Guest glidedrxlr22 Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 I have a female coworker who is Japanese and she grew up watching Zatoichi. Later this week is her birthday and I wanted to get her a good samurai movie. Any suggestions? She's recently seen Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman with Beat Takeshi and the 1989 version. I would like to get something else. She likes the spraying blood samurai flicks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest monk sante Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 Zatoichi: "Festival of fire" is a really good film, lot and lots of blood. If you want to see good bloody films, watch the "Lone wolf and cub" movies. you wont be disappointed, trust me.:smokin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kungfusamurai Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 I'd highly recommend getting her a Lone Wolf & Cub film. Get her one of the middle ones (Baby Cart to Hades/In Peril/Land of Demons) because they've got slightly more fights than the first two. And the last one (White Heaven In Hell) is hit or miss with some fans. Zatoichi is great, but I watch the earlier films (60's) more for the acting and story, in addition to the great action. But they're not bloody, at least not in the spraying sense. KFS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest glidedrxlr22 Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 Thanks a bunch. This definitely helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GwaiLoMoFo Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 For some joyous arterial spray, deffinitely go for the Lone Wolf And Cub Films. They are also excellent films as well. And also hard to go wrong with ANY of the Zatoichi's. A few of my favs are Zatoichi Meets the One Armed Swordsman, Zatoichi And The Festival Of Fire, Zatoichi And The Chess Expert (to name a few). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chen Zhen Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 cant agree more with lone wolf and cub...however, i recommend Lady Snowblood. some ppl dont like this one that much...personally, i think its wonderful...tons of spraying blood, that ur coworker friend will like...plus, since it centers around a woman getting her revenge, ur coworker might appreciate that as well...great story and violence. however, stay away from the sequel....quite inferior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ShaofuSage Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 I agree, Lady Snowblood is the sh*t, great great film! Is there a re-mastered version of this somewhere, my copy kinda sucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GwaiLoMoFo Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 Animeigo released both of the Lady Snowblood films remastered a few months back. Excelltent subs and transfer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest vlade2002 Posted October 12, 2005 Share Posted October 12, 2005 I agree, Lady Snowblood is the sh*t, great great film! Is there a re-mastered version of this somewhere, my copy kinda sucks. www.madman.com.au/actions...ethod=view www.madman.com.au/actions...ethod=view Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ShaofuSage Posted October 12, 2005 Share Posted October 12, 2005 Damn, don't think I'm ready to dish out 25 beans for this film, could've sworn I saw the re-mastered on Amazon for around $10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest glidedrxlr22 Posted October 13, 2005 Share Posted October 13, 2005 Thanks for the great suggestions! I'm starting to get interested now in samurai films. I've only strictly been a kung fu fan, but I can branch out. I have a question before I begin collecting samurai films. Many of the early kung fu films as you all know are known as bashers which I'm not into because of the lack of tight fight choreography. I like the late 70's, early 80's stuff. There is a major difference in quality. So my question is this. Is there a major difference in the quality of action between early 60's samurai movies and the 70's samurai movies? Are the 60's films in color and violent? If not, then I might be put off by them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kungfusamurai Posted October 13, 2005 Share Posted October 13, 2005 So my question is this. Is there a major difference in the quality of action between early 60's samurai movies and the 70's samurai movies? Are the 60's films in color and violent? If not, then I might be put off by them. Yes and No to both questions. To your second question, Japanese samurai films came in both black and white and colour. Even films made as late as '68 (Samurai Rebellion) were done in black and white. Most of Gosha's stuff from the 60's are black and white. The Zatoichi films on the other hand are all colour except for the first two. But the B&W shouldn't put you off. The films all have great action, but you also have to realize that Japanese films tend to focus more on the acting and the writing. Kung fu films on the other hand were more geared towards setting up one fight to the next, with a number of exceptions of course. So to your first question, the action does vary, but it's more about who's the lead actor with the swordplay, rather than just the choreography itself. For kung fu films, there was a progression in the quality in terms of speed and realism in the fight scenes, whereas Japanese cinema pretty much had those qualities downpat when Kurosawa did Seven Samurai. Generally the fight scenes in Japanese cinema don't involve long 'rallies' between the protagonist and the antagonist(s). If he's surrounded by a whole bunch of guys with swords, usually they're struck down with one blow. And when he meets up with a single, usually highly skilled, 'bad guy', it's a duel that has only a few moves from beginning to end. Going back to the actors - the best sword fighters that were on cinema were the brothers Shintaro Katsu (Zatoichi) and Tomisaborou Wakayama (Ogami Itto/Lone Wolf & Cub). Those guys were masters of the quick draw, and Wakayama was especially talented with not just the katana (sword), but also the spear, as well as doing his own physical stunts like forward flips. As far as I know, those guys were the real deal in terms of studying the sword. The next level of swordfighters are guys like Tetsuro Tamba (Three Outlaw Samurai), Toshiro Mifune (Yojimbo), Tatsuya Nakadai (Sword of Doom), and Isao Natsuyagi (Samurai Wolf). They've got quick slashing strokes, but don't do anything fancy with their swords. The bottom of the swordfighters, at least for my tastes, are guys like Raizo Ichikawa (Sleepy Eyes of Death) and Kinnosuke Nakamura/Yorozuya (Secret of The Urn). I find their swordplay rather slow and clumsy and very forced. I should also add that these guys, while being poor swordsmen, were highly charismatic actors, which is why I've bought some of their films anyway. These aforementioned lead actors were the biggest names in the samurai/chambara film business during the 'classic' era from about Seven Samurai ('54) to around '75, which seemed to coincide with the death of one of the genres best directors, Kenji Misumi. I didn't mention Sonny Chiba because he's of a different era, but he would rank just below Katsu and Wakayama but above the other guys. Chiba cranked up the samurai films up a notch, using more influences from HK cinema by having ninjas and some ronin doing stuff like flips and tumbles and other fancy stunts and acrobatics. The swordplay itself is fast and furious, but not gory like the Lone Wolf & Cub films. Some of the chiba-made films from the late 70's through to the mid 80's are okay story-wise, but seem to lack the feel and depth of the classic era films. While I'm not a huge fan of the samurai films post-classic era, some of my faves include Shogun's Ninja from '82 and the Kage No Gundan TV series. Hope that helps. It's a lot to absorb. Happy hunting. KFS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WalkOn Posted October 15, 2005 Share Posted October 15, 2005 That helped ME a lot! Thanks, KFS, that was nicely put and just sparked additional interest for samurai films. I've seen some but not enough to comment or judge this genre. Hopefully, that will change. My favorites are: Twilight Samurai Hidden Fortress Yojimbo Seven Samurai Zatoichi and the Chess Expert Lone Wolf and Cub: Lightning Swords of Death (I'm not sure what the real title is, I saw in on video in the 80's in the US). I haven't seen or remember the few others I've seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kungfusamurai Posted October 15, 2005 Share Posted October 15, 2005 No problem. I didn't go into detail on stuff from the 80's to recent times because I'm not a huge fan of the recent stuff. Movies like Shogun's Shadow, Samurai Reincarnation, Legend of the Eight Samurai are okay. I just like Samurai Reincarnation because of Tomisaborou Wakayama's fight scenes. Of the recent films I've seen, definitely Twilight Samurai ranks at the top. And dare I say it, I also enjoyed The Last Samurai, even though it's not chambara. When The Last Sword Is Drawn was alright, but overly melodramatic towards the end. I also wasn't too crazy about the CGI gore. KFS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest glidedrxlr22 Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Yes, thank you KFS. This too has sparked more interest in me. I will definitely take your recommendations into consideration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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