Onibaba

The miseries of civil war afflict a nation with desolate abstemious dereliction, crops having failed people starving while the thund'rous death machine brings moribund destruction. 

An older woman awaits the return of her conscripted son with increasing desperation, as does her daughter-in-law their resolute team struggling to survive the scurrilous agency. 

To find food and maintain their health they murder stray samurai who show up in their swamp, and sell their armour and swords and trinkets to a dissolute profiteer flush with millet. 

One day the son/husband's friend whom he left with long ago appears, with a sad tale denoting the end of their imagined saviour heads hang low.

But he takes a shine to the widowed maiden who is far too destitute to deny her will, their resultant coupling enraging the elder who sees starvation as her only future. 

She pleads with the worldly opportunist to let her partner in crime live free.

He loves her far too much however.

To deny his innocent jouissance. 

A sordid examination of despondency as dismally applied to wanton logic, people struggling to find food while others flee through reckless innovation. 

Grim realities to thoughtfully consider the frugal basics embracing thrift, if you value your life it's best not to join although there's no telling what desertion may aggregate. 

The atheist basks in comfort after escaping the feckless bloodshed, living day to day even hour to hour but remaining certain of his scorned trajectory. 

The elder employing supernatural tricks to convince her compatriot not to leave, the eventual extensive forlorn irony as unexpected as it is deceiving. 

Lost in the luscious swamps of medieval Japan driven mad by hunger.

Enabling strategies accidentally emergent.

Ethereal endowments.

Spiritually embalmed.  

Kiru

A controversial maiden inspires jealousies which enviously lead to stricken confrontations, the observant brotherhood left cold and calculating before it's decided to cut-off her head.

But not before she virtuously births an innocent child helpless and unaware, ancient superstitions forecasting gloom, the oblivious baby naked and hungry. 

A childless widower from another province magnanimously agrees to take him in, and then convivially proceeds to multifariously teach him the delicate art of manifest sword fighting. 

He learns the way of the samurai and displays innovative sought after gifts, a restless soul still prone to wander yet always respectful of heritage and duty. 

His father criticizes the master of their dojo who then collusively plots his reckless murder, Kiru arriving in time to discover his own true origins as his father passes.

Left on his own with exceptional skill he bravely ventures forth across the countryside. 

Running into manifold sinister scenarios. 

As the volatile nation erupts in fury.

Honour and betrayal emphatically display their blatant enmity through disgrace within, anyone seeking uncontested quarter treacherously cut down with unceremonious deception. 

As personal aggrandizement and grandiose ambition see a courageous void where others detect virtue, the warring factions give way to anarchy as coveted roles are scurrilously usurped. 

The mad despotic imposition of imperial autocracy in morbid bloom, the constant bitter pernicious infighting leading to death and decay all around.

Malignant plans malevolently metastasize with voluminous cunning and radical inconsistency, improvisationally and opportunistically adopted with sly exhibition and wanton excess.

Alternatively, progressive industry can level the playing field and cultivate peace, so one's life doesn't uselessly and quickly end and striking harmonies congeal lay resolutions. 

Would you really rather launch a ground offensive in hostile Middle-Eastern territory from the sea?

While an idiot madman with no army training . . .

. . . covets unwarranted legendary honour?

Sanjuro

The improvised planning of the itinerant samurai much more fluid in the cerebral Sanjuro, after a group of younger emboldened citizens discover a plot to dispose of an elder.

The samurai meets them by chance on a world-weary voyage leading to their door, where they innocently plan their audacious activities with impulsive daring and simplistic fortitude. 

Little do they know, they're being surrounded by the very same scoundrels they hope to challenge, who have brought at least 100 men to unceremoniously ambush them.

The samurai uncovers the plot and quickly overcomes his habitual boredom, immediately employing his requisite cunning like a grand-chess-master to outmaneuver the danger.

He swiftly realizes the group is honourable and therefore decides to offer his protection, putting advanced logic and reason to work in the adventurous aid of the sublime do-gooders.

But his lacklustre bearing his indolent mood doesn't quickly win over their skeptical hearts, especially since he drinks too much saké and at crucial times seems distant and irritated. 

They find when they listen to his strategic counsel they usually outwit their foes nevertheless.

And after much heated arguing amongst themselves, eventually agree to suffer his temper.

Not as explosive as many a chaotic borderline reckless wild samurai movie, but still quite endearing to strategic minds who truly love spur-of-the-moment planning.

Truly like an active chess game where each single move must be delicately balanced, the hardboiled yet caring demonstrative leader entertaining his students while refuting their folly (like the opposite of Trump's daily antics).

It's fun to watch as they impudently quarrel with the wise honest master lending a hand, alas no matter how many times he saves them they still adamantly doubt his chill erudition. 

The samurai is thrilling to watch if you like free confident ingenious odd heroes, whose skills are so genuinely imposing they take spectacular risks as if they were simply gardening (with bears).

Like a formidable saviour guarding the just from bellicose foolishness in corrupt mortal lands, the warrior proceeds with ethical daring even though he could have kept wandering alone.

From village to village the unruly countryside curiously wondering who will suddenly show up.

And add some spice to bucolic life.

At times routine, yet never overdone. 

Yojimbo

A small town in the Japanese countryside embraces bleak internal conflict, as a local chieftain compassionately decides to give his business to his only son.

Such a traditional act cumbersomely enrages his right-hand man, who spent his life helping him build up the business and in turn expected to take over one day.

Unable to reach an agreement they furiously square off with uncompromising angst, then slowly chip away at each other's forces while desperately seeking a lasting advantage. 

When a grouchy itinerant samurai suddenly shows up within their village, curious to see what's going on yet hesitant to actively engage.

He eventually tries to side with one family (out of boredom) but then overhears a secret plot to murder him, which doesn't drive him to the other side but leaves him suspicious and self-absorbed. 

After conducting more hands-on research he has to admit the town's a mess, and even if he likes to cause lay mischief he still remains a conscientious man. 

That conscious soon put to the test when he learns of a family turn asunder.

Deciding to champion their holistic freedom.

He helps them escape only to be captured. 

A bizarre sympathetic embattled examination of a cunning jaded world-weary warrior, Yojimbo showcases immutable strength awkwardly juxtaposed with belligerent caution.

It's fun to watch as the brilliant samurai cleverly predicts what's going to happen, going over the different scenarios in his head as he makes decisions he'd rather ignore. 

Imagine a time long before the advent of automatic weapons when there was still honour in fighting, and it was dangerous to challenge the most-skilled who had been well-trained in swords and strategy.

But what a useless life for many who were hired to amass a chaotic gang, and lived only to fight in battles they couldn't win when corrupt overlords acquired them.

Emancipating the feminine and taking their viewpoints into active counsel with honest intent, can lead to a world more dynamically structured with other alternatives than organized combat.

So much of the world seems to have done this although in so doing some were left behind.

Who recklessly seek the old bellicose ways.

As long as they never have to do any fighting.

Zatôichi jigoku-tabi (Zatoichi and the Chess Expert)

Zatoichi continues to travel throughout Japan, his destination still unknown, his adversaires multiplying.

Unfortunately, due to blindness, knaves and thieves seek to tear him down, but after his brilliant swordpersonship highlights their folly, they vow revenge even though they started it.

Such proceedings regularly occur and he is stuck routinely defending himself, with a high price upon his versatile head, and an inhibiting disability difficult to conceal.

He doesn't make friends either as he regularly cheats people at dice, tricking them into cheating themselves and then critiquing their lack of honesty.

He meets an itinerant master and strikes up a spirited inquisitive acquaintance, the two voyaging by boat together while earning a living as best they can.

But Zatoichi also meets other travellers who passionately seek the samurai who killed their father, and know nothing about him definitively besides the fact that he's quite good at chess.

Moral dilemmas further bewilder as he learns he once murdered the husband of the woman and child he cares for.

Democracy and social justice still hundreds of years away.

Consistent sword fights altruistically emerging.

Had he not learned to ingeniously defend himself Zatoichi the Blind may have flagged and rusted, and never known the voltaic thrill of characteristic difference and pursuits unknown.

Yet even possessing the adventurous intuition so often dismissed by people with sight, he encounters neverending lethal conflict to which he must respond indefinitely.

Sad how the legendary samurai traditionally found within these films, have so much trouble working together and often end up in life or death duels.

Both thoroughly convinced their path is just and in no need of ethical alterations, they eventually must challenge the breathtaking entities who vigorously contradict their chosen way of life.

Thus without the onset of unions they must remain vigilant at all times.

Never embracing the peace of dreams.

Eternal conflict.

Bitter remorse.

*Postmodern samurai could focus on protecting whales and dolphins! 🐋

**Criterion keyword: motif

Zatôichi rôyaburi (Zatoichi the Outlaw)

Supernaturally gifted with impeccable swordpersonship, a humble sightless outlaw wanders the volatile countryside, in search of incarnate justice virtuously beheld with moral reckoning, convinced of honest trust, and willing to lend a hand.

The ambitious in the village he frequents own a lucrative gambling den, which attracts the hopeful farmers who till the nearby fertile soil.

A bold person of the people peacefully warns them of their folly, once a valiant samurai himself now having embraced age-old non-violence.

Zatôichi (Shintarô Katsu) hears his amicable words freely delivered amidst hardboiled controversy, the local chieftains rather inhospitable regarding farsighted cultural counsel.

Much more sustainable for them to see hard earned wages carefreely lost, in a game they always win, as long as their clients suspect nothing. 

Zatôichi heeds the words of a rival boss who claims respectability, then eliminates his rivals, before heading off to a new town.

Until word reaches his modest ears that his friend's greed outweighs even that of his predecessors. 

The village folk on the brink of losing everything.

Virtue requisite animate sprawl.

The enduring everlasting narrative wherein which the modest thrive, with hopes of less stern reprisals for simply longing for fiscal fortune.

The powers-that-be vouchsafe possibility only at rare evocative intervals, to generate irrepressible interest in interminable decorum.

Yet the ethical still widely promulgate resounding wisdom begetting verve, their sure and steady dependable advice eventually leading to civility.

The desire to gamble remains strong and can't be vanquished with heartfelt speeches, opposing narratives cultivating instinct insisting they represent spiritual clemency.

The women of the village clearly understand the proactive message, and quietly long for zealous endurance and brave determinate consistent yields.

Zatôichi upholds aggrievéd rights and swiftly defends them with holistic levity.

Unsatisfied with inherent vice.

He upstandingly quells unhinged dishonour.  

Sword of the Beast

During a period of volatile change, many samurai seek reform, to promote egalitarian civility and democratic justice, or clans less prone to autocratic caprice.

Yuuki Gennosuke (Mikijirô Hira) thinks his actions will lead to the cultivation of fairness throughout his clan, but after he disposes of its counsellor with his associates, the ambitious incumbent seeks their ruin.

The incumbent had convinced them to do it with promises of wealth and social prestige, Yuuki indubitably furious as he blindly flees to live as a fugitive in the fertile countryside.

He's zealously pursued by the ex-counsellor's daughter and many of the personnel he once considered friends, labelled an outcast bereft of sanctuary he's consistently betrayed everywhere he goes.

But he does find one independent man amusingly hoping to steal gold from a nearby mountain, in search of stalwart protection as he pans, Gennosuke can't deny it's a good place to lie low.

But another samurai has the same idea and already resides on the auriferous slopes, his wife assisting his painstaking efforts as they covet the haughty forbidden.

They've accumulated a vast sum but if they're suddenly caught they'll swiftly lose everything.

Will the two rogue samurai bond?

Before succumbing to age old destiny?

Hideo Gosha's Sword of the Beast illuminates chaos to deconstruct logic, as courageous honourable spirits innocently contend with mature corruption. 

The sundry enticing twists and turns cacophonously layered with magnetic disillusion, keep the frenzied imbroglio basting with aggrieved vehemence and eternal reckoning.

Not without a comic edge, its youthful characters at times light of heart, even while relentlessly pursued they still find time for love and play.

I imagine they mischievously reflect the carefree confidence of the young adult warrior, never fearing death or injury and ready to fight at any given moment.

Gosha gives these daring samurai manifold opportunities to prove their valour, in a celebration of just independence bravely challenging engrained malfeasance. 

With so-much death-defying animation it's impossible to tear yourself away.

Aligned with intricate ethical dilemmas. 

Who is the beast indeed?

Ichi

Fumihiko Sori's Ichi presents a resilient blind beautiful sword fighter (Haruka Ayase as Ichi) travelling the Japanese countryside alone in search of the sightless man who helped cultivate her skill, playing the shamisen to make ends meet. Unexpectedly along for the ride is Toma Fujihira (Takao Ôsawa), a shunned samurai warrior who has been unable to draw his sword ever since its blade accidentally took his mother's sight. The pair winds up in a small inn town where the peaceful innkeeping Shirakawa group have had enough of the ruthless, disfigured Banki (Shido Nakamura) and his gang. As they become caught up in the conflict, will Ichi help Fujihira draw his blade?, and will Fujihira melt Ichi's chilly disposition so that she can escape her volatile past?

The film's entertaining enough, with strictly drawn boundaries regarding good and evil, effective doubling, and generally strong performances (especially from Yôsuke Kubozuka as Toraji Shirakawa) (although Bandi's trademark laugh becomes tiresome). A wide variety of nefarious no-good-nicks suffer the wrath of Ichi's calm and delicate back hand slash, and Fujihira provides alarming and awkward comic relief until he comes to terms with his solidified strength. The final sword fight is a bit of a let down, short and to the point rather than extended and intricately choreographed. This is a shame insofar as three of the four main characters suffer from a disability and had the final showdown been elaborately executed, it would have formally accentuated the ways in which said disabilities had been overcome (although by leaving it short and sweet it reflects the theme that disabilities are serious liabilities in Japan, and therefore extremely difficult to overcome). In addition, Ichi seems to be championing feminist forms of political action (Ichi's cultural shackles represented by her blindness) but in the end it's the men who take care of the serious business. Nevertheless, with a fast-paced plot filled with consistent and multidimensional action, Ichi's scope is adventurous and dynamic if not bold and progressive. Part comedy, part romance, while still developing a fluctuating sense of evolving responsibility, Ichi slices and dices its way into the samurai genre, curiously examining gender and power.

Azumi

Ryuhei Kitamura's samurai film Azumi delivers the blood and gut goods. From beginning to end, we're treated to bloodthirsty bitchin' battles, the confusing samurai ethical code, and mellow, strained guitar riffs, that come across as a mix between the soundtrack for Y tu Mama Tambien and a subdued Joe Satriani. The music is occasionally vexing but unyielding in the development of its aesthetic. Azumi (Aya Ueto) is discovered by samurai master Gessai (Yoshio Harada) as a young girl, after her mother has died, and she is subsequently trained with 9 other youths to become elite assassins. Their training is idyllic: they grow up in a pastoral paradise, aliens to town or even village life, consumed by their samurai commitment, unaware of their mission to come. Master Gessai is training them to kill warlords before they plunge Japan into another bloody civil conflict; Gessai was provided with this task at the end of the Battle of Sekigahara, a particularly brutal affair that led both Gessai and his master to devote their lives to ending such bloodbaths ahead of time. But before Gessai can begin beginning to end such conflicts, he needs to prepare his young students for the conflict awaiting them, and, consequently, orders them to pair up with their best friend in a fight to the death, the winners possessing the iron constitution necessary to cleanse Japan of its warlike virulence. This death battle is a little difficult to take and leaves an unsettling feeling in the viewer, especially near the end when Azumi herself squares off against the effete killing machine Bigomaru Mogami (Joe Odagiri), amidst a contingency of corpses (that closely resembles that from Sekigahara, a scene which provides Azumi with the same ethical concerns found within Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch or Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia). Was it better to kill off five elite warriors hours before heading out on their first assignment, better than taking them along on the mission where their presence would have likely had positive results? This question haunts Azumi's background and provides its ethical dimension with a strong examination of what it means to be a hero.