Genre: Chanbara

Aside from a few glimpses of the impressive skills of Rina Takeda, ‘Kunoichi’ doesn’t really have anything else to offer.

If you are looking for straight up, no frills, ninja-on-ninja action then you could do a lot worse than Seiji Chiba’s ‘Rogue Ninja’.

‘Rurouni Kenshin’ is resolutely pulp entertainment though and while it is unlikely to be mentioned in the same breath as ‘Yojimbo’ in years to come, it hits enough of its targets to satisfy.

‘Samurai Warrior’ looks and feels cheap, and certainly shows no signs of any Miike-style magic. There’s also a real lack of meat in the story and the overall approach to structuring the film is a bad one.

Short but sharp samurai flick from an early on in his career Hideo Gosha, ‘Samurai Wolf’ still packs a punch despite its short running time and being almost 60 years old.

Slicker and swifter this time around, ‘Samurai Wolf II’ is still some dark, fight filled, chanbara entertainment but is perhaps unnecessarily complex and convoluted for its own good.

Not the best of its kind and it drags a little too much with the running time, ‘Shogun’s Samurai’ is still a decent slice of Samurai drama from a time when they used to make them big.

This is certainly a good looking film and the young cast try their best but are hampered with a narrative that has scenes just go on and on explaining everything ad infinitum.

Nominated for an Academy Award and sweeping the board at the Japanese equivalent of ‘The Oscars’, Yoji Yamada’s lyrically, tenderly woven tale of dignity is a triumph of substance over action.

Kitano directs with his usual quirky measured style punctuating the narrative with his classic odd ball humour.