Image credit: Columbia Pictures, Miramax, Seneca Productions, Toho Film, RKO Radio Pictures, Cowboy Pictures, Shochiku, Brandon Films Inc., Magnolia Pictures, Artisan Entertainment
Akira Kurosawa's classic samurai film starring the legendary Toshiro Mifune is iconic, but there are some more great movies just like it.
Here's our top picks for the list of "Sanjuro"-like movies.
10. Seven Samurai (1954) Akira Kurosawa does it again with "Seven Samurai," another gem with Toshiro Mifune. It's set in a poor village in feudal Japan that's under constant threat from bandits. So, the villagers hire seven samurai to defend them.
The story takes us through the recruitment process – finding samurai willing to work for food rather than gold is no easy feat. Kambei, an older samurai, leads the pack and orchestrates the defense. Together, they teach the villagers basic combat skills, fortify the village, and set up booby traps. They even manage to take down a few bandits before the grand showdown. And what a showdown it is!
This film's influence was so massive, Hollywood remade it as "The Magnificent Seven."
9. Yojimbo (1961) Another Kurosawa-Mifune team-up. Sanjuro's precursor, "Yojimbo," places our wandering samurai in a town torn apart by two warring factions. The character Sanjuro is just as sharp, cunning, and crafty here. He plays both sides, causing confusion and infighting.
We see lots of mind games, sword fights, and smart-alecky dialogue. There's even a scene where he gets himself "captured" just to mess with people's heads. As things get increasingly violent, Sanjuro realizes he needs to do something drastic.
8. Lady Snowblood (1973) Meiko Kaji plays Yuki, a woman born in prison with one mission: to avenge her family's death. She trains in swordsmanship from an early age and sets out to find the four people who betrayed her family. One by one, she tracks them down, slashing through anyone who gets in her way.
The action scenes are top-notch, and the plot has enough twists to keep you glued to your seat. Who says samurais have to be guys?
7. The Hidden Fortress (1958) Making "Star Wars," George Lucas was heavily inspired by this Kurosawa epic. Two low-ranking soldiers find themselves caught in a clan war, and they're more interested in gold than anything else. They team up with General Rokurota Makabe to escort a princess and her gold through enemy lines.
Most of the movie shows them dodging enemy patrols, avoiding capture, and trying to keep the gold safe.
6. Throne of Blood (1957) In the mood for something darker? How about a samurai take on Shakespeare's "Macbeth"? Toshiro Mifune plays Washizu, a samurai commander who comes across a forest spirit that predicts his rise to power. Encouraged by his ambitious wife, he kills his lord to take over the throne. However, his guilt and paranoia start to eat away at him, leading to some really intense scenes.
There's no comic relief in this one; it's a straight-up tragedy.
5. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) Urban America; Forest Whitaker plays Ghost Dog, a hitman who lives by the ancient code of the samurai. This guy communicates with his mob-boss employer via carrier pigeon, even. The plot takes off when a hit goes wrong, leading the mob to turn against him. Ghost Dog then takes matters into his own hands, using his samurai philosophy to confront his adversaries one by one.
4. Harakiri (1962) In desperate times, some samurais would request to commit "harakiri," or ritual suicide, in a lord's courtyard, often as a bluff to get some money. In this film, an aging ronin named Tsugumo makes such a request at the estate of a wealthy clan.
What seems like a simple story unfolds into a detailed backstory involving his son-in-law, who also made a similar request earlier and was forced to go through with it.
3. Rashomon (1950) Another Kurosawa classic. When a samurai is found dead in a forest, multiple characters give conflicting accounts of what happened. The widow says one thing, a bandit says another, and even the dead man – speaking through a medium – has his own version.
As the accounts unfold, you're left to figure out what really happened; the storytelling is genius.
2. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Quentin Tarantino's bloody revenge saga gives a nod to samurai films, among other genres. Uma Thurman plays The Bride, a woman left for dead by her assassin ex-boyfriend and his crew. She wakes up from a coma, creates a kill list, and starts crossing off names.
Her journey takes her to Japan, where she battles O-Ren Ishii and her Crazy 88 henchmen in an unforgettable showdown.
1. 13 Assassins (2010) Directed by Takashi Miike, this one is a bit more recent but doesn't skimp on the action. Set toward the end of Japan's feudal era, 13 samurais are enlisted to take down an evil lord who's on his way to political power.
The bulk of the movie focuses on the group's preparations for a final, epic battle, which happens to take up nearly 45 minutes of screen time.
