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We've compiled a list, in no particular order, of recommended Samurai DVDs to round out your DVD library. All are available from Amazon.com. Just click the link contained in the descriptions below for pricing and availability information.
HANZO THE RAZOR
 This much-anticipated re-release of Shintaro Katsu's politically incorrect "Hanzo The Razor" series is again available. (Well, as of April 19, anyway.) His portrayal here is nowhere near that of the likable Zatoichi character. He's Hanzo "The Razor" Itami; the incorruptible and uncompromising Samurai cop, and he packs a weapon more devastating than any sword (just ask any of the female suspects he "interrogates"). From the creator of the Lone Wolf and Cub series comes this legendary 1970s trilogy based on Kazuo Koike's classic mangas, and starring Shintaro Katsu (Zatoichi) as Hanzo, the screen's most outrageous Samurai anti-hero. In the name of justice, there's no torture he won't endure, no pain he won't inflict, and no superior he'll bow to. Each film is presented complete and uncut. Click here for pricing and availability.
 SWORD OF DOOM
Wandering Samurai Ryunosuke lives his life in a maelstrom of violence. A gifted swordsman—plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule—he kills without remorse, without mercy. Click here for pricing and availability information.
 INCIDENT AT BLOOD PASS
In his final portrayal of the Yojimbo character, Mifune Toshiro is hired to perform a mission so mysterious he isn't even told what it is. Click here for pricing and availability.
 THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI
Winner of 12 Japanese Film Academy Awards, as well as an Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, The Twilight Samurai lives up to its billing. But don't expect an action-packed, Samurai-fighting film, or you will be sadly disappointed (there are only two modest fight scenes). (-Joel Berman) Click here for pricing and availability.
 SEVEN SAMURAI
Unanimously hailed as one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of the motion picture, Seven Samurai has inspired countless films modeled after its basic premise. But Akira Kurosawa's classic 1954 action drama has never been surpassed in terms of sheer power of emotion and kinetic energy. Click here for pricing and availability.
 SAMURAI ASSASSIN
Based on a true historical event, Samurai Assassin stars Mifune Toshiro (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo) in one of his greatest roles. Niiro Tsuruchiyo is a masterless Samurai - a ronin - desperate for a last chance to gain a position with one of the great houses. To curry favor, he joins an assassination plot against a Shogunate Elder. Click here for pricing and availability.
 AKIRA KUROSAWA'S 4 SAMURAI CLASSICS
(Includes Seven Samurai / The Hidden Fortress / Yojimbo / Sanjuro) Director Akira Kurosawa, known in Japanese film circles as "The Emperor," is the complete auteur -- screenwriter, director, editor. With the production of Seven Samurai (1954), the most popular and important Japanese film of its time, director Akira Kurosawa began a long and fruitful obsession with medieval Japan. From The Hidden Fortress (1958), which pioneered widescreen cinematography in Japan, to the Samurai-for-hire pair of Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962), which launched the the Spaghetti Western genre, Kurosawa reinvigorated the Samurai film genre and revitalizing the American Western in the process. Kurosawa's greatest Samurai films are presented here together for the first time.Click here for pricing and availability.
 SAMURAI TRILOGY
Based on the novel that has been called Japan's Gone With the Wind, Hiroshi Inagaki's acclaimed Samurai Trilogy is a sweeping saga of the legendary 17th-century Samurai Musashi Miyamoto (portrayed by Toshiro Mifune) set against the turmoil of a devastating civil war. Now available for the first time together in a specially priced gift pack, the films follow Musashi's odyssey from unruly youth to enlightened warrior in an epic tale of combat, valor, and self-discovery. Click here for pricing and availability.
 SAMURAI FICTION
Heishiro, a noble Samurai, sets out in search of the renegade who stole his clan's treasure and killed his best friend. Heishiro should be able to hold his own against the villain Rannosuke, who has only killed hundreds of men and fought entire armies while simultaneously defending himself against dozens of deadly ninja assassins. This is Samurai Fiction. Don't believe everything you see in Chambara movies! Click here for pricing and availability.
 SHOGUN'S SAMURAI - The Yagyu Clan Conspiracy
SHOGUN SAMURAI: THE YAGYU CLAN CONSPIRACY (starring Toshiro Mifune and Sonny Chiba) was Fukasaku's first Samurai film after his hugely successful Yakuza films of the '60s and '70s, and possesses the same sense of social critique of the former films. Click here for pricing and availability.
 BLOOD OF SAMURAI
Blood of the Samurai is an action-packed, award winning, cult film, featuring special make-up effects by the legendary SCREAMING MAD GEORGE (Big Trouble in Little China, The Fly II, A Nightmare on Elm Street IV: The Dream Master, Poltergeist II, THe Guyver, Beyond Re-Animator). Click here for pricing and availability.
 CHUSHINGURA
Chushingura means "loyalty," and that potent Japanese theme runs like hot blood throughout this stately Samurai epic. It's often called the Gone with the Wind of Japanese cinema, and while that may be a fitting cultural parallel, it gives an inaccurate impression of the film, based on one of Japan's most enduring and oft-interpreted historical events. Click here for pricing and availability.
CODE OF THE SAMURAI
 Were they mercenaries, hired guns so to speak or were they men of high standards who valued honor, courage and respect above all else? Were women allowed in this "Cult of Cold Steel" or were they barred? You will hear several stories of some of the most famous Samurai Warriors including the man who wrote the Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi, who is considered Japan's greatest warrior. Click here for pricing and availability.
 8 DEADLY SAMURAI SWORD CUTS
(First of three volumes) Miyamoto Mushashi is the most famous Samurai swordsman of all time.His sword system thought to be lost, has been re-discovered and filmed on this DVD. Volume one of the three volume set shows his eight deadly cuts, fighting techniques plus rare two-sword style kata. The histiory of the style as well as warm ups, basics & kamae are also expertly demonstrated. If you are a sword practioner or enthusiast you have to buy this DVD. Click here for pricing and availability.
 KAGEMUSHA
In his late color masterpiece Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior) director Akira Kurosawa returned to the Samurai film and to a primary theme of his celebrated career—the play between illusion and reality. Sumptuously reconstructing the splendor of feudal Japan and pageantry of war, Kurosawa creates a soaring historical epic that is also a somber meditation on the nature of power. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Kagemusha for the first time in its full-length version. Click here for pricing and availability.
 RED BEARD
A testament to the goodness of humankind, Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard (Akahige) chronicles the tumultuous relationship between an arrogant young doctor and a compassionate clinic director. Toshiro Mifune, in his last role for Kurosawa, gives a powerhouse performance as the dignified yet empathic director who guides his pupil to maturity, teaching the embittered intern to appreciate the lives of his destitute patients. Perfectly capturing the look and feel of 19th-century Japan, Kurosawa weaves a fascinating tapestry of time, place, and emotion. Click here for pricing and availability.
 THRONE OF BLOOD
One of the most celebrated screen adaptations of Shakespeare into film, Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood re-imagines Macbeth in feudal Japan. Starring Kurosawa's longtime collaborator Toshiro Mifune and the legendary Isuzu Yamada as his ruthless wife, the film tells of a valiant warrior's savage rise to power and his ignominious fall. With Throne of Blood, Kurosawa fuses one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies with the formal elements of Japanese Noh theater to make a Macbeth that is all his own—a classic tale of ambition and duplicity set against a ghostly landscape of fog and inescapable doom. Click here for pricing and availability.
 YOJIMBO
This semi-comic 1961 film by legendary director Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon, Ran) was inspired by the American Western genre. Kurosawa mainstay Toshirô Mifune (The Seven Samurai) plays a drifting Samurai for hire who plays both ends against the middle with two warring factions, surviving on his wits and his ability to outrun his own bad luck. Click here for pricing and availability.
 RAN
It's a film for the ages--one of the few genuine screen masterpieces--and arguably serves as an artistic summation of the great director's career. In this version of the Shakespeare tragedy, the king is a 16th-century warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai as Lord Hidetora) who decides to retire and divide his kingdom evenly among his three sons. Click here for pricing and availability.
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