Samurai were made “legends”, “Amazing”, and “Incredible” to some by the effect major films have had on us. There have been so many Samurai films to exist hat the list of movies would stretch on for pages. And why not, Samurai make for such interesting film topics. Many enjoy the style of Japanese fighting, and Japanese action films. Even the American Samurai films do a great job of portraying the Samurai Style. A majority of the Samurai films that exist today came out in the 70’s. They were originally more “drama” than action. After World War II however, they started to get more action based. For the most part, Samurai films have been set in the Tokugawa era. In Japan the term Chanbara is typically used to refer to “sword fighting movies”, which were also a type of jidaigeki, referring to movies that depicted events of a certain time period. Throughout the years, Japanese films began gaining in popularity. Of the Samurai films that were made, there were a few characters and events that stood out in particular. That is, there were many films made in their honor. These would include films about Zatoichi the famous blind swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi the famous indestructible swordsman, Ronin warriors with no name, and many more.
Samurai Films also have many themes that accompany the movie these include tales of loyalty, tales of master less warriors, and tales of true warriors. Japans most famous director, Akira Kurosawa made many famous Samurai films that that dealt with solitary and “loner” Samurai. Many Samurai films have also been series like the “lone wolf and cub” series which depicts the tale of a Samurai and son traveling Japan, and of course getting into a couple of brawls along the way. Yet another Samurai Series would be the Adventures of Zatoichi which tells about a famous and skilled swordsman who was blind.
After the 1970’s however, America and the rest of the world started losing interest in the Samurai movies. Therefore, Samurai movies were no longer hits, and they no longer came out as often. That is not to say however that they are now unpopular or that no one watches them anymore. Samurai films are still amazing and always will be. There is something about the excitement, the intensity of the battle, and the “trip to the past”, that just keeps people coming for more.