Tatsuya Nakadai
Series
Criterion collection volume 53
Description
A group of young men set out to clean up the corruption in their town. They are joined by a scruffy, cynical samurai who doesn't fit their concept of how a warrior should look and act.
2) Yōjinbō
Series
Criterion collection volume 52
Description
A wandering Samurai-for-hire eventually finds a dramatic solution to the problems of a town with two warring clans.
Series
Criterion collection volume 280
Description
Ryunosuke is a sociopathic samurai. When he is scheduled for an exhibition match at his fencing school, the wife of his opponent begs Ryunosuke to throw the match, offering her own virtue in trade.
4) Kagemusha
Series
Criterion collection volume 267
Description
Reconstructing the splendor of feudal Japan and the pageantry of war, Kurosawa creates a soaring historical epic about a peasant impersonating a nobleman in battle. Kagemusha is presented in its original 180 min. uncut Japanese version, not the shortened "international version" presented by 20th Century Fox.
In 16th century feudal Japan, a thief is saved from execution to train as a double for one of the warlords, Shingen. Three warlords, Shingen,...
Series
Criterion collection volume 480
Description
Tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage.
6) Kwaidan
Series
Criterion collection volume 90
Description
Consists of four stories of the supernatural based on Japanese folk material. In The black hair, a poor young samurai leaves his first wife to marry a rich woman. When he is unhappy in his second marriage, he returns to his first wife, who at first appears unchanged from when he last saw her. In The woman of the snow, a woodcutter is spared by a mysterious ghost-like woman in the snow, but must promise never to tell anyone what he has seen. In Hoichi,...
Series
Criterion collection volume 24
Description
A complex crime thriller in which a wealthy Japanese shoe manufacturer's chauffeur's son is kidnapped in mistake for his own, and he faces a moral dilemma.
8) Ran
Series
Criterion collection volume 316
Description
An aging warlord decides to split his kingdom between his three sons, who will live in three separate castles. The two eldest sons are quite happy, but the youngest thinks his father has gone mad, and predicts that it won't be long until the two older brothers are fighting with each other.