AFI Silver presents a sample of the ultimate action genre with direction by masters of the cinema, starring some of the world's greatest actors--Samurai! Stark conflicts of loyalty versus duty. Shakespearean power plays. Contemporary social criticism in period guise. Like all notable categories, what we call the Samurai film (in Japanese, jidai-geki, "period film," or its subgenre chambara, "chop-'em-up") encompasses a wide range of subject matter and tone, while retaining it's own unique flavor--the most kinetic and balletic array of action sequences.

All films in the series are in Japanese with English subtitles.

AFI Member Passes will be accepted at all screenings in the Samurai series.

Brand New 35mm Print!
KILL!
[Kiru!]

Amid the carnage, the action starts with Tatsuya Nakadai chasing a chicken. Both amusing and violent, Okamoto's skillful combination pits corrupt officials against idealistic retainers. Tatsuya Nakadai, as a dropout samurai pacifist, plays it cool. Audiences catch up with the plot about halfway through, easily in time to appreciate the showdown-- a duel with darts in a closet-size room.

DIR Kihachi Okamoto; SCR Akira Murao and Okamoto, from a story by Shugoro Yamamoto; PROD Tomoyuki Tanaka. 1968, b&w, scope, 115 min.

Brand New 35mm Print!
SWORD OF DOOM
[Dai-bosatsu toge]

A cult film among buffs, this utmost of action thrillers boasts three of director Okamoto's one-against-all sword fights (one with guest star Toshiro Mifune). During the Meiji Restoration, the evil (and fictitious) Tatsuya Nakadai carves his way to an incredible climax. This is the umpteenth filming of an interminable bestseller, only a third of which was used for this version.

DIR Kihachi Okamoto; SCR Shinobu Hashimoto, from the novel by Kaizan Nakazato; PROD Sanezumi Fujimoto. 1966, b&w, scope, 119 min.

Brand New 35mm Print!
BANDITS VS. SAMURAI SQUADRON
[Kumokiri Nizaemon]

This big-budget grafting of STING-style chicanery onto the samurai tradition is probably the top samurai film of the '70s. Enigmatic bandit chieftain Tatsuya Nakadai uses con games and robberies to finance a revenge plot; shogunate policeman Somegoro Ichikawa calls on double-crosses of his own to stop him.

DIR Hideo Gosha; SCR Kaneo Ikegami; PROD Toshiaki Tsushima. 1978, color, 163 min.

Brand New 35mm Print!
SAMURAI SAGA
[Aru Kengo no shogai]

Toshiro Mifune's 17th-century samurai responds to jibes regarding his enlarged proboscis with witty haiku and slashing swordplay. He plays ghostwriter for the tongue-tied Akira Takarada's courtship of Yoko Tsukasa, whom Mifune secretly loves himself. A retelling of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, and a unique experience for Mifune fans watching him essay a legendary role in world theater. He is superb.

DIR Hiroshi Inagaki; SCR Hiroshi Inagaki, from the play Cyrano De Bergeracby Edmond Rostand; PROD Tomoyuki Tanaka. 1959, color, 111 min.

THE HIDDEN FORTRESS
[Kakuchi Toride No San-Akunin]

This richly comic fairy tale for adults is pure entertainment from the masters, acknowledged as the source for STAR WARS. General Toshiro Mifune enlists two bumbling vagabond for his rescue of a princess--and her gold. Probably Kurosawa's most dazzling exercise in pure filmmaking (his first use of wide screen), and one of Mifune's most exciting vehicles, as he did all his own stunts.

DIR Akira Kurosawa; SCR Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima, Shinobu Hashimoto and Akira Kurosawa; PROD Akira Kurosawa and Sanezumi Fujiimoto. Japan, 1958, b&w, scope, 139 min.

THRONE OF BLOOD
[Kumonosu-Jo]

Macbeth as a medieval Japanese legend, with Mifune as the usurper and the powerful Isuzu Yamada as the Lady. Mifune's takeover after the murder and the castle's bird invasion are powerful additions to the text in this heavily Noh-influenced adaptation, with one obvious exception-- there is no camera trickery in the famous final scene. Real archers fired real arrows from just off-camera. The literal translation of the Japanese title is "Castle of the Spider's Web."

DIR Akira Kurosawa; SCR Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzo Kikushima, Hideo Oguni and Akira Kurosawa, from the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare; PROD Akira Kurosawa and Sojiro Motoki. 1957, b&w, 110 min.

Brand New 35mm Print!
SAMURAI REBELLION
[Joiuchi]

Here is one of cinema's greatest images: the wounded Toshiro Mifune bracing himself to rise with his sword. In this story, social critic Masaki Kobayashi (HUMAN CONDITION) makes a devastating attack on feudalism. A lord forces Mifune's son, Takeshi Kato, to marry his discarded mistress, Yoko Tsukasa. But then he demands her return. The tension explodes in Mifune's powerful stand. Winner of Japan's Oscar equivalent for Best Film.

DIR Masaki Kobayashi; SCR Shinobu Hashimoto, from the novel by Yasuhiko Takiguchi; PROD Toshiro Mifune and Tomoyuki Tanaka. 1967, b&w, scope, 128 min.

Brand New 35mm Print!
HARAKIRI
[Seppuku]

A young samurai commits needless hara-kiri, and the wanderer requesting an honorable death turns out to be his avenging father-in-law, "played with something like demonic self-possession by Tatsuya Nakadai."--Critic Vernon Young. Aficionados who may find the swordplay strange, take note: the actors used real swords. Eerie score by the great Toru Takemitsu.

DIR Masaki Kobayashi; SCR Shinobu Hashimoto, from a novel by Yasuhiko Takiguchi; PROD Tatsuo Hosoya. 1962, b&w, scope, 135 min.