Must watch Samurai Movies

Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Starring Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima. A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.

Yojimbo directed by Akira Kurosawa featuring Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai. A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.

Directed by Edward Zwick. Starring Ken Watanabe, Tom Cruise, William Atherton. An American military advisor embraces the Samurai culture he was hired to destroy after he is captured in battle.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Starring Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Tatsuya Nakadai. A crafty samurai helps a young man and his fellow clansmen save his uncle, who has been framed and imprisoned by a corrupt superintendent.

The Samurai Trilogy is a film trilogy directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring Toshirō Mifune as Musashi Miyamoto and Koji Tsuruta as Kojirō Sasaki.
The three films are: 1) Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954), 2) Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955), 3)
Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (1956)
Together, they are a trilogy following the character growth of Musashi from brash—yet strong—young soldier to thoughtful and introspective samurai, culminating in Musashi's duel with the greatest opponent he would ever face.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu. An elderly lord abdicates to his three sons, and the two corrupt ones turn against him.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Starring Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Machiko Kyô. A heinous crime and its aftermath are recalled from differing points of view.

Directed by Kihachi Okamoto. Starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Yûzô Kayama. Ryunosuke is a sociopathic samurai without compassion or scruples. 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.

From the Academy Award nominated director of 'Twilight Samurai". Munezo Katagiri (Masatoshi Nagase), an honest and low ranking samurai is trapped in a state of personal and professional imbalance. Secretly in love with his family's maid, Kie (Takako Tabata), Munezo begins an uneasy courtship with her, knowing that a relationship is impossible.