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47 Ronin (2013)
47 Ronin (2013)
2013 | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Entertaining
I've read reviews of this movie and they mostly were not good. I honestly don't know why. Perhaps people were trying to take it too seriously? Anyway, I enjoyed it very much. A fun fantasy story filled with magic, monsters, samurai and of course, sword fights. I have always enjoyed samurai movies(Seven Samurai is my absolute favorite). This one was just a lot of fun. The acting and cinematography were well done and the story flowed nicely. Plenty of intense action and it even had a love story. Didn't have the happiest of endings but not all movies do. Supposedly based on a historical group of samurai in Japan but, of course, with some great fantastical story telling weaved throughout. This one is definitely worth a watch!
  
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Bruce Goldstein recommended Stray Dog (1949) in Movies (curated)

 
Stray Dog (1949)
Stray Dog (1949)
1949 | Crime, Drama, Mystery
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Seven Samurai goes without saying. But Stray Dog is the best Japanese film noir I know, with two powerhouse stars: Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune."

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Sword of Doom (1966)
Sword of Doom (1966)
1966 | Action, Classics, Drama
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I’m still recovering from the out-of-kilter intensity of this film, which feels like some interior journey into darkness rendered as a samurai allegory."

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Allan Arkush recommended Seven Samurai (1954) in Movies (curated)

 
Seven Samurai (1954)
Seven Samurai (1954)
1954 | Action, Adventure, Drama
7.7 (19 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"My father was a film buff. He instilled in me an appreciation of the art of movies. He felt that there was no cinema artist greater than Kurosawa. At a very young age he took me to see Throne of Blood and Seven Samurai. Since then I’ve seen Seven Samurai over fifty times, in theaters, on VHS, laserdisc, and DVD. The latest Criterion edition is my favorite version of my favorite action movie. I love all the extras, especially the history of the samurai, which really enhances the movie’s historical context. In the second season of Heroes, we did a story line set in seventeenth-century Japan. The Seven Samurai box set was an invaluable resource for the costume and art department. About half of our crew watched it and were really inspired by what they saw. It’s one of those movies that I can’t turn off. One minute of viewing and I’m hooked. I’ve heard many people say that about the first two Godfather films, but for me Seven Samurai is the one that lures me into watching multiple hours of a movie I know by heart."

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Jane Campion recommended Seven Samurai (1954) in Movies (curated)

 
Seven Samurai (1954)
Seven Samurai (1954)
1954 | Action, Adventure, Drama
7.7 (19 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I like to see this film once every few years. I love it for its balance of humor, drama, and its deep affection for our noble and flawed natures. When I remember the film I smile and enjoy very much the breadth of the characters, all the beautiful courageous, broken and romantic samurai. I too want to be one of those samurai, and I want to make such a strong and kind film."

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Okay so this book has a great intro explaining how to read this book and giving context to the extremely involved readings.

The ending is tedious. The first half of the book is like reading abstract poetry, interesting but mildly concerning and confusing. The only way I could describe this book to friends was "written by a crazy old samurai" and that's pretty much the whole of it.

If you like learning about ancient samurai tradition, this is the book for you!
  
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Entertainment Editor (1988 KP) created a video about Ghost of Tsushima in Video Games

Nov 2, 2017  
Video

Ghost of Tsushima - Announce Trailer

You must move beyond your samurai traditions to forge a new way of fighting--the way of the Ghost--as you wage an unconventional war for the freedom of Japan.

  
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
1966 | Western

"Let’s support Sergio Leone, too. If you look at the composition and the editorial style of Seven Samurai and Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, obviously, Leone and Kurosawa are very close. Both in style and thematics."

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Samurai Spirit
Samurai Spirit
2014 | Animals, Fantasy, Fighting
One of the best parts of the board gaming experience is finding a fun group of people with whom to play! Sometimes, though, coordinating a game night is easier said than done. We all must occasionally forego the group experience and face the world as the Lonely Only. But fear not! The world of solo-play is a vast and exciting realm! What follows is a chronicle of my journey into the solo-playing world – notes on gameplay, mechanics, rules, difficulty, and overall experience with solo variations of commonly multiplayer games! I hope this will provide some insight as you continue to grow your collection, or explore your already owned games!

As a Samurai, you spend your life traveling across the land to help those in need. Most recently, you and a handful of other Samurai have been contracted by a small village to defend them against a clan of invading raiders. Only by working together, and by using your extensive training, will you succeed in keeping this village safe!

Samurai Spirit is a cooperative game of press-your-luck. Players take on the role of a Samurai, each with a unique power, and take turns drawing cards and fighting off the invaders or offering support to your fellow Samurai. Invaders can have recurring negative effects, so strategize wisely on how best to combat them and see how far you can push your luck each round. If you are able to survive through 3 rounds (waves) of invaders with at least one surviving farmstead and family, the Samurai are victorious and the village is saved! If any of the Samurai are killed, or the village has been completely destroyed by invaders, then the game is lost. As a solo game, Samurai Spirit plays essentially the same as in group play, with only 2 main differences – the solo player controls 2 Samurai instead of 1, and the support tokens from the unused Samurai are each available for use once during the game.

For such a neat theme, this game falls short for me. It seems simple enough, but there are areas of ambiguity in the rules that lead to some confusion. For starters, the text size is so small that I am not able to find any information at a quick glance! The text itself is not always clear either – like when, at the end of a round, the rules say to collect all cards used this round, does that include cards that have been discarded due to Samurai abilities? How about the cards of the Intruder stack that are presumably discarded after being revealed? The rulebook offers no clarification, and I honestly still don’t know the right answer.

The order/layout of the rules feels mismatched too – relevant information is not always grouped together, and I find myself flipping between several pages at a time trying to figure out one single thing. For example, in the ‘Fight’ action description, it says that if you reach your Kiai value exactly, you can activate your Kiai ability. You have to turn the page to a different section to see exactly what activating that ability means, and then you have to flip an additional 2 more pages to see what each individual Kiai ability is! Why not just put them all in one place? It would certainly be easier to understand if all relevant information was grouped together.

The prominent mechanic of Samurai Spirit is press-your-luck, and I would definitely say that this game is very luck-based. When setting up the game, the initial deck of cards is randomly selected and that can impact whether or not you are able to complete certain requirements each round – if there aren’t enough hat/farm/doll cards for each Samurai, you are guaranteed to incur a penalty at the end of every round. Actual gameplay is very luck-based too, and for me it feels like there are no good ways to strategize – your choices are all dependent on the luck of the draw. You can push your luck to draw more cards and use special abilities, but since you are suffering from recurring penalties each turn, it feels futile to keep going at a certain point.

For me, Samurai Spirit is repetitive and kind of boring – suffer penalty, draw card, and repeat until you eventually pass or the deck runs out. It’s like a too-complicated version of blackjack in which the deck is stacked against you. It’s such a bummer because the theme and artwork are neat, and the gameplay (in theory, at least) should be effective. But the actual execution is too reliant on luck to be successful.

I do quite a bit of solo gaming, but this game is never one that I willingly decide to play. I honestly only broke it out recently as a refresher for this review. Perhaps it is better at higher player counts, but since that is not where most of my gaming occurs, Samurai Spirit is a dud for me.

https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/solo-chronicles-samurai-spirit/
  
The Hidden Blade  (2004)
The Hidden Blade (2004)
2004 | Action, Drama, Romance
Masatoshi Nagase (3 more)
Takako Matsu
Cinematography
The Hidden blade/Demons Claw technique.
........ (0 more)
Subtle but brilliant
A brilliant samurai drama/romance that has some quality katana (sword) action.
We follow the path of Munezo, a samurai of a rural clan set in the early 1860's. Whilst Japan is changing with the times, Munezo show us how crucial his qualities of loyalty, respect, courage and self control and really are. Although not all of the Samurai are as moral as himself, Munezo has the fortitude to carry out his duties by his own standards. The relationship between Munezo and his once house keeper Kei is a beautiful and subtle thing, showing the world of film that kissing and sex scenes are unnecessary. The action scenes are intense and emotionally complex. And then there's the Demons Claw but, I'll let you find out about that yourself..... Enjoy.