Ichi is staying at an inn when a woman dies. Her dying wish is that Ichi take her son to his father, an artist living in a nearby town. After arriving in the town, Ichi finds out that the father has been forced by a local boss to create illegal pornography to pay off his gambling debts. Ichi makes it his mission to save the man and reunite the family, even though it brings him into conflict with a samurai he sort of befriended on his way to the town.

Zatoichi the Outlaw

1967

Japanese

7.0

♡ 7

56%

Satsuo Yamamoto Director

Rentarô Mikuni as Asagoro

Tatsuo Endô as Boss Tomizo

Mizuho Suzuki as Shusui Ohara

Kenjirô Ishiyama as Tatsugoro

When a local gambling house kidnaps some peasants because they failed to pay their debts, a rival gambling house pays their debts and sets them free.

The House Where Evil Dwells

1982

English

4.5

♡ 12

20%

Kevin Connor Director

Doug McClure as Alex Curtis

Susan George as Laura Fletcher

Tsuyako Okajima as Majyo Witch

Edward Albert as Ted Fletcher

At the prompting of his diplomat friend, Alex, writer Ted Fletcher takes his wife, Laura, and daughter, Amy, on an extended working holiday. Alex finds a house for them in Kyoto, Japan, and the Fletchers move in, laughing off rumors that the place is haunted. But the ghost of 19th-century samurai Shigero turns out to be very real, and is intent on making the family re-enact an ancient murder-suicide.

Top Knot Detective

2017

English

6.5

♡ 12

100%

Aaron McCann Director

Nobuaki Shimamoto as Detective Oshiro

Lee Lin Chin as Herself

Hoa Xuande as Kenji

Kuni Hashimoto as Leiji Nishizaki

In the early 1990s, a Japanese samurai detective series was aired in Australia and became a cult success. Titled in Japan Ronin Suiri Tentai (meaning roughly Deductive Reasoning Ronin), it was soon known in the West as Top Knot Detective. The original series was legendary in Japan, a cultural train wreck led by Takashi Tawagoto, a crazy writer, producer, director and lead actor; one who could not act, fight or write at all.

Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance

2015

English

3.4

♡ 9

92%

los angeles, california

Gregory Hatanaka Director

Mel Novak as Cutter

Tommy Wiseau as Linton

Melissa Moore as Peggy

Thomas J. Churchill as Serafim

25 years later after the events of Samurai Cop (1991), Detective Frank Washington is forced to team up with his long estranged partner Joe Marshall to solve a series of assassinations being committed by a secret group of female vigilante killers.

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

2011

Japanese

7.3

♡ 16

76%

Takashi Miike Director

Munetaka Aoki as Hikokuro Omodaka

Hikari Mitsushima as Miho

Takehiro Hira as Naotaka Ii

Takashi Sasano as Sousuke priest

A tale of revenge, honor and disgrace, centering on a poverty-stricken samurai who discovers the fate of his ronin son-in-law, setting in motion a tense showdown of vengeance against the house of a feudal lord.

Mumon: The Land of Stealth

2017

Japanese

6.6

♡ 18

75%

Yoshihiro Nakamura Director

Yûsuke Iseya as Daizen Heki

Shinnosuke Mitsushima as Jinbee Shimoyama Denden

Denden as Kai Shimoyama

Satomi Ishihara as Okuni

Raised suckling poison arrows among the sparring Iga ninja factions, Mumon is a carefree 16th-century mercenary. When the ninja council makes a power play to defeat the young Nobukatsu Oda struggling to step into his father’s warlord shoes as they expand rule across the country, Mumon jumps into the fray to satisfy his new bride Okuni’s demand that he make good on his promises of wealth. Yet Mumon soon finds what is worth fighting for beyond money or nation.

The Twilight Samurai

2002

Japanese

8.1

♡ 44

99%

94%

based on novel or book

Yôji Yamada Director

Takashi Yamazaki as

Hiroyuki Sanada as Seibei Iguchi

Rie Miyazawa as Tomoe Iinuma

Senri Sakurai as Tozaemon's temporary soldier

Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century. A widower with a meager income, Seibei struggles to take care of his two daughters and senile mother. New prospects seem to open up when the beautiful Tomoe, a childhood friend, comes back into he and his daughters' life, but as the Japanese feudal system unravels, Seibei is still bound by the code of honor of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedence. How can he find a way to do what is best for those he loves?

Samurai Hustle Returns

2016

Japanese

5.5

♡ 9

Katsuhide Motoki Director

Hiromasa Taguchi as

Tsuyoshi Ihara as Danzo Kumogakure

Kyoko Fukada as Osaki

Renji Ishibashi as Terusada Matsudaira

Masaatsu Naito successfully completes Sankin-kotai (required ritual to visit the shogun). On his way home, he hears that an insurrection by peasants has taken place in his hometown of Yunagaya. Masaatsu Naito knows that it is a counterattack by Matsudaira. He returns to Yunagaya, but finds that his castle is gone.

Gate of Hell

1953

Japanese

7.1

♡ 11

93%

husband wife relationship

Teinosuke Kinugasa Director

Koreya Senda as Gen Kiyomori

Machiko Kyô as Kesa

Michiko Araki as Mano

Kenjirô Uemura as Masanaka

Japan, 1159. Moritō, a brave samurai, performs a heroic act by rescuing the lovely Kesa during a violent uprising. Moritō falls in love with her, but becomes distraught when he finds out that she is married.

The Beast and the Magic Sword

1983

Spanish

5.8

♡ 10

Paul Naschy Director

Violeta Cela as Esther

Shigeru Amachi as Kian

Conrado San Martín as Salom Yehuda

Junko Asahina as Satomi

His bloodline damned by a witch, Waldemar Daninsky heads to Japan to seek a cure for his werewolf curse.

The Ghost of Yotsuya

1959

Japanese

7.0

♡ 18

74%

Action

based on play or musical

Nobuo Nakagawa Director

Hiroshi Hayashi as Kiemon Itô

Kikuko Hanaoka as Maki

Jun Ôtomo as Takuetsu

Ryûzaburô Nakamura as Yomoshichi Satô

This horror tale adapts the Japanese legend which tells of a man who faces the consequences of betraying his wife in order to acquire wealth and power.

Satan's Sword

1960

Japanese

6.5

♡ 7

Action

Drama

samurai

Kenji Misumi Director

Kôichi Katsuragi as Fujisaku

Ryûzô Shimada as Kamiya Shuzen

Michiko Ai as Okinu

Raizô Ichikawa as Ryunosuke Tsukue

The Dai-bosatsu toge trilogy is based on Kaizan Nakazato's unfinished long series of novels (41 books, written from 1913 to 1941). Set in the last period of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Daibosatsu Toge tells the story of Ryunosuke Tsukue, a nihilistic swordmaster who doesn't hesitate to kill anyone, bad or good.

Nemuri Kyôshirô: Engetsugiri

1964

Japanese

6.7

♡ 6

Kimiyoshi Yasuda Director

Raizô Ichikawa as Nemuri Kyoshiro

Kenjirô Uemura as Sir Yorii Kanbei

Tarô Marui as Tajuu

Takamaru Sasaki as The Honorable Elder Mizuno Tadakuni

A decapitation at the hands of the shogun's monstrous misbegotten son kicks off the action and draws nomadic Nemuri Kyoshiro (Raizô Ichikawa) into more sword-fighting adventures when he's blamed for the beheading. Meanwhile, the head-chopper's mother is busy knocking off the shogun's lawful heirs to secure the shogunate for her son.

Sleepy Eyes of Death: Hell Is a Woman

1968

Japanese

6.8

♡ 5

Tokuzô Tanaka Director

Shigako Shimegi as

Takahiro Tamura as Naruse Tatsuma

Raizô Ichikawa as Nemuri Kyoshiro

Miwa Takada as Princess Saya

Two devious retainers are competing to take control of a fief when the current Lord dies, but involving Kyoshiro in the conflict against his will is the textbook example of a bad idea - especially when the collateral damage starts to tick him off.

Sleepy Eyes of Death: The Mask of the Princess

1966

Japanese

6.6

♡ 7

Akira Inoue Director

Ryûtarô Gomi as

Eigorô Onoe as

Raizô Ichikawa as Nemuri Kyoshiro

Michiko Ai as Princess Kiku

The masked daughter of the Shogun wants to kill a samurai who has seen her scarred face. She sends waves of ninja warriors to kill the samurai and plots diabolical schemes / ambushes without much success.

Sleepy Eyes of Death: A Trail of Traps

1967

Japanese

6.5

♡ 7

Kazuo Ikehiro Director

Sei Hiraizumi as

Yoshio Inaba as

Raizô Ichikawa as Nemuri Kyoshiro

Nobuo Kaneko as Shurinosuke Asahina

The Son of the Black Mass returns in this ninth installment in Daiei's longstanding Nemuri Kyoshiro series. This time Raizo Ichikawa as Nemuri is called to see that a gold statuette of the Virgin Mary gets safe passage to Kyoto from the prying hands of a sect of murderous Christian ronin that call themselves the Black Finger Group.

Sleepy Eyes of Death: Castle Menagerie

1969

Japanese

6.4

♡ 7

Kazuo Ikehiro Director

Hideko Yoshida as

Shiho Fujimura as

Kayo Matsuo as

Raizô Ichikawa as Nemuri Kyoshiro

Just when you think Kyoshiro's life can't get any stranger, someone starts running around raping and murdering, and leaving notes proudly proclaiming that he did it. Tracking down the real culprit will take him along a twisted trail that involves the Shogun's harem, hidden Christians, and positively pregnant politics!

Sleepy Eyes of Death: Sword of Satan

1965

Japanese

6.5

♡ 7

Kimiyoshi Yasuda Director

Ryûtarô Gomi as

Fujio Suga as Kikumura

Yoshio Inaba as Mizuno

Raizô Ichikawa as Nemuri Kyoshiro

Sixth film in the series. A little boy who just wants to be a carpenter is at the center of a plot that might topple -- or save -- a mighty Clan, and while the swords of some angry samurai may not cause Kyoshiro much trouble, the deadly wiles of two women may be more difficult to survive!