15 Best Samurai Movies Of All Time, Ranked

The samurai archetype is as enduring an image worldwide as that of the Wild West gunslinger, embodying an entire genre and romanticized bygone time period. As long as Japan has been making movies, it’s been making films featuring samurai characters and tropes. These range from adaptations of classic literary stories and historical accounts to postmodern tales that subvert the established samurai conventions. What remains consistent are largely stoic sword fighters who use their skills with the blade to cut through their enemies, often on a moral quest.

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Some of the absolute best in Japanese cinema are samurai movies, taking full advantage of the country’s history and cultural backdrop. Whether it’s legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and his extensive work in the samurai genre or 21st century reinventions of the tropes, there are plenty of great samurai movies to check out. Without further ado, here are the 15 best samurai movies of all time ranked.

Kihachi Okamoto is one of the more quietly subversive filmmakers to come from Japan, often satirizing society through a variety of different genres across a career spanning over 40 years. After the Japanese studio Toho was initially dissatisfied with Okamoto’s ’60s crime satire “The Age of Assassins,” he directed the more straight-laced movie “The Sword of Doom.” Adapting the historical novel “Dai-bosatsu Tōge,” the movie follows the largely amoral swordsman Ryunosuke Tsukue (Tatsuya Nakadai) who violently suppresses any perceived threats to the shōgun without visible emotion. However, as Ryunosuke’s bloody past begins to catch up with him, he begins to lose his carefully maintained sanity.

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“The Sword of Doom” is one of those movies that unfolds primarily from the perspective of the story’s villain. Ryunosuke may be the protagonist, but he’s clearly an evil man, unbothered by the moral implications of his work and how he carries his personal life. What follows is a fascinating deconstruction on the life of a samurai and the toll this lifestyle can take on the soul, particularly in the face of questionable acts. One of the more conventional films from Okamoto, “The Sword of Doom” still finds a way to skewer the image of the stoic samurai.

The popular manga series “Lady Snowblood” by Kazuo Koike and Kazuo Kamimura was adapted into a blood-soaked flick in 1973. The movie’s protagonist is Yuki Kashima (Meiko Kaji), who inherits her mother’s vengeance against the men who violated her and murdered her husband and son. Trained from an early age in martial arts and sword fighting, Yuki hunts for her mother’s enemies, cutting down them and anyone who stands in her way. A hit upon its initial release, the movie received a fiery sequel the following year, “Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance.”

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One of the best revenge movies to come out of Japan, “Lady Snowblood” leans into many of the fan-favorite tropes of the genre, from spraying blood to single-mindedly driven protagonists. Kaji’s tightly focused performance as Yuki carries the movie, maintaining that intensity just as well in dialog-centric scenes as action set pieces. The film went on to visibly influence everything from Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” to the Netflix animated series “Blue Eye Samurai.” Moving at a steady clip, “Lady Snowblood” catches the viewer’s attention and never lets go as the vicious action cuts loose.

You know this list is going to raise some eyebrows when an Akira Kurosawa movie appears this early, especially if said movie is 1950’s “Rashomon.” Genre purists should rest assured that there are other Kurosawa samurai films that appear higher on this list. An adaptation of the short story “In a Grove” by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, “Rashomon” follows the apparent murder of a samurai (Masayuki Mori) in medieval Kyoto. A local priest (Minoru Chiaki) hears conflicting accounts of the bloody incident as he tries to determine what exactly happened.

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Kurosawa had written and directed samurai movies before, but “Rashomon” is what elevates his overall work to another level of filmmaking moving forward. The idea of multiple unreliable narrators keeps the movie fresh as it offers differing perspectives on the same basic story. This multifaceted approach would influence film and television storytelling countless times far beyond the samurai genre. “Rashomon” helped open Japanese cinema to worldwide audiences, but Kurosawa had far greater things in store for the medium and the genre.

Really, all six “Lone Wolf and Cub” movies stand a cut above many samurai movies, but there are a couple that are particularly exemplary. The franchise’s second installment, 1972’s “Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx,” starts to incorporate the wackier elements of the series without descending into outright camp. The movie continues the adventures of Ogami Ittō (Tomisaburō Wakayama), the former royal executioner, and his young son Ogami Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa), with Ittō traveling the countryside as a swordsman-for-hire. Along the way, the two are targeted by a ninja clan and a female assassin clan hired by Ittō’s old enemies, the Shadow Yagyū clan.

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With its multiple groups of adversaries, “Baby Cart at the River Styx” packs in a lot of action in less than an hour and a half. Each of the set pieces are imaginative in their own way, while Daigoro’s baby carriage gets in on the lethal proceedings with even more deadly upgrades. “Shogun Assassin,” the 1980 American compiled and edited release of the “Lone Wolf and Cub” movies drew most of its footage from this film and rightfully so. The bloody mayhem here is some of the most definitive in the franchise and samurai cinema overall.

One of the most enduring characters in samurai stories is Zatoichi, a 19th century swordsman who lost his sight as a child. Created by novelist Kan Shimozawa, the character has appeared in dozens of movies and starred in a ’70s Japanese television series. Among the best of Zatoichi’s cinematic appearances is 1970’s “Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival,” the last helmed by the series’ original director Kenji Misumi. The movie has Zatoichi (Shintarō Katsu) go up against a powerful crime lord, Yamikubo (Masayuki Mori), who similarly has lost his sight, but is as evil as Zatoichi is noble.

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Easy jokes about Fyre Festival aside, “Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival” feels like the end of the classic era for Shimozawa’s popular character. A big part of this is the memorable adversaries that Zatoichi confronts in this installment, including longtime Kurosawa collaborator Tatsuya Nakadai. Purists may prefer the moodier earlier movies in the series or the 2003 revival starring Takeshi Kitano as Zatoichi, but there’s something effortlessly timeless about this entry. An entertaining and stylish movie in the prolific film franchise, “Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival” keeps its proceedings brisk and bloody.

Filmmaker Yoji Yamada directed and co-wrote a trilogy of samurai movies in the early 21st century, standing as some of the best work in his extensive career. The trilogy’s middle entry is 2004’s “The Hidden Blade,” set in the 1860s as Japan begins to modernize after centuries of isolation. In the face of this widespread societal upheaval, Munezo Katagiri (Masatoshi Nagase) refuses to betray his fellow samurai to mounting scrutiny from the authorities. Before leaving his life as a swordsman behind, Katagiri vows to avenge his friend Yaichiro Hazama (Yukiyoshi Ozawa).

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Even more so than the preceding movie in the trilogy, “The Hidden Blade” is about the twilight of the samurai and, with it, the end of Japan’s classical era. The film moves at a deliberate pace, as the samurai each react to the accelerated modernization and cultural assimilation in their own ways. To be sure, this isn’t an action-heavy story but a requiem to a lost and romanticized way of life. The emotionally stirring centerpiece of Yamada’s trilogy, “The Hidden Blade” contains narrative parallels to “The Last Samurai,” one of Tom Cruise’s most challenging films, without the obtrusive outsider characters.

It wasn’t until 1970 that Akira Kurosawa began directing films in color, with his most striking use of color cinematography being in 1985’s “Ran.” An adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” not unlike HBO’s “Succession,” the movie centers on elderly feudal lord Ichimonji Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) as he contemplates how to divide his kingdom among his three sons. This plan is derailed when Hidetora’s youngest son, Saburo (Daisuke Ryu), is exiled for insubordination, and Hidetora’s eldest, Taro (Akira Terao), makes a play for all of his father’s territory. Taro’s wife Lady Kaede (Mieko Harada) is revealed to orchestrate this as a long-standing grudge against Hidetora’s family.

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“Ran” is arguably Kurosawa’s last masterpiece, certainly the last to revolve around the samurai tropes and archetypes he was known for. The movie is also one of Kurosawa’s most ambitious projects, running for nearly three hours and featuring fiery battle sequences. However, for all of its colorful bombast, Kurosawa keeps a steady eye on the wounded heart at the core story of family squabbling. Kurosawa’s swan song to the samurai genre, “Ran” is an elegiac epic, proving he had one last medieval tale to tell.

If there was ever an heir apparent to Kurosawa in terms of making definitive samurai movies, at least in the ’60s, it was Masaki Kobayashi. For his 1967 movie “Samurai Rebellion,” Kobayashi teamed up with frequent Kurosawa collaborator and legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. Mifune stars as Isaburo Sasahara, an 18th century samurai whose son is forced to marry his lord’s ex-concubine. When the lord wants his concubine returned to him, despite her becoming a firm part of Sasahara’s family, the once loyal samurai defies his master.

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“Samurai Rebellion” is arguably the best samurai movie that Mifune ever did without Akira Kurosawa, bringing his usual on-screen intensity. Watching Isaburo switch from loyal vassal to vengeful swordsman is a heartbreaking turn, as inevitably as it builds. In a way, “Samurai Rebellion” serves as a coda to the classic black-and-white era of samurai movies, before the grainy color movies that followed. A moody requiem, with plenty of action in its final act, “Samurai Rebellion” is Kobayashi’s last masterpiece.

Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s best-selling manga series “Lone Wolf and Cub” was adapted into a six-film series, starting with 1972’s “Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance.” The movie follows disgraced executioner Ogami Ittō (Tomisaburō Wakayama) as he wanders the feudal Japanese countryside with his son Ogami Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa). Realizing his fall from grace and the murder of his wife was orchestrated by the Shadow Yagyū clan, Ittō sets out for revenge. This culminates in a showdown at a small village terrorized by the clan and their small army of ronin.

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All the hallmarks of the iconic franchise are present in “Sword of Vengeance,” and it stands as the most complete story in the series. Film and television stories featuring a stoic warrior traveling with a young child evoke “Lone Wolf and Cub,” with the franchise particularly influencing “The Mandalorian.” Inspirational qualities aside, “Sword of Vengeance” is a tightly crafted samurai revenge story, elevated by Wakayama’s singular performance. An iconic pop culture duo transcending genre and border, “Lone Wolf and Cub” is the perfect gateway into samurai movies.

The inaugural installment of Yoji Yamada’s trilogy of samurai movies is 2002’s “The Twilight Samurai,” inspired by a short story, “The Bamboo Sword,” written by Shuhei Fujisawa. The movie tells the tale of 19th century samurai Seibei Iguchi (Hiroyuki Sanada), a perpetually down-on-his-luck warrior ridiculed by his peers. Despite his lowly reputation and unkempt appearance, Seibei’s skills with the sword gradually become known by the head of his clan. This puts him at a crossroads when he is ordered to execute his disgraced colleague Zenemon Yogo (Min Tanaka) or face dishonor himself.

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There is a meditative quality to “The Twilight Samurai,” even in the movie’s more rousing sequences, imbuing the film with a pervasive melancholy. Hiroyuki Sanada grounds the entire film with an unassuming magnetism, with Seibei as a character with perpetual bad luck, but no less empathetic. In spite of this, Seibei remains undeterred in his efforts to care for his struggling family, giving him an unpretentious nobility. A period piece that avoids the melodrama and knows when to lock in for the action, “The Twilight Samurai” is the apex of Yamada’s trilogy.

Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the works of William Shakespeare several times over the course of his career, with the first being for his 1957 film “Throne of Blood.” A loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” Kurosawa transposes the tale of medieval intrigue and murder to feudal Japan. At the urging of his wife Lady Asaji (Isuzu Yamada), Taketoki Washizu (Toshiro Mifune) assassinates Lord Kuniharu Tsuzuki (Takamaru Sasaki) and claims the throne. This places Washizu into conflict with his old comrades while he and Asaji begin to lose their sanity from the mounting guilt that they carry.

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“Macbeth” is one of Shakespeare’s darkest plays and Kurosawa does it justice with his usual cinematic poetry in “Throne of Blood.” While obviously taking liberties with the source material, Kurosawa retains the story’s overarching moodiness, enhancing it with stylish cinematography and art design. Kurosawa has a keen approach to keeping the proceedings silent and still, making each movement and line of dialogue all the more important. The first in Kurosawa’s Shakespearean trilogy, “Throne of Blood” is arguably the best, but is certainly the most iconic.

Director Takashi Miike brings his penchant for stylized on-screen violence to his 2010 remake of Eiichi Kudo’s classic 1963 samurai movie “13 Assassins.” The movie retells the story of a group of assassins assembled to kill the sadistic feudal lord Matsudaira Naritsugu (Gorō Inagaki) after he is promoted to join the shogunate council. Given Naritsugu’s growing unpopularity, the assassins are able to secretly coordinate with local officials to set a trap for the lord’s convoy. Aware of the likelihood that he’s walking into an ambush, Naritsugu is exhilarated, drawing from his innate cunning to prove a match for the gathered samurai.

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As far as just action set pieces are concerned, no other movie on this list matches the bombastic battle sequences in “13 Assassins.” The final battle alone goes for approximately 45 minutes, keeping the audience’s attention riveted for the entirety of the prolonged scene. The film is also one of Miike’s most ambitious, and provides undeniable spectacle and a strong ensemble cast. The best samurai movie since the genre’s golden age, under filmmakers like Kurosawa, “13 Assassins” is a modern masterpiece.

The man with no name archetype didn’t come from Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone and actor Clint Eastwood but rather from Akira Kurosawa and his frequent collaborator Toshiro Mifune. The 1961 samurai movie “Yojimbo” introduced a wandering swordsman (Mifune) who offhandedly creates the moniker of Kuwabatake Sanjuro for himself. Finding a town run by two rival yakuza gangs, Sanjuro secretly pits them against each other, discreetly profiting off the feud. Sanjuro also reunites a woman kidnapped by one of the gangs with her family as his scheming and swordplay restore peace to the town.

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More than just receiving an uncredited remake from Leone several years later, “Yojimbo” is one of Kurosawa’s most influential movies. The story itself is relatively straightforward, but Kurosawa’s masterful staging and the sight of Mifune squaring up against Tatsuya Nakadai as a cocky gangster makes for a gripping watch. This magnetic pairing led Kurosawa to make a rare sequel the following year, “Sanjuro,” with Mifune’s samurai taking on a new adversary played by Nakadai. A lean and expertly crafted entry in Kurosawa and Mifune’s numerous collaborations, “Yojimbo” is all killer, no filler.

The best movie Masaki Kobayashi ever made is also his most subversive, deconstructing the romanticization of feudal Japan and the samurai. 1962’s “Harakiri” has 17th century samurai Tsugumo Hanshirō (Tatsuya Nakadai) preparing to kill himself through ritual suicide after telling his life story to other gathered samurai. Hanshirō recounts how he lost his whole family to three unscrupulous samurai before revealing the true purpose of his visit. What follows is a frenzied showdown between Hanshirō and the Iyi clan that temporarily took him in for the honor of Hanshirō’s family.

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“Harakiri” starts out as a maudlin slow burn before building to a bloody crescendo by its final act. By the end, Hanshirō and, by extension, Kobayashi has made it known what he thinks of the bushido and the cowardly warriors that hide behind it without embodying its values. Kobayashi also punctuates this with plenty of swordplay, wisely packing his postmodern exploration of the genre with the action audiences expect. A blood-soaked indictment of a hollow code of honor, “Harakiri” is an entertaining take-down of its own genre.

If you’re at all familiar with samurai movies and the work of Akira Kurosawa, you knew that this entry was coming somewhere on this list. Kurosawa’s 1954 classic is set in a remote village in 16th century Japan targeted by a large gang of merciless bandits. Knowing that the bandits will carry out a large raid after the upcoming harvest, the village hires seven samurai to defend them, only able to offer them food and shelter. Despite knowing that the odds of success are slim, the samurai agree to help, training the villagers to defend themselves in the process.

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From its beautifully staged shots to its fiery action set pieces, “Seven Samurai” sets a high bar that goes beyond the genre and culture as indelible world cinema. Not only Kurosawa’s magnum opus, “Seven Samurai” is one of the best movies to ever come out of Japan and the example against which all other samurai movies are judged. While Toshiro Mifune steals the show as the rambunctious samurai Kikuchiyo, the movie features a strong ensemble cast through and through. The definitive samurai movie, “Seven Samurai” needs to be in the collection of any aficionado of the genre.