rentaro Mikuni

Zatoichi, played of course by the brilliant Shintaro Katsu, wanders into yet another village in turmoil as rival gambling houses are putting the squee... Read more

5.9/10

Director: Yuji Shimomura

Starring: Tak Sakaguchi, Kentaro Seagal, Honoka Asada, Yoko Fujita

A genre-crossing, time-fusing, fantasy blockbuster from the action director of 'Versus' and starring Tak Sakaguchi as a nameless warrior who attacks a... Read more

8.2/10

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu

A Kurosawa masterpiece, a decade-in-the-making version of 'King Lear' that brilliantly blends Japanese history with Shakespeare's themes. A triumphant... Read more

8.2/10

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu

A Kurosawa masterpiece, a decade-in-the-making version of 'King Lear' that brilliantly blends Japanese history with Shakespeare's themes. A triumphant... Read more

8/10

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Tsutomu Yamazaki, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kenichi Hagiwara

AKA 'Kagemusha - The Shadow Warrior'. Set in 1531, in a Japan torn by civil strife, the film deals with a mighty Japanese warlord and his commoner loo... Read more

8/10

Director: Kaneto Shindo

Starring: Nobuku Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Sato

An exotic and stylish tale of deceit and survival. A peasant mother and daughter lure soldiers away from their comrades and slay them for their armour... Read more

8.7/10

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba, Daisuke Kato, Seiji Miyaguchi, Mi...

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six... Read more