Good samurai/martial arts films?

[nalogg]

HI!

there's something I've been meaning to get around to doing.

that is to say, WATCHING SOME GOOD SAMURAI FILMS!

i've seen seven samurai of course, but what are some more good ones i can viddy?

doesn't actually have to be samurai.... any good martial arts films in general that are worth seeing.. i'm a fan of drunken master, iron monkey, everything jet li...etc etc... but i wanna see some classic or quality samurai movies

I watch a lot of anime already, so please no anime suggestions

-Norm

PS: if you want to see an utterly cheezy but entertaining film look for the "b" movie "Ninja Enforcer" classic........ it's been a staple for late night drunken entertainment for me for a long time

[D'Artagnan]

1). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
2). Power Rangers the Movie
3). Samurai Pizza Cats
4). Samurai Jack
5). Dragon : The Bruce Lee Story
6). All of the Karate Kid movies
7). American Ninja

Above is the definative martial arts movie collection. Without these don't expect to progress in martial arts...

[webjunkie401]

I haven't seen many, but I would suggest Kurasawa's Yojimbo and Sanjuro. A lot of the guys where I practice also like the Lone Wolf and Cub series.

[Skolld]

Kurasawa's Ran is excellent, It is his adaptation of King Lear, spectacular visuals. Throne of Blood by Kurasawa is also very good, it is his version of Macbeth. I also second Yojimbo.
Other fun martial art flicks are:
Hard Boiled, the original version is better than the dubbed.
Any of the Wu Tang Kung Fu classics are good.
I recently watched The Returner and Full-time Killers, both imports that are fun in an over the top kind of way and should be in a nearby video store.

hope that helps.

[Neil Gendzwill]

The Challenge
The Yakuza
Above The Law
Big Trouble in Little China
Ninja Turf (for sheer awfullness)

[Sentunim]

Are you guys waiting for someone to say Last Samurai, The ? Well, I'm not going to do it.

[hyuna]

It isn't a samurai movie, but the final sword duel scene (the Woodcutter's version) in Rashomon is the closest to what I imagine really happens in a sword fight as I've ever seen on film.

[Twobitmage]

sword of doom

kogen itto ryu action!

[Taek]

Well, I was looking forward to watching some good samurai films while I was visiting Japan early this year but was quite disappointed to find out most of local video stores carries much fewer samurai films than I expected. I've seen most of Kurosawa's samurai films. I recommend to watch Sanjuro, Yojimbo and Seven Samurais. Toshiro Mifune acted most of Kurosawa's film and he is not only good actor but great master swordman. We can easily get them from any video stores in Australia nowadays. I'm not sure about anywhere else in the world. I discovered a really nice film made by Kurosawa's formal assistant director. English tiltle is "After rain" and in Japanese, "Ame agaru". I think you might be able to find one in a Japanese grocery store where you can hire Japanese TV drama stuff if you have any large Japanese community in your city. This film is not packed with action scene or dramatic story such as Sanjuro or Yojimbo but has the kind of very beautiful tranqulity feeling in it. Kurosawa worte it at his late life so it really shows lots of things he really wanted to show to viewers in the world about Japan. One scene in the film, the samurai draws his sward and pratice kata in quite wood, just got engraved in my head ever since. Sounds might be silly but I didn't understand a word as it didn't have English subtitle but I felt what the film was trying to say as most of other Kurosawa's film do.

[Usagi San]

Well, there's this samurai movie I really like a lot. It's originally called Joi-uchi I think, but the english tittle is Samurai Rebellion. It's a Masaki Kobayashi's movie; the same guy that directed "Harakiri", and the excellent, and most exquisite, "Kwaidan" (gost stories).
It as Toshiro Mifune in the main role, at his best I must say, co-starring with none other than Tatsuya Nakadai. Can it get any better? Well... yes, the black and white cinematography by Kazuo Yamada... oh man.
Just amazing.

[Hotei]

Big Trouble in Little China (no, really)

Seven Samurai (I can't believe I'm the first to post that!)

Ran

Any of the series of "Samurai" movies, loosely (very loosely) based on Musashi's life

If you're just looking for martial arts choreography, go here.

And if you just want to see some unbelievable, real martial arts practice, pick up any Paulie Zink video. The man is made of rubber and held together with Monkey Kung-Fu.

[DCPan]

http://www.kendo-world.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2827

[boxerpit]

idont belive none of you said zatoichi.that a great film series and tv show.the last zatoich film was in 1989. it was one of the best in series.

[KhawMengLee]

3). Samurai Pizza Cats

SAMURAI PIZZA CATS! OH YEAH!!!! WHO DO YOU CALL WHEN U WANT SOME PEPPERONI?!!

In no particular order:

1) Tasogare Seibei (Twilight Samurai)
2) Samurai Fiction
3) Kagemusha
4) Lone Wolf and Cub series
5) SANJURO
6) YOJIMBO
7) SEVEN SAMURAI
8) SHOGUN's SAMURAI
9) GOHATTO
10) RAN

[KOMA]

Might want to see Ghost dog