What action there is in this downplayed drama stems from the homoerotic tensions generated by the enrolment of a beautiful young samurai into the Shinsengumi Militia, a school famous for its strict discipline code, and the period setting of late 19th Century Japan is effectively used to evoke the extreme secrecy that any kind of institutional homosexuality was forced to exist in. The swordplay provides a welcome interval between the desperate (and often sad) sex scenes, showing the samurai tende find out more...

A group of idealistic young men, determined to clean up the corruption in their town, are aided by a scruffy, cynical samurai, Sanjuro, who does not at all fit their concept of a noble warrior, but, of course, runs rings round the baddies. Kurosawa's sequel to his Japanese "Western" (Yojimbo), a fast-paced classic of Japanese cinema with a frenetic finale find out more...

From the director of Oscar-nominated The Twilight Samurai. Set in then mid-19th century, at the time when guns are taking over from swords, Yoji Yamada's tale is an exploration of Samurai ethics and forbidden love. find out more...

A hardened veteran of the American civil war, Captain Nathan Algren is a man who's lost his way. A hero to many, he is haunted by some of the things he has done and when offered the chance to teach the art of modern warfare to a Japan in the grip of modernisation, he sees an opportunity to escape his past. Plunged into a war against the Samurai, Nathan is captured but allowed to live so that the warriors may learn the ways of their new enemy. From here on in it's mutual admiration all round; Nat find out more...

A low-ranking samurai leads a life without glory as a bureaucrat in the mid-19th Century. A widower with two daughters and a senile mother, he must work in the fields to make ends meet. New prospects seem to open up when Tomoe, his long-time love, divorces her brutal husband. However, even as the Japanese feudal system is unraveling, Seibei remains bound by the code of honour of the samurai and is forced to duel with a recalcitrant clan member who refuses to commit suicide. He's forced to face t find out more...

Kanichiro Yoshimura has escaped a famine in northern Japan and found himself work as a guardian in the Imperial Capital. At first scorned by his fellow Samurai, because his first concern is his starving family rather than his duty, Kanichiro nonetheless excels at his job, a peerless swordsman, he shows no fear in the face of battle, and it is not long before his fellow warriors start to understand the true nature of his honour. When The Last Sword Is Drawn is a sumptuous and epic sweep of the en find out more...

The blind masseur Zatoichi wanders the countryside of 19th Century Japan, a perpetual drifter. Taking respite in a small town riven by gang power struggles, the initially unassuming Zatoichi soon finds reason to unleash the most lethal of skills, his peerless abilities with the sword. Zatoichi is a remarkable mix and match of genres; historical drama, morality tale, action movie and comedy, an often surreal but hugely entertaining slice of Japanese cinema from the director of Hana Bi and Violent find out more...