Started reading about samurai and now I got a big time itch Anyone recommend any good documentaries or movies about real samurai of the past Hopefully mushashi? Who from what I can gather is the greatest swordsmen of all time - even killed a sword master with one blow of a bokken true or not that's a cool legend ALEA IACTA EST
The last samurai is a fantastic movie into the personal life of the samurai, but as the name suggests it takes place at the end of samurai(ism). also samurai jack.
The Hidden Blade is better than The Last Samurai. More detail about samurais but less action. 13 Assassins if you want action... The final battle is AWESOME!!!!!!! Seven Samarai is a must see if not the very best of them all... Total classic!!! Also: Lone Wolf and Cub Chushingura Yojimbo Goyokin Oh, Samarai Jack is cool but Samurai Champloo is waaaaay better!
Read this book http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Epic-Novel-Samurai-Era/dp/156836427X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365824607&sr=8-1&keywords=Musashi
Nice looks like you and I are closer and closer to being bros from different moms everyday Lol J ALEA IACTA EST
Definitely catch "13 Assassins" and "Seven Samurai". Both are great. I think 13 Assassins is on Netflix streaming (I could be wrong)
13 mofos! Wow! Great flick I was totally not expecting the mountain man to just pop up and run off like that. They were incredible taking on that horde... I thought Hanbei would put a better fight but Shinzo basically told him in dojo we were equals but this is a real fight kicked mud at him and chopped his head off lol - punked! Who do you think the best was? ALEA IACTA EST
Ran, an adaptation of King Lear by Akira Kurosawa. Super film. Anything by Kurosawa is worth watching - Yojimbo, Rashomon and Kagemusha are all worth seeing. Also the TV series Shogun from the 80s is pretty good (although I might be a little biased as the the real-life chap Richard Chamberlin's character was based on was a local boy to me ).
wow, you just went off and watched it... I just went to bed! You should watch Seven Samurai next... You'll see a lot of similarities.
Stop what you're doing. Get a copy of Hagakure. Read it three times. Read it again. Continue what you're doing. To put it simply... Samurai didn't just respect eachother for swordsmanship or politics. Just being a person with the will, discipline, and nimble mind to follow the code well was the most praiseworthy aspect. There was a guy, Tsunetomo Yammamoto, who was respected for excelling in following the way of the samurai. He got old and some stuff happened, so he ended up a monk. One day a young samurai showed up wanting to learn from him. They talked frequently over time and the young samurai wrote down every word. The samurai's clan got ahold of the text, cut out all the inane stuff and chopped it down to several large books of stories and wisdom, and considered them as treasure. Over time it was carefully cut down more and more, and you can buy translated copies of some of the text. I think the one I have is around 300 anecdotes... Not only is it awesome Tsunetomo sets a lot of things straight in the book that seem discretionary in film and other entertainment. For example, though he doesn't exactly lay it out all at once, you will see the difference between retaliation and revenge and their place in the way of the samurai. If you like Musashi he has a book as well called The Five Rings.
+100 for ANY Kurosawa films.... Kagemusha was the first one of his I saw. In a college Lit class of all places.
Merely about one aspect of Samurais, but I enjoyed this documentary a lot Secrets of the Samurai Sword The Osprey Publishing books are also really good.
Anyone know where I could find The seven samurais online (preferably for "free") with english text? I cannot seem to find any place that has it, niether actual video store nor online place.
When Dish Network carried the Voom channels, they had the Kung Fu Channel, and I got hooked on Zatoichi, The Blind Swordsman. Amazon has DVDs...I'm not sure about YouTube.
