Sword of the Beast (1965)
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Kon Ichikawa's retelling of the classic true story of Samurai honor. When a young clan lord is forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide), his loyal followers (now Ronin, masterless Samurai) dedicate their lives to avenging his death.
In the Edo period, a nameless ronin accepts an assignment to go to a mountain pass and wait. Near the pass he stops at an inn where a collection of characters gather, including a gang set on stealing shogunate gold that's soon to come over the pass. When the Ronin's assignment becomes clear, to help the gang, he's ordered to kill the inn's residents, including a woman he's rescued from an abusive husband. He's reluctant to murder innocent people; then he learns that the gold shipment is a trap and he's part of a double cross. How he sorts through these divided loyalties tests of his samurai honor, and perhaps of his love for a woman.
In this first film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, adapted from the manga by Kazuo Koike, we are told the story of the Lone Wolf and Cub's origin. Ogami Itto, the official Shogunate executioner, has been framed for disloyalty to the Shogunate by the Yagyu clan, against whom he now is waging a one-man war, along with his infant son, Daigoro.
Years of warfare end in a Japan unified under the Tokugawa shogunate, and samurai spy Sasuke Sarutobi, tired of conflict, longs for peace. When a high-ranking spy named Tatewaki Koriyama defects from the shogun to a rival clan, however, the world of swordsmen is thrown into turmoil. After Sasuke is unwittingly drawn into the conflict, he tracks Tatewaki, while a mysterious, white-hooded figure seems to hunt them both. By taleâs end, no one is who they seemed to be, and the truth is far more personal than anyone suspected. Director Masahiro Shinodaâs Samurai Spy, filled with clan intrigue, ninja spies, and multiple double crosses, marks a bold stylistic departure from swordplay film convention.
Muraki, a hardboiled Yakuza gangster, has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for murder. Revisiting his old gambling haunts, he meets Saeko, a striking young upper-class woman who is out seeking thrills, and whose presence adds spice to the staid masculine underworld rituals. Muraki becomes her mentor while simultaneously coping with the shifts of power that have affected the gangs while he was interred. When he notices a rogue, drug-addicted young punk hanging around the gambling dens, he realizes that Saeko's insatiable lust for intense pleasures may be leading her to self-destruction.
A guilt-haunted samurai warrior attempts to stop a massacre taking place.
Near the end of the nineteenth century, as the balance of power shifts from Shogunate towards the Emperor, Japan restlessly awaits the dawning of a new age. But not all are content...The Shinsengumi, a small army of samurai, farmers and peasants, band together to do battle against the tide of history. Their leader, Isami Kondo (Mifune) is a man who rises from farmer to fighter to head the fierce Shinsengumi brigade. Using a stern hand and a heart of gold, he rallies his men in defense of the tottering Shogunate. But bloodshed and treachery lurk around every corner.
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.
With a price on his head, Ichi seeks tranquillity in a favorite village. Since his last visit, it has fallen prey to Boss Masagoro, the son of a merchant rumored to have stolen gold from the shogunate. The boss has hired Yojimbo as his hard-drinking enforcer, but Yojimbo is both a spy for the shogunate, trying to find the gold, and in love with the merchant's unwilling mistress, Umeno. Ichi hires on as the merchant's masseur and buys Umeno's freedom with his employer's own money. This embarrasses Yojimbo who withdraws from a pact with Ichi to stir up trouble between father and son and their gangs. As the two sides fight, Ichi finds the gold and sets up a final set of confrontations.
Loyal samurai Samanosuke is attacked, mutilated, and left for dead while carrying out a mission for his clan. He recovers but has lost an eye and an arm. Taking a new identity as Tange Sazen, he searches for a stolen urn which has hidden significance to his clan. But Tange Sazen has his own reasons for seeking the urn.
Chicken Feet (Andy Lau) assists in running an honorable gambling den owned by the crippled Uncle Fan (Siu-Ming Lau) and his son Kit (Wong Kit). Having previously tried to shut down the gambling den and take over by paralyzing Fan and framing Kit for another man's murder, ruthless local Triad boss, James (Kelvin Wong) goes a step further by murdering Fan. Driven only by money and the pursuit of two valuable 'Jade stones', James kidnaps Kit's daughter so he will surrender gambling in order for James to win the upcoming Championship. Despite Kit's wish to live a life of peace, Chicken Feet finds the Jade Stones and along with his partner, Lin (Wu Chien-Lien) plots his own revenge against James.
For most of the running time it's business as usual as gamblers Andy Lau and Alan Tam pull scams when they're not exposing them for casinos and incurring the wrath of a family of Japanese gangsters before Tam marries rich girl Idy Chan and Lau, as is the way with all movie hustlers, gets a busted hand, a drink problem and Rosamund Chan (so not entirely a bad shuffle there).
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.
Chow Yun-Fat plays Ko Chun, an extremely talented and well known gambler. On the eve of a big confrontation with a famous Singaporean gambler, Ko walks into a trap set by Knife, an avid but a so-so gambler (Andy Lau), meant for an Indian servant. Struck on the head, Ko suffers from amnesia and regresses to a child-like state. Knife takes care of Ko and begins to exploit Ko's gambling talents.
Peace in 17th-century Japan causes the Shogunate's breakup of warrior clans, throwing thousands of samurai out of work and into poverty. An honorable end to such fate under the samurai code is ritual suicide, or hara-kiri.
After seizing an English ship, buccaneer captain Anne Providence spares Pierre LaRochelle from walking the plank - as he's in irons he is presumably no friend of England. He signs on as a pirate and she is increasingly drawn to him, a feeling that seems to be reciprocated. When fearsome Captain Blackbeard, her teacher in the ways of pirating, sets eyes on LaRochelle he recalls him as a French navy officer. Anne sticks by her man but the truth, when it is uncovered, is even more painful.
Shiba, a wandering ronin, encounters a band of peasants who have kidnapped the daughter of their dictatorial magistrate, in hopes of coercing from him a reduction in taxes. Shiba takes up their fight, joined by two renegades from the magistrate's guard, Sakura and Kikyo. The three outlaws find themselves in a battle to the death.
The lord of the Oshi fief is killed by his trespassing neighbour, the cruel and despotic Nariatsu, son of the former Shogun. After an investigation, the Oshi clan is blamed for what happened and sentenced to be disbanded. Eleven of the best samurai of the clan refuse the sentence and are willing to give their life for justice.
A story of two teenagers trapped in the world of illegal underground boxing. One is fighting to save his fathers life and using the money pay off gambling debts accumulated by his father. The second is fighting for the money to get out of the ghettos. While being exploited by a boxing promoter the two teens become friends. An explosive ending puts the two friends in the ring against each other.
A veteran samurai, who has fallen on hard times, answers a village's request for protection from bandits. He gathers 6 other samurai to help him, and they teach the townspeople how to defend themselves, and they supply the samurai with three small meals a day. The film culminates in a giant battle when 40 bandits attack the village.
The incomparable Toshiro Mifune stars in Akira Kurosawaâs visually stunning and darkly comic Yojimbo. To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily masterless samurai Sanjuro turns a range war between two evil clans to his own advantage. Remade twice, by Sergio Leone and Walter Hill, this exhilarating genre-twister remains one of the most influential and entertaining films of all time.
A righteous husband-and-wife swordfighting duo struggle to protect China from the machinations of Japanese pirates and corrupt officials.
Steven Seagal stars in this gritty, no-holds barred action film as an elite ex-cop with a gambling problem and a mountain of debt. When a mysterious man offers to clear his debts in exchange for the assassination of the city's most notorious gangsters, he make s decision that will change his life - forever.
The remake of Yoshikawa's novel continues with the second installment in which Takezo, soon to be Miyamoto Musashi, emerges from the Himeji Castle after three years of intense contemplation and philosophical study and starting on his epic quest to complete his skill in the Way.
Zatoichi is sworn to protect the life of a young girl and without any real allies finds himself in the middle of a bloody turf war.
The adventures of a blind, gambling masseur and master swordsman. Zatoichi targets a yakuza-controlled village, because war with a neighbouring town's smaller gang is brewing.
Iemitsu, Tokugawa Shogun III, hates his eldest son Takechiyo; all his love is given to his younger son Tokumatsu. One day, he orders Takechiyo to an initiation rite in Yedo (today's Tokio). Takechiyo lives far away under the surveillance of Hotta Masamori, head of the Skura clan, where he was also raised. Hotta does suspect some kind of treachery, but he can not ignore the direct command of the Shogun. Therefore, he starts on his travel with Takechiyo and seven accompanying samurais. A large army under the command of Iba Shoemon, a vassal of the Shogun, attacks their night camp in the vicinity of a copper mine. Hotta dies in this first battle, but Takechiyo and the samurai manage to escape. They are chased by the army, and several skirmishes between the small force and the larger army follow.
During the 17th Century roving bands of hatamoto were causing trouble in the new capital city of Edo and constantly fought with the townspeople at every turn. The leader of these ruthless samruai was Mizuno Jirozaemon, who despite his high rank was in deep financial distress, thus leading to a tragedy that shook the very streets of the city.Opposing him was Banzui-in Chobei, the âProtector of the Weakâ who was willing to put his life on the line to save the 808 districts of Edo from the 80,000 hatamoto whose violent behavior threatened to destroy the fabric of society. Starring Bando Tsumasaburo, the first great star of the silver screen along with mega-star Ichikawa Utaemon, this is a story not to be missed. Torn from the pages of history, this true story has been told many times, but never as powerfully as this!
Kiba Okaminosuke finds himself entangled with a group of prisoners being transported to their executions, one of whom oddly looks exactly like his dead father. There are crooked gold miners, a beautiful girl who is unfortunately a complete lunatic and a dojo master who is obsessed with killing Kiba just to prove that his school's sword style is the best.
Yataro Tanigawa, a one-eyed hired assassin, impresses yakuza boss Gomyo Kiyoemon with his skill. Gomyo hires Tanigawa as his bodyguard, or yojimbo, to protect him during an inter-clan conflict. Tanigawa quickly rises in stature in the clan, but finds his boss's enemies almost overwhelming.
In the fourth installment, Musashi's potentially greatest opponent Kojiro jumps in and out of the story at the oddest and most coincidental moments. As his great love Otsu has succumbed to madness. Musashi then sets off to beat the functionaries of a treacherous clan in an arranged duel. 73 against one. Boastful Kojiro watches, secure in the knowledge that only he is a worthy opponent.
Wishing to find peace, Zatoichi travels to his old village but only finds trouble when he ends up in a love triangle and finds old scores have followed him home.
The fifth and final installment with the build up of the epic battle between Sasaki Kojiro and Miyamoto Musashi. With all the familiar characters making appearances: Otsu (Musashi's great love), Akemi, Matahachi (his former fellow soldier), old lady Osugi (still doggedly trying to defeat Musashi), and even the return of Priest Takuan (the man responsible for his journey towards enlightenment). But most of all, the boastful, long-haired and long-sworded Sasaki Kojiro.
A story of greed, a lust for power, and ultimate revenge when an elderly lord abdicates to his three sons, and the two corrupt ones turn against him. A profound examination of the folly of war and the crumbling of one family under the weight of betrayal, greed, and the insatiable thirst for power.
Corporal Evan Albright (Charlie Weber) joined the elite Marine Corps Security Guards to save the world and see some action-not necessarily in that order. But his first assignment, protecting a U. S. Embassy in a seemingly safe Middle Eastern capitol, relegates his unit to wrangling "gate groupies" protesting outside the compound and honing their marksmanship by playing video games. So Albright and his team are caught off guard when well-armed and well-trained militants launch a surprise attack aimed at killing an informant in the embassy. Heavily out-gunned, they will have to muster all the courage and fire power they can as their once routine assignment spirals into all-out war.
Luca Altieri is a gambler. He likes cards and he is a master in playing poker. He is a cardsharper too. He begins working for "The President", who has many gambling houses and everything seems to go well until Luca falls for Maria Luisa. Unfortunately for them, she is the girl of Corrado, the son of "The President"...
In the third film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto volunteers to be tortured by Yakuza to save a prostitute and is hired by their leader to kill an evil chamberlain.
Nemuri Kyoshiro, a youthful and cynical ronin with unparalleled skill, is approached by both sides in a game of corruption, ambition, and double crosses. The leader of the Kaga clan, who thinks he has killed his smuggling partner, fears that the shogunate will discover his illegal activities. He learns of evidence that will prove his guilt. Meanwhile, his partner is not dead, and, assisted by a master of Shorenji boxing, is looking for revenge and for his loot. The Kaga leader sends the beautiful Chisa to enlist Nemuri's aid. The unexpected happens: the hard-bitten Nemuri falls in love. Can he protect her, topple the criminals, and avoid the boxer's deadly skill?
This is the story of "The Forty-Seven Ronin." Based on historical events in 1701 -- 1702, the movie tells the tale of the Asano clan's downfall and the revenge of its former samurai on the perpetrator of the catastrophe. Lord Asano was goaded, or tricked, into drawing his sword inside the Shogun's palace -- a crime which carried the death penalty. The newly installed Shogun was furious at Asano and ordered all his clan's assets seized, meaning some 20,000 samurai and commoners were unemployed and landless at a stroke. Forty-seven of these ronin (masterless samurai) banded together to take revenge on Lord Kira, who had goaded Asano into drawing his sword. They bide their time for a year and a half. Disguising their intentions, they lead public lives of drunken dissipation, while planning in secret. They finally succeed in exacting their revenge against powerful odds, and then commit ritual suicide to atone for breaking the law.
Wandering samurai Nemuri Kyoshiro (Raizô Ichikawa) finds a bulls-eye on his back after befriending the shogunate's tightfisted financial adviser, Asahina, who's earned the wrath of the shogun's self-indulgent daughter for cutting off her allowance. The enraged princess promptly hatches a scheme to have Asahina bumped off -- along with his protector, Kyoshiro. Shiho Fujimura also stars in this installment of the enormously popular film series.
A fugitive christian "saint" (female, of course!) and a sadistic drug-addled princess both have their eye on Kyoshiro. The fact that a bunch of ruthless smugglers also want him dead is the least of his problems!
Undercover cop Leung Foon (Nick Cheung) is having trouble taking down the illegal trading operation headed by crime boss Ferrari (Wong Jing). So to accomplish his mission, he asks for help from the re... read more read more...nowned Master Wong (Stephen Chow), an expert in gambling tricks. Although the "Tricky Master" is opposed to getting involved, Foon convinces him to help bring down the swindler in a zany comedy that spoofs Enter the Dragon and The Matrix.
Shiro Amasuka, dead leader of the Shimbara Revolt is resurrected from hell with the desire of overthrowing the shogunate for killing his companions. To do this , he resurrects an army od living dead swordsmen. Between him and his goal, only Yagyu Jubei stands.....
In the fifth film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto is challenged by five warriors, each has one fifth of Ogami's assassin fee and one fifth of the information he needs to complete his assassination.
Silver-screen icons Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney star in this classic drama as Nick and Jack Venizelos, two brothers whose fateful trip to the big city to do a little gambling results in a tragic turn of events. Directed by filmmaker Alfred E. Green, this film marks the only time in Robinson and Cagney's historic careers that the pair would team up on-screen.
Two amiable samurai wind up on opposite sides of the vendetta between Lord Asano's retainers and the family of Lord Kira that led to the famous revenge of the 47 Ronin.
Zatôichi is a 19th century blind nomad who makes his living as a gambler and masseur. However, behind this humble facade, he is a master swordsman gifted with a lightning-fast draw and breathtaking precision. While wandering, Zatôichi discovers a remote mountain village at the mercy of Ginzo, a ruthless gang-leader. Ginzo disposes of anyone who gets in his way, especially after hiring the mighty samurai ronin, Hattori, as a bodyguard. After a raucous night of gambling in town, Zatôichi encounters a pair of geishas--as dangerous as they are beautiful--who've come to avenge their parents' murder. As the paths of these and other colorful characters intertwine, Ginzo's henchmen are soon after Zatôichi. With his legendary cane sword at his side, the stage is set for a riveting showdown.
February 17 to March 3, 1860, inside Edo castle. A group of assassins wait by Sakurada Gate to kill the lord of the House of Ii, a powerful man in the Tokugawa government, which has ruled Japan for 300 years. They suspect a traitor in their midst, and their suspicions fall on Niiro, an impoverished ronin who dreams of samurai status, and Kurihara, an aristocratic samurai who befriends Niiro. Niiro longs to identify his father, knowing he is a high-ranking official who will disclose himself only if Niiro achieves samurai status. With American ships in Japan's harbors, cynicism among the assassins, and change in the air, Niiro resolves to reach ends that may prove ephemeral.
A crafty ronin helps a young man and his fellow samurai save his uncle, their lord chamberlain Mutsuta, who has been framed and imprisoned by a corrupt local superintendent.
A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.
After arriving in the town of Shimonita, Ichi finds that a price has been put on his head by a local yakuza boss. He's drawn into a trap, but after hearing of the slaying of a former love, Ichi furiously fights his way through the entire clan to face the killer, a hired ronin.
A film about the assination of Ii Naosuke at the gate of Edo castle in 1860 by ronin from the mito domain.
Set in the underworld of Manhattan, Marked Woman tells the story of a woman who dares to stand up to one of the city's most powerful gangsters. The women of the story are "hostesses". What is implied, but not stated clearly is that they are prostitutes, who work in a gambling den in the city.
Blind masseur Zatoichi is nursed back to health by a young woman after he is shot by a gang member. Zatoichi, who had come to the village to repay a debt, now feels further indebted. He commits himself to use his amazing sword skills to help the young woman's father, whose river-crossing service is under attack by the same gang responsible for Zatoichi's wounds.
A Michigan farmer and a prospector form a partnership in the California gold country. Their adventures include buying and sharing a wife, hijacking a stage, kidnapping six prostitutes, and turning their mining camp into a boom town. Along the way there is plenty of drinking, gambling, and singing. They even find time to do some creative gold mining.
An all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, 1900. A soldier meets an eager young lady of the evening. Later he has an affair with a young lady, who becomes a maid and does similarly with the young man of the house. The young man seduces a married woman. On and on, spinning on the gay carousel of life.
In one of the steppe regions of Kazakhstan arrives on Komsomol youth squad. Severe frosts, spring mud flows, exhausting work than their specialty - the development of virgin land does not come easy. But the young are young - they work, enjoy life, fall in love. In the center of the story - the touching romance secretary of the Komsomol organization and tractor driver Anne.
Sammo Hung plays three different characters: Fatty, Fatty's father and Fatty's grandfather, Hung Kau. Fatty is a hotel worker, yearning for sudden wealth. Therefore, he, and his co-worker, enter the gambling world, to the dismay of his father. When Fatty hits rock bottom, the ghost of his grandfather resurrects to help him. However, Fatty learns that his grandfather was murdered, therefore, he will stop at nothing to avenge his death.
Based on the original 1941 movie from Japan, and from ancient Japanâs most enduring tale, the epic 3D fantasy-adventure 47 Ronin is born. Keanu Reeves leads the cast as Kai, an outcast who joins Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada), the leader of the 47 outcast samurai. Together they seek vengeance upon the treacherous overlord who killed their master and banished their kind. To restore honor to their homeland, the warriors embark upon a quest that challenges them with a series of trials that would destroy ordinary warriors.
A briefcase with undisclosed contents -- sought by Irish terrorists and the Russian mob -- makes its way into criminals' hands. An Irish liaison assembles a squad of mercenaries, or ronin, charged with the thorny task of recovering the case. But the team, led by an ex-CIA agent, mistrusts one another. Can they accomplish their mission?
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